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.

Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows tools

Zoom Updates and Payment

October 20, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s an interesting set of observations. In the past weeks, I’ve noticed that the free version of Zoom no longer offers the “Check for Updates” option in its menus. I’ve also noticed that Zoom has been asking free users to “upgrade” to the for-a-fee pay version. That got me to thinking about Zoom updates and payment. So I conducted an experiment…

What About Zoom Updates and Payment?

I went ahead and signed up for an individual Zoom license. It’s assessed annually, and costs about US$185 per year. Right now, the first year is discounted, so my actual out-of-pocket was “only” US$95.88. But it renews automatically at full price one year from today. Ouch!

That said, as I suspected — and as you can see in the lead-in graphic above — if you do pay for Zoom, you also get the Check for Updates option back. That raises the interesting question: is automatic updating worth US$95 (this year) or US$185 yearly? I’m not convinced.

There IS Another (Free) Way

If you don’t mind running a few Winget commands, you can keep the free version and update as you need to. FYI, I use SUMo to tell me when it’s time to update, but because I don’t pay for a license to that software on all my PCs, I’ve figured out how to use Winget to handle that instead.

The basic concept is to uninstall the version that’s running. Then, if you install Zoom again it will grab the latest version. That results in an up-to-date version on your PC. Two simple one-liner commands are involved:

Winget uninstall Zoom.Zoom
Winget install Zoom.Zoom

That’s it. Works like a champ. Be sure to keep your sign-in account and password info handy, because you’ll need to sign into the newly installed version after going through this remove/replace operation.

But you can keep using the free version, and stay current, if you follow this simple two-step operation. That’s probably what I’ll revert to next year, when my renewal comes due. To be continued…

It’s Irksome, and Potentially Insecure

C’mon Zoom: this approach is potentially unsafe for lots of users who SHOULD be free (e.g. students, seniors, nonprofit workers, and so on). Sure, it may be an inducement for some people (me, for example) to purchase a commercial license so as to regain auto-update ability. But the vast majority of free users who have no choice but to stay put should not be exposed to potential security vulnerabilities in the name of (modest) incremental revenues.

My plea/request: return the automatic updates to the free version! Find a different way to increment your income, please, in the name of better overall application security.

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

First Windows 11 22H2 Moment Arrives

October 19, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then. We knew it was coming. And with yesterday’s release of KB5019509 it’s here. That’s right: with this out-of-band update, the first Windows 11 22H2 moment arrives. This time, it includes the tabbed version of File Explorer, which wasn’t quite ready for release when 22H2 made its debut on September 20. This new, snazzed-up File Explorer version provides the lead-in graphic for this story, shot from my just-updated P16 laptop.

What First Windows 11 22H2 Moment Arrives Means

I guess it helps to understand that a moment is shorthand for what ComputerWorld (CW) describes as “small, quarterly feature updates” in a September 14 story. (This story in turn relies on a July Windows Central hearsay report about the terminology.) And indeed, support for tabs in File Explorer makes a perfect illustration of what such a “moment” could bring to users.

But there’s more to KB5019509 than File Explorer tabs. Here are descriptions of two other new features, straight from that update announcement (blue text emphasis mine for ease of identification):

New!It adds a feature called Suggested Actions for items that you copy. This is available for customers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. For example, when you copy phone numbers or future dates, we provide suggestions, such as make a call with Teams or Skype or add an event in the Calendar app.

New! It adds a taskbar overflow menu. The taskbar will offer an entry point to a menu that shows you all your overflowed apps in one space.

We’ll Have These Moments to Remember…

If the CW description is correct, this is just the first of a series of such moments that will pop up from time to time. I can’t tell if MS will itself use the “moment” terminology or not. In fact, KB5109509 calls the aforementioned introductions “quality improvements” instead. A search on the word “moment” turns it up nowhere in this text.

Other new quality improvements in the update include using nearby sharing to “discover and share more devices, including desktops,” a switchover to Windows Settings from Control Panel to “uninstall, repair and modify all apps,” and improved “performance of federated authentication.” All told, KB5109509 appears to offer some interesting stuff.

But if a quality improvement isn’t explicitly called out as a “moment,” why bother with this terminology? Good question! I wish I had an equally good answer. We’ll have to see how this all unrolls. In the meantime, I’m just going to savor this particular moment…

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

Get-Hotfix Shows What WU Sometimes Cannot

October 18, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

When MS lifted the safeguard hold on my Lenovo P16 Mobile Workstation, I upgraded it to Windows 11 22H2. Naturally, my first thought thereafter was to check on status of recent updates and fixes. That’s when I figured out that KB5018427 was included in the 22H2 version installed. Seems that Get-Hotfix shows what WU sometimes cannot — at least as far as Update History goes.

