Category Archives: Insider stuff

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows Update

Production Switchover Produces Unexpected Speed-up

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Over the past week, I’ve switched two older PCs from Insider Preview to Production builds. For the record, the X380 is a 2018 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga, while the X12 is a 2021 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Convertible Tablet Gen 1. Happily, this production switchover produces unexpected speed-up for both machines across the board. Let me tell  you more…

Why Production Switchover Produces Unexpected Speed-up

MS has been on a bit of a tear lately, trying to repair its user credibility and brand image for Windows 11. Industry observers have noticed and published stories like these:

My usual response to such coverage is “Yeah, right, sure…” (delivered with an eye roll and a skeptical tone of voice). But this time, it’s possible that the coverage is both apt and accurate.

What Improvements Might One Find in 26H2?

After the switchover from Beta (X380) and Insider Preview (X12) builds on those PCs to mainline 26H2 (Build 26300.9711 as I write this). I’ve noticed snappier response and quicker completions across the board on both machines. Some of this, says Copilot (and I agree) is simply a natural outcome of switching from a more heavily instrumented and closely monitored Insider release to a more streamlined and less tarted-up production release.

But there’s more. I am seeing noticeably faster performance on both PCs including:

  • Improved system responsiveness
  • Faster app launch times
  • Faster File Explorer
  • Lower RAM usage
  • Reduced latency in UI interactions

Case in point: I just ran winget upgrade -all --include-unknown on both PCs and they ran updates on CrystalDiskInfo, WinScript, CoreTemp and (as shown) MS.Gameinput. All did their work — checking the manifest, showing the update list, then performing the individual updates — enough faster than their previous usual that I noticed an improvement.

Same thing goes for app launches, installs and uninstalls outside of WinTerm. As old as these two machines are, I feel like they’ve gained a new lease on life. Here in Windows-World, that’s a win! Maybe I didn’t shoot myself quite as badly in the foot with the “Let’s try Installation Assistant and see what happens” experiment on these PCs as I had originally feared. Woo-hoo!

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows Update

Correction: Installer Repairs Windows Images

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Last Tuesday I incorrectly claimed that the Windows 11 installer upgrades Insider Previews. As I have now figured out, with some useful input from Copilot, it actually repairs those images. Had I actually tried to “upgrade” them, it would have failed. But I now know that the installer repairs the target image it’s run against. That’s the basis for my corrected assertion — namely, that the Windows 11 installer repairs Windows images. Let me explain.

Explaining Installer Repairs Windows Images

Simply by updating the Installer using Winget, it launches that app. When I allowed to proceed further, it was on me to halt things or let them proceed. Windows Setup (which runs inside the Installer, from a downloaded ISO) checks the following data:

  • Windows edition (Pro, for both X380 and X12)
  • Major version (Windows 11)
  • Feature Update family (26H2)

Indeed, Setup.exe permits a repair install to go ahead even if one or more of the following conditions is true

  • The installed build is newer (false)
  • The installed build is Insider (true)
  • The ISO build is older (false)
  • The ISO build is production (true)
  • The device remains enrolled in the Insider program (true)

Copilot’s summation “Setup does not block this build because a repair install is not considered a downgrade” (emphasis mine).

NOW I Get It…Finally!

I didn’t understand that Setup.exe could cross the Insider/Production boundary. It can, as I’ve now demonstrated to myself on two former test PCs. I’m going to promote two newer machines — RyzenOfc and AsusSnap to Insider versions — and leave these older machines on production builds. To that end, I’ve toggled the “Unenroll” switch on each of them.

