I have to laugh. I found myself trying to save a screen capture in Windows 11 on the X390 Yoga just now. The WinKey+Shift+S sequence brought up the Snipping Tool notification header, and it let me navigate to pick rectangular or free form area, windows and so on. But the save notification didn’t open and I couldn’t find any saved files anywhere. This had me looking for a snipping tool save fail fix so I could make screenshots from that PC. The answer proves maddeningly easy, but maddening nonetheless. Let me explain…

The control would pop-up, but once a save mode was selected, nothing showed up for me to save. Decidedly odd.

OK Then, What’s the Snipping Tool Save Fail Fix?

As an app, I went to the Store to see if it needed an update first and foremost. Nope that wasn’t it. But when I entered the app name in full “Snipping Tool” I got its Store window with an Install button showing. WTF?

Of course that means, for whatever reason, Snipping Tool was NOT installed on that laptop. And indeed, as soon as I installed it, the key combo worked just like it’s supposed to. Then indeed, the notification item shows up and I was able to start saving screencaps. Easy-peasey, right? Yeah, sure, but I don’t undersand why the app went MIA in the first place.

Don’t Overlook the Obvious…

It’s just a reminder that when apps get — or in this case, seem — flaky in Windows (and this applies to both 10 and 11), it’s best to check from the ground up. Though I didn’t expect this built-in app to be MIA, I quickly ascertained that’s exactly why I couldn’t get it to work. I guess that proves it’s hard to use something, if it’s not installed. Go figure!

At least I can console myself with the understanding that visiting the app in the Store is a smart and sure check on its functionality. In this case, that check led me directly to a quick and workable fix. Sigh.

Here’s a nifty little gotcha. After upgrading my two Dev Channel test PCs earlier this week, I noticed something missing. As you can see in the lead-in graphic for this story, despite Insider membership in good standing beforehand, things were different afterward. Hence my warning: Build 25174 may drop Insider MSA info, as shown in the graphic. Both of test machines were likewise affected.

If Build 25174 May Drop Insider MSA, Then What?

If you click on the “Please link…” entry shown in the graphic, it will automatically open the “Sign-in” page that lets you choose the MSA (Microsoft Account) you wish to associate with the Insider build on the target PC. I simply picked the one I had already associated with the PCs before applying the upgrade. It took all of 15 seconds to fix.

So why am I telling you this? I can’t extrapolate from 2 machines to the entire Dev Channel population. But I can guess that if both my machines were so affected, other Insiders running Dev Channel builds may find the same thing when they check their Insider status after the upgrade.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? This reminds me of other oddities I’ve seen post-upgrade for earlier versions of Windows 10 and 11. For a long time, in fact, I had to check “Private” vs “Public” network status after such upgrades, and routinely reset them to my desired states. This strikes me as just another case in point.

Nothing in the 25174 announcement…

I just checked the 25174 announcement, and it makes no mention of this particular gotcha. I’m reporting this to feedback hub as I write this item and I see no similar reports amidst that collection. Perhaps this is idiosyncratic and only applies to my PCs. But I bet it’s not, so check yours, too, please. Cheers!

Interesting! As is my usual practice, I just installed KB5015882, the upcoming CU preview. It targets production Windows 11, and takes it to Build 22000.832. After that update and restart, I noticed two things. First, this PC was still running the old Windows Terminal version. Second, Windows Store offered me an upgrade for same, but it got stuck during the process. After forcibly closing Store, and returning to the same page, a Store reinstall solves stuck Terminal once and for all. Deets follow, and a general approach to app repair.

Praise Be! Store Reinstall Solves Stuck Terminal

To begin with, when I ran Windows Terminal, I noticed it was still running an old version (no access to Settings, nor various supported command line environments). When I visited the Store, and searched on “Windows Terminal” its app page hung while trying to upgrade that very tool. So I terminated the whole shebang by clicking the close button at upper right.

