Category Archives: Windows 11

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows OS Musings

New Windows Experiences Coming February

January 27, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It’s always fun to see Windows watchers read between the lines. Take, for example, Panos Panay’s January 26 blog post “A new era of the PC.” When I say new Windows Experiences coming February, I’m abridging this paragraph near the end of that piece (bold emphasis mine):

Next month we’re bringing new experiences to Windows that include a public preview of how you can use Android^TM apps on Windows 11 through the Microsoft Store and our partnerships with Amazon and Intel, taskbar improvements with call mute and unmute, easier window sharing and bringing weather to the taskbar, plus the introduction of two new redesigned apps, Notepad and Media Player.

New Windows Experiences Coming February Means?

Interestingly, WindowsLatest takes this wording to mean something more specific. That story’s author, Mayank Pamar, observes:

For those unaware, Microsoft made a change to the way it delivers updates with a new feature called Experience Packs.

With Experience Packs and Microsoft Store, Microsoft could release new features and update existing apps individually, rather than pushing out a major OS update. Microsoft hasn’t had much luck with large Windows feature updates, so the company wants to push some features independent of big Windows Updates.

I don’t see anything in Mr. Panay’s blog post to support these assertions. That said, this does make sense. I, too, have been waiting for MS to put Experience Packs to more strenuous and active use. So far, it’s mostly been a series of testing exercises, with little obvious change to apps and features in their wake.

Could This Be a “REAL” Experience Pack?

Gosh, I hope so. But official word is not available, so this possibility is something of a speculation. I’ll be watching to see what happens in February, and tickled indeed if the Windows Experience Pack brings real, noticeable changes to Windows 11 apps and features. Stay tuned!

Here’s a June 2021 Windows Feature Experience Pack release announcement. It explains a bit of what this kind of thing is intended to do , and support. Interesting reading!

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows OS Musings

Pondering 1.4B Active Monthly Users

January 26, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then: MS held its latest earnings call on January 25, to disclose Q2 FY’22 results with investors. One of the interesting nuggets that emerged was a claim I’m pondering 1.4B Active Monthly Users. Apparently, as Frank Shaw reported on Twitter, that includes both Windows 10 and Windows 11 users. Further reporting at OnMSFT indicates this number also include Hololens and Xbox devices as well. This is an interesting number, for a variety of reasons. Let me explain…

When Pondering 1.4B Active Monthly Users, What’s Involved?

First thing: On April 27, 2021, MS published an assertion that there were 1.3 B devices running Windows 10. Thus, the 2022 number represents a “mere” increase of 100M.

Second thing: The latest claim from the earnings call includes both Windows 10 and 11 devices in the newer 1.4 B number.

Third thing, in December 2020, Statista reported over 100M active Xbox network subscribers.

Fourth thing, the best current estimate of Hololens sales comes from website BuildWagon.com as of December 2021. It guesstimates that “total hololens devices sold, as per the available public sources, is around 520,000 devices.” Let’s say 0.5M, in round numbers.

What Do These Numbers Say?

Let’s assume no Xbox growth since December 2020, and discount Hololens completely (0.5M isn’t even a blip against 1.4B). My take: there has been no overall growth in active monthly Windows users since April 2021. My Xbox assumption is arguable, in fact. MS reported a 10% increase in Xbox content and services in the latest earnings call.

Even so, it looks like the Windows population may have peaked. My best guess: over time, Windows 11 growth will come mostly from Windows 10 upgrades or PC replacements.

What about new PC sales? eMarketer.com forecasts an 8.6% year-over-year drop in PC sales for 2022. Against projected sales of 344.7M for 2021, that translates into 315M new PCs sold.

How much of this translates into new Windows 10 or 11 users, and how much into an old license decommissioned instead? I don’t see ready numbers on this. But conventional wisdom says that PCs should be replaced every 4 years. Global PC gamers alone account for about around 1.7B users (Statista). Figure another 1 B non-gaming users around the world, and 25% of that total (675 M), dwarfs projected 2022 PC sales.

That’s my basis for suggesting that Windows may have reached its peak. Could I be wrong? Sure. But think about the overall context, and the relentless advance of smartphones vs. PCs. Time will tell, but I stand by my analysis. ‘Nuff said.

[Note Added Jan 27] For a completely different take on these numbers and what they mean, see Paul Thurrott’s Jan 26 story: 1.4 Billion. He sees the numbers going up overall, despite an apparent decline in official, reported numbers. Check it out.