Call this a lesson learned for yours truly. It’s not a mistake I will repeat. I tried it out to see what would happen. Now I understand how and why to steer myself around this pothole. And in a cack-handed fashion, it’s another way to pull a PC back from Insider status without a clean install. I’m still deciding if I like it or not: stay tuned, and I’ll tell you after I live with it for a whiile…

 

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 11

PowerToys Gets Double Upgrade

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Here’s something I’ve not seen  before. As is my usual practice, I ran winget upgrade --all --include-unknown this morning. Upon returning to WinTerm after it was done I noticed something odd. The version number in the release notes for PowerToy (open automatically after any release) was higher than the target version in the Winget uprade info. Upon closer examination, I determined this is a case where PowerToys gets “double upgrade”. Let me explain…

How PowerToys Gets Double Upgrade

Indeed, winget took PowerToys to the targeted version (0.102.2862.0). But in the meantime, the PowerToys (PT) team released a higher-numbered version (0.102.2883.0). And because I have PT configured to auto-update upon launch, once the winget driven update finished, the program itself took care of the second one on its own.

For a split second, I wondered about possible pixies — or gremlins, maybe. Then  I realized it’s all baked into the way the app itself behaves. Here in Windows-World what looks like a mystery can just be the way things look odd sometimes, even as they do what they’re supposed to.

That’s what passes for entertainment these days here at Chez Tittel. And I admit, I’m both entertained and bemused.

Edge Rears Its Install Technology Head

Speed reader that I am I also initially conflated the message from Edge — entirely in character and seen many times before, BTW — with what PowerToys was doing. Not so. I just had to run the updater inside Edge itself and this momentary hiccup also cleared.

Keeping things updated is as much about remembering edge cases and exceptions as it is about following the channel in the river of new packages continuously showing up via winget. I do have to remind myself about that occasionally. But again: it’s all in good fun here in Windows-World.

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

UniGetUI Handles Discord Updates

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In my September 16 post, “WinGet Mistakenly Reports Discord as Pinned,” I covered a quirk in how winget labels certain packages. I was reminded of same, as I observed that UniGetUI hanldes Discord updates easily and directly. If winget marks Discord as pinned and skips it, how can UniGetUI update it anyway? Let me ‘splain it to you.

How UniGetUI Handles Discord Update, While WinGet Fails

It is a handling difference that distinguishes the two package managers. Actually, WinGet itself stumbles only when using update --all. WinGet actually CAN handle a Discord update but it has to be commanded correctly and directly. UniGetUI uses WinGet to get (at least some of) its work done (also works with Chocolatey, Scoop, etc.). The trick turns out to hinge on how WinGet is told to upgrade Discord. The blanket approach just described fails because of a manifest flag (see 9/16 post for deets). Winget simply skips over that upgrade.

UniGetUI does things differently. Under the hood, it calls winget using an explicit package ID for each app that needs an update. For Discord it works just as if it had entered

winget upgrade --id Discord.Discord --include-pinned

at a command line (cmd.exe or PowerShell). In fact, WinGet will update Discord if you use similar syntax, to wit:

winget upgrade --id Discord.Discord --force

Manual Override Is a One-Off Avventura

Please note: the preceding command string is a one-time override. The RequireExplicitUpgrade: true flag that causes WinGet to skip over Discord for WinGet upgrade --all stays in place. Future winget upgrade –all runs will still skip Discord, so you would need to repeat the command each time you wanted to force that update manually.

UniGetUI’s approach turns this winget blind spot into a non-issue for anyone who prefers a GUI workflow. I’m actually coming to like this program more and more because of its consistent, user-friendly package handling. But WinGet remains number one in my heart because it’s command-line native, and readily susceptible to scripting and automation.

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, PowerShell, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog

Powershell Update Goes Sideways

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Interesting doings in the Windows Terminal PowerShell world. Running WinGet in that environment just now, I updated PS. Not only did that activity produce an “Installation abandoned” error msg, it initially threw up cmd prompt instead of PS when I clicked the plus sign to launch a new WinTerm session. Alas, it looks like this PowerShell update goes sideways (and more so on some PCs).

Ways PowerShell Update Goes Sideways

First, let’s survey the landscape. Windows PowerShell 5.1 is built into Windows and goes nowhere. It is a system component, not something you update through a package manager. PowerShell 7.x is a completely separate, side-by-side install. It lives in its own directory and uses its own executable, pwsh.exe.

The standard command for updating PowerShell 7.x is clean and simple. You open a terminal and run winget upgrade --id Microsoft.PowerShell. However, what looks simple on the surface can hide a lot of failure modes underneath.

