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.

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

Latest Soonest Windows Update Benefits

September 19, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Hmmmm. When I started reading through a discussion of an upcoming Windows11 23H2 release on WindowsLatest this morning, I soon realized there was more going on than I had thought. Seems like opting into the “latest updates” option shown in the lead-in graphic does more than I had thought. In fact, one gets unexpected latest soonest Windows Update benefits. Let me explain…

What Are Latest Soonest Windows Update Benefits?

As a pretty passionate Windows Insider, I’m always after the latest and greatest that Windows Insider Previews have to offer. Sure they can be occasionally gnarly, or even troublesome. But that’s a big part of what I signed up for when I joined the program.

And until recently, I had too often felt left out when MS started A/B testing new features, and I wound up on the “B fork” (the one that doesn’t get the new stuff). That’s why I was hornswoggled to read these sentences in the afore-linked WindowsLatest story:

All Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge updates now use Controlled Feature Rollouts (CFR) technology, gradually introducing new features. Users can choose to get these features immediately by enabling a specific toggle in Windows 11 22H2 or later.

Yowza! That’s just what I’ve always wanted. Not realizing this would forcibly put me on the “A fork” for all CFRs, I had opted in anyway. I did so just because I think that’s my job as a serious Insider (and WIMVP).

How nice to learn I’m getting what I really wanted without having know that’s the way this toggle (or slider) really works. I’m jazzed: thanks Microsoft!

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

Snipping Tool Gains OCR Text Grab

September 18, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s a good one. In the latest builds of Windows 11 Canary and Dev (25951.1010 and 23545.1000, respectively) Snipping Tool gains new functionality that’s both interesting and useful. In those versions Snipping Tool gains OCR text grab capability. You can see it at work in the lead-in graphic.

Exploring How Snipping Tool Gains OCR Text Grab

The secret to this functionality is the text grab button at the top of the toolbar (center of image, lightly highlighted in off-pink). It looks like several lines of text inside a box, to wit:

Not as pretty when magnified, but the intent is pretty clear.

When you use the text grab function in Snipping Tool, you get buttons to “Copy all text: and “Quick redact” (blocks out sections of text with dark overlays). OTOH, if you right-click inside the selected text area inside such a snip you get a pop-up menu with Copy text, Select all and Redact text buttons.

It’s all good, and this capability is quite welcome. Indeed, I have to ask: why didn’t MS add this years and years ago? I’ve had to turn to other tools for this capability in the past. Nice to have it built right into Snipping Tool now. Good stuff!

It’ll be a while before this goes into general availability, though. I’m guessing this won’t make it into production until the 24H2 release comes out next year. We’ll see: I’ll track this and keep you posted.

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

Interesting OMP Winget Gotcha Is Easily Fixed

September 15, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I have to laugh. When I opened Windows Terminal/PowerShell yesterday morning, I got a notification that a new version of OhMyPosh (OMP) was available. So naturally, I tried to see the update. When that failed, I tried to update OMP directly, and that failed, too. But thankfully, this interesting OMP gotcha is easily fixed. I’ll explain …

But first take a look at the lead-in graphic above. It starts with the notification. That happens when loading PS causes the OMP environment to start up, too. But running winget upgrade shows an issue with accessing the winget database. Ditto for trying an explicit, directed upgrade on the string “Oh My Posh.” What to do?

OK, Here’s How Interesting OMP Winget Gotcha Is Easily Fixed

First, the fix: I went to GitHub, where developer Jan DeDobbeleer always maintains a current version under its “Latest” link. For the record, I downloaded and installed his install-amd64.exe file there and the upgrade completed without a hitch.

But what went wrong with OMP in the first place? I sent Jan a Twitter (X) message and he replied: “Yes, unfortunately winget, just like the Store, is slower in processing new versions.” I took this to mean the changes were already posted to the manifest database, but that those changes had not yet been committed.

It’s Just a Matter of Time

And indeed, I just checked one of my other test PCs with OMP installed. Running winget just now, it shows — and stands ready to — upgrade OMP to the latest version. Looks like the notification beat the update yesterday, but they’re now back in synch. Here’s visual proof:

This morning’s check works as expected. Database is caught up!

And boy howdy, as we say here in Texas, isn’t that just the way things sometimes go, here in Windows-World. You bet!

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

Registry Hack Cleans Out Stale RDC Items

September 14, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Wow! I guess there have been more changes in the PC fleet here at Chez Tittel than I thought lately. I kept seeing stale entries in the drop-down list from Remote Desktop Connection. So I found a Microsoft Learn article that explains how to remove or replace them. It’s entitled How to remove entries from the Remote Desktop Connection Computer box. Its registry hack cleans out stale RDC items. Let me explain…

More Info: Registry Hack Cleans Out Stale RDC Items

Visit the following registry key inside Registry Editor (regedit.exe):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default

Indeed, you can cut’n’paste this string into the address line in regedit, and save yourself the toil and trouble of typing it in. When you get to that key, you should see something like the lead-in graphic underneath the leaf-node (…\Default).

