All posts by Ed Tittel

Full-time freelance writer, researcher and occasional expert witness, I specialize in Windows operating systems, information security, markup languages, and Web development tools and environments. I blog for numerous Websites, still write (or revise) the occasional book, and write lots of articles, white papers, tech briefs, and so forth.
Cool Tools, Insider stuff, PowerShell, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

New OhMyPosh Version Highlights Auto-Update

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As the world returned to a more normal work rhythm yesterday, I found myself fielding various new software updates. Among them, a bump to OhMyPosh version 24.18.0. It wouldn’t work via WinGet because — as you can see in the lead-in graphic — it introduces a “newer version” for its “install technology.” Thus, this new OhMyPosh version highlights auto-update gotcha. I’d already used the oh-my-posh enable upgrade command to automate that process. A new install wipes out that directive.

If New OhMyPosh Version Highlights Auto-Update, Then What?

This got me looking at ways to embed the same information in the omp.json file that drives OhMyPosh configurations. Turns out when a reinstall happens, default configurations are rewritten from scratch. Thus, adding commands to

“auto_upgrade”: true,
“disable_notice”: true,

likewise got wiped from my chosen JanDeDobbelleer.omp.json config file as well. (Add them to the end of that file and you’ll need to drop the second comma, in fact.) What to do?

Turns out a custom config file is left alone when you have to shift from an older install technology to a newer one. Renaming the default config file, adding customizations, and referencing that new name in the invocation for OMP will do the trick. Way to learn, I guess!

Best Gets Better, After Sussing Out the Wrinkles

My fervent thanks to Jan DeDobbelleer, the OMP developer and chief steward. There’s seldom anything that goes off with OMP that isn’t addressed in his copious documentation and online interactions with other users. It sometimes takes a little while — about half an hour for this set-to, for example — but I have always been able to figure out and fix whatever gets hinky with OMP. That’s quite a testament to the tool and its builder. Thanks again for everything, Jan!

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

2025 Is PC Refresh Year

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I’m not sure what to make of Microsoft’s blog post for CES 2024, entitled “The Year of the Windows 11 PC Refresh.” According to StatCounter, as of December 2024, Windows 11 holds a 34.11% market share, as compared to Windows 10 at 62.7%. That puts 11 at around 55% of 10 by those numbers. If indeed 2024 is PC refresh year for Windows 11, as MS says, it’s got a lot of ground to make up.

Why Say: 2025 Is PC Refresh Year?

Indeed, MS concludes the afore-cited blog post with these concluding words:

…we believe that one of the most important pieces of technology people will look to refresh in 2025 isn’t the refrigerator, the television or their mobile phone. It will be their Windows 10 PC, and they will move forward with Windows 11.

The impetus, of course, from the MS POV is that Windows 11 running on a Copilot+ PC provides significant new capabilities in the areas of security and AI-driven content creation, bolstered by faster, more powerful hardware with longer battery life. Given such a compelling combination of features and functions, the case for refresh is too strong for any other outcome to be likely.

Impending End of Service for Windows 10

October 14, 2025 remains the end of the officially supported road for Windows 10, with subsequent yearly payments for extended service after the cut-off date. MS will bump costs annually for up to three years after that time, to allow laggards to pay for the privilege of postponing refreshes instead.

Does this all translate into 2025 as a notable refresh year? It could, provided that consumers and businesses buy into the notion that what Windows 11 24H2 brings to the party is worth the time, cost and effort to push a refresh through sooner rather than later.

IMO, what’s more compelling to consumers and businesses is the age of their PC fleets, and how long it might be until a refresh occurs as per normal 3-5 year cycles. Looking at my modest collection of a dozen units or so, 3 of them date from 2018, and another three pre-date 2022. That would argue for a 60% refresh rate here at Chez Tittel. I suspect many small to mid-size businesses, and even enterprises, are in a similar boat.

Could 2025 be a big year for PC refreshes? Possibly. Will that actually happen? It depends on how appetites for new technology match up with the will and the wherewithal to acquire Copilot+ PCs. I suspect 2025 will see more refresh activity that 2024 did. But I’ll be surprised if Window 10 and 11 marketshare flip-flops — that is, 30-40% Windows 10 versus 50-60% for Windows 11 by the end of the year. That said, stranger things have happened.

My own best guess is that Windows 10 and 11 might reach parity — which currently calculates to ~48% each — by 12/31/2025. But I see that as a stretch target based on current numbers and prior version histories. Of course, only time will tell… Stay tuned!