It’s all apparent in the lead-in graphic for this story. In case it’s not legible enough, right-click on that image and select “Open image in new tab” (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.). That should show it at original resolution. If necessary, you can use the browser’s Zoom controls to magnify the text.

How Get-Hotfix Shows What WU Sometimes Cannot

Update history shows only user-alllied updates. It does not show updates that — like KB5018427–get rolled up into the windows image file (WIM) used to install a version upgrade. That’s what makes the PowerShell Get-Hotfix command so useful. Its image analysis tool tells it what’s there, whether the user applied it directly, or whether it’s already “in there” as is the case here.

An important clue appears in the “Installed on” date shown in the output of Get-Hotfix. Although the KB item itself is dated 10/11/2022, it didn’t get rolled into the WIM until 10/14/2022.

What Led Me Down This Trail?

I read the Windows Latest story about KB5018427. Naturally, I wanted to check on its status in the upgraded 22H2 version. When I didn’t see it in Update History, I visited the Microsoft Catalog and downloaded the 64-bit MSU file. Upon attempting its installation, it searched the updates already installed on the PC. That produced the following status message:

That made me understand the KB had been included in the WIM file I’d already installed. A search on “use PowerShell to show updates installed” led me to the Get-Hotfix command.

As the afore-cited PowerShell docs states:

The Get-Hotfix cmdlet gets hotfixes, or updates, that are installed on the local computer or specified remote computers. The updates can be installed by Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services, or manually installed.

Thus Get-Hotfix can catch patches and fixes no matter how they get included in the image it checks and reports upon. The rest, as they say (drum roll, please)… is history!

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

P16 Safeguard Hold Lifted

October 17, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then. I performed my daily ritual WU check on the P16 Mobile Workstation on Friday (Oct 14) . This time, the P16 safeguard hold lifted, and I was able to update to Windows 11 22H2. As you can see in the lead-in screencap, the 22H2 download was available during capture. Neat-o!

And indeed a quick visit to the 22H2 Known Issues page shows that my hold-up — the Intel SST drivers — appears as “mitigated.” Here’s what that looks like:

The P16 blocking issue is now resolved, thanks to Intel driver updates. These appear in DevMgr under the “Software Components” heading.

With P16 Safeguard Hold Lifted, Upgrade Proceeds

I got a little concerned right after the first reboot (from the GUI-based portion of the install, into the post-GUI phase). The P16 sat at 0% complete on processing updates for what seemed like an eternity (about 4 minutes). But then, it started to chunk through the process and finished in about 20 minutes during that install phase.

I noticed that the update included a raft of driver updates –14 in all — by checking Reliability Monitor later on. The two items of greatest import show up in the software components category where various sound -related items reside.

Whatever the issue might have been, I’m glad to see it resolved. And so far, the P16 is running without apparent issues. I’m connected to it remotely via RDP right now, so that recent bugaboo is not present here, either. Good-oh!

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

USB NVMe HW Tweak Delivers Big

October 14, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I’m still noodling about, trying to figure how to get the best performance out of high end USB NVMe drive enclosures. To that end, I was reminded of something I already knew but hadn’t considered. That is: deep down in the hardware policies for Windows removable devices — including NVMe drives — is something called “Removal policy.” As a quick and easy item, this USB NVMe HW tweak delivers big results.

Those results appear in the lead-in graphic for this story. Both sets of CrystalDiskMark results come from the same system, same USB-C port, and the same NVMe hardware. The only difference is that one is tweaked (selected “Better Performance”) and one is not. As you can see, this tweak makes a big difference. (Hint: the left-hand item shows tweaked results.)

How-To: Set Up NVMe HW Tweak Delivers Big

This takes a bit of digging to get into. This properties page is several levels deep in the storage device properties hierarchy. There are multiple ways to get to this page. I’ll illustrate one with step-by-step instructions using Disk Management:

1. Use Winkey+X to open the quick access menu.
2. Select Disk Management.
3. Right-click the drive letter for the NVMe device, then select Properties.
4. On the General tab, click the Properties button at lower right.
5. On that General tab, click the “Change Settings” button at lower left.
6. Click the Policies tab on the resulting Properties page, and click the radio button next to “Better Performance.” Also, click “Enable write caching on the device.”

