Category Archives: Windows 11

Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Windows 11 Does Multi-Monitors Right

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I’ve been living the life of a native Windows 11 user on my production desktop — the newer, Ryzen 7 X5800 based PC — for a couple of months now. One thing I’ve noticed is that Windows 11 handles multiple monitors with great alacrity and aplomb. IMO, Windows 11 does multi-monitors right, in several important ways. Let me elaborate…

Why Say: Windows 11 Does Multi-Monitors Right

To begin with, I didn’t need to engage in Display settings shenanigans on my dual-monitor desktop setup. At all. Indeed, Windows 11 correctly detected and arranged both of my displays during its initial bootup. I didn’t have to do anything to get them working in extended mode (to use left- and right-hand devices as a single logical desktop with proper mouse tracking all the way across). In Windows 10, this requires manual intervention and setup.

It gets better. Updating NVIDIA graphics drivers is likewise much better behaved. On Windows 10, post-install, all windows moved onto the primary display. Remote desktop sessions appeared in full-screen windows that needed to be maximized to show a top-center control bar. On Windows 11, windows reappear where they resided prior to the update, and RDP sessions remain as previously set.

GPU driver stability also seems to be improved. On Windows 10, I often had to deal with “display blink” — a phenomenon that caused either my left- or right-hand display to blink on and off every few seconds. So far, I’ve been through three NVIDIA update cycles on Windows 11 with nary a sign of such misbehavior.

All’s Well…

It may still be too early to proclaim success or improvement, but I’m doing those things anyway. So far, display handling in Windows 11 is better behaved and more predictable than it was on Windows 10. Should things change, I’ll be sure to report on issues I encounter. But so far, it’s been a refreshing breeze to work with multiple monitors on Windows 11. Fingers crossed that things keep going in the same way for the foreseeable future!

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Careful With App Defaults

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I’ve always got PCs coming and going here at Chez Tittel. That means laptops, mostly, with an occasional All-in-One or SFF desktop to keep things interesting. Further, that means setting up Windows to work the way I want. Too bad, then, that Edge isn’t inclined to make way for other Web-focused defaults (e.g. Chrome). Even when I pick Chrome as the default browser, Edge keeps popping up for other stuff. The lead-in graphic shows why I’ve learned to be careful with App defaults. Indeed, it shows Edge remains the default for .mhtml files (MIME encapsulation of aggregate HTML documents) even after Chrome gets the default pick.

Why Be Careful With App Defaults?

Elsewise, items opened in other MS apps will open in Edge rather than Chrome.  In this case, Outlook handles a lot of .mhtml files for links and Web items embedded in email messages. Those still go to Edge. The right way to do this is to click Settings > Apps > Default Apps > Google Chrome.  On that page, make sure Chrome gets associated to all file types you want it to handle.

In my case, I just made sure everything on the foregoing Settings page that used to show Edge as the default now shows Chrome. A hopefully obvious corollary to this exercise is that setting Chrome as the default browser in Windows 11, is not sufficient to make it take over for all Web-related items. Hopefully, that’s now fixed!

Just another happy day in Windows-World, living on the edge (horrible pun not just intended, but enjoyed).

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows Update

25H2 Enablement Blazes on Lenovo AIO9i

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I’m working with a Lenovo Copilot+ PC review unit these days: it’s a snazzy Yoga All-in-One AIO9i. It comes equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (8 cores: 4 each P-cores and E-cores/8 threads), integrated Intel Arc 140V GPU, 32 GB LPDDRx-8533, Hynix OEM PCIe x4 NVMe SSD, and more. It also has Windows 11 Pro for Workstations installed. I’m not sure what makes this PC so fast, but 25H2 enablement blazes on Lenovo AIO9i.