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

Avoid Mystery Pop-up Windows

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It’s now a truism that one should NEVER click links in email from unknown or untrusted sources. This morning, I was reminded the same is true inside a browser. There, one should avoid mystery pop-up windows with equal attention and suspicion. Indeed, this happened as I visited one of my daily Windows-related news and info sites, much to my alarm and dismay.

Why Avoid Mystery Pop-Up Windows?

Any time you’re presented with a link you don’t recognize, didn’t ask for — and probably also, don’t want —  leave it alone. In my case, I clicked CTRL-Shift-ESC to launch Task Manager. Then, I killed all related browser processes. After that, I restarted Firefox anew. It’s never smart to take any such bait, nor to let it linger on your desktop.

Indeed, Task Manager might have refused to kill one or more Firefox processes. Then,  my next step would be: restart my PC, then run an immediate virus scan. As it was, an immediate follow-up scan showed Defender still on the job. It revealed neither lurking threats nor suspicious files. Good-oh!

You’ve Been Pwned!

Right here at edtittel.com, I fought off a series of WordPress-induced injection attacks last year. I ended up having to buy into a security service that prevented hijackers from altering URLs published into social media sites (e.g. X, Facebook and LinkedIn). These redirected would-be blog post visitors to certain potentially unsavory stop-offs en route to my daily posts. It now costs me $300 a year to protect website visitors from such stuff and nonsense.

I say this to explain that such things can happen to almost any website, at any time, as unpatched vulnerabilities get exploited. Knowing that this is always a possibility, savvy users recognize that mystery pop-ups hide much more malice and potential for harm than sources for wonder and beauty. Avoid them at all costs, is received security wisdom — and my best advice as well. That goes double if they come bearing offers that seem too good to be true…

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

DSA Update Succeeds Where Lenovo Vantage Fails

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Go figure! When Lenovo Vantage reported this morning that the ThinkStation P3 Ultra needed a new Intel Wi-Fi driver, I thought nothing of it. I elected the install, fired it off, and waited for the results. Oops: “Failed to install.” Tried again, and got the same result. So I checked Intel’s Driver and Support Assistant (DSA). Sure enough it reported the same outdated driver (23.60.0.10) and the same incoming new replacement (23.100.0.4). But that DSA update succeeds where Lenovo Vantage fails. As you can see in the lead-in graphic, a subsequent Vantage update check post-DSA reports no updates available (and shows a failed attempt below).

Guessing Why DSA Update Succeeds Where Lenovo Vantage Fails

I’m a great believer in the old principle that “if one tool fails, try a different one.” What’s trickier is figuring out why Vantage falls over while DSA does the job correctly. Copilot speculates it could have to do with compatibility, permissions, or software conflicts. Turns out one must enable a registry setting to get Vantage to log and report on failures — absent on the P3 Ultra, alas — so I can’t really tell what went south when Commercial Vantage did its thing.

If it were really important (and I hadn’t found an immediate and easy workaround) that’s what I’d be doing next. The key string involved is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Lenovo\
SystemUpdateAddin\Logs

The REG-SZ (registry string) value named “EnableLogs” needs to be changed from its default value of “False” to “True” for subsequent logging to occur. I’ve made that change, and will check out if and when future Vantage install or other update errors occur. Good stuff!

Prepped for the next gotcha: logging enabled.

Hopefully next time I won’t have to guess what happened. The log should tell me something. Whether I can parse its meaning is a whole ‘nother challenge!

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2025 Fleet Preparations

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As you may know I just resumed work after a 9-day hiatus over the weekend. As part of my catch-up process I’ve been using WU, WinGet, PatchMyPC Home Updater, Intel DSA, Snappy SDIO and some other odds’n’ends to make sure all 10 of my available Windows PCs (and an equal number of VMs) are all caught up and current. Call a 2025 fleet preparations maneuver, as I expect to return to mondo crazy work levels next week.

What’s Involved in 2025 Fleet Preparations?

Basically, this involves running various update checks to make sure what’s running is at current release levels. Here’s what I observed for the aforementioned tools while working through that process on my decade of physical PCs:

WU: no major pending updates, routine Defender stuff, one restart
WinGet: it found anywhere from 4 (low) to 11 (high) pending updates in need of handling
PatchMyPC: Managed the 8GadgetPack to GadgetPack switchover, also updated FileZilla on some PCs
Intel DSA: Found pending Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Intel graphics updates for most machines
Snappy SDIO: did the trick to upgrade Bluetooth on one PC where DSA kept trying and failing to complete. Go figure!

I also found some new updates via Lenovo Vantage, primarily for newer PCs (2022 or after). Surprisingly the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen8 (2018 vintage) also got some unexpected updates as well.