Here’s what that final page looks like, with the described selections made:

This page is four levels deep into the device properties hierarchy. It offers a useful “Better Performance” option.

What About Those Results?

I built a spreadsheet using both sets of results. Note that for every cell in each set of results, the tweaked drive was faster than the untweaked one. Some of the differences are negligible (under 10%). Some are minor, but noticeable (under 35%). The entire write column, however, offers at least doubled speed (top two columns). The random writes are 30 times faster when one thread works against a queue depth of 32. That drops to “merely” 11 times faster for a single thread and a single write request. Amazing!

Tweak(R)	Tw(W)	Notweak (R)	Notw(W)	Delta (R)	Delta (W)
3049.53	2898.59	3004.07	1326.67	101.51%	218.49%
1760.91	2020.40	1620.99	857.20	108.63%	235.70%
499.74	361.83	411.16	12.00	121.54%	3015.25%
50.92	110.77	38,74	9.52	131.44%	1163.55%

This represents a significant boost in performance for a quick settings tweak. It does mean, though, that you must use the “Safe Eject” tool in the notification bar to eject the drive before you can disconnect it. Or, if you’re like me, you’ll simply do it the next time the host PC is rebooting (best done right when the restart gets underway, after shutdown is complete).

But gosh! Consider the money for a fast-ish NVMe drive (about US$120 – 150 for the 1 TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus). Then, factor in US$150-170 for a fast, USB4 NVMe enclosure. The tweak takes under a minute and really helps with drive performance. If you spend the money, you need to spend the time and effort to apply the tweak. You’ll get the most from your investment that way.

Realworld Results Change

Untweaked, it takes Macrium Reflect 5:30 to image the system drive on the P16 Mobile Workstation where the USB4 NVMe drive is attached. Tweaked, that same drive finished the job in 2:25. That’s over twice as fast. To me, that’s much more meaningful than synthetic benchmark results like those from CystalDiskMark. It also shows those benchmark results have some truth to them as well. Good-oh!

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

Windows 365 App Now Available

October 13, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Too cool! The Windows 365 app — now available in the MS Store — is out. Search on either “Windows 365” or “Windows 365 Preview” and it should come right up. The app’s Store page appears as the lead-in graphic for this story, in fact.

With Windows 365 App Now Available, What Else Is Needed?

Good question! I immediately downloaded and installed the app. Upon running same, I learned that a valid Windows 365 subscription is required so that the app can connect and interact with a Cloud PC instance. Because I lack such a subscription, here’s what I got from the cloud when I logged into my AD tenant account:

Drat! I was afraid that Preview didn’t confer temporary or evaluation access. I was right, alas…

Looking at Windows 365 Business Plans for SMBs, I see they cost from US$31 to 61 per month. Ouch! That’s costish, for something I don’t really need, but would love to play with.

Visiting the MS Evaluation Center, nowhere do I see Cloud PC among its various offerings. I guess that makes sense: it doesn’t cost MS anything more than storage space to provide ISOs for download. Hosting (extra) cloud PCs for evaluation means they bear more or less the same costs that the real thing imposes, with none of the revenue generating benefits.

Ifs and Buts for Cloud PC, Windows 365 App

Too bad! I’ve wanted to give the Cloud PC thing a try since it was first announced in 2018-2019. Right now, it seems like there’s no way to try it out without buying it. And with costs at US$372 per year and up, that means tangible costs. I’ll have to think about this, to see if I want to “pay to play.”

But those who already have Windows 365 subscriptions can simply download the app. When they log into an AD tenant with associated Cloud PC instances, the app should take it from there…

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

Fixing Windows 10 WinKey-X

October 12, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I don’t remember anymore how I shot myself in the foot this particular time. All I know is that I somehow removed all traces of PowerShell from the WinKey+X menu on my Windows10 production PC. The lead-in graphic shows that menu from my ancient Surface Pro 3, also still running Windows 10. Recently, I’ve found myself fixing Windows 10 Winkey-X because I want it to show Windows Terminal.

After Some Fumbles, I’m Fixing Windows 10 WinKey-X

If you search on “customizing WinKey+X menu” you’ll find lots of information and advice available. Initially, I was beguiled by Sergey Tkachenko’s WinX Editor. I should’ve known better: it hasn’t been updated since 2017.

A key ingredient in modifying the WinKey+X menu, as it turns out, turns on using the latest version of Rafael Rivera’s hashlnk.exe program. Basically, it creates hash values and associated them with menu shortcuts, so the OS treats the entries in the following path correctly:

%LocalAppdata%\Microsoft\Windows\WinX

The sub-folder “Group3” is where my specific shortcut had to go. But it didn’t work without using the latest (2.0) version of hashlnk. And because WinX Editor doesn’t use that version, it doesn’t work, either.

