Category Archives: Updates

Three Windows Update Repair Tips

Recent reporting on the latest Patch Tuesday (April 13) includes mention of issues with completing Cumulative Updates (CUs). Thus, for example, check out this WindowsLatest item dated April 22. Entitled Watch out for these issues in Windows 11 KB5012592 & Windows 10 KB5012599 it mentions various errors would-be updaters could encounter. It also mentions two tried-and-true recovery/repair techniques, to which I’ll add a suggestion of my own. Thus, I provide three Windows Update repair tips for your consideration and use.

Here Are Three Windows Update Repair Tips

Note: all these tips work equally well for both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Use ’em with my blessing in the order provided. In my personal experience they’ll cover most update issues people are likely to encounter.

Tip1: Simple Reboot

That’s right. If a CU update fails to complete, the first strategy is to reboot the PC, and try again. Believe it or not, that is sometimes all that’s needed to get things working.

Tip2: Shift-Shutdown

If you hold down the Shift key while you select the Shutdown option in Windows 10 or 11, it forces what’s sometimes called a “full shutdown.” This forces Windows to close all opened apps and applications. It also logs out any logged-in accounts. At the same time, a full shutdown performs neither a hybrid shutdown nor will it hibernate your PC.

Hibernation saves open documents and running applications to the %systemdrive% and copies them back into RAM upon restart, to speed that process along and let you pick up where you left off. That’s NOT desirable when fixing WU issues.

A hybrid shutdown hibernates the kernel session (what the OS is doing) and shuts down everything else. This supports Fast Boot capabilities on the subsequent reboot process to speed it up. It’s enough like hibernation that it too, is NOT desirable when fixing WU issues.

Tip3: Reset WU

Although the tutorial “Reset Windows Update…” appears on TenForums, it works equally well for Windows 11. Basically, it involves running a batch file that stops all update related services, resets all the update related registry keys, then restarts all the update related services it stopped. Surprisingly, it works like a charm. I routinely keep this batch file on many of my Windows 10 and 11 desktops. As it has worked for me both long and well, so it can also do for you.

If None of the Above Works, Then What?

Alas, in some cases, none of the aforementioned fixes will work. Next thing I’d consider would be an in-place repair install (covered in this equally handy tutorial). After that, more dire measures including a clean install and/or a trip to the shop might be warranted. In my 30-plus years of “messing with Windows” that has happened to me exactly twice. One of these occurrences happened less than two weeks ago (see this post for details). Odds are, therefore, it shouldn’t happen to you. Fingers crossed!  One of them was pretty recent, after all…

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Possible A/B Icon Test in Dev Build 22598

OK then, I’ve got different behaviors in the clean install version of Build 22598 (one PC) and upgraded versions (two PCs). The lead graphic shows my post at ElevenForum about this phenomenon, and includes the different icon styles I’m seeing. One version, I’ve learned is called “combined icons” (I refer to them as “expanded” in my post) and the other “uncombined icons” (ditto for “compact”). The guru consensus at ElevenForum is that there’s a possible A/B icon test in Dev Build 22598. Makes sense to me!

What Possible A/B Icon Test in Dev Build 22598 Means

Simply put, it would mean that some machines would manifest “combined icons” while others would show “uncombined icons.” That is what appears to be up. But the announcement post, and its subsequent revisions for .100 and .200 CUs make no mention of such. I’m puzzled.

What is clear, however,  is that I can’t find any Taskbar personalization control that lets me turn this feature off (or on). So I’m hoping I’ll find a registry hack to let me take control. We’ll see.

The Mystery Continues . . .

If you take a look at the ElevenForum post on this topic, you’ll see nobody in the community knows what’s up for sure. The A/B test scenario, however likely, is sheer speculation. That said, I have no better explanation.

Stay tuned. I’m casting my inquiries broader afield. If I learn something worth adding, it’ll show up here. If not, we can all keep wondering what’s up. It’s good exercise!

[Added Late Afternoon April 19]

Turns out it was Start11 working behind the scenes that caused this issue. I also had the combined terminology completely backwards: combined means no accompanying text, never combined means always accompanying text. Here’s the setting I changed in Start11 to fix my issue:

Once I selected “Always” for combined, I got the streamlined compact icons I was looking for. My profound thanks to Shawn Keene, fellow WIMVP, who pointed me in exactly the right direction. Fixed!