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

Build 22535 Throws Regular backgroundTaskHost.exe Failures

January 24, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Ouch! Take a look at the error list from one of my two Dev Channel PCs (for January 21). You can’t help but notice 6 of 7 errors relate to backgroundTaskHost.exe. Ditto for how lousy the experience index remains (under 4 all days showing). Indeed, Dev Channel Build 22535 throws regular backgroundTaskHost.exe failures on both of my test PCs. I’ve reported it to Feedback hub, and am hoping somebody’s looking into it.

What to Do When Build 22535 Throws Regular backgroundTaskHost.exe Failures

Looking around online, I don’t see much by way of relief for workarounds or registry hacks. Here’s some representative detail from Reliability Monitor, from which I’ll point out recurrent elements:

Detail on these errors from ReliMon is more alike than different

Common elements include:

Exception Code: 0XC0000005
Application path: C:\Windows\System32\backgroundTaskHost.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\msvcrt.dll
Faulting…full name: includes ContentDeliveryManager

Understanding the Error

The error code, often abbreviated 0X5, when checked in the MS Error Lookup Tool returns status value: ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED. The same thing comes up in the System Error Codes for values 0-499. According to the WikiFixes Ox5 page, this may be caused by a system component or application malfunction or corruption. In this case, I’m looking at backgroundTaskHost.exe and msvcrt.dll (part of the MS Visual C++ runtime and compiler) as potential culprits.

Having run both disk ... /restorehealth and SFC /scannow on the affected PCs, I don’t think the .exe or the .dll files are damaged or corrupted. My best guess is that something is off with the build itself, and that MS will have to find and fix the problem. Funny thing is, my 22535 builds appear to work well otherwise, and don’t manifest obvious runtime issues or problems. Interesting, eh?

Let’s see what happens when word of this gets out further. I’ll keep you posted as things change.

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Self-inducing Windows 10 keyboard output delays

January 21, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Recently, while troubleshooting an issue on Windows 10 where Zoom kept crashing unexepectedly, I observed something even more vexing. The cure for that specific issue is to turn Video Conference Mute off in PowerToys (on by default). But as soon as one does that, keyboard input slows to a crawl. Indeed, when self-inducing Windows 10 keyboard output delays that way, it can take seconds for a keystroke to appear on-screen. If you type even modestly fast (like me) that means you can finish a whole sentence before output shows up on screen. When you make occasional typos — as I sometimes do (1 in this sentence so far) — that’s immensely frustrating.

When Self-inducing Windows 10 Keyboard Output Delays, Easy Fix

At first, I tried restarting the Explorer task in Task Manager. That sometimes helps when such symptoms appear. Not this time. The next standard fix is a system restart. And indeed, that did the trick for me.

I know that PowerToys ties into Windows at a pretty deep level. I’m guessing that turning default settings off in the program may change low-level system behaviors. Apparently, the Video Conference Mute change is discombobulating enough to change the delay involved in keyboard echo (the time it takes for a keypress value to show up on screen).

Another “Interesting” Issue Caught and Killed

This happens only on Windows 10, though. I tried the same changes on Windows 11, and it didn’t affect keyboard output at all. On Windows 10, I first noticed it in the WordPress editor. But then, it showed up in Outlook and Word — and even, Notepad — so I assumed it was an across-the-board thing.

Thus, I’m glad that an old standby in whacking Windows weirdnesses — namely, a restart — fixed the issue on my production PC. I use that machine all day long, every day, and mostly enter text on a keyboard for a living. Thus, fixing anything that slows down text entry is of major importance — to me, at least.

Stay tuned. As things are always interesting with Windows in some odd way or another, this is a thread I’ll have no trouble adding to in my daily writing. As Roseanne Roseannadanna often said on SNL: “It’s always something!” Too true…

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

Dev Channel Build 22538 Gets Interesting

January 20, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

The old Chinese curse goes “May you live in interesting times.” Sounds innocuous, until you understand that what a reader of history might find interesting after the fact, someone who lived through such experiences might find disturbing or harrowing. In that sense then, I proclaim that Dev Channel Build 22538 gets interesting. Exactly what does this mean?

When Dev Channel Build 22538 Gets Interesting, Look Out!

I downloaded and installed this latest Build on my two test PCs yesterday, and finished up this morning. Everything went well, and finished in a reasonable amount of time. (That means under 30 min for both the X12 Hybrid [11th gen Intel i5/16GB RAM/512GB SSD)]and the X380 Yoga [8th gen Intel i7/16 GB RAM/1TB SSD].)