TenForums to the Rescue

As with many other topics in the Windows world, I found my fix in the TenForums Tutorials. This particular one is called Add Custom Shortcuts to Win+X Quick Link Menu in Windows 10. I followed its guidance, step-by-step, and got an admin version of Windows Terminal installed in my WinKey+X menu without undue difficulty.

As is often the case in fixing Windows issues, it took much longer to find the right solution than it did to implement it. I think we’re talking about an hour-plus of fumbling around and failed attempts before I turned to my unusually reliable and intelligible TenForums resource. Sigh. That’s the way things go around here sometimes….

Here’s what my Winkey+X menu looks like now, with my desired entry up top.

After going through the motions I get a Windows Terminal entry with admin privileges (reads “Term (Admin)”).

I have long been a proponent of Ten Forums and ElevenForum tutorials. This doesn’t change that stance at all. In fact, it strengthens it!

Backup/Restore, Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Uncategorized, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

HDDs Still Have Their Uses

October 11, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Hmmmm. Just saw a fascinating story at Neowin.net. It provides links to some low-cost deals for hard disk drives (HDDs) that range in size from 3 to 14 TB, with prices from US$60 (3TB) to US$210 (14 TB). I’m not endorsing the brand (WD) or the deals (listed from Amazon and — in some instances — Newegg). But I am amazed at just how cheap conventional hard disks can be today. And because HDDs still have their uses — particularly for archiving and spare backups — buying may make sense.

Economics Also Verify That HDDs Still Have Their Uses

I’m struck by the contrast between HDD and NVMe prices, especially for 4 and 8 TB devices. Looking at Amazon, I see that 4TB NVMe drives go for US$460 and up, with most top-end devices just below or over US$600. When you can find them (not easy), 8TB devices cost from just under US$1,200 to around US$1,500 or so.

The comparison to HDD is pretty stark. The Neowin story cites prices of US$70 for 4, and US$130 for 8 TB. Do the math to figure out the ratios. The 4TB NVMes cost between 6.57 and 8.57 times as much as their HDD counterparts. 8TB models run between 9.23 and 11.53 times as much.

Of course, denser solid-state devices are much more expensive to make. Though higher-capacity HDDs have more platters, achieving denser storage doesn’t magnify costs anywhere near as much. In fact, the HDD cost increment for going from 8TB to 10TB is US$30, and from 8TB to 14TB US$80. That clearly shows the incremental cost of storage is much, much cheaper for HDDs than SSDs.

But given the mind-blowing costs for higher capacity NVMe devices, they’re not going to replace HDDs completely any time soon. They simply cost too much to justify wholesale switchovers. Nobody’s going to use HDDs for serious, real-time workloads any more. They have no place as system drives, either. But for other applications where high capacity trumps I/O performance, they still have a vital role to play. And that explains why I still have over 40TB of spinning storage myself, much of it idle as “backups for my backups.”

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

ThinkPad Universal Thunderbolt4 Dock

October 10, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It must be because I asked Lenovo for gear to test Thunderbolt4 and USB4. Last week another unexpected and unnanounced device showed up at the door. This time, it was a brand-new ThinkPad Universal Thunderbolt4 Dock. From what I’ve seen so far it has a lot going for it — especially price (relatively speaking, that is).

Why Is TB4/USB4 Gear So Costly?

Before I dig into the details on the mostly excellent ThinkPad Universal Thunderbolt4 dock, I must rant a bit. I’ve got 3 TB4 docks here at the house right now. The Lenovo unit is the cheapest by US$70-plus (that’s a good thing). But all of them cost over US$300, and two of them are at or over the US$400 mark. That stings!

I’ve been looking at a lot of NVMe enclosures that support USB4 lately, too (they work with TB4 controllers, BTW). These puppies cost even more. That means US$80 – 100 more than the cost of decent-to-high quality USB3.1 NVMe enclosures. I’m talking US$30-50 versus US$130-160. That’s a big difference!

One usually pays a premium to climb onto the bleeding edge of technology. And right now, TB4/USB4 is as fast as external devices get. Given a PC that supports these interfaces, I still don’t understand why climbing aboard this latest technology wave incurs such a hefty buy-in. Sigh.

