Category Archives: Insider stuff

Recent Upgrade Traffic Heavy

It’s been a busy past few days here at Chez Tittel. Yesterday’s Patch Tuesday was pretty intense — MS and third-party updates addressed 67 CVEs — for all my Windows 10 and 11 PCs and VMs. And today, I’m noticing anywhere from 6 to 9 updates via WinGet on those same PCs and VMs. IMO, this makes recent upgrade traffic heavy (or at least, heavier than usual). You can see the list of 9 updates from the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme in the lead-in graphic, for example.

Is Recent Upgrade Traffic Heavy Important?

Hard to say. The number of CVEs addressed on Patch Tuesday may sound high, but Copilot says it’s way below the 350-400 monthly average over the past 12 months. Wait?! Can that be right… Yes, it can. Indeed, the monthly average for CVEs reported for Windows in 2024 was over 3,300. With the number addressed in fixes, you can see how far Windows trails behind in catching up.

Where WinGet is concerned, 7-9 on any given day is higher than usual, but not extraordinary. Here again, Copilot says “it’s safe to say that WinGet handles hundreds of updates daily across various systems.” On any particular systems, or on Chez Tittel systems (they’re similarly configured and run a fairly consistent set of tools and apps), that number varies by what’s there and what’s updated.

The Tools Keep Working, and So Do I

I’ve experienced relatively little difficulty with WU and WinGet updates in past months (see my February 6 post on upgrading Canary to 27788 as  rare exception). Keeping up with Windows and its apps and applications involves regular — but not extreme — effort. I’ll keep on keepin’ on as long as that stays true.

In that same vein, I haven’t seen much action recently through the lens of Patch My PC Home Updater. My typical suite of 20 to under 40 of its apps have been mostly quiescent for the past week and longer. That said, my production desktop just reported two C++ redistributables and CPU-Z all need updates. Go figure!

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WinTerm Multi-Line Paste Flag Is Helpful

Way to go, Windows Terminal (WinTerm) development team. I just accidentally hit Paste (Ctrl-V) inside that application, and it posted the warning you can see in the lead-in graphic. I saved myself unnecessary error messages — and the app saved itself from associated error handling — by warning me I was about to do something possibly stupid. Indeed I was, as you can see from the clipboard contents info in the screencap. Hence my considered judgement: the WinTerm multi-line paste flag is helpful.

Obviously, WinTerm Multi-Line Paste Flag Is Helpful

Shoot! Given how often, and in how many ways I use the paste buffer, there could be just about ANYTHING in there. That includes all kinds of text and even images. I use cut’n’paste all the time while writing, especially when updating older stories from Windows 10 to 11 coverage. I’ve done that dozens of times in the past couple of years for ComputerWorld, Tom’s Hardware and TechTarget. Plus, I often use cut’n’paste to drop screencaps into social media posts as I’m commenting on Windows news and observations. None of that stuff works in PowerShell, folks!

It’s a good thing when application designers and developers recognize human frailty, and take steps to protect users from themselves. It’s particularly good, IMO, when that user is me!

Windows Terminal Keeps Getting Better and Better

From its own self-update behavior, to various UI and Settings improvements, to PowerToys add-ins (Think: “Command Not Found”), Windows Terminal has just kept steadily improving over the past 2-3 years. The more I use it, the more I’ve come to like it. And now, with Copilot to assist me in writing PowerShell scripts, I’ve become better able to take advantage of that ever-increasing goodness. You should, too.

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RDC vs. Remote Desktop

I make remote connections to Windows PCs all the time, every day. I often switch between the Remote Desktop  Connection (RDC, aka mstsc.exe) and the Remote Desktop app (9WZDNCRFJ3PS in the MS Store). Lately, I’ve noticed that the .exe is prey to a hiccup to which the app is not — namely, RDC will often hang at the lock screen with spinning balls frozen when I start a remote session. Remote Desktop never does this. Because I know RDC better than Remote Desktop I used to prefer it. Because I favor speedy in-and-out over redoing my link I’m now leaning toward the latter. Thus, in my recent estimation of RDC vs. Remote Desktop, the app is gaining favor.

More Differences in RDC vs. Remote Desktop

This got me to wondering about other differences between the older exe and the newer UWP app. Looks like Remote Desktop can do other stuff that RDC cannot, too, including:

  • Auto updates through the MS Store (Winget handles mstsc.exe)
  • Modern UWP app interface with thumbnails and minimal controls (Full-Screen and Disconnect only)
  • Access a complete remote desktop or access one remote app without running a complete remote desktop
  • Works across MacOS, iOS/iPadOS, Android, Chrome and Web browsers (IDKICDT)
  • Multi-monitor support lets Remote Desktop map multiple monitors from remote client to host desktop
  • Works with Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 Cloud

In some situations, I can see where single-app remoting could be good. I also like support for multiple client OSes and monitors. I wish I had the ability to try out the cloud capabilities, too. Sounds like fun.

