Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog

PatchMyPC Updates 9 Apps Today

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Gosh: I don’t see this very often. On the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra just now, PatchMyPC Updates 9 apps today. You can see them in the lead-in graphic. The whole thing took less than 4 minutes to complete. My appreciation for this handy update tool knows no bounds!

OK PatchMyPC Updates 9 Apps Today: Next?

The full name of the tool is Patch My PC Home Updater. (I’ll call it PMPC for brevity here). With 516 apps in its library, PMPC is not as comprehensive in coverage as is WinGet or the MS Store (2,600+ packages in the former, and over 60,000 in the latter). But it’s completely automated, incredibly easy (and fun) to use, and — for some odd reason — almost always faster than running the same installers in PowerShell or the Command Prompt.

Indeed, PMPC is also less careful or respectful of running apps than WinGet. It cheerfully stops web browsers (and other apps) to update them, then restores their previous runtime context. In WinGet, you will often either be unable to update a running browser (e.g. Chrome) or you’ll have to relaunch it manually (e.g. Edge or Firefox).

It’s a handy tool, and comes in a variety of commercial forms that work with Autopilot and InTune, among other patch and update management systems. As with WinGet, you can also use it to install and uninstall the items in its library as well. Highly recommended, and a treat to use.

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, PowerShell, WED Blog, Windows tools

Bringing Neofetch Aboard via WinGet

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I knew there had to be a way. I just couldn’t find it or figure it out on my own. The venerable old OS info command line tool Neofetch (best known to UNIX and Linux users) works at the Windows command line, too. But I struggled with Chocolatey and Scoop to get it installed without liking the results. This morning Eleven Forum user Lance1 posted a terrific WinGet-based install/update tool from Chris Titus with an understated title “You may find this handy.” Indeed I did — and I also successfully tried bringing Neofetch aboard via WinGet on my production PC. You can see it running in the lead-in screengrab.

What’s Behind Bringing Neofetch Aboard via WinGet?

Running the command from Lance1’s post — namely

iwr -useb https://christitus.com/win | iex

absolutely did the trick for me.

Here’s how Copilot breaks this command string down (all six numbered items are quoted verbatim therefrom):

  1. iwr: This is an alias for the Invoke-WebRequest cmdlet. It sends an HTTP request to a web server and retrieves the response.
  2. -useb: This parameter tells Invoke-WebRequest to automatically unblock the downloaded file, which is useful when downloading scripts from the internet.
  3. https://christitus.com/win: This is the URL of the file you’re downloading. In this case, it’s a script hosted on Chris Titus’s website.
  4. |: This is the pipeline operator, which passes the output of one cmdlet to another cmdlet.
  5. iex: This is an alias for the Invoke-Expression cmdlet. It runs a script or command that is passed to it as input.

In summary, says Copilot: “this command downloads a script from https://Christitus.com/win and then executes it immediately on your system.” It’s what pops up the partial console that includes a checkbox for Neofetch, like so:

And when I clicked on Install/upgrade selected in the console pop-up window, it showed the following output as it used WinGet to handle the Neofetch install:

I’m jazzed. I need to spend more time with this Chis Titus tool and see what ELSE it can do. Lance1 was certainly right in his low-key estimation of its utility. I’ve already found it handy, so to speak. Cheers!

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

MS Seemingly Drops Intel Gen7-10 24H2 Support

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Whoa! Maybe even “Double Whoa!!” Look closely at the recently updated Microsoft Learn Windows Hardware Developer document Windows 11 Version 24H2 supported Intel processors. Careful examination shows that MS seemingly drops Intel Gen7-10 24H2 support. That’s right: everything from Gen 7 (Kaby Lake; 2016 mobile/2017 desktop) to Gen 10 (Comet Lake; 2017 for both mobile and desktop) is absent from that list. I’m concerned, and so are lots of other industry followers and reports (e.g. WinAero, Tom’s Hardware, Eleven Forum, and so forth). Can this be true?

Really!? MS Seemingly Drops Intel Gen7-10 24H2 Support

Initially, I wondered if this could be an error or oversight. But apparently, it’s a deliberate strategy aimed at OEMs. Indeed, a Windows Latest item dated today (2/17/2025) explicitly debunks this notion: No, Microsoft is NOT dropping Windows 11 support for Intel 8th, 9th, and 10th Gen chips. Though the absence of these items prompted plenty of speculation that Gen 7-10 were falling off the 24H2 table, here’s what that item states:

…first…Microsoft has renamed the document to mention the Windows 11 24H2 release. Second, the list of supported processors does not include “8th gen, 9th gen, and 10th gen Intel” chips. This led some people to believe that older Intel chips are no longer officially supported for “Windows 11 24H2.”

