Category Archives: Windows 10

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows Update

Undoing Enterprise Version WU Defaults

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This morning, I read a fascinating story from Mayank Parmar at WindowsLatest. It covers the one-year grant that MS plans to offer Windows 10 users to participate in the Extended Security Update (ESU) program at no charge. Given that around half of all Windows users still run version 10, that makes sense to me. But there’s a catch: apparently this offer extends to neither Enterprise nor Education versions of Windows 10. But first, that meant undoing Enterprise version WU defaults to figure this out. Let me explain…

Why Bother Undoing Enterprise Version WU Defaults?

I couldn’t opt into the “Get the latest updates…” option in WU unless and until I used gpedit.msc to explicitly disable a Group Policy setting. But I didn’t find it on my PC where MS Learn said it should reside, instead it was an additional level down, to wit:

Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Update>Windows Update for Business

On Windows Home and Pro PCs (and probably Workstation as well) the hierarchy doesn’t automatically include WU for Business. On Education and Enterprise versions it does.

Long story short, I couldn’t see “Get ready for Windows 11…” or “Get the latest updates…” until I had explicitly disabled the policy named “Select the target Feature Update version.” As I think about it, that makes sense. MS is NOT giving ESU away to government, education and businesses; the grant only goes to SOHO and individual users. The others can — and many will — pay for their coverage plans. You don’t see the enroll info that Parmar shows in his story on my PC — and that’s because it’s running Enterprise.

And apparently, those running Enterprise and Education versions will not get the free ESU offer. I’m going to stand up a Pro version VM to double-check this, but I’m betting that’s right.

And boy howdy, isn’t that just the way things go in Windows-World. There’s always a wrinkle, and sometimes you have to dig and think, and think and dig to figure out how to understand and deal with things.

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CHKDSK Follies Follow Drive Prep

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Whoa! I’d forgotten how time-consuming and intricate the built-in Window disk checker can be. My pithy summation, as I prep the old drives on my soon-to-be-retired i7 Skylake PC is: CHKDSK follies follow drive prep. And with 9 disk drives to prep and clean up to make that move, that’s more than enough folly for anybody, including me. For the record, I’m using the CHKDSK /f /x command.

What CHKDSK Follies Follow Drive Prep Means

As the lead-in graphic illustrates — it shows 5.25 hours to grind the fix and clean operation to completion — it takes real time to make all this happen. I left it running when I left my desk last night, and the time info was waiting for me when I logged back in this morning. Only 8 drives left to go!

The 5 stages of CHKDSK run as follows:

1. Examining basic file system structure
2. Checking file name linkage
3. Examining security descriptors
4. Looking for bad clusters in user data file
5. Looking for bad, free clusters

Now that I’m on my second of 9 drives it looks like CHKDSK spends most of its time on the two final stages. It took 5.22 hours for Stage 4 on the first drive. The second, now underway, is estimating about the same amount of time for stage 5. I’ll follow up with more numbers later.

Isn’t that just the way things go in Windows-World sometimes? The job has to get done. Then the waiting begins. It can take a while, as these numbers already intimate (and may later show: I’ll keep track).

Total Times (Follow-Up 5 hrs later)

Looks like the CHKDSK stuff is actually all over the place. I had two drives take less than 1 second (!) to complete, most others came in at or around 1 minute (72 seconds, anyway). The first two drives I tried had trouble in need of repairing, and that skewed my impressions. Go figure! All cleaned up now, though.

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Strange Crystal Dew World Hiccup

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Yesterday, I noticed that both WinGet and PatchMyPC Home Updater hiccuped when trying to update CrystalDiskMark (8.0.6 to  9.0.0) and CrystalDiskInfo (9.6.3 to 9.7.0). This strange Crystal Dew World hiccup (that’s the home site for both apps) got me wondering if the developer had abandoned freeware versions of those tools for ad-driven (installer-based) or for-a-fee (MS Store) versions only. I’m please to report that my presumption was wrong, and new freeware versions for both programs are updating properly now.