Updates can stall mid-stream, roll back without a clear explanation, or appear to succeed while doing nothing at all. That last scenario is especially maddening. You see a success message, then run pwsh --version and get the old build number staring back at you. Something broke during the install, and winget did not catch it.

Oh No! Installation Abandoned…

I’ve seen this error message (see lead-in graphic) before. Normally, that means the PS installer has lost its connection to Winget via PowerShell and WinTerm. You can often see the PS installer window open, still running, and finishing its work. Closing, then re-opening WinTerm usually sets things back to rights.

Not this morning, on my Flo6 desktop (B550 mobo with AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU). After the upgrade, a new PS session launched cmd prompt instead. WinTerm lost its path to the pwsh.exe executable. When I went to look at its profile, it showed as empty. So I had to delete it, and recreate it, then point to the PowerShell 7 icon. That fixed things right up.

That Worst Case Isn’t Ubiquitous

When I updated PS on the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 mobile workstation, I got the same “installation abandoned” error message. But when I opened a new PS session (using the menu bar “+” control) the new version popped right up in a proper PowerShell pane.

I’m not sure why some machines act out more than others when the PS install goes sideways. Shoot! It could have been cosmic rays. But whatever happens, you can fix it if you check the profile and make sure it’s properly defined. Here in Windows-World knowing what to fix and how to fix it goes a long, long way. This morning, it went far enough to set things back up properly on Flo6. May it do the same for you, should you need it to!

One More Thing…

Just ran the same update on the ASUS Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon X ARM CPU). Completed successfully! I’m starting to think that platform diffs may play into this situation. The AMD platform failed and carried a persistent error state. The Intel platform failed, but recovered. And the ARM platform sailed right thru. Go figure!

 

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows Update

26H2 Installer Upgrades Insider Previews

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Here’s something weird and interesting. In the wake of yesterday’s actions around updating the Installation Assistant, I discovered that 26H2 installer upgrades Insider Previews. At least, I’ve tried it on Beta and Insider Preview channel PCs and it’s worked. Thing is, those machine now show up as both 26H2 and still enrolled in the Beta channel, as you can see in the lead-in graphic.

Once 26H2 Installer Upgrades Insider Previews, Then What?

Good question. WU isn’t handing them the 2026-09 Preview Update (KB5124010) (26200.9550). They don’t show up under WU > Advanced Options > Optional Updates, either. I’m starting to wonder if my experimental maneuver might not have orphaned these Windows images.

BUT: today is Patch Tuesday. Copilot thinks that today’s mandatory CU will “take” on these installs. I won’t know until noon, local time (10 AM PDT, GMT -07:00). If it works, these installs aren’t orphans. If it doesn’t I may have to visit UUPdump to build a custom ISO to try another in-place repair install to catch up again.

I’m hoping I haven’t painted myself into another corner. That’s not an unfamiliar place for me to find myself, here in Windows-World. I’ll find out later today, and update this post accordingly. Sigh: it’s always something, right?

Après moi, le déluge…

Looks like WU is working the same on the updated Insider Preview PCs as on the mainline production models. All are offered the same four updates: KB5127694, MSRT, KB5130036 and KB5130034. So they’re not stuck. What they are, exactly, is still TBD. Interesting!

Now I know: KB5127648 is the key ingredient. WU doesn’t proffer it to my holdout PCs (the X12 and X380 upgraded to 26H2 thru in-place repair install). But I can grab it from the Update Catalog. Applying on both PCs right now (it’s a big’n: ~4.5GB). Takes a while to complete, But then “Something didn’t go as planned” and back into the previous state. Something ain’t right: I’ll be digging in.

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows tools, Windows Update

Updated Installation Assistant Covers 26H2

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On the still-working 2018 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga X380, WinGet delivered a new Windows 11 Installation Assistant this weekend. “Hmmmm,” I wondered to myself, “does this version incorporate the latest release?” It doesn’t really say in the update info shown in the lead-in graphic. But yes, this updated Installation Assistant covers 26H2. I’ll show you visual proof.