Things only got interesting when I started running the new OS version. If you shift the Start menu left (Start → Personalization → Taskbar → Taskbar behaviors → Taskbar alignment: Left), the Widget icon turns into a weather icon instead. Some users report getting a “weather bug” and temperature value. Others — including me — get only the weather bug. See the lead-in graphic for an illustration, as central Texas faces possible “wintry mix” today.

I was also in for a surprise the first time I remoted into the X12, using Remote Desktop Connection (.exe) . The Taskbar included only two icons. When I tried to run Task Manager to restart Explorer.exe (which usually fixes such behaviors) nothing was accessible. So I ended the remote session, logged into the X12 locally, and then tried again. Everything worked on a second attempt, thank goodness. Indeed, that was interesting!

Curiosity Prompts X380 Yoga Check

Curiosity led me to do likewise on the X380 Yoga. But it showed no such anomalies. Instead a flag from Windows Security informed me that memory integrity checks (Core isolation) were turned off. I had to restart to set things right, but that seemed to work OK, too. The flag was absent after the restart, and Windows Security offered a clean bill of health.

All I can say about the 22538 Build and Dev Channel builds for Windows 11 in general, is that they work surprisingly well. They’re supposed to have rough edges and not-fully-fleshed-out features and functions. I seldom find interesting things to report when I install and run them. It’s fun when things get interesting — at least, on test PCs where I don’t have to rely on them to get my job done.

Stay tuned: I’ll continue to report items of interest as I encounter them.

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows OS Musings

Zoom Resume Ruminations

January 19, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Last week, I reported that disabling the Video Conference Mute feature in PowerToys fixed constant Zoom crashes. This morning, I participated in a successful Zoom conference on the fixed PC. This has me thinking… Thus, I’ll share Zoom resume ruminations to celebrate a return to more or less normal operations. (Note: the lead-in graphic shows PowerToys Video Conference Mute “Off”.)

Where Do Zoom Resume Ruminations Lead?

Having expunged multiple Windows issues in the past week, I’m pondering best Windows troubleshooting practices. First and foremost, I’m reminded that when actual Windows errors present, the best way to find solutions or workarounds is to start from error messages or codes that appear on-screen.

Thus, searching on “Zoom quit unexpectedly” and “Windows 10” is what ultimately led me to the PowerToys fix. Ditto, when I found a sizable string (7 in all) of repeated COM Surrogate “stopped working” critical events in Reliability Monitor. That, too, led me to a set of possible causes and related fixes.

Troubleshooting Requires Proper Context

If anything I learned while studying anthropology still works for me as a tech person, it’s the importance of putting things into context to really understand them. Troubleshooting research definitely requires taking error messages and including enough context to filter out irrelevancies and focus in on useful insights.

As I look back on my problem-solving efforts of late, I observe certain “context data items” make useful adjuncts to error messages and codes. These include:

OS version or application name
Build number (where applicable)
Filenames that appear in error details
Complete error code strings (e.g. 0XC0000005 instead of C05)

When I’m looking for present-day errors, I sometimes find it helpful to restrict the time scope for searches to the “Past week” or “Past month” setting in Google. That focuses on current events, as ’twere, and makes results more likely to apply to whatever issues I’m chasing right now.

Works for me, anyway. Hopefully, that means such techniques might also work for you, too!

Notes Added 1 Hour Later

Two things:

1. I just updated PowerToys on the Production PC to version 0.53.3. I’m pleased to report it preserved my “Off” setting for Video Conference Mute. If I turn it back on, the crashes resume (works fine when set to “Off,” though).

2. I learned yesterday that the WindowsInsider Team renewed my Windows Insider MVP (WIMVP) Award for 2022. I’m pleased and humbled to remain a member of that active and vibrant community.

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, Windows 10, Windows 11

Chronic COM Surrogate Windows 10 Failures

January 18, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then. I was poking around on my Windows 10 production desktop yesterday. Inside Reliability Monitor, I counted up 7 of 10 recent Application Failures from a single cause. It’s shown in the error detail window that serves as the lead-in graphic for this story. All 7 are more or less the same, where I see chronic COM Surrogate Windows 10 failures at work.

With Chronic COM Surrogate Windows 10 Failures, What to Do?

Look it up on the Internet, of course. Using “COM Surrogate stopped working dllhost.exe” as my search string, I found plenty of data to read and digest. As it turns out, this is a pretty common gotcha.