What Caused This Strange Crystal Dew World Hiccup?

Apparently there was some delay between when the new version info got broadcast and when the Crystal Dew World website got updated. Indeed I saw web info (which serves as the lead-in graphic for the story) that led me to wonder if ad-driven (ZIP and Installer) or paid-for (Store) versions were the only remaining versions of CrystalDiskMark (CDM) and CrystalDiskInfo available.

This morning, however, when I went back to check again, things were different. I still see the same situation at Crystal Dew World (here’s a link to its CDM download which includes an installer named CrystalDiskMark9_0_0Ads.exe). But WinGet and PatchMyPC can both successfully upgrade these tools now (they threw “hash match fail” errors yesterday) and are proffering ad-free freeware versions that come from sourceforge (you can use WinGet Show CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark to reveal its database contents).

Updates Take Time to Propagate

I’ve seen similar things happen before — often, with MS facilities such as PowerShell and Windows Terminal — when an update emerges but packages and database contents don’t synch up. All in all, though, I’m glad that freeware, ad-free versions of these useful tools remain available. If they didn’t I’d have to find something else!

And, far too often, such things become necessary here in Windows-World. Not this time, apparently for CDM and CDI. Not yet, anyway… But the ad-oriented interface at Crystal Dew World strongly suggests it could happen if not now, perhaps later.

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Playing Windows Catch-up Post OOO

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OOO is, of course, a common abbreviation for “out of office.” I just returned from a family visit to Alexandria, VA, late Tuesday night, after attending a family wedding. Thus, for the past couple days I’m playing Windows catch-up post OOO on my mini-fleet of 10 PCs. Of those, 5 are desktops, and 5 are laptops in what I think is a common SOHO distro. It’s been a bit of an adventure, but by no means a real trial. Let me explain…

Deets on Playing Windows Catch-up Post OOO

If you look at the output from Advanced IP Scanner for my LAN, you can see all the currently active nodes there. Some items are routers or WAPs, others include TV sets, printers,  iDevices, smart thermostats and so forth. Note: I use Private IP addresses in the C range, which makes this stuff opaque from the outside. FWIW, Spectrum does a pretty good job of blocking scanning and intrusion attempts on their coax network, too.

Here’s the regime I’ve been running to make all my PCs current:

  • Run WU, apply updates, reboot as needed.
  • Run WinGet upgrade –all –include-unknown to update local apps for which it has package info in its database
  • Run PatchMyPC Home Updater to update local apps it handles that WinGet does not
  • Run vendor update elements for their contributions — e.g. Lenovo Vantage, Dell Command Update, Intel Driver and Support Assistant (DSA), and so forth

Total time required for the whole shebang for 10 PCs is about 2.5-3.0 hours altogether, including walking up to those PCs to light them up for those few not WOL (Wake on LAN) enabled.

What a Typical Week Away Brings the Fleet

Here’s what I observed for the various items mentioned across my collection of devices, all purchased in 2018 or later (except my primary desktop, which I’ll finally be replacing in June, now that our second X5800/B250 PC is home from Boston for good):

  • Given that the second (optional/preview) WU cycle hit while I was gone, about 60-70% of the PCs got a CU. Some handled them automatically on their own, others I had to run and/or restart manually (depends on configuration, not Microsoft).
  • For the majority of PCs, WinGet updates numbered from 3 to 7; one outlier needed 9 (but I hadn’t touched for a while before going OOO).
  • PatchMyPC found an average of 3-plus updates, and varied from 3 to 5.
  • Intel DSA offered new BlueTooth, Wi-Fi and Wired Ethernet drivers as it seems to do, two or more times a month, like clockwork.

All in all, it wasn’t too bad. Things are all caught up now. Glad to be back in the saddle, with all my gear clean and shiny, and ready to ride. Yesterday and today were both good days in Windows-World, with no snags worthy of note to report. Boring is good, sometimes!

