Category Archives: Recent Activity

Backup/Restore, Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Digging Into Lenovo Digital Download Recovery Service

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On Monday, I was finally able to interact with the Lenovo Digitial Download Recovery Service (DDRS). I used it, with the company’s USB Recovery Creator tool, to create a UFD to reinstall the factory image onto my munged ThinkPad T14s laptop (ARM-based). Having now used it with amazement and appreciation, I’m digging into DDRS to better understand what it is and how it works.

More about Lenovo Digital Download Recovery Service

About a year ago, I tried to use this tool and got nowhere. One must place a “digital work order” with Lenovo, based on the Serial Number for the affected unit, for it to build a corresponding image that then works with the USB Recovery Creator tool. Earlier, I couldn’t get this to work for some odd reason or another. This time, all went swimmingly.

I did have to boot into the UEFI to obtain the system’s serial number. With that string in hand, however, I was able to place my order. Then when I ran the tool, it created the recovery UFD I would use to rebuilt the T14s. That took about 40 minutes to complete. As you can see in the following screenshot (from WizTree) this stuff falls into a 32 GB (FAT32) partition, of which 18 GB is actually occupied

This FAT32 partition contains 18GB of files, mostly image stuff.
[Click screencap for full-sized view]

In the RECOVERY folder, you’ll find an image file named M11A16AUS.WIM (appears at left in preceding screencap). It’s the customized recovery image that the tool will use to reinstall a factory fresh Windows 11 on the laptop. Let’s call it the “factory image.”

But There’s More to Do: Before, During & After

The whole recovery process is built around a massive and complicated set of scripts (mostly PowerShell). Here’s a 10,000-ft view of what happens next, over about a 100 minute time span:

  • Download and build media: Lenovo USB Recovery Creator tool downloads around 20 GB of recovery files to a USB drive (I used a modestly speedy full-sized Mushkin 64GB USB 3.0 device).
  • Boot from USB: with recovery media inserted, Secure Boot disabled, and F12 run to choose the drive as the boot source, the laptop passes control to the UFD.
  • Launch Recovery Environment: system boots into the Lenovo customer recovery shell built around WinPE with a variety of Lenovo tools and utilities further at its disposal. At this stage, the user confirms recovery, which wipes existing C:/boot/system drive contents.
  • Reformat and Restore: Recovery tool repartitions the internal (C:) drive, then deploys the factory image, complete with Windows, Lenovo device drivers, and Lenovo apps (e.g. Vantage).
  • System Boot and OOBE: The system reboots six times during the previous activities, and shows itself running a complex and convoluted unattend.xml install. After the final reboot, the laptop goes into the out-of-box-experience typical of a clean Windows install, but one based (in this case) on the Lenovo custom image.

Where Windows Wound Up

At that point I installed pending WU items and found the machine running Windows 11 25H2 Build 26200.7171. This is actually one build newer (thanks to an intervening Patch Tuesday) than ran on this PC before my ill-fated attempt to upgrade to Insider Preview for the Dev Channel.

Interestingly, Secure Boot and BitLocker are both turned off for the running image. I believe that makes it safe for me to attempt another Insider Preview upgrade to Dev Channel. This time, I’m going to make sure I have a current image backup with working recovery media first. That’s much faster than using the Lenovo Recovery UFD.

Next week, I’ve asked for an interview with the Lenovo engineers who built the DDRS and the Recovery Tool. That should shed further light on this amazing environment and toolset. I’ll share that info in a future blog post. Stay tuned, and Happy Thanksgiving (for those who celebrate same).

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Backup/Restore, Copilot+ PCs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 11

Bitlocker Boot Loop Finally Broken

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After at least half-a-dozen failed attempts to build bootable media for the ThinkPad T14s ARM laptop, I finally put a usable UFD together. The secrets? First, I used the Lenovo Digital Download Recovery Service (DDRS) and its associated USB Recovery Creator Tool.  Second, it built me a UFD that actually booted up on the T14s on another ARM laptop (an ASUS Zenbook A14). With the BitLocker boot loop finally broken, the Lenovo Recovery Media successfully reinstalled Windows 11. It was a long, wild and sometimes harrowing ride!

How Was BitLocker Boot Loop Finally Broken?