The COM Surrogate is a host process executable named dllhost.exe (as the error info also indicates). It runs as Explorer or other filesystem-related code works it way through file and folder navigation. The process also handles thumbnails (and viewing same) in Explorer and other similar interfaces.

Most of the renditions I perused, pointed to 4 potential causes:

1. a GPU driver problem
2. interference from Data Execution Prevention (DEP) causing a crash
3. munged DLL file connection (e.g. dllhost.exe)
4. corrupt DLL file

Fixes Follow Causes, Right?

Fixes relate directly to causes. For the first cause, replacing the graphics driver with a known good working version is the trick. This may mean rolling back, to reverse a recent problematic upgrade. Or, it might mean rolling forward, if a new version is available (especially one that mentions fixing thumbnail access issues).

For the second cause, creating an exception for dhllhost.exe in the DEP pane in System Properties, Performance options does the trick. Here’s a partial snapshot of what’s involved (for 32-bit Windows 10, navigate to System32; for 64-bit, navigate to SysWOW64 instead):

This basically instructs DEP to ignore access to dllhost.exe

For the third cause, re-registering the DLL should ensure that dllhost.exe is properly plumbed into the Windows Registry (for more info, please see this MS Support page). This requires entering a pair of commands in an administrative Command Prompt or PowerShell session:
regsvr32 vbscript.dll regsvr32 jscript.dll
This should handle anything related to DLL registration.

For the fourth cause, MS recommends first running

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Follow that up with sfc /scannow until it comes back with “Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.”

My Chosen Fix: DEP Exception

Because thumbnails are working OK on my system, I decided that causes 1, 3 and 4 were unlikely. So I implemented a DEP exception, as shown in the preceding screencap. So far, it’s working: no COM surrogate errors since that change. I’ll keep an eye on it, and amend this story if that changes. Stay tuned!

Note: this same approach also works on Windows 11, should the COM surrogate cause problems a PC running that OS instead. Cheers!

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Escaping Excess Windows Audio Reverb

January 17, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

My first job out of college was in an archival sound studio at the Library of Congress. Believe it or not, they even send me to a summer audio engineering program. (The Eastman School of Music, Summer, 1974.) In the nearly 4 years I worked there, I’d like to think I learned a little something about quality sound delivery. That’s why I’ve been chafing during recent attempts at escaping excess Windows Audio reverb. This morning, I finally fixed my problem on my production desktop.

Hows and Whys of Escaping Excess Windows Audio Reverb

First: a problem description. Any kind of music playback on my external speakers has sounded weird lately. (When I play sounds in “the open air,” I use a set of Axiom Audio components. These inlude: L, R, and subwoofer speakers with external amplifier.) Here’s my best problem description. On playback, music sounded like it was in a concrete stairwell or in a big tiled bathroom. From my years in the studio and subsequent experience, I knew it was a reverb problem.

First, I went poking around in the Realtek Audio Console app. It’s shown as the background for this story’s lead-in graphic. But none of the changes I made in the equalizer, or among its various settings options (Rock is show in the afore-mentioned screencap), made any difference.

Thus, I realized it had to be something in the old Control Panel Sound widget. It was. At one point or another I must have checked the box shown in the screencap foreground red-arrowed “Enable audio enhancements.” As soon as I unchecked that item, my excess reverb disappeared. Everything returned to normal and my various music sources sounded as much like their original recordings as my semi-pro sound chain (external amp and speakers) could deliver.

When in Doubt, Experiment…

I don’t think I would’ve been able to solve the issue if I hadn’t fooled around with the EQ presets in the Realtek Audio Console. As soon as it was obvious that this element in the audio software chain wasn’t responsible (I was sure I’d picked the “Club” or “Party” presets, both of which seem to boost reverb noticeably), I knew it had to be the Sound widget. And sure enough, whatever audio enhancement had kicked in when I checked that box made a BIG difference.

Fortunately, it was easily fixed and my tunes are now back to normal. Now the question becomes: what do I want to listen to today? As I finish out this post, I’m enjoying the alt-pop sounds of 90s British group “The SUNDAYS.” Good stuff (and it sounds like it oughter…).