Details: 25H2 Enablement Blazes on Lenovo AIO9i

How fast? The whole process, after opting into the Release Preview channel on the Insider program, took under three minutes to complete. That means:

  • Downloading the enablement package (under 30 seconds)
  • Running the GUI-based portion of the update (under 30 seconds)
  • Reboot and post-GUI update handling (under 40 seconds)
  • Resume desktop through lock screen and login (under 10 seconds)

There are lots of reasons why this is so fast. For one. the enablement package itself is svelte (under 1MB in size). That’s because MS has already included most of the code in earlier updates, and the enablement package — as the name indicates — simply turns such stuff on. As Copilot puts it, earlier “monthly cumulative updates (LCUs) have quietly staged the new features in a dormant state.” It continues: “The enablement package simply flips the feature flags — no need to download or install new core components.”

Other contributing factors to speed:

  • No drive revalidation, no app compatibility scans, no migration of user profiles
  • As the preceding bulleted list observes, this process requires only one update to complete
  • No rollback staging or recovery partition updates are included, to reduce disk I/O and system prep times

Indeed, inspection of $WinDrive (C:) shows no Windows.old partition, as one might usually find after a version uplift. Likewise, Disk Cleanup finds only 1.53 GB of files to clean up in the upgrade’s wake. That’s much less than the more typical 25-30GB on production Windows 11 systems here at Chez Tittel when transitioning from 23H2 to 24H2, for example.

Wow: Just Wow!

I’m not sure that Windows for Workstations made any difference here, either. Despite this version in place, it doesn’t use advanced features — e.g. ECC RAM and ReFS — that might speed things up. I think this is just one very lean, mean and fast enablement package. It’s worth enrolling a test PC in the Insider Program, Release Preview Channel just to check it out for yourself. Speedy!

 

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Quiet Labor Day Return

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Hello, there! Today’s my first day back at work since I took off with my family to get son Gregory moved into his Hollywood CA dorm. He’s concluding his film school studies with a semester at Emerson’s campus on Sunset Boulevard, with a dorm move-in on 8/23. We had an epic trip with stops at Las Cruces, NM and Phoenix, AZ on the way to LA from 8/20-22. We spent 2 days in Hollywood, 2 in Santa Barbara, and 2 more in Culver City. Then, we covered the same route in reverse from 8/28-30. I expected lots of catch-up Windows work this weekend, but I got a quiet Labor Day return instead. Let me explain…

What Makes For a Quiet Labor Day Return?

Apparently, Windows-World mostly held its breath while we were gone. I was expecting lots of updates via winget, PatchMyPC, Intel DSA and so forth after 10 days away. Instead, I observed update counts in the following (surprisingly low) ranges:

  • Winget: 3-10 items
  • PatchMyPC: 1-2 items
  • Intel DSA: 0-2 items
  • Lenovo Vantage: 0-2 items

Indeed, I saw the highest counts on machines that I’d left idle 2-3 days before leaving town. That puts the unchecked period north of two weeks on such machines, and shows low update deltas for the time period involved. The lead-in graphic shows 10 winget items on the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 Mobile Workstation. It had the most pending updates, with the Dynabook Tecra taking the number 2 winget spot with 7 items.

Note Added 1 Hour Later

When I visited my sole remaining Windows 10 physical PC — the i7 Skylake I’m still running in tandem with my 5800X production PC — it looked more like what I’d expected for all machines. Here’s the skinny:

  • Winget: 18 items
  • PatchMyPC: 5 items
  • Intel DSA: 0 items
  • WU: pending restart for KB5064794 and KB5063842

Again: that’s 25 items altogether, and more like what I thought I’d see across the board. That said, here at Chez Tittel Windows 10 is slowly shuffling off the scene…

Now What?

With all my Windows PCs — 10 in all — now caught up, it’s time to get back into the working groove. I’ve got a couple of assignments this week, including one for TechTarget, one for ComputerWorld, and another for Actual Tech Media. Things pile up when you’re off having fun (and driving 3K+ miles)! My return to Windows-World wasn’t as labor intensive as I’d guessed, which makes it a nice Labor Day surprise. In this case, quiet is good!