Because the .wim files for Windows 11 were so huge, I’d been formatting the repair UFD using NTFS. That was apparently not working on the T14s. The Lenovo tool built a UFD using FAT32, and assigned no drive letter to its repair partition. Because the basic Windows 11 .wim files exceed 4GB in size, that means it did some juggling work to create a boot.wim of about 700K, and a Recovery WIM of just under 3.9GB. And then it went through the most complex unattend.xml I’ve ever seen go by on-screen, with no less than six (6!) reboots to get the recovery image installed, updated and ready to run. It took about 100 minutes to grind through its process. Color me impressed.

I had tried using various other tools to fix things on my own, but none of them produced a working and bootable UFD from which to run the Windows installer. I believe all of them foundered either on the use of NTFS. complex partition structures, or lack of complete ARM support:

  • MCT (Media Creation Tool): doesn’t work properly on ARM PCs right now, and cannot generate ARM installation media
  • Ventoy: The UFD could boot initially and select the correct ISO for hand-off, but would not boot into that mounted image. Here, because the Ventoy partition is formatted NTFS, I’m presuming that caused the problems.
  • Rufus: I told Rufus to use NFTS, not realizing this could stymie proper booting into its runtime environment.

One More Thing…

I also learned that ARM PCs want fast, standard UFDs as boot media. Me, I’m fond of those tiny micro-UFDs (in this case, Mushkin Atom devices). Turns out they work fine on Intel and AMD; on ARM, not so much. I ended up using a Mushkin full-size USB 3.0 MKNUFDVP64GB device (or half of it, rather, because its FAT32 partition maxed out at 32GB). It did the job, though, so I’m glad.

This has been one of my wilder, woolier adventures in Windows-World lately. First, I had to find the right medium. Then I had to use the right format. And finally, I had to use the right tool. Only then could I reinstall Windows and put the T14s back into service. Sheesh!

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ASUS Zenbook A14 Intake

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In hopes of bootstrapping one ARM laptop to another, I decided to acquire another Snapdragon-based machine this weekend. Thanks to an early “Black Friday” deal I picked up such a machine for under US$600. Here’s the story of my ASUS Zenbook A14 intake, with extra observations about the OOBE (out of box experience) during initial set-up.

Working Thru ASUS Zenbook A14 Intake

Except for the shrinkwrap around the inner box, the packaging for the A14 was all paper: environmentally friendly, for sure. I got to the OOBE by plugging in the brick, inserting the power lead into one of the USB-C ports, and turning on the power. Interestingly, even though the battery showed fully charged when checked, I had to plug the brick in and power up before the unit would turn on.

This unit is incredibly light: 2.18 lbs (990 grams). It’s also got a ceramal, aka ceraluminum, (ceramic aluminum alloy) skin that is strong and fingerprint indifferent. Mine came in a neutral gray color called “Iceland Gray” (shown on the keyboard deck in the lead-in graphic). It’s a tasty machine, with a nice bright display, a decent keyboard and great battery life (real world analyses claim 15 hours for web browsing, and 23 hours for video playback at 50% brightness). It’s completely on par with the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X I blogged about last July, in fact.

Speeds, Accoutrement & Feeds

Speccy couldn’t tell me much about this PC, so I turned to the ARM version of HWiNFO instead. Here’s what it told me:

  • CPU: SnapdragonX Plus X1P-42-100 (8 cores)
  • RAM: Single module 16GB LPDDR5X 8448 MHz
  • Storage: Crucial MTFDKBA512QGN-1BN1AABGA 512GB
  • Display: Samsung SDC420D (10x30cm, 1920x1200px)
  • Ports: 2xUSB-C 40 Gbps, 1xUSB-A 10 Gbps, HDMI 3.1, 3.5mm audio
  • Wi-Fi; Qualcomm FastConnect Wi-Fi 6E Dual Band
  • OS: Windows 11 Home (I immediately upgraded to Pro so I could use Remote Desktop Connection over the LAN for access)

I wouldn’t call this a truly powerful laptop, but I’m comfortable with its performance and capabilities, especially in view of its extended battery life. If I can switch out the SSD without losing my mind, I may bump it up to 2 or 4 TB instead of its current 0.5 TB level. Everything else seems adequate and usable.

The Real Reason I Bought This…

I’ve been trying to resuscitate my ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 (my “other ARM laptop,” on loan from Lenovo). I hadn’t been able to build recovery media on x64 Intel or AMD PCs to bring the T14s back to life through alternate boot via UFD. By building the Lenovo Recovery Media on that machine for the T14s, I was able to reinstall and recover that machine in working order on my next try. As compared to the day-and-a-half or so I spent trying to use MCT, Ventoy and Rufus to build bootable ARM media, it was a  cakewalk.