QED: Updated Installation Assistant Covers 26H2

And indeed, WinGet itself provides the proof. Notice the ID for this tool is “Microsoft.WindowsInstallationAssistant.” By happy chance, using that string with WinGet show includes “26H2” in its “Release Notes” field, to wit:

Release Notes identifies the installer as 26H2. {Click image for full-size view]

Copilot Leads Me In Another Direction

Officially, the Installation Assistant isn’t compatible with Insider Builds. And, as fate would have it, the X380 was running a 25H2 Beta build. Interestingly, the Installation Assistant runs: it downloads and installs 26H2 (and hangs forever at the 46% complete mark. but completes OK).

At first, Copilot says it doesn’t work “Assistant refuses all Insider builds.” But for both Beta and Insider Preview builds (26220.xxxx branches), it ran on both my X380 and on my Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Hybrid Tablet Gen 1. But first, I had to run PC Health Check even though both PCs were already running Windows 11. But in continuing along the install path after that detour, Installation Assistant showed me a new way to work around the typical bar on upgrading Insider builds using Production Windows images.

I’ll blog again tomorrow, and explain what happened on each machine, and where I wound up. It’s a surprising turn of events — to me, at least — here in Windows-world. Normally, this bar holds hard and fast. But the latest 26H2 installer may be an exception. Stay tuned: should be fun!

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AI, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Mismatch Mars Surface Laptop Ultra

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I’m chuckling — and the whole situation genuinely appalls me. If you want to spring for the top-of-the-line Surface Laptop Ultra, you can ONLY get it with a 1 TB SSD. IMO, this mismatch mars Surface Laptop Ultra offerings. Surely those who want 128 GB of RAM and the 20-Core Grace RTX CPU also want more solid-state disk storage? So, what was MS thinking?

The Ferrari with a 10-Gallon Tank

Think of it like equipping a Ferrari with a 10-gallon gas tank — that’s exactly what Microsoft did by pairing 128 GB of RAM and a 20-core CPU with a mere 1 TB of SSD. ASUS and HP already offer 2 TB configurations (and the ASUS ProArt P16 throws in a second M.2 slot for good measure). Dell, Lenovo, and HP haven’t yet revealed their planned configurations, but I’d find it shocking if any of them failed to offer at least 2 TB SSDs.

Wow! The whole thing stuns me. Maybe MS simply couldn’t source bigger drives. Nevertheless, configuration data confirms that models up to 4 TB from multiple vendors will likely run on top-end RTX Spark machines, to wit:

Drive Capacity Interface Notes
Samsung 9100 Pro Up to 4 TB PCIe Gen 5 Top tier, excellent thermal profile
WD Black SN850X Up to 4 TB PCIe Gen 4 Gen 4 will work but won’t hit Gen 5 speeds
Crucial T705 Up to 4 TB PCIe Gen 5 Strong value option
Seagate FireCuda 540 Up to 4 TB PCIe Gen 5 Competitive sequential speeds

Buy2Replace!

In fact, Copilot recommends that anyone buying the MS top-end model for US$5,899 MSRP should immediately upgrade to a 4 TB SSD from the table above. I now lean toward models that come with 2 M.2 slots — they push the storage ceiling even further.

After all, if you’re going “all the way,” you don’t want the vendor holding you back from wretched excess. But here in Windows-World, what you want and what you get often fail to coincide. So it goes!

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Another OOO, Another Catchup

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OK then, I’ve been away from home since October 1. Sorry to report it was to attend a memorial service for my brother-in-law, Mike Carey, who succumbed to lung cancer on September 19. Now that I’m back in the saddle, my first task was to check and apply all outstanding updates to the Windows fleet here at Chez Tittel. That sort of make my marching orders read “Another OOO, another catchup.” Let me tell you what that meant this morning…

Working Through Another OOO, Another Catchup

There are 8 PCs in the fleet at present. Two AMD, one Snapdragon X, the rest Intel. I ran through the gamut of update checks on each one and did the necessary.