In response to this belief, Windows Latest asked MS directly and got this added clarification:

In a statement to Windows Latest, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 11 hardware requirements hadn’t changed since 2021.

I’ll also observe that the first paragraph of this Learn item states “…released and future generations of processors which meet the same principles will be considered as supported, even if not explicitly listed.” Guess what? That includes the “missing” Intel Gen7-10 CPUs, dear readers.

Windows 11 for AI vs. Other Flavors

Apparently MS is steering OEMs toward Intel CPUs that provide the necessary NPU and other items necessary to qualify for Copilot+ classification. It’s another logical, if vexing, consequence of the “Year of the Refresh” that MS is promoting for OEMs that want to support 24H2 fully and completely. Go figure: it seems to be something of a tempest in a teapot!

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog

Waiting On Next NVIDIA Studio Driver

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Oho!  A new NVIDIA Game-ready driver is out. As you can see in the lead-in graphic this one’s numbered 577.42. But if you’ve been reading this blog of late, you already knew that both the January 30 Game-Ready AND Studio drivers gave my dual monitor rig fits (get the gist from this Feb 5 item). Hence, my response to the new driver is below tepid. Instead, I’m waiting on the next NVIDIA Studio Driver to come along. I hope my optimism that it might fix dual monitor gotchas is justified. We’ll see…

Why I’m Waiting On Next NVIDIA Studio Driver

The January 30 update included both Game-Ready and Studio driver version. Alas, both also exhibited the same unwanted behaviors on my dual-monitor setup. The left-hand monitor didn’t want to wake up from sleep, and I had to use a combination of two techniques to bring it back to life:

  1. Use the WinKey-Ctrl-Shift-B key combination (shortcut) to reload the graphics driver
  2. Use the Ctrl-Alt-Del “three-fingered-salute” to bring the desktop back to life

Shoot! I like it a lot better when I just hit a key, or click the mouse, and the PC wakes up on its own shortly thereafter. Neither of the preceding 572.16 versions were so obliging, which is why I rolled back to version 566.36. I don’t plan on updating until a new Studio version comes out (and I’ll be sure to back up 566.36 for re-use, should I need it back).

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

WU: How Long Is Too Long?

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Here’s a Windows road I’ve been down many times. Indeed, it’s the kind of road, as in Robert Earl Keen’s excellent song, that “goes on forever…” It’s the road you walk on when WU hangs during download, GUI install, or post-GUI install. I read with amazement this morning in an ElevenForum thread that some poor soul waited THREE HOURS on a stuck install before asking for help. Ouch! Of course this raises the question with WU: How long is too long when things get stuck?

For me, the TLDR; answer is “10-15 minutes.” I just don’t have the patience to wait much longer. And FWIW, I’ve only seldom seen something that’s been stuck that long succeed after such a delay.

In WU, How Long Is Too Long Depends on You

At some point, the stuckee realizes that nothing is going to change, no matter how much longer one waits. That’s the point at which one must bite the bullet, and restart the stuck PC. Holding down the power button for 10 or more seconds until the PC shuts down will usually do it. Sometimes, however, one must either power off the PSU (desktops) or take more drastic steps (e.g. disconnect battery or wait for it to drain completely on a laptop).

Surprisingly, in the dozens of times I’ve had to do this when stuck in the past 5 years or so, the aftermath has mostly been positive. Often, Windows will simply pick up where the stuck update left off and finish up from there. Sometimes, it will roll back to the pre-install state instead.

Only in a handful of cases has the affected PC refused to boot correctly. When that happens, it’s time to pull out your rescue media and perform an image restore to your last known,good, working image backup. You have one of those, right? I’ve learned the answer to that question had better be “Heck, yeah. Let’ s go!”

Overcoming The Worst Case Scenario

No image backup and no working PC can be problematic. Hopefully, you’ve got at least some important stuff backed up someway, somehow (OneDrive, maybe?). You’ll either find a way to run a repair install (works sometimes) or you’ll have to choose between a clean install or a factory reset. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. I haven’t had to go there but once or twice in the 30-plus years I’ve been running Windows. Hopefully, your odds and experience will be the same. Good luck!

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog

Recent Upgrade Traffic Heavy

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It’s been a busy past few days here at Chez Tittel. Yesterday’s Patch Tuesday was pretty intense — MS and third-party updates addressed 67 CVEs — for all my Windows 10 and 11 PCs and VMs. And today, I’m noticing anywhere from 6 to 9 updates via WinGet on those same PCs and VMs. IMO, this makes recent upgrade traffic heavy (or at least, heavier than usual). You can see the list of 9 updates from the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme in the lead-in graphic, for example.

Is Recent Upgrade Traffic Heavy Important?