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Microsoft Catalog Goes HTTPS

Call it a factoid, or perhaps administrivia. Whatever you call it, this info come thanks to the eagle-eyed folks at DeskModder.de.  Indeed, it’s now clear that the venerable Microsoft Update Catalog is using the secure version of HTTP (namely, HTTPS) for downloads. The lead-in graphic shows lookup and resolution of yesterday’s CU preview URL for Windows 10 (KB5011543) by way of proof. When I say Microsoft Catalog Goes HTTPS, you can see it at the outset of the URL I pasted into Notepad, plain and simple.

If Microsoft Catalog Goes HTTPS, So What?

It’s 2022. HTTPS made its debut in 1994, in the earliest days of the web. It comes to us courtesy of Netscape from the same folks who brought us Navigator. And as far as I can recall, MS has been using HTTPS on its websites since the mid-2000s.

So why is MS making the catalog switch only now, either 28 or perhaps only 17 years later? The answer appears on a recent (April 1, 2022) Microsoft Docs page. It’s entitled “Site compatibility-impacting changes coming to Microsoft Edge.” Among other things it states that “downloading of files from HTTP urls will be blocked on HTTPs pages.”

I guess it just wouldn’t do, if Edge couldn’t download catalog entries for that reason. Note that the catalog itself has this URL for KB5011543: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB5011543. If the catalog download stayed at HTTP only, starting with v94 of Edge, it would no longer deliver the goods. And that kind of defeats its purpose, right?

So there’s your explanation. Enjoy the improved security, while you use any browser of your choosing. Cheers!

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Beta Promotion Difficulties Continue

I must report that my various efforts to get from Beta build 22000.588 to Dev channel build 22581 have gone nowhere. Hence my title “Beta Promotion Difficulties Continue,” to punctuate my lack of progress. I did, however get a more informative error message from one of those attempts (see item 3 below), as shown in the lead-in graphic above.

Attempts Undertaken, as Beta Promotion Difficulties Continue

Here’s a list of all of the fixes I’ve tried in attempting to overcome this increasingly vexing hurdle (of which exactly  none have worked):

1. Simple repetition of the WU update/upgrade process (2 or 3 times, most automatic). I’ve now paused updates for a week to save time and energy.

2. Unplug all non-essential peripherals (an mSATA SSD inside a Sabrent USB 3 enclosure in this case).

3. Use setup.exe from the UUPdump.net website-based ISO for Build 22581.1. It didn’t work, but did provide the more informative error message shown in the lead-in graphic for this story.

4. Remove .NET 3.5 and all related Windows 11 features, and try again. Greatly speeded up the update and install processes, but produced the same outcome as the preceding item.

5. Run dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth and then sfc /scannow. No joy there, either.

So far, in fact, I’m getting exactly nowhere. Sigh.

What’s Next?

I supposed I could try a clean install of Windows 11 from the aforementioned UUPdump.net ISO. But recent reports of install problems (in completion, and in the state of Windows 11 after the fact) give me pause. I don’t think I want to go there just yet.

According to other advice tied to the 0XC1900101 – 0X30018 error code, I could also try some or all of the following:

1. Reset Windows Update components. The TenForums tutorial on that topic includes a handy-dandy batch file that also works on Windows 11.

2. Disable antivirus — in this case Windows Defender. This is working on my other X380 Yoga, so I wouldn’t expect it to help here.

3. My BIOS is up-to-date already and I’m not aware of running any “problematic applications.”

You can get advice galore at stories such as How to Fix Update Error 0xc1900101-0x30018 in Windows 10 (HowtoEdge.com) and others of that ilk. For the moment I’m not inclined to spend more time chasing rabbits and rainbows.

What, Then?

My current plan is to wait for the next Dev Channel build to appear (which it should do, if not this week, then next week for sure). At that point, I’ll try again — and hope for a successful outcome. At the moment I’ve spent more than enough time. I’m content to take a time-out and wait for another try. . .

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GPU Driver Update Fixes Flickering Solitaire

I cheerfully confess: I start most working days off with a rousing round of Microsoft Solitaire. When the game pane started flickering this morning, I asked myself “Time for a new Nvidia driver?” Sure enough, a new one issued on March 22 (yesterday). And, as usual, that GPU driver update fixes flickering Solitaire as desired.

Keep Calm and Carry On: GPU Driver Update Fixes Flickering Solitaire

I upgraded the Game Ready Driver to yesterday’s version 512.15 using GeForce Experience. The whole process took under 10 minutes. No reboot was required. Interestingly, Reliability Monitor collected no errors nor warnings while the monitor was flaking out on me, either.