The whole thing took me the best part of a day to work through. But now, I feel Windows-Ready for 2025.

What’s Next?

On those PCs that don’t get backed up automatically, I’ll make sure there’s a final Windows image for 2024 before we slip into 2025 at midnight tonite. Happy New Year, everybody!

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

8GadgetPack Is Now Just GadgetPack

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We returned from our holiday travels over the weekend, and I’ve been slowly getting back into the groove here at Chez Tittel. While I didn’t apparently miss many updates or upgrades, one interesting item popped up. Helmut Buhler has renamed his epic 8GadgetPack tool to drop the leading 8 — making it GadgetPack — with a similarly truncated website to match. Hence my claim that 8GadgetPack is now just GadgetPack. But boy, does it bring a lot of welcome changes, too. Let me explain.

If 8GadgetPack Is Now Just GadgetPack, Changes Follow

You can see the complete list of changes to this essential Windows toolkit (IMHO, anway) in its December 25 changelog entry. But a quick look at the lead-in graphic shows some changes emphatically. The new version is at left, and the old at right, showing my go-to gadgets on Windows physical and virtual desktops everywhere. You can see a newer, more stripped-down approach to those tools, especially the Clock. Simply put, Buhler has updated icons, gadgets and controls (now called settings) to mesh more directly with standard Windows 10 and 11 UI stuff. It looks great, too.

Clock is simpler, sparer and feels less dated.

What Else Ya Got?

The changelog entry for 12/25 cites to updated graphics for “many gadgets, gadget icons, gadget grip buttons and the GadgetPack installer itself.” This is no exaggeration. The program is updated and refreshed throughout. The version number is now up to 38.0, too. For those who already use this tool, this is a must-have update. For those who’ve yet to take it for a spin, it’s even more worth doing than it was before.

A great Christmas present for Windows-heads everywhere. Thanks for your hard work, and a great update, Mr. Buhler!

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OhMyPosh Version Check Plus

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Now that I’ve used the “oh-my-posh enable upgrade” command to enable auto-upgrades on my various production and test PCs, I need to know how to check which version I’m running. Indeed, I’m conducting what I call an “OhMyPosh version check plus” on those machines, to make sure everything is up to snuff. Along the way, I’ve learned a few things…

Conducting OhMyPosh Version Check Plus

The — version parameter shows which version of OMP is currently running, as you can see in the lead-in graphic. This confirms that the “enable upgrade”  command is working and that I’m running the most current version. You can always double-check by visiting the OMP GitHub repository and matching up with its latest release info.

You can see that the “Latest” version value matches what’s installed.

I really, really appreciate all the great work that developer Jan DeDobbeleer has done to make this environment attractive, stable, and easy to use. All I can say is keep up the good work!

Holiday Check-Out Starts Tomorrow

I’m taking some time away from blogging and work to enjoy the end-of-year holidays with my family. That starts tomorrow. I’ll be back on December 28, ready to bag and describe Windows issues and answers as they strike me. Let me wish you and yours the best of times, ample relaxation, and lots of good eats as we go off to do our own things until then. Cheers!

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

ThinkBook Hybrid Fails 24H2 Upgrade

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I can’t say I’m surprised, but I can confess to mild bepuzzlement. Over the weekend, WU decided that a new test laptop — a Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G5  — was ready for 24H2. Alas, for a variety of good reasons that ThinkBook hybrid fails 24H2 upgrade and goes down in flames. Indeed, I had to use the WinRE “Uninstall upgrade” option for the first time ever to bring that machine back to life.

Why ThinkBook Hybrid Fails 24H2 Upgrade

Of course, when I checked the machine this morning, I hadn’t interfered with WU, so it was already attempting this doomed upgrade again. You can see it’s at 25% complete in the lead-in graphic. I foiled that by restarting the PC, then pausing updates for 7 days in the WU controls, as you can see here:

While I’m troubleshooting, I suspended updates.

What the Panther Logs Have to Say

There are two primary logs worth checking into if an upgrade fails to complete successfully — namely:


C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\panther\setupact.log
C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\panther\miglog.xml

These are liberally bestrewn with errors of all kinds including device drivers and storage items. The ThinkBook’s “hybrid drive” bridges between native Windows storage on the deck and native Android storage on the tablet. It takes the form of something called a Hybrid Tab in File Explorer (see next screencap). I believe it’s very likely involved in my snafu.

Because it uses a special driver and customized software, I’m betting that the Hybrid Tab is the source of storage and driver issues.