More About ThinkPad Universal Thunderbolt4 Dock

Now that I’ve set the stage for describing and exploring this device, more of what I have to say should make sense. Indeed, this Lenovo dock is a relative bargain among all the TB4 docks I’ve tested so far. That is, with an MSRP of US$322, it costs US$77 less than the Belkin Pro Thunderbolt 4 dock. It enjoys the same price differential when compared to the CalDigit TS4 dock but that device keeps selling out, and is only immediately obtained on eBay for US$500-600!

Thus, the Lenovo Device has a definite price advantage in this very narrow product niche. See this Amazon Search for a fairly good list of the whole product range right now. From what I can tell, Lenovo offers the best price currently available for these kinds of devices.

Here’s a short list of ThinkPad Universal TB4 Dock features and functions (see product page for complete specs):

Handles up to 4 external monitors, up to 8K total resolution (1x8K display @ 30Hz or 4x4K display @ 60 Hz via 2xfull-size DP 1.4, 1xfull-size HDMI 2.1, 1xUSB-C)
2 40Gbps Thunderbolt4 ports (one for computer in, one for other uses)
4xUSB-A 3.1 ports and 1xUSB-C (may be used for video, as already indicated)
135W external power brick, up to 100W available for charging
RJ-45 GbE (Intel I225-LMvP circuitry)
Audio mini-jack for headphones or external audio hookup
Universal computer lock port for attaching locked cable
Dimensions 220x80x30 mm (8.66×3.15×1.18″)

The Lenovo dock even downloads and handles its own Windows drivers with reasonable aplomb and dispatch. I found it loaded up its own USB Audio driver (under Sound, video and game controllers). It also updated the local Thunderbolt controller driver to a newer version after hook-up.

Stacking Up the Hubs

My testing so far puts all 3 docks — Lenovo, CalDigit, and Belkin — into the same overall performance range for USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 devices. That said, the CalDigit device offers 18 ports including GbE and 2.5 GbE RJ-45 networking hook-ups and SD flash device slots. If you can find one and need that extra functionality, that may make it worth the extra cost. Likewise, the Belkin device also supports a full-size SD slot and dual USB-A 2.0 slots, which may or may not make a different.

By comparison, I’d give the Lenovo device a “Best Buy” rating right now. If you don’t need SD support or lots of (different) USB-A ports, it can handle what you need. I have no difficulty using it as a docking station for a Lenovo X12 hybrid laptop with external mouse, keyboard, and two or three external storage devices. It also works well with HDMI or DP to drive an external Dell U2717 monitor.

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

Recent 22H2 RDP Mystery Widely Reported

October 7, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

For a while there, I was wondering if I’d done something wrong. I’d just gotten RDP working on my P360 Ultra. But after upgrading to Windows 11 22H2, it stopped working again. Annoyingly, it showed the same symptoms I’d just been able to fix — connection briefly made, then dropped. But nothing I tried was able to return it to work. In frustration, I switched to TeamViewer free (which worked properly no sooner than installed on client and server PCs). Now, I’m reading my recent 22H2 RDP mystery widely reported in the Windows media. Here’s a taste, from MSPowerUser.

Info on Recent 22H2 RDP Mystery Widely Reported

As I read the symptoms described in reporting on the 22H2 RDP issues, I thought to myself: “This sounds familiar.” And indeed, the error message shown strongly supports one of the possible outcomes to which that language leads:

installing the update caused their Remote Desktop on Windows 11 system to fail to connect (or connect only to disconnect or freeze later).

For the P360, the connection would briefly appear as the RDP title bar at the top of my second monitor. It would, however, stay black. In 10 seconds or so, the error message from the lead-in graphic would pop up. Sigh.

Why Did I Drive Myself Crazy?

The funny thing about this error message — and it’s definitely not funny, ha-ha — is that it’s the same darn one I had just fought through and fixed the week before. In that case, it turned out to be a registry hack that fixed my problem.

I jumped to the erroneous conclusion that my old problem had come back, and spent a good 2-3 hours trying to fix it. I knew it had to be something in the registry, but I couldn’t figure out what. Then, recognizing it was taking too much time to troubleshoot, I simply switched over to TeamViewer.

As it turns out, that was exactly the right strategy. Apparently a LOT of people are having RDP troubles with 22H2. So that workaround comes recommended for others who might find themselves in the same boat. OTOH, the MSPowerUser story suggests another reghack that may see some users clear to restored RDP access. I might have to try it, and see if it works for the P360 Ultra.

And that’s the way things sometimes go, here in WindowsWorld. If and when this gets fixed, I’ll report back. Stay tuned!