Name WinGet DSA PMP Other Total
X12 5 3 2 0 10
P16 2 0 1 0 3
X380 9 0 1 1 11
Flo6 4 0 1 2 7
P3Ultra 4 1 3 0 8
AsusA14 5 0 1 0 6
Ryzen 11 0 1 1 13
D7080 3 0 3 3 9
Totals 43 4 13 7 67

In the column heads PMP = Patch My PC Home Updater and DSA = Intel Driver & Support Assistant. As you can see, I had a decent number of updates to handle (67 for 8 machines averages between 8.0 and 8.5). Under “Other,” I accessed Lenovo Vantage, Dell Command Update and the ASUS update facility, on related systems. And both of my NVIDIA-equipped PCs (RyzenOfc and Flo6) got GPU updates. But it’s all taken care of now.

Now What’s Next?

I keep up with WinGet on a more or less daily basis. The other stuff falls into the “as I read about it in the news” or “once a week” category. So I should be good until next week for now.

It’s good to be back. I look forward to catching up and commenting on recent Windows news, updates and introductions. Stay tuned, and I’ll tell you more.

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Insider stuff, Networking, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

Router Management By iPhone…NOT

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This morning started with a simple task. I needed to RDP into TSP3Ultra2, one of my local Windows machines. The connection failed. Machine name resolution was broken. My first instinct was to check the DHCP table on the Spectrum router. I pointed my browser at 192.168.1.1. Instead of a login page, I got a Cauzin barcode page. It told me to download the My Spectrum app. That was not helpful. Indeed, Router Management By iPhone…NOT is not just a clever headline today. It describes exactly what happened to me.

I turned to Advanced IP Scanner. It found TSP3Ultra2 on the network immediately and showed its current IPv4 address. From there, I used Advanced IP Scanner’s Tools menu to launch an RDP session directly to that IP address. That worked. The underlying name resolution problem still exists. I just bypassed it.

Router Management By iPhone…NOT:
My Spectrum Story

Spectrum’s current Advanced WiFi routers do not support local browser-based administration. The 192.168.1.1 address exists. It just redirects to a barcode page instead of showing a login form. That page pushes you to install the My Spectrum app.

This is intentional. Spectrum manages router firmware remotely. A mobile app is their chosen support interface. The side effect is that you lose access to your DHCP table, your device list, and your network diagnostic tools at the router level. When name resolution breaks, you are left to improvise.

Advanced IP Scanner filled the gap this morning. It is a free tool. It scans your local subnet and returns device names, IP addresses, and MAC addresses. Its Tools menu lets you launch RDP, open a shared folder, or connect via HTTP directly from the scan results. It is not a router admin panel. But today it was close enough.

The Spectrum App: I Want My MTV

The My Spectrum app covers the basics. You can change your WiFi name and password, see connected devices, or run a speed test and restart the router. What you cannot do is adjust DHCP settings, configure port forwarding, tweak firewall rules, or see detailed device data. The app gives you a simplified view. Simplified is another word for limited. Indeed, the web interface thru spectrum.net not only looks the same, it’s subject to those same limitations. Sigh.

BYOR?

If you need real control, one reliable option exists. Buy your own router. Connect it to the Spectrum modem in bridge mode. You bypass the Spectrum router entirely. Because it’s yours, you get full admin access through the manufacturer’s local web interface. This brings the familiar controls through 192.168.1.1 back.

This costs money upfront. It removes you from Spectrum’s managed WiFi ecosystem. You give up app-based parental controls and Spectrum’s network management tools. For some power users, that trade may be worth making. Personally I’m only provisionally interested in that level of network management for the Chez Tittel agglomeration of Wi-Fi and GbE network segments.

Spectrum made a deliberate choice to move router management into a controlled mobile app environment. That choice works for many customers. It does not work for every customer. If you expected a classic browser-based admin page, you will be disappointed. If you’re comfortable with a simplified app interface, you will get by. But for real control, plan to spend money on your own hardware. I’m learning to live within the limitations of what I’ve got. That’s not unfamiliar to us wizened denizens of Windows-World!

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