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

No 22533 Dev Channel Flyouts Here … Unless You Push the Right Physical Button

January 14, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

The latest Dev Channel version of Windows 11 showed up on my test PCs yesterday. That means I was slow on the uptake: its announcement blog is dated January 12 (Tuesday). Be that as it may, that blog post claims that “new flyouts [for volume, brightness, and more] will appear when you press the volume or brightness keys on your laptop.” Alas, I see no 22533 Dev Channel flyouts here on either of my test machines. Instead, I see only the same old “flyout panel at right” shown below. The “new look” appears as the lead-in graphic for this story, courtesy of the afore-linked 22533 announcement.

Alas, I’m still stuck on the old response to clicking the volume icon in taskbar.

If No 22533 Dev Channel Flyouts Here, Then What?

Wait and hope for this to show up on my machines, I guess. MS doesn’t specifically SAY this is a gradual rollout. But the absence of this feature on both PCs certainly suggests that’s the case. I have to laugh: once again I’m on the slow end of the rollout as a nifty new feature shows up. I guess I should be grateful MS shared an image of what I would be able to see, were I lucky enough to have this capability on my own test PCs. All and I can say is, sigh, and sigh again.

That’s the way things go sometimes, here in Windows-World. This is neither the first time I’ve been left out of a gradual rollout — if indeed that’s what it is. And I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last time, either. I’m curious to see what kind of response my experience will engender when I post this info to the WIMVP Teams channel. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, and there’ll be an easy fix. If so, count on me to report back. In the meantime, stay tuned!

The Fix Is In: Push the Physical Button, Doofus!

I heard back pretty much immediately from Brandon LeBlanc on the Insider Team. Seems this flyout REQUIRES a physical corresponding button (volume, brightness, etc) on the PC in use. And presto (pun intended), as soon as I did that, it worked. So much for my “hurt feelings” at not being included. I just had to push the right button and it worked right away. Go figure — and while you’re doing that, indulge in a chuckle at my expense. It was all there in black and white: I just misunderstood.

Recent Activity, Software Reviews, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 11

Version 1.1 Brings Start11 Way Up

January 13, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

When Windows 8 arrived in 2012 — a decade ago, now — I was nonplussed and flabbergasted. The new menus completely threw me for a loop. I had trouble finding my own desktop and its assets. Then I discovered Stardock’s Start8, which let me use everything I knew about Windows 7 to interact with Windows 8. It was a lifesaver. By the time Windows 10 came along, I naturally gravitated to Start10 out of habit, if for no other reason. With Windows 11, early versions of — you guessed it — Start11 had me wondering why I bothered with the program. Even for a mere US$5 ($4 to upgrade) it didn’t seem to add much to the native experience. But version 1.1 brings Start11 way up in terms of functionality, and provides one-click access to otherwise more complex native operations. Let me explain…

If Version 1.1 Brings Start11 Way Up, What Do You Get?

Take a look at the lead-in screencap. IT shows the right-click taskbar pop-up (lower right) along with the Start11 settings pane that makes it happen. The key item is “Replace taskbar right click menu with Windows 10 style one.” That change confers the following options:

Configure Start11…: provides instant access to the Start11 app (previous versions needed a launch from the Start menu)
Cascade windows/Show windows stacked/Show windows side by side: manage on-desk arrangement of open Windows
Show the desktop: hide all open Windows
Task Manager: one-click access to the Task Manager
Taskbar settings: one-click access to Taskbar settings

For me the biggies are easier access to Start11 controls and familiar access to Task Manager. Does this mean I’m turning into a hide-bound dinosaur, set in my ways? Probably. I had been using CTRL-ALT-ESC to fire off Taskbar before and this is less work.

Other taskbar tweaks are nice, too. They include changing its size and position (but top or bottom alignment only, no right or left side).

Worth the Price of Admission?

Sure, Start11 is cheap. But I’ve learned a lot since Windows 8 hit the streets a decade ago and more. I’m not uncomfortable in the native Windows 10 Start menu , and ditto for Windows 11. I’ve got several test machines running 11 with no “menu support” of any kind and am just as productive there as on an assisted alternative desktop.

I’ll probably buy a license for Start11 when I upgrade my wife’s 11th-gen Dell Micro 7080 later this year. She will be able to keep working as she always has, with little difference between how her system now works on Windows 10 and how it will work post-upgrade. But outside those who resist, or don’t like, change, I don’t see Start11 as a must-have piece of software any longer.

Does that mean Microsoft has gotten better at building base level OS navigation? Or does it mean that I’ve simply absorbed the start menu ethos within Windows 10 and 11? A little of both, I suspect.

Bottom line: If you’re already using Start 11, the 1.1 upgrade really makes the program shine (and more usable and capable). If that means you, grab the upgrade today!