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Windows 10 Keeps PowerToys ComPal Error

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On April 10, I blogged about how a new release of PowerToys (v0.90.1) apparently fixed a “Class not registered” error for the Command Palette from the previous version (v0.90.0). Alas, while ComPal (as I like to abbreviate this tool) is now rock-solid on my Windows 11 PCs, it’s still throwing errors after restart on my sole remaining Windows 10 desktop. That’s why my title here reads “Windows 10 Keeps PowerToys ComPal Error” — you can see the aftermath in Reiability Monitor as the lead-in screencap above.

Why Windows 10 Keeps PowerToys ComPal Error

Look at the screencap. Notice the Problem Event Name is “MoAppCrash.” This means a Modern App (aka UWP app, usually an MS Store App of some kind) has crashed. In this case it’s the PowerToys Command Palette user interface (MicrosoftCmdPal.UI.exe). Copilot says common causes include faulty, outdated app versions, corrupt system files or missing dependencies, conflicts with Windows updates, and issues with DLL files. My bets are on conflicts with Windows updates and/or issues with some DLL needed for ComPal to run.

I just tried to access ComPal on the affected Windows 10 machine. At first, it refused to respond to its shortcut (WinKey+Alt+Space) for related settings, But when I disabled, then re-enabled ComPal itself, that capability woke up and started working. So did the utility itself, without any easily discovered limitations.

What about Windows 11?

I have — and see — no such issues in Windows 11. So I’m forced to speculate that this is just a Windows 10 hiccup of some kind. Fortunately, once I disable, then re-enable ComPal, everything seems to work fine. There’s obviously some kind of minor gotcha at work, but it’s easy to get around.

Isn’t that just the way things work sometimes, here in Windows-World? Fortunately, even when the path to success isn’t automatic, or even a straight line, a small dogleg often does the trick. And so it was this morning…

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KB5058379 Forces 8GadgetPack Manuevers

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On Patch Tuesday (May 13) I installed the latest updates on my PC mini-fleet (12 units right now). I didn’t reboot the Windows 10 production PC until yesterday. As soon as it came up, so did 8GadgetPack. Alas, the latter promptly crashed — and kept crashing — as I tried to bring it up. Next I realized that KB5058379 forces 8GadgetPack maneuvers, as  I tried uninstalling, then reinstalling that application.

That approach worked nicely to bring 8GadgetPack back up. Next, I performed a couple of follow-up gadget shenanigans along the same lines. That is, I had to remove individual gadgets that didn’t render on screen properly, then replace them from the Add Gadget repository. (Screen 1 from that tool serves as the lead-in graphic.) The whole exercise took about 10 minutes. And now, it’s all good.

Apparently, that update caused more havoc on other PCs. Keep reading for some of those ugly details…

KB5058379 Forces 8GadgetPack Manuevers … and More

This morning, I’m reading online that KB5058379 apparently causes other, more serious problems, too. The title of this WindowsLatest item (dated May 15) captures much of what’s amiss: Windows 10 KB5058379 locks PCs, BitLocker Recovery triggered on boot, BSODs. I guess you can say that while I got irked by having to mess about with 8GadgetPack, I’m now relieved that I didn’t have to go into full-blown troubleshooting and recovery mode yesterday instead.

In one way or another, all of these issues appear tied in some way to BitLocker issues. In the afore-linked Windows Latest story, Mayank Pamar explains a demonstrated repair strategy on some PCs. See that story for the details. The TLDR; version is “Turn off Intel TXT  in the PC’s BIOS/UEFI (may show up as “Trusted Execution” or “OS Kernel DMA Support”). This turns off BitLocker, but lets the update finish. Then you can turn it back on again.

Uninstall/reinstall or turn off/turn on seems to be the underlying theme for today’s blog post. That’s why undoing and redoing stuff remains a tried-and-true troubleshooting technique here in Windows-World, I guess!