As you can see it includes 10 values named MRU0 through MRU9. To remove any such value, right-click and select ‘Delete’ from the resulting pop-up menu. In my case, I had old values that kept showing up, but also new values I wanted to include. So instead of deleting stale values, I right-clicked their keys, and modified the associated string values to match the machine names of new machines I’d added. As shown in the lead-in graphic that meant adding P1Gen6. Next, I deleted lenyog7i (MRU7) because I’ve returned that unit to Lenovo.

To see what registry changes look like, you must close and then re-open regedit. Here’s what it looks like now (notice that MRU7 is now missing):

Note that MRU7 is missing, now that it’s deleted.

As you add and remove items using this hack, the registry automatically renumbers them. But unless you change the number of items from the default count of 10, you’ll only ever see items MRU0 through MRU9 (10 items, all told). Great fun!

Insider stuff, PowerShell, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Interesting PatchMyPC Download Affects Winget

September 13, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s an interesting gotcha. On September 5, I wrote about uptake and intake of a new Lenovo loaner/review PC. It’s a nifty new Intel Gen13 P1 Mobile Workstation. I described using PatchMyPC to install a bunch of follow-on applications, including CrystalDiskMark. Yesterday, I figured out that an “interesting” PatchMyPC download affects winget updates thereafter. The lead-in graphic provides an important clue. Can you see it?

How an “Interesting” PatchMyPC Download Affects Winget

The output line from winget tells the story. It finds a CrystalDiskMark version (I’ll abbreviate this as CDM going forward for convenience) that differs from the one in its database. Note the line that shows version 8.0.4c installed, but 8.0.4 available. This is what causes the “unexpected error” report later in the lead-in screenshot.

As best I can interpret what’s going on is this: 8.0.4c is treated as a different version from 8.0.4. Winget doesn’t know what to do with this odd duck named 8.0.4c when it wants to install (and see) 8.0.4. Its MO is to avoid changing stuff that doesn’t match its search criteria, so the download request fails along with the update. Sigh.

Where Does PatchMyPC Come Into Play?

You’ll recall I mentioned using PatchMyPC to install a bunch of applications on the P1 Workstation in the opening paragraphs. So I fired up that program and sure enough it shows the installed (and current) version of CDM on the target PC as — you guessed it — 8.0.4c. Here’s a screencap:

Note the version number for CDM (line 6 in sage green text in right column): 8.0.4c. Eureka!

So here’s how I “fixed” this non-issue. As you might expect, winget won’t uninstall this odd duck CDM version any more than it will upgrade it. So first, I used Revo Uninstall to remove the existing CDM installation.Then I ran the winget command to install CDM — namely winget install CrystalDewWorld.CystalDiskMark as shown in the following screencap. A subsequent winget upgrade command shows it no longer balks at the odd duck (and now absent) 8.0.4c version number (I had to clear an Edge update in the meantime, so the bottom line that starts “No installed package” is the one that proves CDM is no longer throwing an update notification).

Ultimately, I’m guessing this issue originates with the developer failing to provide a new winget manifest for version 8.0.4c to the winget database. That’s the explanation that best fits these observations, IMHO. And FWIW, the download also took forever to complete (more than 3 minutes for a mere 3.87 MB package). Go figure!

When winget upgrade reports “No installed package…” it means no updates are needed, including CDM. Fixed!

Of course, I had to back off the real most current version to clear this error. But that means it wasn’t really an error, doesn’t it? That’s one of the many ways I keep myself entertained, here in Windows-World!

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

Upcoming Windows Imperative: Get Help!

September 12, 2023 Ed Tittel 2 Comments

OK, then. Troubleshooters are on their way out of newer Windows versions. Instead a series of “Get Help” tools will replace that functionality. That’s the message I take from this February 2023 dated MS Support note entitled “Deprecation of Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) and MSDT Troubleshooters. A closer look at the story is where I find this new and upcoming Windows imperative: Get Help! You can see it, too, in the lead-in graphic.

Identifying the Upcoming Windows Imperative: Get Help!