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

Recent Updates Bork Reset Option

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In its Windows Issues list, Microsoft confirms that recent updates to Windows 10 and Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2 may cause the “Reset PC” option to fail if invoked. The actual issue is entitled “Reset and recovery operations on some Windows versions might fail,” and specifically identifies KB5063875 as a potential cause in Windows 11. WindowsLatest  also reports that KB506370 could do the same for Windows 10. Hence my heading “Recent updates bork reset option,” though versions 24H2 and 25H2 appear to be exempt.

Workarounds When Recent Updates Bork Reset Option

If either of the previously cited KB updates has been applied to a Windows install, one should avoid tempting fate. That means: don’t use the “Reset PC” button on such instances. Consequently, two options present themselves as workarounds:

  1. Perform a clean install of the same Windows version using an MS ISO or the identical version from UUPdump.net. Of course, that also means one must reinstall drivers and other software present on the PC when it left the factory…
  2. Roll back the update, then use the Reset PC button. The easiest way to do this is to visit Settings > WU > Update history, click the KB item therein, and select Uninstall. Alternatively, wusa /uninstall /kb:<number> /quiet /norestart should do the trick.

Better Not to Use It, If in Doubt

WindowsLatest also reports that the “Reinstall now” option may be likewise affected on 23H2 and 22H2 PCs (it’s not available on Windows 10). The best approach is to use alternative methods for repair and recovery, or one of the preceding workarounds, for possibly affected Windows PCs. This is a big enough deal, however, that MS will probably fix it as soon as it can.

Hopefully that mean this situaiton won’t persist for too long. But hey: It’s Windows-World. Anything is possible, and careful repair is always a good strategy. Stay tuned!

 

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Networking, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 11

Dude! Where’s My Internet?

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Whoa! I had an amusing but vexing hiccup on the new Flo6 Ryzen 7 5800X system when I sat down to work this morning. The Internet was dead, dead, dead. I could ping localhost but nothing further. It got me thinking about the absurdist epic starring Ashton Kushner and Sean Wm Scott. That prompted the tongue-in-cheek question “Dude! Where’s my internet?” I must speculate, and laugh, at what I think is the answer. Let me explain…

Why Expostulate: Dude! Where’s My Internet?

Everything looked OK when I sat down at the machine. But as soon as I tried to access any online resources, those requests went nowhere. And, of course, they took quite a while to time out to tell me there was no there on the other side of the connection.

I checked the cable TV signal (still there, which means out inbound broadband is working). I checked the wireless PCs (still there, which means at least the fallback to the boundary device WAP is working). Soon it became apparent: the Flo6 PC was the source of my woes. I’m not seeing any errors in Reliability Monitor so I’ll make an educated guess.

Waking Up Is (Sometimes) Hard to Do

The Flo6 had been asleep when I sat in front of it this morning. My best guess is that yesterday’s update somehow mucked with the wake behavior for the unit’s Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller. So I reloaded the driver, and then unchecked the box under Power Management that reads “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” From sad experience, I’ve learned this can turn into “LAN doesn’t work after waking from sleep” errors.

And gee: doesn’t that sound just like what happened to me this morning? It also demonstrates quite convincingly that here in Windows-World, some mornings start better than others. I’ll let you decide what kind of morning I was having today. I think I already know!

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Copilot+ PCs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

Thunderbolt 5 Era Is Finally Dawning

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It was nearly two years ago — September 12, 2023, in fact– that the Thunderbolt 5 specification made its debut, including a prototype. But the road from prototype to “tech for sale” has proved long and somewhat fractured. Cables, docks, and peripherals started to show up about a year later (e.g. Kensington SD5000T5 Dock). Gaming laptops blazed the way on the PC front, with the Razer Blade 18 the first to offer TB5 ports as an optional upgrade (April 2024). And as I write this screed in August, 2025, it looks like the Thunderbolt 5 era is finally dawning for real. Let me explain…

Why Say: Thunderbolt 5 Era Is Finally Dawning?

When Thunderbolt 5 (of which USB4 v2 is a subset) first showed up about 12-16 months ago in shipping products, it was a kind of exception. Initial offerings were costly, or provided as added-cost options. Now, they’re starting to appear as standard ports on higher-end  laptops. That still means gaming devices, mostly, though business/developer platforms and high-end mobile workstations are also getting in on the fun.