Hard to say. The number of CVEs addressed on Patch Tuesday may sound high, but Copilot says it’s way below the 350-400 monthly average over the past 12 months. Wait?! Can that be right… Yes, it can. Indeed, the monthly average for CVEs reported for Windows in 2024 was over 3,300. With the number addressed in fixes, you can see how far Windows trails behind in catching up.

Where WinGet is concerned, 7-9 on any given day is higher than usual, but not extraordinary. Here again, Copilot says “it’s safe to say that WinGet handles hundreds of updates daily across various systems.” On any particular systems, or on Chez Tittel systems (they’re similarly configured and run a fairly consistent set of tools and apps), that number varies by what’s there and what’s updated.

The Tools Keep Working, and So Do I

I’ve experienced relatively little difficulty with WU and WinGet updates in past months (see my February 6 post on upgrading Canary to 27788 as  rare exception). Keeping up with Windows and its apps and applications involves regular — but not extreme — effort. I’ll keep on keepin’ on as long as that stays true.

In that same vein, I haven’t seen much action recently through the lens of Patch My PC Home Updater. My typical suite of 20 to under 40 of its apps have been mostly quiescent for the past week and longer. That said, my production desktop just reported two C++ redistributables and CPU-Z all need updates. Go figure!

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, PowerShell, Recent Activity, WED Blog

WinTerm Multi-Line Paste Flag Is Helpful

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Way to go, Windows Terminal (WinTerm) development team. I just accidentally hit Paste (Ctrl-V) inside that application, and it posted the warning you can see in the lead-in graphic. I saved myself unnecessary error messages — and the app saved itself from associated error handling — by warning me I was about to do something possibly stupid. Indeed I was, as you can see from the clipboard contents info in the screencap. Hence my considered judgement: the WinTerm multi-line paste flag is helpful.

Obviously, WinTerm Multi-Line Paste Flag Is Helpful

Shoot! Given how often, and in how many ways I use the paste buffer, there could be just about ANYTHING in there. That includes all kinds of text and even images. I use cut’n’paste all the time while writing, especially when updating older stories from Windows 10 to 11 coverage. I’ve done that dozens of times in the past couple of years for ComputerWorld, Tom’s Hardware and TechTarget. Plus, I often use cut’n’paste to drop screencaps into social media posts as I’m commenting on Windows news and observations. None of that stuff works in PowerShell, folks!

It’s a good thing when application designers and developers recognize human frailty, and take steps to protect users from themselves. It’s particularly good, IMO, when that user is me!

Windows Terminal Keeps Getting Better and Better

From its own self-update behavior, to various UI and Settings improvements, to PowerToys add-ins (Think: “Command Not Found”), Windows Terminal has just kept steadily improving over the past 2-3 years. The more I use it, the more I’ve come to like it. And now, with Copilot to assist me in writing PowerShell scripts, I’ve become better able to take advantage of that ever-increasing goodness. You should, too.

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Insider stuff, Remote Desktop (RDP), WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

RDC vs. Remote Desktop

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I make remote connections to Windows PCs all the time, every day. I often switch between the Remote Desktop  Connection (RDC, aka mstsc.exe) and the Remote Desktop app (9WZDNCRFJ3PS in the MS Store). Lately, I’ve noticed that the .exe is prey to a hiccup to which the app is not — namely, RDC will often hang at the lock screen with spinning balls frozen when I start a remote session. Remote Desktop never does this. Because I know RDC better than Remote Desktop I used to prefer it. Because I favor speedy in-and-out over redoing my link I’m now leaning toward the latter. Thus, in my recent estimation of RDC vs. Remote Desktop, the app is gaining favor.

More Differences in RDC vs. Remote Desktop

This got me to wondering about other differences between the older exe and the newer UWP app. Looks like Remote Desktop can do other stuff that RDC cannot, too, including:

  • Auto updates through the MS Store (Winget handles mstsc.exe)
  • Modern UWP app interface with thumbnails and minimal controls (Full-Screen and Disconnect only)
  • Access a complete remote desktop or access one remote app without running a complete remote desktop
  • Works across MacOS, iOS/iPadOS, Android, Chrome and Web browsers (IDKICDT)
  • Multi-monitor support lets Remote Desktop map multiple monitors from remote client to host desktop
  • Works with Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 Cloud

In some situations, I can see where single-app remoting could be good. I also like support for multiple client OSes and monitors. I wish I had the ability to try out the cloud capabilities, too. Sounds like fun.

Maybe It’s Time to Join the 21st Century?

I’m thinking I should be using Remote Desktop more than RDC. I think I’ll try it for a while and see how it goes. It could be that some of my issues with VMs might also be MIA in the newer app. Let’s find out!