Just for grins, I ran winget upgrade --all. It did not upgrade my Windows Terminal install, though it found and updated numerous other items successfully. Go figure!

Then, I opened the Microsoft Store again. I repeated my search on “Windows Terminal.” Lo and behold, it offered an Install button this time. When I clicked that option, it downloaded and installed the latest version. As you can see from the lead-in graphic above, the result was a current version of Windows Terminal, which runs PowerShell version 7.2.5 by default. Fixed!

When Windows Apps Get Wonky…

When apps start going sideways, I go through a drill to clean them up. This drill consists of the following steps:

1. 1. Visit the Store, look up the app and see what it offers. Apply any resulting upgrades or installs. If this doesn’t work, go on to
   2. Use PowerShell and Winget to find the name of the package for the app in question. Here,  winget list terminal reports that name is Microsoft.WindowsTerminal.
   3. You can use winget to uninstall, then reinstall the package as follows:
      winget uninstall Microsoft.WindowsTerminal. Then,
      winget install Microsoft.WindowsTerminal
      will install the current version.

Most of the time — as in this instance — if the Store offers options, they will usually suffice to fix app issues. Steps 2 and 3 are only needed when the app itself is somehow damaged or corrupt.

Put this in your bag of Windows 10 and 11 tricks. It could come in handy someday!

Last week, I recited my adventures in reworking my LAN to improve stability in the wake of a line of thunderstorms. This weekend, I’m off to Waco on a legal project. The boss — my wife, Dina — asked me to provide instructions on how to bring the Internet back up should it go down while I’m away. Here, then, is the Chez Tittel Internet restore recipe. I hope other readers find the various contortions involved interesting, if not amusing.

Steps in the Chez Tittel Internet Restore Recipe

Basically, the first step is to unplug and restart all of the key devices in the Internet chain here at the house. I usually check (and if necessary, reset) items in this order:

1. The main link to the Internet is the Spectrum boundary device: A Spectrum Wave 2 RAC2V1A router/WAP/4-port switch device. It obligingly shows a red light when its Internet link is down. That’s my signal to unplug power from the device. The device, with an “A-OK” blue light is shown as the lead-in graphic for this story.

2. I’ve got a second such device on the LAN in my office. It’s an ASUS AX6000 router (AKA RT-AX88U model number) that I use purely as a WAP for 802.11ax (and lower) Wi-Fi access in the house. I show a rear-end view, because resetting the device involves unplugging the power brick from the port at the far right.

3. I’ve got two Netgear unmanaged GS108 8-port switches in my office, too. One sits on the baker’s racks to the left of my desk, the other on the windowsill at the right of my desk. Here again, the quick’n’easy reset technique is to unplug the barrel connector for the incoming DC power from its brick. Once again, my guiding image includes a rear view of the device, where the barrel connector for power plugs in at the far right.

Putting the Recipe to Work

I always check the color of the light on the Spectrum device first. If it’s red, I know I need to unplug and wait for it to come back up to see if that helps. If it stays red after two full power cycles, it’s time to call Spectrum to ask for help on their end. This pretty much demonstrates the problem is theirs.

If the Spectrum device is blue, but the in-house Internet isn’t working, this can be on of two things:

1. The Wi-Fi from the ASUS device isn’t functioning. This manifests as networks that start with an Arb… name string lacking Internet access (“No internet”). When this happens, I unpower the AX6000, wait a minute or two, then power it up again. That has always worked so far.

2. The local Ethernet isn’t functioning. That’s definitely a switch problem. If this happens, I disconnect power first from the switch on the baker’s racks, wait a minute and try again. Most of the time that does the trick. But if not, I do likewise for the switch on the windowsill. So far when the former hasn’t worked to restore the wired LAN, the latter has always done so.

And that’s how the network gets brought back up here at Chez Tittel most of the time. Especially after power glitches occur. Over the years I’ve only had to bring Spectrum in for tech support a handful of times (and the phone app now obligingly reports outages, often before I notice them if they occur after hours). Cheers!