Here in Windows-World, incredible contortions may sometimes be needed to bring a dead laptop back to life. So it was with the ARM-based ThinkPad T14s, which roared back into action after I put the A14 to work building recovery media. Go figure!

 

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VSS Delivers New Windows 11 Point-in-Time Restore

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It’s been a long time coming, and long time gone. Back in the Windows 7 era (public release: July 2009) it included a Backup and Restore utility for image backups. Indeed, it persists to this day in Control Panel in both Windows 10 and 11 as Backup and Restore (Windows 7). Starting with Build 26220.7271, Windows 11 regains a built-in image-based backup. It is explicitly more granular, faster and light-weight, better integrated, more reliable, and fully automated than other Windows options. To say that VSS delivers new Windows 11 point-in-time restore implies those foregoing qualities. But it also means that MS offers a much more potent restore tool than the Windows Backup app.

Digging into VSS Delivers New Windows 11 Point-in-Time Restore

Let’s explore the advantages of Point-in-Time restore vis-a-vis the old Windows 7 image backup utility and the Restore Point facility available through Control Panel > System Properties > System Protection:

  • Granularity
    • Windows 7 image backup: Restores the entire system image (.vhd) — all or nothing.
    • Classic restore points protect system files, registry settings, drivers and installed programs, does not back up personal files.
    • Point‑in‑time restore: Rolls back only system state, drivers, or updates to a chosen snapshot, leaving user files intact.
  • Speed & Convenience
    • Image backup required large storage space and long write times.
    • Classic restore points work more like a mini reinstall with multiple reboots with typical times of 10-30 minutes.
    • Point-in-time restore points are lightweight, created automatically before updates or app installs, and apply quickly (5-15 minutes).
  • Integration
    • Image backup was a standalone utility buried in Control Panel.
    • Restore points work through the Control Panel based System Restore utility.
    • Point‑in‑time restore is integrated with Windows Update, Recovery Settings, and System Restore, making it seamless for non‑technical users.
  • Reliability
    • Image backup often failed if the destination disk wasn’t large enough or if VSS writers conflicted.
    • Classic restore points may fail for lack of disk space or VSS writer conflicts.
    • Restore points use VSS snapshots but are optimized for consistency and modern storage stacks.
  • User Experience
    • Image backup required planning, external drives, and manual scheduling.
    • Using classic restore points is a manual process, requires identifying and selecting items.
    • Point‑in‑time restore happens automatically in the background, with minimal user intervention.

But Wait…There’s More!

Indeed, all four of my favorite (and free, except for Macrium) backup utilities also work atop a VSS foundation. That means Macrium Reflect (no longer free), EaseUS ToDo Backup, AOMEI Backupper and MiniTool ShadowMaker all use VSS to provide shadow copies that it may use itself (or use that very MS service) to operate on Winodws images for file and system backups.

I’m tickled to see this capability show up on my X380 Yoga for 26220.7271. If it’s still on gradual rollout, you may be tickled to see it show up on a test PC or VM, too. Enjoy!


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Windows 11 Hits One Billion Active Users

		

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Here’s an interesting milestone that raises an even more interesting question. In his Ignite 2025 keynote, Pavan Davuluri made this statement “At Ignite 2025, we’re celebrating a major milestone: Windows 11 now powers more than one billion people worldwide.” Windows 10 hit that same number in March 2020. As Windows 11 hits one billion active users, the tide is turning on Windows 10, too. Let’s talk about this changeover, shall we?


After Windows 11 Hits One Billion Active Users, Then What?


According to StatCounter, Windows 10 accounts for 41.75% of the user base, with Windows 11 at 55.18%. Assuming the 1 B count applies as of that date — perhaps foolish, but a point of departure anyway — that means ~757M users still run Windows 10. It also means that ~30.7 M still run some older Windows version.


This shows several interesting things, IMO:


    

  • The Windows user base is pretty formidable, with perhaps as many as 1.8B users across all versions. it’s big but less than one-third compared to global 5.78B smartphone users.
    • 

  • Windows 11 crossed over 10 last June, and is over 13% ahead of the older OS now. I expect this split to continue, with 11 gaining ever more market share.
    • 

  • It took Windows 10 13 months to increase from 1B to 1.3B (April 2021); I think Windows 11 will cross that span more quickly.
    • 

  • It took Windows 10 five years to hit the 1B mark; Windows 11 did it in 4 years. With Windows 10 EOS behind us, it can only gain momentum.
    • 

  • With MS offering free ESU to consumer grade users for one year, that momentum may be somewhat blunted. This is offset by the remaining 30-35% of “strictly business” Windows 10 users who MUST pay for ESU. Estimates of ESU Windows 10 users vary widely, anywhere from 100-400M.
    • 



It’s an interesting situation, and an even more interesting landscape. As always, it will be fun to wait and watch for another such milestone announcement from MS. I wonder if that means Ignite 2026, or something sooner? Here in Windows-World, waiting and wondering are both hugely germane and useful attributes for those who labor in such fields.