You can see the specs for the MSI Vector 16 HX AI A2XW in the lead-in graphic. It retails for right around US$3,700 at Amazon. Its CPU goes to 24 cores (8 P-cores, 16 E-cores), includes 64GB RAM, a 4 TB NVMe SSD, and various mobile NVIDIA GPU options. It also offers 2 Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports. It’s even Copilot+ capable. Kind of a beast, actually…

I see another MSI model available similarly equipped, plus one each Gigabyte and ASUS laptops (all offer 2 TB5 ports except for the ASUS, which offers a singleton). What’s missing from this picture? How about HP, Lenovo, Acer, Dell or Microsoft Surface models?

When Will Things TB5 Heat Up for Real?

When the aformentioned bigger players jump firmly onto the TB5 bandwagon. I expect that could happen later this year, or early next year, after vendors get the OEM bits from Microsoft for Windows 11 25H2. It’s coming soon — probably in October — so we may see more than a dawning in the near term.

I’m surprised that it’s taken this long, and that uptake hasn’t been what I would call either aggressive or enthusiastic. Could it be that most ordinary PC users and laptop buyers simply don’t care about or don’t need the higher performance and greater bandwidth that TB5/USB4 v2 provide? Maybe so.

I’ll keep watching, and keep chiming in on what I see. I’m still waiting for somebody to send me a review unit with TB5 ports, so I can put an entire device chain to work, including dock, monitors and external NVMe storage devices. Will somebody at MSI, Gigabyte, or ASUS take the hint? I reviewed all your stuff back in the day when I was building PCs and sussing out laptops for Tom’s Hardware. Why not let me pick up where I left off now, with a TB equipped laptop?

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Insider stuff, Remote Desktop (RDP), WED Blog, Windows 11

Copilot Unpicks Local RDP Access

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On my sole remaining 2018 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga, I’ve been fighting RDP connectivity issues. It’s running Windows 11 24H2 Insider Preview Beta Channel Build 26100.4946. All of a sudden, I couldn’t RDP into the machine at all. MSA-based access is still stuck on a Local Security Authority (LSA) access problem. But just now, Copilot unpicks local RDP access so I can use a local admin account to access it remotely. Phew!

Grinding Through as Copilot Unpicks Local RDP Access

Something was odd about the local account setup that didn’t sit right with RDP. Even though I’d set the account up with a password, that selfsame account did not have the PasswordRequired value field set to “True.” Turns out that RDP requires this setting before it will allow any account to connect.

Copilot cheerfully took me through some PowerShell syntax that didn’t work. Then it had me run the Command Prompt alternative that finally did the trick:

net user Actname YourSecurePassword123! /active:yes
/passwordreq:yes

Obviously, I used the actual account name for the Actname placeholder, and the real password for that string. But indeed it worked. And when I made my next login attempt, I was finally able to get back into that machine.

A Word of Warning

When I asked Copilot why this might have happened it informed me that this build “introduced a wave of under-the-hood changes” into Windows 11. Specifically, in the area of identity handling where “Insider builds often tweak how MSAs and local accounts are handled — especially in relation to login tokens, SID bindings, and credential providers.” That’s confirmation of what I’ve long suspected, because I’ve found myself unable to login to RDP using an MSA numerous times.

But this is the first time I’ve also been blocked for a local account as well. I’m just glad Copilot could steer me in the right direction to get a local connection working again. Even though my test and experiment PCs are mostly in the same office as my production desktop, it’s so much more convenient to access everything from the same keyboard, mouse and display setup. For me, RDP is an essential work tool. Bugs me to no end, when it doesn’t work right, as it does occasionally break down here in Windows-World. Sigh.

 

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Nvidia App Upgrade Comes Later

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I have to chuckle. As I’ve been using the Flo6 5800X build as my production desktop things keep popping up I hadn’t foreseen. It’s been 10 days now, but omissions and oversights are still appearing. This morning, I saw a note on NeoWin about a new NVIDIA driver, so I figured I’d check status on this PC. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was still running GeForce Experience. In this case, somewhat to my chagrin, the NVIDIA app upgrade comes later rather than sooner. Even so, it went without a hitch and I’m running Studio version 580.97 now.

