Category Archives: WED Blog

Build 22581 Hits Dev and Beta Channels

Just yesterday, MS released a new Insider Preview build for Windows 11. That said, they changed that target audience up a bit. Whereas Beta and Release Preview channels had been paired, Build 22581 hits Dev and Beta channels. Out with the old pairing, and in with the new! I’m updating my beta test PC accordingly as I write this. But what does this mean?

If Build 22581 Hits Dev and Beta Channels, Now What?

For some info and possible insight, I turn to the 22581 Build Announcement. It makes the following observations about the change, ranging from channeling “Captain Obvious,” to a limited switcheroo, to ruminations on the roles that Dev and Beta channels play. Here are some illustrative quotes, under related headings.

Captain Obvious says:

Insiders in the Beta Channel can now try out new features such as Live Captions, Start folders, the redesigned Task Manager, tablet optimized taskbar and much more.

Switcheroo Info:

Now that the Dev and Beta Channels are receiving the same builds, the limited window has opened for Insiders to switch channels if you wish to do so by following these simple steps:

  1. Open Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program.
  2. Select Choose your Insider settings.
  3. Select Beta Channel.
  4. The next time you receive an update, it will be for your new channel.

IMPORTANT: This window will close once we release builds with higher build numbers to the Dev Channel. If your device stays on the Dev Channel and receives a build that is a higher build number than what is in the Beta Channel, you will have to do a clean installation of the released version of Windows 11 on your device to switch to the Beta Channel.

See the announcement for more details, but I understand this as a promotion from Beta to Dev, with the opportunity to drop to Release Preview for those so inclined.

Channel Role Ruminations:

As a reminder, we are evolving the way we develop and release to Insiders with the Dev and Beta Channels now representing parallel development paths from our engineers. The Dev Channel will be a place where we will try out different concepts, incubate new ideas, and work on long lead items that may not get released to general customers. The Beta Channel will be the place we preview experiences that are closer to what we will ship to our general customers. However, this does not mean every feature we try out in the Beta Channel will ship. We encourage Insiders to read this blog post from last month that outlines the ways we’ll try things out with Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels.

The Change Is Here, But…

I fired off my Beta test PC as I started writing this piece. When I just went to check status, the update had failed. A new error message appeared in WU “Save your work, and please try again.” Right now, I’m doing as directed and watching the update process. It sat at some while at 17% complete, but the count-up continues (and just jumped to 100%). Now it’s sitting at 100%. . . Another restart . . . spinning circle . . . Working on updates (with count-up) . . . and taking its sweet time (about 35 minutes total for post-GUI updates), it ultimately got back to the Windows 11 desktop.

AND NOW: my beta test PC is still running Build 22000.588. Here’s what WU has to say about the situation:

Obviously, further investigation is needed. Wonder what’s up? To that end, I’m using the Powershell cmdlet Get-WindowsUpdateLog to show me what happened. I’ve got some research work to do. But it may end up making sense simply to install the update using a mounted ISO to run setup.exe. I’ll report further tomorrow. Good fun!

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Windows Ads Go Another Round?

On March 15, The Verge published a story that raised a familiar Windows spectre.Responding to a tweet from fellow WIMVP Florian Beaubois (it serves as the preceding lead-in graphic), MS spokesperson Brandon LeBlanc is quoted as saying “This was an experimental banner that was not intended to be published externally and was turned off.” Indeed, it could be used in File Explorer to advertise the Microsoft Editor in future releases of Windows 11. If one ad is possible, others could easily follow. Is this cause for concern, or even ire? Whatever the case, it’s possible Windows ads go another round in upcoming versions.

If Windows Ads Go Another Round, So What?

There are several, hopefully worthwhile observations I can offer on the topic of Windows ads. Here they are:

  1. As the previously cited Verge story states, MS tried out ads in a 2017 File Explorer version. They were relatively easy to disable, and didn’t last very long.
  2. MS already uses ads on the Windows 10 lock screen, its Start menu, and in the taskbar. Once again, they can be disabled for those willing to search out related fixes.
  3. Other OS vendors — the Verge mentions Apple and Google specifically — also include ads on various products (e.g. iPhone, Apple TV and YouTube) that they bring to market.

Monetization Is Hard to Resist

What’s driving this phenomenon comes straight from what might be called “the capitalist imperative.” That is, seek out and exploit any and all opportunities to generate revenue. It’s what created Google, and what drives their biggest revenue streams. It’s what funds their search engine, and most other search engines besides.