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

Apps > Resume Works Between WinPCs

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In reading this morning about how Build 27788 enables an Apple Hand-off like experience, I looked around my mini-fleet of PCs for Apps > Resume. It’s not only present in that build, it’s also in the current production build (26100.3037), too. In fact, the only build I’m running where it’s MIA is Beta (26120.3073). I was also able to observe that Settings > Apps > Resume works between WinPCs, as well as from phones to PCs and vice-versa. Good stuff.

OneDrive Is Why Apps > Resume Works Between WinPCs

If the same MSA is open on both desktops for a pair of Windows 11 PCs, OneDrive and its synching behaviors make the same files available in the primary user account folders (e.g. Desktop, Documents and Pictures). That’s the mechanism that lets you ping-pong working on the same file across two or more PCs (and other devices as well). In my case, these files show up in a OneDrive (cloud icon) folder named “Ed – Personal” like so:

I used text for a reply to an AskWoody column (boxed item) as my example.

To me, this makes OneDrive file sharing more user-friendly. I don’t just want to be able to open and use files shared in the cloud. I want to be able to pick up where I left off. That’s what made Apple’s Hand-off initially compelling, and what explains the motivation for Microsoft’s implementation in the form of Apps > Resume. I can — and will — use this!

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

Long Hard 27788 Upgrade Road

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Whoa! In the realm of Windows Insider Preview upgrades, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. This time around — starting from Build 27783 — I found myself on a long, hard 27788 upgrade road for this latest Canary Channel version. When I tell you what happened, and how I surmounted the obstacles on that path, you may be able to save yourself some unnecessary time and effort.

To begin with, what I lost on this upgrade road was time. I spent most of yesterday afternoon going through various motions to try to get the Insider Preview for 27788 and a companion KB5053390 (CU for .NET Framework…) up and running. All such attempts, alas, proved fruitless.

Traversing That Long Hard 27788 Upgrade Road

Getting to the state depicted in the lead-in graphic — showing that the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Hybrid Tablet is up-to-date in WU and running Build 27788 in Winver — took some doing and some time. In fact, it wasn’t until I read about a workaround in an ElevenForum post from Russian user @Dronix that I made any real headway. Along the way, each update/upgrade cycle took about 1:10 (70 minutes) to work through.

I’ll deliver a recitation of what I tried that didn’t help my problems. I am also speculating when I say this, but I believe one can’t upgrade to 27788 until KB5053390 for .NET completes successfully. There may be dependencies in the upgrade that need the previous CU to complete successfully. And indeed, once I did that, the upgrade went through without further issues.

Here’s my list of failed strategies:
1. Simply retry the failed KB or upgrade item.
2. Run Eleven Forum’s Reset_Reregister_Windows_
Update_Components.bat from this Reset WU tutorial
3. Run the built-in WU Troubleshooter

What Worked: DISM-GUI 1.3.1.02

Turns out there’s a German software tool named DISM-GUI that lets one install KB .cab files from failed installations. You have to know the name (a partial name will do) of that file to provide it as a target. The afore-linked Eleven Forum thread identifies it, and it includes the KB number as a sub-string. Using Voidtools Everything, I found it immediately (search string *KB5053390*.cab). For the record, the filename is:

Windows11.0-KB5053390-x64-NDP481.cab

Click on the box in DISM-GUI that reads “CAB Install” (lower left) and the program will prompt for the file location. You can get that from Everything, then left-shift click and use the “Copy as Path” option (you’ll have to delete opening and closing quote marks).

This opens a Command Prompt session and uses DISM to install the package for you. Unlike the WU driver install, this actually works. And it takes less than two minutes to complete. Then, when you’ve got the CU installed, the follow-up upgrade to 27788 works, too.

TLDR: Possible Problems with 27788 Are Fixable

If you read through the whole Eleven Forum thread about 27788, some posters were able to install KB5053390 and the 27788 upgrade without any difficulties. Numerous others — myself included– got exactly nowhere until they used DISM-GUI to get over the KB5053390 hump.

Should you find yourself in the same boat, you can go straight to the workaround using that tool, and avoid the hours and hours of thrashing about I went through yesterday. Why not learn from my experience, instead of repeating that misery?

Providing such info explains why I write this blog. It also explains why I expect lifetime employment doing that kind of thing here in Windows-World. It’s always something…

But Wait! There’s More… (Added Jan 7)

When I logged into the X380 and the X12 this morning, KB5053390 again showed up as needed. And again, a regular WU install failed. So this time, I fired off DISM-GUI taking the left-click “Run as administrator…” option. Apparently that did the trick. Here are some screencaps along the way:

Between the 2nd and 3rd screencap, I ran DISM-GUI again (as admin) and it showed a successful conclusion at the command line, then reboot with successful update there after). Once I rebooted the system and it worked through the rest of the process, I got the 3rd figure above from WU. Gadzooks! I hope it’s finally over…

 

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