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Escaping BitLocker Recovery Loop Poses Problems

		

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Apparently, ARM64 compatibility issues can bite in unexpected — and time-consuming — ways. Yesterday, I decided to upgrade the ThinkPad T14s that Lenovo has loaned me to Beta build 26220.7262.  Bad move! Instead of rebooting to the post-GUI installer after the first reboot, I found myself stuck in a boot loop around BitLocker recovery. I’d enter the key, get it confirmed as correct, then circle right back to the initial BootLocker Recovery screen. Safe to say that escaping BitLocker Recovery loop poses problems on this otherwise spiffy little laptop.


Escaping BitLocker Recovery Loop Poses Problems, But…


Indeed, I spent most of the afternoon trying to build and run a suitable bootable UFD from which to re-install Windows 11 on the T14s. Here’s what I learned along the way:


    

  • One shouldn’t use miniUFDs for bootable media on ARM PCs: they’re too slow
    • 

  • The port matters when trying to boot from a UFD
    • 

  • It’s necessary to turn Secure Boot off in UEFI before you can boot from a UFD
    • 

  • Rufus has problems with building bootable media for UFDs on ARM PCs
    • 

  • I couldn’t get Ventoy to mount and run the ISO I painstakingly built via UUPDump to run setup.exe, either
    • 



Long story short: it’s incredibly challenging to repair an ARM PC with low-level problems (like my BitLocker Recovery loop) using only Intel and AMD x64 PCs. For the moment, I’m stuck!


What’s Next? Tune in Tomorrow for Pt2


In reading Windows news this morning, I learned that Best Buy is offering Asus Zenbook A14 Snapdragon X laptops for US$550. Further, they’ll give me US$250 to trade in my X380 Yoga. That means, with tax and such, I’ll get another Snapdragon X laptop for Chez Tittel for under US$400. I’m going out to pick it up later today, or tomorrow morning.


Hopefully, I’ll be able to build bootable media for the T14s that actually works using the same architecture to built the tools that I must then run. We’ll see. In the meantime, I’m distressed and amazed that previously dead easy tasks — e.g. building and using recovery media for Windows repair — has completely failed here at Chez Tittel. THIS is the kind of unpleasant surprise that pops up here in Windows-World. Hopefully, I’ll be able to weather that storm. Sigh.


 

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MS Announces New Recovery Tools

		

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Right now, MS is holding its annual Ignite conference at Moscone SF. Yesterday, MS Program Manager Lia Vargas published a very interesting post to the Windows It Pro Blog. Entitled Scalable Windows Resiliency with new recovery tools, it reveals a number of new tools on their way into Windows through Insider releases. Hence my claim: MS announces new recovery tools. The table in the lead-in graphic comes from that blog post, and gives a decent preview for these “coming attractions” in Windows 11.


More Detail, as MS Announces New Recovery Tools


It’s still a little early to say exactly what all this means. That’s because some of the tools mentioned are still rolling out. To me, the most interesting item is Point-in-time restore (as described in the afore-shown table). As MS says, it “enables devices to be rolled back to a previous state within minutes.” And it differs from the long-time System Restore (aka “Restore points”) capability in that it includes user files, imposes retention and cleanup policies, appears via Setting (not Control Panel), imposes minimal storage impact, and works with remote management tools and facilities (including Intune).


In the meantime, Point-in-time restore is rolling out into Insider Beta and Dev channels. If you’ve got it on such an install, it should appear under Settings > System > Recovery as Point-in-time restore, like so (graphic clipped from the aforementioned blog post):


On my recently upgraded beta system, it’s entirely predictable that it does not show this capability. I’m seldom honored with inclusion in early cohorts for new features, probably because I’m running the Beta release on a 2018 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga. Here in Windows-World I’m often aware of things I can’t see yet. At this point in my checkered career as a Windows MVP, that’s par for the course!