Maybe It’s Time to Join the 21st Century?

I’m thinking I should be using Remote Desktop more than RDC. I think I’ll try it for a while and see how it goes. It could be that some of my issues with VMs might also be MIA in the newer app. Let’s find out!

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Apps > Resume Works Between WinPCs

In reading this morning about how Build 27788 enables an Apple Hand-off like experience, I looked around my mini-fleet of PCs for Apps > Resume. It’s not only present in that build, it’s also in the current production build (26100.3037), too. In fact, the only build I’m running where it’s MIA is Beta (26120.3073). I was also able to observe that Settings > Apps > Resume works between WinPCs, as well as from phones to PCs and vice-versa. Good stuff.

OneDrive Is Why Apps > Resume Works Between WinPCs

If the same MSA is open on both desktops for a pair of Windows 11 PCs, OneDrive and its synching behaviors make the same files available in the primary user account folders (e.g. Desktop, Documents and Pictures). That’s the mechanism that lets you ping-pong working on the same file across two or more PCs (and other devices as well). In my case, these files show up in a OneDrive (cloud icon) folder named “Ed – Personal” like so:

I used text for a reply to an AskWoody column (boxed item) as my example.

To me, this makes OneDrive file sharing more user-friendly. I don’t just want to be able to open and use files shared in the cloud. I want to be able to pick up where I left off. That’s what made Apple’s Hand-off initially compelling, and what explains the motivation for Microsoft’s implementation in the form of Apps > Resume. I can — and will — use this!

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Long Hard 27788 Upgrade Road

Whoa! In the realm of Windows Insider Preview upgrades, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. This time around — starting from Build 27783 — I found myself on a long, hard 27788 upgrade road for this latest Canary Channel version. When I tell you what happened, and how I surmounted the obstacles on that path, you may be able to save yourself some unnecessary time and effort.

To begin with, what I lost on this upgrade road was time. I spent most of yesterday afternoon going through various motions to try to get the Insider Preview for 27788 and a companion KB5053390 (CU for .NET Framework…) up and running. All such attempts, alas, proved fruitless.

Traversing That Long Hard 27788 Upgrade Road

Getting to the state depicted in the lead-in graphic — showing that the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Hybrid Tablet is up-to-date in WU and running Build 27788 in Winver — took some doing and some time. In fact, it wasn’t until I read about a workaround in an ElevenForum post from Russian user @Dronix that I made any real headway. Along the way, each update/upgrade cycle took about 1:10 (70 minutes) to work through.

I’ll deliver a recitation of what I tried that didn’t help my problems. I am also speculating when I say this, but I believe one can’t upgrade to 27788 until KB5053390 for .NET completes successfully. There may be dependencies in the upgrade that need the previous CU to complete successfully. And indeed, once I did that, the upgrade went through without further issues.

Here’s my list of failed strategies:
1. Simply retry the failed KB or upgrade item.
2. Run Eleven Forum’s Reset_Reregister_Windows_
Update_Components.bat from this Reset WU tutorial
3. Run the built-in WU Troubleshooter

What Worked: DISM-GUI 1.3.1.02

Turns out there’s a German software tool named DISM-GUI that lets one install KB .cab files from failed installations. You have to know the name (a partial name will do) of that file to provide it as a target. The afore-linked Eleven Forum thread identifies it, and it includes the KB number as a sub-string. Using Voidtools Everything, I found it immediately (search string *KB5053390*.cab). For the record, the filename is:

Windows11.0-KB5053390-x64-NDP481.cab

Click on the box in DISM-GUI that reads “CAB Install” (lower left) and the program will prompt for the file location. You can get that from Everything, then left-shift click and use the “Copy as Path” option (you’ll have to delete opening and closing quote marks).

This opens a Command Prompt session and uses DISM to install the package for you. Unlike the WU driver install, this actually works. And it takes less than two minutes to complete. Then, when you’ve got the CU installed, the follow-up upgrade to 27788 works, too.

TLDR: Possible Problems with 27788 Are Fixable

If you read through the whole Eleven Forum thread about 27788, some posters were able to install KB5053390 and the 27788 upgrade without any difficulties. Numerous others — myself included– got exactly nowhere until they used DISM-GUI to get over the KB5053390 hump.

Should you find yourself in the same boat, you can go straight to the workaround using that tool, and avoid the hours and hours of thrashing about I went through yesterday. Why not learn from my experience, instead of repeating that misery?

