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

Build 22567 WU Seeks Lower Energy Footprint

March 4, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s something a little off the beaten track for Windows 11. As per its Windows Insider announcement, Build 22567 WU seeks lower energy footprint. Overall Microsoft fervently pursues carbon neutrality. Indeed, its latest Windows 11 Dev Channel build pushes that further and faster.

How Build 22567 WU Seeks Lower Energy Footprint

Here’s what the blog post says (co-authored by Amanda Langowski and Brandon LeBlanc):

Windows Update will try to schedule update installations at specific times of day when doing so results in lower carbon emissions. Most electrical grids are powered by multiple sources, including renewables and fossil fuels. Whenever possible, Windows 11 will now prioritize installing updates in the background at times when greater amounts of clean energy sources (like wind, solar, and hydro) are available. Users can always choose to install updates immediately by navigating to Settings > Windows Update and choosing “Check for Updates”.

To this end, MS partnered with electricityMap and WattTime. Their monitoring helps determine when PCs can likely run using renewable “juice.” If enabled, users see the string boxed in red in the lead-in graphic. Frustrating sidenote: following the “Learn more” leads to no information on this topic. Sigh.

Microsoft’s Carbon Footprint Initiatives

On the other hand, search that landing page for “zero carbon.” Thankfully, you’ll quickly find the MS CSR page. CSR stands for “Corporate Social Responsibility.” At MS, it covers a broad range of initiatives. Simply put, MS says it plans zero carbon status by 2030. That means pursuing these intiatives, among others:

Bring more zero carbon energy onto the grid. Take more high carbon intensity energy off the grid. MS labels this “decarbonizing the grid.”
Aggressively adopt next-gen technologies (including sea-water cooling) to double data center efficiency. MS names this “redesigning datacenters for energy efficiency.”
Changing contracts and reducing financial and technical risks to grow and improve access to clean energy sources. MS explains this as “making it easy for anyone to buy more clean energy.”
In particular cloud-based infrastructure for Azure has targeted ways to improve energy consumption and use while making clean energy sources cheaper. MS describes this as “a tech-driven approach to wind power.”

Obviously, Microsoft is serious about its own use of energy and how its services and offerings affect general energy use and usage patterns. I’m behind its efforts 110% and would like to see other cloud providers follow in its path. Great stuff!

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

MSA Login Doesn’t Connect Via RDP

March 3, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s an interesting problem that I apparently share with lots of people. Try searching on “can’t login to RDP” or “MSA login to RDP doesn’t work.” You’ll see what I mean. For me, MSA login doesn’t connect via RDP from my trusty Win10 production desktop to my new Ryzen 5800X build. Sigh.

So, of course I went through all kinds of contortions and research to try to get it working. I tried a variety of GPO settings, registry hacks and more, all without getting any love. I spent 45 minutes trying to make this work to no avail. Even though I double-checked my passwords (and in one case, reset it just to make darn sure) I kept getting errors. Either “The password used to connect to the remote PC didn’t work” or “The credentials didn’t work” (RDP app and mstsc.exe, respectively).

Words alone can’t convey the frustration in using a known, good, working password and getting such an error. Ouch!

When MSA Login Doesn’t Connect Via RDP, Use Local Account

Then, in several of the posts I read online, I noticed that similarly afflicted individuals succeeded in opening an RDP session using a local (client) account. So I set up a local account on the client PC using the “Add account” facility in Settings → Accounts → Other Users. Hint: you have to say you don’t know the user’s sign-in info to get to the right screen, where you choose the “Add a user without a Microsoft account” (MSA) to create a local account. Sigh again.

So, I created an account named LocalU, and then promoted it to Administrator status. Then, on my next RDP attempt into that PC the login succeeded using that account name and its associated password.

Even though you can’t always make Windows do exactly what you want, you can often find a way to get what you need through some workaround. This is actually a pretty good example. I can’t say I’m happy about this (and plan to report it to Feedback Hub next). But at least I can RDP into my new desktop. This will be very important when I start migrating files and stuff from the current production desktop to what will be my new production desktop next month.