It’s a good thing that the symptoms are both obvious, and easily diagnosed. And FWIW, a keyboard GPU restart (CTRL+WinKey+ Shift+B) didn’t fix things. That’s why I was hopeful that a driver update would make it all better. Luckily for me, that turned out well.

What If a New Driver Flops?

Things rapidly get more interesting if a new GPU driver fails to fix monitor flicker. First and foremost, I’d check cables next, starting (in this case) with the DisplayPort cables that stretch from the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti GPU adapter to the affected Dell 2717D. If a cable swap didn’t fix things, I’d try rolling back two driver versions or more (for Nvidia GPUs, that means using its manual driver search facility). If no joy after two or three older driver attempts, I’d next run monitor and GPU diagnostics.

Most of the time, it’s the driver. If it’s not the driver, it’s usually the cable. If I have to get down to diagnostics (usually available from GPU and monitor makers), things can quickly get expensive. Glad to have avoided such issues this time around.

But, here in Windows-World, it’s always something, right?

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Open With Gets 22567 Makeover

According to the 22567 announcement, the Windows team has “updated the ‘Open with’ dialog to use the Windows 11 design principles…” In case you’re not 100% sure what that means I’ve included a side-by-side comparison as the lead-in graphic for this story. Windows 11 “Open with” is on the left, Windows 10 on the right. This shows me (and you, too, hopefully) what has changed as Open with gets 22567 makeover.

What Open With Gets 22567 Makeover Means

There’s a lot to like about the new look. First and foremost, it shows the file extension under the gun. I really, really like the first line that reads “Select an app to open .jpg file.” I also like the more compact, fluid layout which shows more options, more easily. The “always use” control is a little more intuitive (as is the “just once” option).

Good stuff, in fact, all the way around. Though such improvements may seem minor or negligible in and of themselves, I see lots of improvement in the Windows 11 UI. To me, working with the new OS is getting increasingly familiar, but also increasingly fun and more intuitive. My hat’s off to the development team and its ever more compelling and interesting efforts.

Nay- and Doom-sayers, Look Out!

It’s always interesting to see the vituperation and scorn that some users heap on Windows 11. Indeed, as I see on both TenForums and ElevenForum (both of which get plenty of comments about Windows 11), a great many users are “NOT HAPPY” with the new OS. Apparently, there’s a lot not to like about Windows 11 from their points of view. That said, I’m puzzled and bemused by such reactions. Personally, I am learning to prefer and appreciate Windows 11 over Windows 10. As far as I can tell, Windows 11 just keeps getting better and better.

I wonder what explains the difference(s) between my take and that of others less intrigued with the new OS? I bet lots of folks at MS would like to know what causes such divergent reactions, too!

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Build 22543 Brings New Battery Info

I updated my Dev Channel PCs to the latest build recently. And, as reported at WindowsLatest, the Settings app gets a few interesting new wrinkles. Chief among these changes, Build 22543 brings new Battery info into System → Power & battery → Battery. You can see for yourself what it looks like in the lead-in graphic.

The most obvious feature is a time series chart of battery levels. Mine’s a boring 100% across the board, because this test PC stays plugged in via a Thunderbolt/USB-C dock that delivers 85W of charging power. BTW, the dock also delivers multiple USB-C and USB 3.2 ports, GbE, dual HDMI, and an audio jack port as well.

If Build 22543 Brings New Battery Info, Check It Out!

While Battery & Power (shown above) is the most obvious change to settings, I see minor tweaks throughout. Fonts and layout show minor changes (check out the Display info on PCs with multiple displays). The contrasts with earlier Windows 11 versions are minor, but compared to Windows 10 you can readily see Settings is slowly but surely getting a major makeover.

FWIW, I like what I see. Overall, Windows 11 Settings screens seem cleaner, more streamlined and modern than their Win10 counterparts. Looks also like “Add device” capabilities in Settings (Settings Bluetooth & devices Add device) are ramping up. It’s not hard to see the old-fashioned “Devices and Printers” facility fading away in its wake.

The Increasing Pace of (Settings) Change

We’ve known for years that MS is working its way into Settings and away from the old-fashioned Control Panel. It will still be a while before that changeover is complete, but its evidence is everywhere. I hope I can learn where things are, and how they work well enough to remain productive before the old gives way completely to the new.

Whatever happens along the way there’s no doubt it will be an adventure. Stay tuned, and I’ll do my best to provide some hopefully useful info and guidance.