Providing such info explains why I write this blog. It also explains why I expect lifetime employment doing that kind of thing here in Windows-World. It’s always something…

But Wait! There’s More… (Added Jan 7)

When I logged into the X380 and the X12 this morning, KB5053390 again showed up as needed. And again, a regular WU install failed. So this time, I fired off DISM-GUI taking the left-click “Run as administrator…” option. Apparently that did the trick. Here are some screencaps along the way:

Between the 2nd and 3rd screencap, I ran DISM-GUI again (as admin) and it showed a successful conclusion at the command line, then reboot with successful update there after). Once I rebooted the system and it worked through the rest of the process, I got the 3rd figure above from WU. Gadzooks! I hope it’s finally over…

 

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NVIDIA Rollback Gets Interesting

Take a look at the lead-in graphic. It shows multiple daily crashes — hardware errors mostly — on my production desktop for the past week. As it turns out, my switchover from Game-Ready to Studio NVIDIA driver did not fix my dual monitor problems. I had to forcibly reload the graphics driver (WinKey+Ctrl+Shift+B) to get both displays working after sleep even after the switch. Resolved to undo recent updates, I learned that NVIDIA rollback gets interesting on this PC. Let me explain…

Why NVIDIA Rollback Gets Interesting

It doesn’t seem to matter which January 30 version of the NVIDIA driver I try to run on this PC and its RTX 3070 Ti GPU. Both posed stability and “wake from sleep” issues. Thus, I knew I had to roll back to the previous version.

Alas, the rollback button in Driver properties was not lit up, so I had to find and download the driver from the NVIDIA website. Once I identified the next-most-recent version — namely 566.36 — I was able to download its installer file from the older drivers listing for my graphics card, filtering on the Studio Driver tab.

Just to be safe, I also told the installer to do a clean install of that driver. This flushes out all associated files and registry settings found on the PC and replaces them with clean new (in this case, older) copies.

Rollback Success?

I was able to reboot and get into  the OS with both monitors working just fine. I just put the PC to sleep, and was able to wake into both monitors without difficulty. I’d hazard the hypothesis that this might have fixed the issues I was experiencing. But after being too quick to declare victory in my Febuary 3 post after switching to the 572.16 Studio driver, I think I’ll wait and see if things keep working before calling this one “fixed for sure.”

Stay tuned! I’ll report back tomorrow and let you know if ReliMon throws any more errors. So far, so good even after “forced sleep and wake…”

Info Added 25 Minutes Later

I just came back from lunch. The PC woke up with a single keystroke (Enter) and both monitors are working as they should be. I’m encouraged.

 

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Decoding Builds Requires Keen Attention

Ha! I have to laugh at myself. I just tried to update my Beta Channel Insider Preview test PC (one of my two aging X380 Yoga laptops) for no good reason. Or, perhaps it was for a bad reason — namely, I read about a new beta with a lesser build number of 4870. It wasn’t until I got further into the story that I figured out the update was for version 23H2. I’m running 24H2 so my minor build number is properly at 3073 right now (as you see in the lead-in screencap). Its higher major number: 26120 vs 22635 reminds me that decoding builds requires keen attention. Oops!

Truly, Decoding Builds Requires Keen Attention

What got me this time was that I looked only at the digits after the period, rather than checking both sides. If I’d really thought about what I was seeing, it would have instantly been clear. Because I’m running 24H2, perforce its major build number (26120) is greater than the same number for 23H2 (22635). Thus, even though the minor build number is higher (4870 vs. 3073) it doesn’t signify to my test PC because it’s not the same thing.

There’s never any shortage of confusion around here at Chez Tittel for all kinds of reasons. Alas, today’s ration was self-induced. But it did give me chuckle and remind me that it’s always important to put news of changes and updates into their complete context. Other-wise, who knows what one might expect or believe? Words to live by, not just here in Windows-World but in the wider world as well.

 

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Latest NVIDIA Game-Ready Driver Disses Dual Displays

Last Thursday, January 30, I installed new versions of the NVIDIA app and the latest game-ready driver (version 572.16) on my production desktop. It’s got a GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU, so I generally stay on the leading driver edge. Not this time! Immediately after I installed the new driver, trouble came to visit. Indeed, I’ll claim that the latest NVIDIA game-ready driver disses dual displays because no sooner did it next sleep, monitor 2 went dark and stayed that way. Eventually, I figured out that I had to cycle power on that monitor to get it working again. Sheesh!

Undoing Latest NVIDIA Game-Ready Driver Disses Dual Displays

I’m OCD enough about Windows stuff that I can’t leave something broken for too long. So when uninstall/reinstall failed to fix my wake-from-sleep issue with Monitor 2 (left-hand, as shown in lead-in graphic), I switched from NVIDIA’s Game-ready driver to the Studio driver model.