Note added 5/16: After the next Release Preview CU, the same thing happened again with 8GadgetPack. And once again, uninstall-reinstall returned it to working order. Sigh, and sigh again. It’s looking like this may become part of my post CU recovery process. I can’t say I find that a delightful prospect, but it is a tolerable one.

 

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Dev Home Leaving Soon

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I’ve been away on a family trip to Boston. Upon returning to my desk this morning, WinGet brought a Dev Home update to the Lenovo P16 Mobile Workstation (see lead-in graphic). “Hmmmm,” I thought, “Isn’t Dev Home leaving soon?” Indeed it is, as per MS Learn as you can see in the next screencap.

With Dev Home Leaving Soon, What’s Next?

Good question! In the afore-linked MS Learn item, MS announced last January that Dev Home would be discontinued in May, 2025. I’ve been “staying tuned” for more info since then, but so far such info has not been forthcoming.

Well: May is here and I still can’t find anything new about Dev Home’s impending retirement. Ditto for which features will be preserved and where within Windows they’ll show up. Of the tools that Dev Home brings to the Windows party, these are the ones about which I’m most curious:

1. Support for ReFS volume creation in Windows 10 and 11.
2. GitHub connection with repos for access to tools and packages.
3. The Hosts File Editor and Registry File Editor utilities.
4. Consolidated view of development projects via its dashboard.

In January, MS dropped the first shoe to warn developers (and other interested parties) that Dev Home would be yanked in May 2025. Now that it’s May, the silence while waiting for that next shoe is nearly deafening. All I can say is: “Please give us a clue or two, Microsoft: where are the best bits of Dev Home going to wind up?”

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Mapping Windows Memory Usage

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I like to keep an eye on how Windows is using system resources. To that end, I still use Helmut Buhler’s excellent 8GadgetPack utilities. They don’t really tell you anything that Task Manager can’t but you can keep them in view all the time, and they don’t exact much system overhead, either. For a rough and ready picture of what’s up with Windows memory (RAM), those tools (e.g. Task Manager and the CPU Monitor gadget) can tell you how much RAM is on your PC, how much is in use, and how much is free. The gadget also reports page file info: total, free, used as well. But when it comes to digging deeper into how Windows uses memory, the Sysinternals tool for mapping Windows memory usage –namely, RamMap – is what you need. Let me explain…

For Mapping Windows Memory Usage, Try RamMap

If you look at the lead-in graphic, I’ve superimposed the CPU Usage gadget (aka CPU Monitor) at center far right, with the Sysinternals RamMap tool beneath it. This pretty much shows things as they work and contrasts the minimal level of detail available from Task Manager and the Corresponding CPU gadget to the more detailed and nuanced RamMap.

TLDR version: Use Task Manager or the CPU Gadget to get a gross overview of memory and paging file stuff; use RamMap to get more details about what’s consuming memory and what state that memory is in.

In large part differences are a matter of details. Task Manager and the CPU Gadget tell you how much RAM is used (blue numbers under the Used, Free, Total column heads in white: 23.6GB) and free (~8GB). It also tells you that the page file is not in use (yellow numbers right underneath RAM entries). That’s pretty much it.

RamMap, OTOH, provides a lot more memory status categories: Active, Standby, Modified, Modified No Wire, Transition, Zeroed, Free, and Bad (you want to see THAT one in a memory map). You get a much more informed and detailed view here (and under other tabs besides “Use Counts” in the leftmost position, shows by default).

How “Used” and “Free” Fit RamMap Categories

Here’s something worth knowing: Used Memory in Task Manager/CPU Gadget combines the RamMap totals under Active, Standby and Modified. Free memory in Task Manager/CPU Gagdet combines the RamMap totals under the Zero and Free headings.

But when RamMap runs you can also see how those numbers change as processes execute, tasks get handled, services do their thing and so forth. It’s much more detailed and useful if you want that level of detail, especially if you’re hunting a memory leak of some kind.

Good stuff! Grab yourself a copy today (or you can simply run the web-based executable, to make sure you’re always using the latest and greatest version).