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Stacking Restartable Updates Works OK

It’s not a crazy question. It goes something like this: should users/admins install and restart after a single Cumulative Update, or can they allow multiple such updates in series? I just tried the latter on a couple of PCs, and everything turned out OK. I believe it may take a little longer to do them one at a time anyway (because of the time delay of the “extra restart”). But recent experience strongly asserts that stacking restartable updates works OK.

If Stacking Restartable Updates Works OK, Let ’em Rip!

This time around, Windows 11 got KB50100474 (.NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8) plus KB 5010414 (CU for Windows 11 x64…). I ran the drill on my Lenovo X1 Carbon (production Windows 11) and my Lenovo X380  Yoga (Beta/Insider Preview Channel Windows 11). Both got to the desktop through the reboot process in under 2 minutes. In my experience with various updates, that’s pretty fast in general for any single CU let alone 2 of them together.

Running DISM’s start component analyze and cleanup functions afterward, I found 2 reclaimable packages resulted from the updates. Cleaning them up regained affected PCs about 1.93 GB of disk space in the component store. It took about 8 minutes to complete. Worth doing, for sure!

Note: Don’t be disturbed by the “double progress bars” (see next screencap) for the /startcomponentcleanup bit. That always happens unless you reboot the PC before running this command after applying an update.

After stacking two CUs it’s no surprise that 2 reclaimable packages show up in DISM analysis of the component store.

I must say MS has Windows 11 working pretty well of late. I have yet to experience anything serious in the update/maintenance department since last October, when the official release emerged into public view. Good stuff!

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New Ventoy 1.0.66 Version Available

Thanks to Martin Brinkmann at Ghacks.net, I just learned there’s a new Ventoy 1.0.66 version available. Among other cool features, it now supports an “experimental” (beta) feature to boot most supported image formats from a local disk. Check out the GitHub page and its  documentation page at Ventoy.net for a complete recitation.

With New Ventoy 1.0.66 Version Available, Grab One!

I’ve been writing about Ventoy since April 2020, when I first learned about this outstanding tool. Here’s my first-ever Ventoy item: Bootable USB Tool Ventoy (Win10.Guru). The Ventoy,net site has long since overcome its initial underprovisioning issues. Indeed, the tool is now available through both GitHub and SourceForge as well. It’s also added lots of bells and whistles along the way.

If you don’t already know and use this tool, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Be sure to check out the many content items on the Ventoy Document page for news, how-tos, explainers, and information about the tool’s growing collection of interesting plug-ins.

Make Ventoy Your Go-To Install/Repair Tool

Right now, I’m still using a 256GB SSD in a Sabrent NVMe drive caddy (USB 3.2 Gen 2) for my collection of tools and images. I have 29 images on the drive, which include many versions of Windows 10 and 11, plus the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT), the MacriumRescue ISO, BOOTPE.iso, various memtest utilities, and more.  I’ve still got 94 GB of disk space free on the drive and will no doubt keep adding to it over time.

It’s a great tool: worth downloading, using, and updating as needed. Cheers!

 

 

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PowerToys 55.2 Fixes Things Up

If you read this blog regularly, you may be aware that in early January I reported about a fix for a strange Zoom issue. Seems that for some odd reason, the Mute Video Conference feature in PowerToys when enabled clobbers Zoom. Turn it off in PowerToys, and it works again. A workable, if not entirely satisfactory, repair. I’m pleased to report that PowerToys 55.2 fixes things up. I have a feeling it’s .NET related and comes thanks to the tool collections update to the .NET 6 framework and so forth.

But hey! I’ve been busy for the past two weeks. Cliff Rutkas and his team could’ve slipped an earlier fix past me. Be that as it may, I can now use both the Video Conference Mute feature in PT55.2 *and* Zoom on the same PC. Good-oh!

PowerToys 55.2 Fixes Things Up . . . and More!

While I’m on the subject of PT (any version) I’d like to extend my further thanks and appreciation to that team for the work they’ve done on the toolset lately. Installation has become much more routine. There’s been no need to stop mid-way through the initial “turn off old components” section lately, jump into Task Manager, and kill stuff before the installer can proceed. Instead, the process sails through to completion without human intervention — just the way I like it!

This tool is definitely gaining polish and capability. I had already liked it quite a bit. Now I like it even more. If you’re not familiar with PT be sure to check out (and read over) its documentation. It will definitely clue you in, and get you going with this terrific Windows toybox full of handy little tools.

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