I take comfort from knowing that there will be ways to turn off ads should they appear. If outright switches to disable them aren’t readily available, third parties will provide ad-blocker software to turn them off. I already use (and happily pay a voluntary “donationware” sum) for the “free” AdBlock Plus program to block web ads.

If I must, I’ll do likewise for Windows. I certainly hope it doesn’t come to that. But where there’s a will, there’s almost always a way to exert it as desired. Time will tell what happens with the ad capability recently shown to be possible in Windows 11. In the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy that OS in its present (mostly) ad-free state.

Note [Added 1/2 Day Later]

Kudos to Sergey Tkachenko who published a story at WinAero this afternoon entitled How to Disable Ads in Windows 11. it provides a nice overview of all of the settings changes and registry tweaks needed to put them out of sight (and hopefully, out of mind) — if you’re so inclined. ‘Nuff said…

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911 Works Even With Low/No Coverage

In case you’ve wondered, I’ve been on a family vacation to points west. Our itinerary included great visits to White Sands (Las Cruces, NM), the Petrified Forest (Holbrook, AZ) and Tucson. While driving home on Friday, we found ourselves with a flat tire in a remote  area as night was falling. Our splendid E250 Bluetech is a great car, but does not sport a spare tire. Fortunately, I learned 911 works even with low/no coverage.

That’s extremely fortunate. Alas, I was unable to call out for local help. Mercedes roadside assistance needed to be dispatched from San Antonio, over two hours away from our then-present location. But dialing 911 on my iPhone 12, I was able to reach the local emergency response center.

Thank God: 911 Works Even With Low/No Coverage

At first, I was concerned that our situation didn’t count as a real “emergency.” Then my wife made several trenchant observations. We were nearly 20 miles from the nearest small town (the other, next closest was nearly 30 miles away). Night was falling. We were stuck on a narrow shoulder. Cars were zooming by, and our downhill stretch was a popular spot for faster vehicles to pass slower-moving ones. OK then: it was a bad spot to be in.

Her opinion: lack of local services, a bad location, and no outgoing cell or data connections meant it WAS an emergency. In less than a minute I was talking to a very friendly and helpful 911 operator. He agreed we needed help, and dispatched a tow truck from Brady, TX (about 40 miles away from our location).

Call Me Back, If You Hear Nothing…

Because the local signal was so weak, he asked me to call him back in an hour. When I did so, he said he’d tried to call me himself but couldn’t get through. A car carrier was on the way, and should be arriving in another half hour or so. Indeed, I’m glad 911 works to carry outgoing messages when other cellular traffic is impossible. Here’s an interesting explanation of what’s involved: How Can Mobile Phones Make ‘Emergency Calls’ When There’s No Network Coverage?

And indeed, about 90 minutes after my initial call to 911, a car carrier (my favorite brand: Jerr-Dan) appeared on the scene. Shameless plug: Henry, the helpful and skilled operator from Brady-based Back on Your Feet Towing had us loaded and back on the road in under 15 minutes. We would wind up negotiating a price to take our car to a tire repair center near our Round Rock home, over 200 miles away. It was infinitely preferable to spending the night in Brady, and waiting for repairs the next morning. As the ensuing repairs would prove, that was the right decision…

The Morning After

We wound up getting home after 1 AM that morning. Our flat occurred just before 8PM, with about 2.5 hours of driving time left to get home, But with several stops to refuel Henry’s truck, to check the tie-downs on our wounded car, and for bio-breaks, it ended up taking 3.5 hours to make the rest of the trek home.

At the tire repair place the next morning, I learned that the tread and the sidewall had started to separate on the passenger side front tire. I also figured out they were just over their 50,000 mile lifetime warranties. A new tire was immediately installed, and I’ll be ordering a new set this week. I have to imagine that in Brady we’d have waited hours for a replacement tire to come from Austin or San Antonio. In Round Rock, the whole repair took under half an hour!

We’re very lucky the tire didn’t fail more catastrophically. We’re also lucky that 911 works even with low/no coverage, even in the Texas boonies. That was an adventure I’d not wish to repeat any time soon.

Needless to say, we’re very, very glad to be home, safe and sound. A typical sentiment at any vacation’s conclusion, but more heartfelt than usual this time. And remember, when all else is unavailable, 911 is worth a try. Thank goodness it worked for us on Friday!