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KB5053643 Kills Mouse, Keyboard

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Last Thursday, I downloaded and installed a new Preview CU for Windows 10 — namely KB55053634. After lunch Friday, I finally got around to rebooting to complete that process. Eventually, it succeeded. But first, just to make things incredibly exciting KB5053634 kills mouse, keyboard — my vital USB peripherals — dead. Here’s the story of what I had to do to bring those devices back to life, and actually log in to Windows 10.

KB5053643 Kills Mouse, Keyboard: Now What?

Because I couldn’t get past the lock screen without a valid input device, that turned out to be a little more vexing than one might guess. So first, of course, I rebooted again. Still no joy: the keyboard didn’t respond to keypresses (a good test on my Comfort Curve 4000 is to toggle the Function Lock or Scroll Lock keys because those also toggle handy little green indicator LEDs). Nor did a mouse click open the PIN input box as usual.

So I tried again. Still no dice. Then I thought: “maybe the device needs a cold, hard boot?” That means powering off the PSU, waiting 1-2 minutes, powering back up, and pressing the power button. And indeed, that did the trick. Once I went through that maneuver, the hardware got completely reset, reinitialized and enumerated. It was enough to restore my key USB peripherals to working order.

What (Would Have Been) Next?

If the cold boot or hard boot didn’t work, I’d have had to jump into UEFI, turn off Secure Boot, and then target bootable repair media to get something running on that PC. I’ve done it many times before and will no doubt do it again. But hey: I was glad not to have to do it this time. Cold, hard boot did the trick.

Makes me feel like I dodged a bullet. Remember to give that a try if you find yourself bereft of mouse and/or keyboard after installing a Windows update or upgrade. If you’re lucky like I was, that will bring the USB drivers back into play, and let your PC get back to work. Cheers!

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Skype Attains Oblivion in May 2025

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First it was a swelling rumor, based on some  eagle-eyed code scanning (reported at XDA.com on Feb 27). Today, it’s established fact, as Zac Bowden at WindowsCentral updates his story with “Microsoft has confirmed that Skype is shutting down in May, with warnings now appearing within Skype apps.” MS wants everybody to move to Teams instead, and offers tools to move chats as needed. If all goes according to plan, that means Skype attains oblivion in May 2025.

Note: I’ve morphed the screencap from the afore-cited XDA story that shows the warning “Starting in May, Skype will no longer be available. Continue your calls and chats in Teams.” in text form. Reading the code can occasionally provide insights (and reveal future plans, as in this case).

After Skype Attains Oblivion in May 2025, Teams Takes Over

With a much broader range of capabilities, and options to scale audiences into the thousands, Teams can do everything Skype can, and quite a lot more. The transition is already over for some — including your humble author. Hopefully, it won’t be too difficult for those hold-outs still using Skype to switch over to Teams, too.

A Skype Timeline and Some Recollections

Skype started out on the Internet back in 2003 as a standalone service. Mostly it required establishing credit to offset upcoming charges, with occasional replenishment to keep a positive balance after that. For a while, my wife used it to interact with members of her family (who live in Germany) via voice and video on her PC. Microsoft acquired the company in 2011, and made a half-hearted attempt to build it into Windows 10 in 2015.

If memory serves, we all quit using it around that time. FaceTime on the iPhone was free and easier to use. Plus phones are better suited as communications devices than bigger laptops or deskbound desktops. I’d argue that Skype’s demise has been foreshadowed for a long, long time, and that it’s planned end-of-life-and-service date is no big surprise to anyone.

So long Skype. For my purposes, Teams already works better, and does more, than you ever did.

Note Added 2 Hrs Later

See Tom Warren’s Verge story Microsoft is shutting down Skype in favor of Teams for more useful details. The drop-dead date is reported as May 5, and further info on options open to current Skype users is provided. Apparently, he got an MS spokesperson to provide additional tidbits to help prepare the userbase for this change.

 

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