If you look at the “redirected” Troubleshooters list above, you’lll see that each one begins with the string “Open Get Help” tied to a related Windows facility, program, or device. Closer reading of this document also explains that the Microsoft Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) is to be retired. Also, numerous “legacy inbox troubleshooters” will be removed from the upcoming next release of Windows 11:

Connection to a Workplace using DirectAccess
Devices and Printers
Hardware and Devices
HomeGroup
Incoming Connections
Internet Explorer Performance
Internet Explorer Safety
Keyboard
Power
Search and Indexing
Speech
System Maintenance
Shared Folders
Windows Store Apps

Some of these removals make perfect sense — like those related to the now-obsolete Windows Explorer and HomeGroup facilities. Others are somewhat more mysterious — such as Devices and Printers, Hardware and Devices, Keyboard, Power, Search and Indexing and so forth.

The apparent timetable is to get through this transition by this time next year. Thus, I presume Windows 11 24H2 could be the release in which these changes probably manifest. Presumably, they’ll show up sooner in Canary and Dev channel Insider Previews, and then on down the chain from there as the release date approaches.

Relax: Older Versions Are Not Affected

Here’s an important verbatim quote from this Support Note which should calm any concerns about Windows 10 and current Windows 11 versions:

If you’re running Windows 11 version 22H2 and older, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 or any other earlier OS version, your device will not be affected by the MSDT Troubleshooter retirement. Earlier OS systems will continue to run the legacy inbox troubleshooters.

This definition, also quoted verbatim, should further clarify things:

…legacy inbox Windows Troubleshooters are built-in tools that, when launched, automatically diagnose and correct common problems for a variety of Windows features. MSDT Troubleshooters will be deprecated in the next Windows 11 release, with the date to be determined.

Here’s what I really find interesting about this. It will expose a pretty major fork in the road between the next major Windows 11 release and the mostly-common code base that Windows 10 and 11 still share. I’ll be fascinated to learn about and understand what Get Help! really means in this context. Stay tuned…

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

Where Is AI Taking Windows 11?

September 11, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

There’s a fascinating story in WindowsLatest this morning. Entitled Microsoft’s AI could supercharge your Windows 11 desktop backgrounds, it describes fancy means for animating the desktop. The idea, apparently, is to create an illusion of depth and add visual interest to ordinary usage scenarios. Sounds cool and perhaps even compelling, but it has me asking: “Where is AI taking Windows 11?”

Answering: “Where is AI taking Windows 11?”

The afore-linked story mentions other, more significant (IMO) uses of AI as well, including Bing and Edge, Windows 11 (e.g. CoPilot), Azure and more. Frankly, I’m a little surprised that desktop backgrounds warrant mention in that same league. Indeed, I’d like to suggest some other and perhaps more helpful ways to use AI in Windows 11 that could really help power and professional IT users on that platform:

An AI-based tie-in betweeen Power Automate and PowerShell, or an AI-based PowerShell assistant. I envision something like an over-the-shoulder agent observing patterns of use, and suggesting faster and better ways to do the same things, or providing canned scripts or packages that take over such jobs over time.
A series of AI-based system monitors for Windows 11 “behavioral areas” such as security, performance, disk structure, OS image management and optimization, and OS and application update handling. The first topic above could be of great benefit to all these things.
Components of the Microsoft 365 environment, including OS, VMs, Office components (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) are already undergoing “AI enrichment.” Improving ease of automation via macros and scripts, especially for repetitive tasks, would be fabulous.

Deciding Where AI Comes Into Play

As the technology becomes more familiar and its uses better understood, I’m sure we’ll see more and better ways to put AI to work at all levels of computing and user interaction. Personally, I’m in favor of AI-assisted user empowerment across the board — that is, from boosting what everday or casual end users can do (and get done) all the way up to those who work in data centers and other tech-heavy environments where the cloud and its supporting infrastructure come from, and sophisticated, distributed applications and services reside and operate.

Who knows where this will take us in a decade or more? Indeed, it’s sure to go further from today’s vision of computing than we can probably imagine. Waaaaaaaaaay beyond desktop backgrounds, to be sure…

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

MS Recasts Printer Driver Requirements

September 8, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Very interesting! There’s a September 6 update to MS Learn Windows device drivers docs. Therein, MS recasts its future printer driver requirements (End of servicing plan for third-party printer drivers on Windows.). For those who manage and use Windows printers, it’s worth a read.

Driver Standards Explain How MS Recasts Printer Driver Requirements

The change comes courtesy of the the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). Originally developed by IBM, IPP is explained in an MS Print support app design guide. Indeed, IPP may be “[u]sed from a client device to interact with the printer to retrieve and set printing preferences and to send the document to be printed.”

Long story short: support for IPP and Mopria standards is a good thing. They make vendor-supplied printer drivers and software unnecessary — at least, for printers that support those standards. And FWIW, IPP and Mopria work on Android, while AirPrint does likewise for iDevices.