Note Added 1 Day Later: Worth Reading (and Remembering)

By default, the iPhone turns off Data Roaming (which lets a cellphone access other providers’ networks). Settings → Cellular Data → Cellular Data Options → Turn Data Roaming on. Had I done that on the deserted roadside, I’d have been able to tap into the same AT&T network my tow truck driver used to call from that location. Sigh: after talking to a friend who lives in Mullin, TX (also out in the boonies, not too far from our breakdown location, in fact) I learned that AT&T’s coverage in that part of Texas is much better than Verizon’s (the provider from whom Spectrum purchases their nationwide coverage). Good to know! Now you know, too…

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22572 Explorer Tabs Causing Problems

Wow! When I read about the new tabbing mechanism in Windows Explorer in the latest Dev Channel build, I couldn’t wait to try them out. Alas, they appear broken on both of my test PCs. In fact, they don’t behave at all as described in recent articles from WinAero and WindowsLatest. On those PCs, alas, 22572 Explorer tabs causing problems is the best I can describe my own experience.

What 22572 Explorer Tabs Causing Problems Means (to Me)

My symptoms are as follows:

1. I don’t see the iconography and layout that the afore-cited stories show. Instead i get a duplicated and somewhat mixed-up title bar:

22572 Explorer Tabs Causing Problems.dup-titles

Click item for full-sized view to show garbled text at left in upper nav/title bar, with lower nav/title bar beneath.

2. As I try to use the control keys for tabs (CTRL+T, CTRL+W, etc.) File Explorer crashes pretty regularly. While creating new tabs (CTRL+T) does something, it does not create tabs across the top of the UI as you’d expect it to. Closing tabs (CTRL+W) is as likely to crash Explorer as it is to close the duplicate title bar. Other tab controls (CTRL+Shift+Tab, etc.) do nothing visible.

3. I can use only the “lowest title bar” (the bottom one) actively. The others do not respond to mouse or keyboard activity.

Both of my test PCs look and behave exactly the same way. I’m tempted to do a clean install (or spin up a pristine VM) to see if that fixes things. But I don’t have time to do that today (other tasks loom large on my schedule. Sigh).

Something’s Busted…

It seems clear that further work is needed from MS to get things straightened out. Or, it could be, I’ve hit some kind of fatal interaction with something else I have installed on my test PCs. I’m hoping I’m not the only Insider who’s experiencing these difficulties. Otherwise, my life is about to get a whole lot more interesting.

We’ll have to wait and see what kinds of reports come in from other 22572 users. Rest assured, I’ll be keeping a close watch on this to see what’s happening, and what’s reported, around the symptoms I’m seeing

 

 

 

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Quick Win11 Reghack Shows Removables Recycle Bin

Here’s an interesting item that shows off a difference between Windows 10 and 11. Adding a specific Registry key and value to Windows 11 lets it show the recycle bin (and contents) in File Explorer on removable drives.  Normally (and on Windows 10) it doesn’t appear. A quick Win11 Reghack shows removables recycle bin.

That said, the same hack produces no visible sign of the Recycle Bin in Windows 10 File Explorer. Here’s what one of my 8 GB USB 3 removables looks like therein:

Quick Win11 Reghack Shows Removables Recycle Bin .win10

Notice there’s no entry shown named “Recycle Bin.” But as the lead-in graphic shows, it’s defined, even if it’s not visible.

When Quick Win11 Reghack Shows Removables Recycle Bin, Here’s What’s Shown

After adding a registry key named Explorer to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\

One must create a DWORD therein named

RecycleBinDrives

Then that DWORD must be assigned the hexadecimal value “ffffffff” (all 1s for all 8 possible hexadecimal digits). Next comes a quick restart to make sure the setting “takes” in the Registry.

Presto! Recycle Bin Appears

As shown in the next screencap (from my X1 Extreme “road laptop”), you can now see the Recycle Bin (and System Volume Information) in the items listed in Explorer. (Note: for these items to appear, File Explorer Options/View must check “Show hidden files…” amidst its settings. As you can see, I also like to uncheck “Hide extensions…”)

Now you can see Recyle Bin and System Volume Info on the USB drive. Good-oh!

Why is access to Recycle Bin a good thing? Because it provides a ready means to recover deleted files from a USB drive directly, if one so desires. I agree with Sergey Tkachenko at WinAero.com (the source for this story and its info, though I had to create the Explorer key from scratch on my test PC) that easy recovery of deleted files can sometimes be a lifesaver!

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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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22H2 Makes Nomenclature Debut

Here’s an interesting tidbit for the sharp-eyed among us. A close look at a recent Windows 11 Cumulative Update (CU) is more revealing than most. As you can see in the lead in graphic, KB5102427 includes “version 22H2 Insider Preview” amidst its verbiage. Believe it or not, this is where 22H2 makes nomenclature debut from Microsoft. Sure, lots of people have been calling the “next release” of Windows 11 22H2 informally. AFAIK, this is the first “official” use of that term from MS.