Copilot tells me that if I upgrade from bootable media, the ThinkBook may survive the upgrade process intact. Right now, I think it’s losing the Hybrid Tab scaffolding amidst the post-GUI reboots during the serious parts of OS install. That sounds like it’s worth a try. But first, I’ll make a fresh image backup and be ready to restore same should things go south again.

Stay tuned! This could get interesting…

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Eliciting Windows Store App Version Info

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Here’s an interesting thing. For conventional Windows applications, a quick trip to Help > About is all it usually takes to see their version info. Alas, by and large, Windows apps lack such facilities. In reading about a recent update to the Phone Link app at WinAero this morning, I went looking at my various installations to see what I could see. Turns out that eliciting Windows Store app version info is doable, but may take a little finesse. I found two can’t-fail methods, which I will share here.

Why I’m Eliciting Windows Store App Version Info

The afore-linked WinAero study avers, and my own checks confirm, that only Insider versions of Windows 11 currently get the required version of Phone Link. Indeed, Phone Link’s version number must be 1.24112.73.0 or higher on the PC for the new pop-up share file menu to pop up. This raised the question: how to check Phone App version number in particular, and Store app numbers in general.

I found two relatively easy ways, neither of them glaringly obvious:

[Method 1] Use the WinGet list command, e.g. WinGet list “Phone Link” in this case (because the name includes an interior space, it must be enclosed in single or double quote marks).

The version on this Canary PC is 1.24112.89.0.

[Method 2] Visit the Microsoft Store, and look it up on its product page there. Some scrolling (look for the “Additional information” subheading) is required. Using the Phone Link entry as an example, here’s what you see:

Version number is at lower right.

Store Lookup Gets Weird

I wasn’t able to look Phone Link up using Windows Store search. I had to go to the Downloads icon in the left-hand column and look for the most recent update to Phone Link  there. That took me to the product page where I grabbed for foregoing information, including version number.  And when I asked Copilot to give a link it gave me something different instead “Sync your PC and phone easily with Phone link.” It includes a link to open the Phone Link app (Open-URL:ms-phone) which seems to indicate that while the Phone Link app gets updates from the Store, it comes pre-installed through some other means. Go figure!

What an interesting ride this one turned out to be…

Concluding Hilarious and Unscientific Postscript

Just for grins I asked Copilot “What version of Phone Link is running?” It gave the right answer too. So there’s a third possible method. But when asked what version of Copilot was running Copilot sez: “While I don’t have specific version details, I am always here to provide accurate information and support.” I have to laugh!

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MS PC Manager Keeps Improving

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When I first came across it a little over two years ago, Microsoft PC Manager was kind of an awkward curiosity. It had just been translated from Chinese into English, and it showed. The very first version had been out since February 2022, with the latter following in October that same year. In the 25+ months since then, the program has matured, improved and gotten much faster. You can see its MS Store info line in the lead-in graphic, which shows a new release a couple of days ago (12/10/2024).

Why Say: MS PC Manager Keeps Improving

I just used that latest version to clean up 3.2 GB from the ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 Mobile Workstation. It took under a minute to scan for stuff to clean, and less than that to do the actual clean-up. It’s much faster than Disk Cleanup (or the GitHub version, Managed Disk Clean) and does lots of other stuff, too. A recent clean-up shows a nice overview of those other capabilities in the left-hand column:

PMC quickly recovered 3.2 or 3.6 “cleanable” space.

The left-hand headings lead to general functionality that I’ll also list briefly:

  • Home: PC boost cleans memory, kills temp files; further links to Health Check, Process and Startup tabs in Task Manager, Deep Cleanup
  • Protection: Virus & threat protection, Windows update, Default browser settings, Taskbar repair, Restore default apps, Pop-up management
  • Storage: Deep cleanup, Downloaded files, Large Files, Duplicate files, Storage Sense
  • App management: Process management, Startup apps, Uninstall apps, Microsoft Store
  • Toolbox: Windows tools (e.g. screenshot, recorder, captions, …); Web tools (e.g. Edge Quick Links, Bing translator, currency converter…); Custom links (e.g. MSN)
  • Restore:Restore default settings throughout
  • Settings: PCM settings for boost, shortcus, general
  • Feedback: PCM feedback a la Feedback Hub

Sure, there’s some duplication in there. But the fractured English of yore is now as polished as help messages ever get. The tool could be an admirable clearinghouse for all kinds of Windows management, as you can see in the preceding annotated list. At any rate, I find it increasingly useful and helpful. If you try it out, you may find it does more — and faster — that you think it could.

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