That explains the MS timetable in its “end of servicing plan”

September 2023: MS announces end of servicing for third-party printer drivers
2025: No new printer drivers from WU
2026: Printer driver ranking always prefers IPP drivers
2027: Third-party print driver updates disallowed (except for security-related fixes)

IPP Has Been There All Along…

Check out this sub-Window. It comes via Control Panel → Programs and Features → Turn Windows features on or off. It shows built-in IPP support in Windows 10 and 11. See “Internet Printing Client” (box is checked) under”Print and Document Services”

Internet Printing Client checked means IPP is active.
If not, do check it.

Using TCP/IP addresses for networked printers, I’d been unknowingly using IPP for years . Thanks to MS’s updated printer driver architecture, I needn’t use device-specific drivers and software, either. Good stuff.

Indeed, my 2014/2015 Samsung (now HP) and Dell (Brother, actually) printers already use IPP. Most printers made in 2014 or later will do likewise. Good stuff!

Here are additional resources that readers may find helpful.

OpenPrinting Driverless Printers: Vendor makes and models for IPP and/or AirPrint capable printers.
Wikipedia: Mopria Alliance: Info about this trade association. Founded by HP in 2013, it includes global print device makers backing open print initiatives and standards.

Cheers!

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

So Long SUMo & KC Softwares

September 7, 2023 Ed Tittel 12 Comments

Dang! I’ve been through this same situation before with a terrific software update monitor. For the past 3 years or so, a favorite go-to tool in my update arsenal has been KC Softwares Software Update Monitor, better known as SUMo. It looks like it’s time to bid them adieu. As shown in the lead-in graphic’s termination notice, I find myself saying “So long SUMo & KC Softwares.”

After So Long SUMo & KC Softwares, Then…?

Let me tell you how I found out things were shutting down with Kyle Katarn’s operation. I found an oversight in SUMo a few minutes ago. Seems that it’s once again recommending a beta version of DropBox as an update target. The program’s automated “find the highest numbered update” algorithm does that sometimes because beta versions are usually higher-numbered than the most current production ones.

My usual practice for the past year and more has been to send the developer a Twitter (X) message to tell him this needs checking and possibly also fixing. This time, when I attempted to send him a message the application responded “You can no longer send messages to this person.” In turn, this led me to kcsoftwares.com, where I found the termination message you see above. Sigh.

Remembrance of Things Past

Back in 2019, I wrote about an older update monitoring tool, likewise pulled from the market. This was back when Windows Enterprise Desktop was still under the TechTarget umbrella (title: Missing Secunia PSI). Long story short: I used Secunia PSI from 2010 to 2016 with great pleasure and success. When it, too, was withdrawn from the market I had to scramble to find a replacement.

That’s what I’ll do now, too. Stay tuned: both the hunt and its results should be quite interesting.

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

Intel Fixes PROSet Problem

September 6, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Back on August 18, I reported that version 28.2 of Intel PROSet didn’t support Windows 10 22H2 for some reason. Because I was away from my desk from August 25 through September 4, I only discovered today that Intel fixes PROset problem. According to the properties for the 64-bit executable, it dates back to August 4. That said, today’s download and install works. Indeed, it threw no “version not supported” error message as shown in the earlier post.

When Intel Fixes PROSet Problem, Then What?

This time around, the update worked as expected. The readme.txt file still omits Windows 10 22H2 as a supported version, but the exe file now works properly on my machine. Sigh.

This has me wondering: Did Intel fix something on the sly, or did I simply try to run the wrong exe file last time around? I’ll never know, but I’m glad the update now works as it should. I no longer get nagged when I check updates for something I thought I couldn’t fix on my own.

It’s Still a Mystery to Me…

Looking back at my earlier post, the error message says nothing about which version of Windows it expected to find. I suppose I could have jumped to the conclusion that 22H2 wasn’t supported because it doesn’t appear on the supported version list.

As before, readme.txt calls out Windows 10 21H2 and 1809 but does not mention 22H2. I wonder now if I mistakenly tried to run the 32-bit PROSet executable instead of its 64-bit counterpart. That could provoke the same kind of error message as before. When I try to run that version now, it tells me “Another version is already installed…”

Such surprises can be educational. They teach me that my diagnoses may not always be the correct ones, no matter how plausible the supporting evidence may seem. Indeed, that’s the way things go in Windows-World sometimes, as I know only too well.

Bottom line: I’m glad the update worked this time. Though it may actually have been a self-inflicted problem, PROSet now shows version 28.2.0.2 on my desktop. Call my Windows 10 PC updated, even if I’m not sure exactly what went wrong on August 18.

As you can see at lower left, this running PROSet instance self-describes as 28.2.02 — the latest version.