If 22H2 Makes Nomenclature Debut, Then What?

Now we can refer to the upcoming release with improved confidence that the name is set. That said, MS has been known to change things up before public release. Thus, my use of “improved confidence” rather than something more absolute.

According to WindowsLatest (my source for this careful observation), MS also used this terminology  earlier, but in various  “leaked documents.” Like me, they read this appearance the 22H2 name as a first official sighting of this term in public use.

22H2 Covers Half the Year…

And indeed, it’s important to remember that 22H2 runs from July 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022. That gives MS a huge timeslot into which it can slide this upcoming release. Will the actual “go-public” date be closer to July or to December? Good question!

If history is any guide, October seems to be the most likely month. It’s been a fairly predictable time harking back to the twice-a-year regimen that used to prevail for the majority of Windows 10 releases. But with Windows 10 still in production through — you guessed it — October 2025, MS may decide to stagger Windows 11 releases to one side of that month or the other so as to avoid stacking both OSes up together.

On the other hand, MS has been pretty consistent about keeping more minor and monthly 10 and 11 releases more or less in lock step until now. Frankly this could go either way. I’m thinking it’s possible that 22H2 Windows 11 may show up earlier than its Windows 10 counterpart. But I’m also thinking it’s possible they could continue to travel together. Stay tuned: I’ll do my best to keep you  informed.

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Build 22567 WU Seeks Lower Energy Footprint

Here’s something a little off the beaten track for Windows 11. As per its Windows Insider announcement, Build 22567 WU seeks lower energy footprint. Overall Microsoft fervently pursues carbon neutrality. Indeed, its latest Windows 11 Dev Channel build pushes that further and faster.

How Build 22567 WU Seeks Lower Energy Footprint

Here’s what the blog post says (co-authored by Amanda Langowski and Brandon LeBlanc):

Windows Update will try to schedule update installations at specific times of day when doing so results in lower carbon emissions. Most electrical grids are powered by multiple sources, including renewables and fossil fuels. Whenever possible, Windows 11 will now prioritize installing updates in the background at times when greater amounts of clean energy sources (like wind, solar, and hydro) are available. Users can always choose to install updates immediately by navigating to Settings > Windows Update and choosing “Check for Updates”.

To this end, MS partnered with electricityMap and WattTime. Their monitoring helps determine when PCs can likely run using renewable “juice.” If enabled, users see the string boxed in red in the lead-in graphic. Frustrating sidenote: following the “Learn more” leads to no information on this topic. Sigh.

Microsoft’s Carbon Footprint Initiatives

On the other hand, search that landing page for “zero carbon.” Thankfully, you’ll quickly find the MS CSR page. CSR stands for “Corporate Social Responsibility.” At MS, it covers a broad range of initiatives. Simply put, MS says it plans zero carbon status by 2030. That means pursuing these intiatives, among others:

  • Bring more zero carbon energy onto the grid. Take more high carbon intensity energy off the grid. MS labels this “decarbonizing the grid.”
  • Aggressively adopt next-gen technologies (including sea-water cooling) to double data center efficiency. MS names this “redesigning datacenters for energy efficiency.”
  • Changing contracts and reducing financial and technical risks to grow and improve access to clean energy sources. MS explains this as “making it easy for anyone to buy more clean energy.”
  • In particular cloud-based infrastructure for Azure has targeted ways to improve energy consumption and use while making clean energy sources cheaper. MS describes this as “a tech-driven approach to wind power.”

Obviously, Microsoft is serious about its own use of energy and how its services and offerings affect general energy use and usage patterns. I’m behind its efforts 110% and would like to see other cloud providers follow in its path. Great stuff!

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MSA Login Doesn’t Connect Via RDP

Here’s an interesting problem that I apparently share with lots of people. Try searching on “can’t login to RDP” or “MSA login to RDP doesn’t work.” You’ll see what I mean. For me, MSA login doesn’t connect via RDP from my trusty Win10 production desktop to my new Ryzen 5800X build. Sigh.

So, of course I went through all kinds of contortions and research to try to get it working. I tried a variety of GPO settings, registry hacks and more, all without getting any love.  I spent 45 minutes trying to make this work to no avail. Even though I double-checked my passwords (and in one case, reset it just to make darn sure) I kept getting errors. Either “The password used to connect to the remote PC didn’t work” or “The credentials didn’t work” (RDP app and mstsc.exe, respectively).

MSA Login Doesn't Connect Via RDP.rdp-app-error

Words alone can’t convey the frustration in using a known, good, working password and getting such an error. Ouch!