 

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Beta 26220.7262 Update Gets Interesting

		

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Imagine my surprise when I rebooted my old X380 ThinkPad this morning, only to have an Edge window open up on my desktop to proclaim “Your Windows 11 PC has been updated.” And indeed it went on to explain in a series of screens what new stuff I could find should I care to investigate further. I’d just applied the latest Quality Update, only to learn that this Beta 26220.7262 update gets interesting all on its own. You can see the first Edge page as the lead-in graphic above.


How Beta 26220.7262 Update Gets Interesting


In a series of 5 subsequent screens (with a Page Control to match), I saw the following


1. Your PC just got a new sense -- sight
   Try now button
2. Your voice is all you need
   Try now button
3. Stay connected right from the Start menu
   Add either Android or iPhone device from Start menu
4. Transform notes into polished ideas
   Try now button (Notepad gets structure)
5. Unleash your inner artist
   Try now button (Paint offers "creative control")
6. Discover 5 features ... get more from your device
   Discover Windows tips (sub-page with Try now)
   Customize your settings (sub-page with Try now)
   Pin sites to taskbar (sub-page with Try now)


This is all quite interesting, but a little bit disconcerting. The latter, mostly because I wasn’t expecting an unsolicited pop-up on my desktop. Makes me wonder if this is an emerging new kind of post-update behavior for Windows 11. If so — and I hope the team is reading my blog (though I’ll post to Feedback Hub as well) — this is the kind of thing I’d like a Settings option  for under the Windows Update –> Advanced Options hierarchy. Something like “Opt out of post-update notifications” would be nice. If I want to find this info, I already know where to look (that is, in KB5070303, in this case).


Sometimes, surprises in Windows-World aren’t benign. This one is mostly nugatory, if still unexpected. Gosh, you’d think they’d have mentioned that Windows will open an Edge window with update news in the Announcement as well — but they didn’t. Go figure!

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WinGet Acrobat Mismatch Continues

		

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Back on September 5, I blogged about how long it took Acrobat to update itself. Adobe has since addressed that (it now takes 1 or 2, instead of 20-30 minutes). But there’s still something amiss. Acrobat shows up as a package inside the WinGet database, but it can’t successfully do its job. Indeed, after a substantial download (usually 200 – 250 MB). WinGet reports it can’t complete the update. It also avers that the old version must be uninstalled before a new one may be applied. Thus, the WinGet Acrobat mismatch continues. One must run the in-app update to get things to work.




WinGet ultimately throws error 1603 when trying to update Acrobat.


Getting Past WinGet Acrobat Mismatch Continues


Adobe has to be aware of the WinGet issues, because they’re the ones responsible for maintaining packages available to the program. Adobe, according to Copilot “acknowledges error 1603 as a ‘computer-specific installation failure’ with multiple causes.” And while Adobe has issued troubleshooting instrux, they haven’t yet issued a WinGet patch. Indeed this must’ve been reported in July, because that’s the date on the aforelinked item in the Adobe Help Center.


Fortunately, the in-app installer does work, so I just have to steer around Acrobat updates in WinGet for now. Things like this happen in Windows-World regularly. But gosh: I wish Adobe would go ahead and get this fixed. Seems like they have more important fish to fry…

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New MCT Worth Downloading

		

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There’s been a new Media Creation Tool (MCT) available from MS since October 14. According to NeoWin, that tool is now better equipped to build USB-based Windows 11 bootable installers than it has been in the past. So I visited the Windows 11 Download page to grab it and give it a try. If my experience is any guide, it’s a new MCT worth downloading for speed and convenience alone.


What Makes New MCT Worth Downloading?


The latest version — as shown  at the bottom of the lead-in screencap — is 10.0.26100.7019. Interestingly, MS continues to refer to Windows 11 versions with a 10 prefix, even though 10 is retired (past its EOS date, anyway).


In the same screencap, you can see Index 6 inside the ~5.6GB file I downloaded. It shows up, somewhat generically, as “windows.iso.” When I save one, I usually append the number and version, so I saved it as “Windows1125H2.iso” to be more informative. You can see the version info for Windows 11 Pro from inside that ISO, mounted, thanks to the DISM command. It shows Build 26200.7171, which matches the current Windows 11 I’m running right now, so it’s completely up-to-date.


Whether or not you have an older MCT at your disposal, this one’s worth downloading. It’s fast, apparently more reliable and less buggy, and will bring you whatever version of Windows 11 MS is offering through the Download Windows page. Right now, it even happens to be completely current. That’s about as good as such things get, here in Windows-World!

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