If Nvidia App Upgrade Comes Later, Then What?

I had been amazed when I brought this PC up for the first time with two monitors attached. Windows 11 picked up both monitors on its own, and even extended the deskop so that I can read on the left-hand display, and write on the right-hand one. I’d read for years that Windows 11 was better at handling displays than 10, but hadn’t really understood what that meant. Now I’m getting a better idea…

No Doubt, There’s Still More to Come…

I just installed Hyper-V and the Sandbox on this desktop, and need to reboot to conduct some experiments. I’m sure I’ll be finding missing or needed items for weeks or months to come, as I truly make my working Windows home on the Flo6 5800X PC.

That should be fun and interesting. As things move forward, I’ll keep you posted. One thing’s for sure: there’s never a dull moment, here in Windows-World!

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Cool Tools, Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, WED Blog, Windows 11

So Long Dynabook X40M2

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It was nice while it lasted, but my time slot has expired. I’m shipping the Dynabook X40 M2 PC back to the maker’s PR group this afternoon. It’s been an enjoyable month working and playing with this handsome, sturdy, compact laptop. Though it’s no longer a Toshiba, it’s still called a Portege (a well-known and long-lasting laptop moniker). When I reviewed PCs for Tom’s back in the 2000s, I had a quite a few Toshibas pass through my hands. This new model is very much in the same vein. But now, alas, I must say “So long, Dynabook X40M2.” Let me conclude my adventures with some closing thoughts and observations…

Not Copilot+, But That May Not Matter Much

I was initially disappointed when I got this PC, to understand that it didn’t meet Copilot+ requirements.  Indeed, its Core Ultra 5 225U doesn’t hit the minimum TOPS number (40). That said, this unit has done everything I’ve asked it to with reasonable performance and battery life.  I chose to model typical productivity work involving Office, Adobe Acrobat, email, and so forth (no gaming or heavy creative workloads here) to reflect what students or office workers might demand of such a machine in the classroom, on the job, or on the go.

Small digression: I wondered how many PCs being sold these days are Copilot+ capable. Interestingly, Copilot tells me that 1.9% of global PC shipments in 2025 (in round numbers 1 in 50) fits that bill. So it seems that most buyers aren’t looking for such capabilities anyway. Outside that realm (which is most of the landscape) the X40-M2 plays very, very well.

Dynabook rates the unit’s battery life at 12-14 hours. I was able to break the 10-hour barrier on this machine twice, but mostly it came in between 9 and 10 hours when running email, web browsing, Office apps, Acrobat and Zoom or Teams video meetings. As is so often the case, the maker’s estimates are optiimistic, but the unit brings enough oomph to last a bit longer than a typical workday anyway. That’s all to the good, as far as I’m concerned.

Pros and Cons for the Portege X40 M2

On the plus side, the unit is sturdy, good-looking, compact, and lightweight enough for easy backpack or briefcase transport. It’s also got decent battery life, a good-looking display, 2 Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, and full-size HDMI and RJ-45 GbE ports. On the minus side, mine came equipped with a modest 0.5TB Samsung OEM NVMe drive that failed to impress with its performance (on par with faster Gen3 or slower Gen4 circuitry), and its pair of 5 Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 1) USB-A ports.  For office or home work, seems like a good Thunderbolt 4 dock would be a useful add-on, given that one USB-C port otherwise goes for charging at least some of the time.

If I were to buy one of these units, I’d probably go for the Ultra 7 model instead of the 5. Interestingly, I don’t see a 32GB option on this line’s product pages. Here’s my final net-net on this beast: a good choice for college students or office workers. Not enough oomph for developers or knowledge workers, though (the lack of Copilot+ support may not yet be telling for such folks, but will weigh more heavily in 2026 and 2027 as AI comes more into its own at the OS level). Check it out at the Dynabook Portege X40-M Series home.

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