When MSA Login Doesn’t Connect Via RDP, Use Local Account

Then, in several of the posts I read online, I noticed that similarly afflicted individuals succeeded in opening an RDP session using a local (client) account. So I set up a local account on the client PC using the “Add account” facility in Settings → Accounts → Other Users. Hint: you have to say you don’t know the user’s sign-in info to get to the right screen, where you choose the “Add a user without a Microsoft account” (MSA) to create a local account. Sigh again.

So, I created an account named LocalU, and then promoted it to Administrator status. Then, on my next RDP attempt into that PC the login succeeded using that account name and its associated password.

Even though you can’t always make Windows do exactly what you want, you can often find a way to get what you need through some workaround. This is actually a pretty good example. I can’t say I’m happy about this (and plan to report it to Feedback Hub next). But at least I can RDP into my new desktop. This will be very important when I start migrating files and stuff from the current production desktop to what will be my new production desktop next month.

Stay tuned! I’ll keep you posted as things progress in their usual “two steps forward, one step back” fashion. Should be fun…

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Overcoming Obsolete AMD UEFI Limitations

In yesterday’s blog post I provided an overview of the build process for a new AMD 5800X based PC. That started with putting the physical pieces together (covered therein). It continued with getting Windows 11 installed on the box. That’s today’s subject and it involved overcoming obsolete AMD UEFI limitations. Let me explain . . . and then share some other interesting observations about the state of current PC art.

What Overcoming Obsolete AMD UEFI Limitations Means

When I started up the AMD build for the first time, I had my Ventoy drive plugged in. The then-present UEFI was smart enough to recognize that my SSD was unformatted and hence, unbootable. Pretty cool. Even better, it was smart enough to recognize that the Ventoy drive was bootable — so it passed boot control to that device.

I had a fresh new Windows 11 image on that drive, and started the install process right away. But after getting past the “enter product key” hurdle (I grabbed one, courtesy of my WIMVP Visual Studio subscription) came the WTF moment. The installer informed me that the PC did not meet Windows 11 hardware requirements. I knew it should (and would, eventually) but I had to figure out what was up.

To Get to 11, I First Had to Get to 10

The same Ventoy drive also included a fresh Windows 10 ISO as well. So I selected that as my install source and went through a hurry-up install of the older OS. It went FAST: took less than 10 minutes, in fact. Then I grabbed the PC Health Check to determine where my problem lay. The then-current UEFI did not support TPM in firmware (aka fTPM). No TPM, no Windows 11.

Thus, I checked the support page for the Asrock B550 Extreme4 motherboard, BIOS (UEFI) page. The latest version is numbered 2.10, dated August 6, 2021, and its first description element reads “Support Microsoft Windows 11” (See lead-in graphic). So I quickly re-learned how to use the Asrock Flash utility, downloaded and installed the new version, and rebooted my PC. This time, the fTPM capability showed up under the Security settings for the UEFI. I was set!

All’s Well on the Second Try

Sure enough, the Windows 11 installer raised no objections to the upgrade process. Here again, the install was fast, and completed in less than 20 minutes. As an aside, I had no issues with drivers on either the Windows 10 or 11 installs, though I do have an unresolved “PCI Encryption/Decryption Controller” entry in Device Manager I still need to clean up. Based on many, many prior PC builds a single dangling reference ain’t at all bad. Looks like a new February 2022 version of the AMD Chipset drivers should take care of it, too.

{Note added 5 mins later: And yes, installing those drivers did indeed clear this entry in Device Manager. All fixed!]

I used the Windows 11 product key to activate the OS after the install was complete. I’d never activated the Windows 10 having chosen the re-installing option to bypass that check when bringing up the PC for the first time. I’m still in the process of cleaning and finishing up the new Windows 11 install on this PC. That will probably stretch out over the rest of this week, given other work commitments. But so far, now that I’m past the UEFI hurdles, the new PC has shown itself to be fast, smart and capable.

Next month, I’ll start the process of shifting over from my current production PC to make this build my new production PC. But I have a bunch of other “real work” to do first. Stay tuned: I’ll keep reporting on this process. In fact, I’ll explain what I had to do to RDP into this new PC in  tomorrow’s post.

For now, here’s the info on this new PC that shows up under my MSA. As you can see I named it RyzenOfc. (It’s got a Ryzen CPU and it’s in my home office, so why not?)

Overcoming Obsolete AMD UEFI Limitations.account-info

Interesting how Windows 11 shows up with a 10-based version number. The build suffix gives it away though…

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