It, too, shows the same version number and release date. But as far as I can tell, it’s not inclined to lose Monitor 2 when the desktop goes to sleep. That’s a good enough reason for me to switch and stick with that selection. If I were a gamer — I’m not — I might feel differently. But because I’m not I’m glad that the more staid and reliable Studio version of the driver meets my needs, and keeps my monitors going.

And isn’t that just the way things go here in Windows-World sometimes? But the principle is a good one: if the driver you’re using is causing trouble, and a different model is available, there’s no harm in trying to see if the trouble goes away upon switching. In my case, I was lucky that it did!

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Resuscitate Dead Device Driver

OK, I admit it. When it comes to buying printers, I don’t do that very often. Both of my current printers were purchased long, long ago. Oldest is the Dell 2155cn color networked laser (2011); next is the Samsung ML2850 (2012). Before that I had an Apple LaserWriter that I’d purchased in the late 1980s. Because printers last so long, I’ve learn how to resuscitate dead device drivers. At least, legerdemain aside, I’ve learned how to find old ones.

Dell 2155cn: Resuscitate Dead Device Driver

I got a comment yesterday on this site about a January 2024 post Adding Ancient Dell Printer Gets Interesting. Seems that the commenter couldn’t find or install the driver for that very same printer (Dell 2155cn) of which he apparently also has one.

First things first: I did include a link to that driver in the post that still works on Windows 11. How do I know? Because I downloaded and installed it on a 2018 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga x380 running Windows 11 Beta Channel Build 22635.4805). That’s what you see as the lead-in graphic above, in fact. I even printed a page to that device. It all still works, decrepitude notwithstanding.

Why Ask for Help, Then?

I’m guessing the commenter missed that link. And when he went to the Dell support pages — as I did myself yesterday — to check on the link, its search engine no longer proffers it for users to download. My guess: they’ve aged it out of the actively available content. This happens to most hardware as it gets so old that vendors no longer wish to give its drivers storage space in which to reside.

Interestingly, armed with the literal name of the package I was seeking — namely “Dell 2155cn/cdn color MFP” (multi-function printer) — Google took me right to its support page. The Dell engine from its support pages worked, too — provided with the exact title that I elicited from the very page itself (that’s cheating, I know). The commenter may not have looked as hard or cleverly as I did to find the info.

But if Google and vendor sites come up short, don’t forget the Wayback Machine. This public project houses historical snapshots of previous states of most publicly accessible websites (NOT the dark web, AFAIK). You may be able to use it to find old snapshots of old drivers unavailable through other methods. This is where precise or unique and relevant search strings can be helpful. It is, after all, another way to look for a needle in a haystack (or maybe several decades’ worth of same). Good luck!

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10 Gbps Flattens Device Speeds

I’m still working and checking out the Lenovo ThinkStation M90a Gen 5 All-in-One (AIO). You can find my initial impression (and its specifications in Strange but Lovable Lenovo AIO, dated Jan 16). I’ve been playing with its many (6) USB-A ports and its sole (1) USB-C port. Because all of them are USB 3.2 Gen2, I’ve now observed that 10 Gbps flattens device speeds. That is, external drives that can run faster than 10 Gbps in a USB4, or TB3/4 capable USB-C port, all run at more or less the same speeds in a 10 Gbps USB-C port.

Showing that 10 Gbps Flattens Device Speeds

Take a look at the lead-in graphic. It shows CrystalDiskMark results for 3 USB storage devices — namely (from right to left):

1. Kingston DataTraveler Max 256GB flash drive USB-A
2. Maiwo 40Gbps USB4 enclosure with PCIe x4 NVMe USB-C
3. Sabrent 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen1 with PCIe x3 NVMe USB-C

Notice further that the values are similar for all cells across all devices. As you’d expect the faster devices (NVMe vs. Flash) win out in the random reads and writes. Surpisingly, the older Sabrent enclosure with its slower NVMe beats the faster Maiwo/NVMe combination.

Unflattening to 40Gbps USB4 Ports

But because 10 Gbps is as fast as anybody gets to go via USB on the M90a AIO, all those values are constrained by channel speed. That’s what flattens the results on that machine. If run external an external NVMe on a USB4-equipped PC, things go faster for the bulk reads and writes (top half of CrystalDiskMark results). Check it out in the next screencap.

Bulk transfer speeds go up in USB4, but random read/write speeds decline. Go figure!

As a confirmed hardware skeptic, I’m inclined to file this under the “you win some, you lose home” heading. That said, I’ve seen better USB4 performance on the latest generations of laptops, including Snapdragon X and Intel Ultra models. Yet another reason why MS may not totally be smoking something when they proclaim 2025 as “the year of the refresh”…

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