Stay tuned! I’ll keep you posted as things progress in their usual “two steps forward, one step back” fashion. Should be fun…

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

Overcoming Obsolete AMD UEFI Limitations

March 2, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

In yesterday’s blog post I provided an overview of the build process for a new AMD 5800X based PC. That started with putting the physical pieces together (covered therein). It continued with getting Windows 11 installed on the box. That’s today’s subject and it involved overcoming obsolete AMD UEFI limitations. Let me explain . . . and then share some other interesting observations about the state of current PC art.

What Overcoming Obsolete AMD UEFI Limitations Means

When I started up the AMD build for the first time, I had my Ventoy drive plugged in. The then-present UEFI was smart enough to recognize that my SSD was unformatted and hence, unbootable. Pretty cool. Even better, it was smart enough to recognize that the Ventoy drive was bootable — so it passed boot control to that device.

I had a fresh new Windows 11 image on that drive, and started the install process right away. But after getting past the “enter product key” hurdle (I grabbed one, courtesy of my WIMVP Visual Studio subscription) came the WTF moment. The installer informed me that the PC did not meet Windows 11 hardware requirements. I knew it should (and would, eventually) but I had to figure out what was up.

To Get to 11, I First Had to Get to 10

The same Ventoy drive also included a fresh Windows 10 ISO as well. So I selected that as my install source and went through a hurry-up install of the older OS. It went FAST: took less than 10 minutes, in fact. Then I grabbed the PC Health Check to determine where my problem lay. The then-current UEFI did not support TPM in firmware (aka fTPM). No TPM, no Windows 11.

Thus, I checked the support page for the Asrock B550 Extreme4 motherboard, BIOS (UEFI) page. The latest version is numbered 2.10, dated August 6, 2021, and its first description element reads “Support Microsoft Windows 11” (See lead-in graphic). So I quickly re-learned how to use the Asrock Flash utility, downloaded and installed the new version, and rebooted my PC. This time, the fTPM capability showed up under the Security settings for the UEFI. I was set!

All’s Well on the Second Try

Sure enough, the Windows 11 installer raised no objections to the upgrade process. Here again, the install was fast, and completed in less than 20 minutes. As an aside, I had no issues with drivers on either the Windows 10 or 11 installs, though I do have an unresolved “PCI Encryption/Decryption Controller” entry in Device Manager I still need to clean up. Based on many, many prior PC builds a single dangling reference ain’t at all bad. Looks like a new February 2022 version of the AMD Chipset drivers should take care of it, too.

{Note added 5 mins later: And yes, installing those drivers did indeed clear this entry in Device Manager. All fixed!]

I used the Windows 11 product key to activate the OS after the install was complete. I’d never activated the Windows 10 having chosen the re-installing option to bypass that check when bringing up the PC for the first time. I’m still in the process of cleaning and finishing up the new Windows 11 install on this PC. That will probably stretch out over the rest of this week, given other work commitments. But so far, now that I’m past the UEFI hurdles, the new PC has shown itself to be fast, smart and capable.

Next month, I’ll start the process of shifting over from my current production PC to make this build my new production PC. But I have a bunch of other “real work” to do first. Stay tuned: I’ll keep reporting on this process. In fact, I’ll explain what I had to do to RDP into this new PC in tomorrow’s post.

For now, here’s the info on this new PC that shows up under my MSA. As you can see I named it RyzenOfc. (It’s got a Ryzen CPU and it’s in my home office, so why not?)

Interesting how Windows 11 shows up with a 10-based version number. The build suffix gives it away though…

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

Bringing AMD PC Into Windows 11

March 1, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Man! What a day yesterday turned out to be. I finally had all the pieces together — or so I thought — to finish the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X PC. On the path to making that happen, and getting Windows 11 installed, I learned more than I expected. A LOT more… Bringing AMD PC into Windows 11 proved more difficult and challenging than I’d ever dreamed. Let me explain…

Parts Needed When Bringing AMD PC Into Windows 11

I finally broke down and ordered an Nvidia 3070 Ti GPU for the new build. I didn’t realize, until it showed up and I measured it against the Antec 902 case, that that darned thing was TOO BIG to fit inside. As my first such card, I didn’t know it needed about 2cm (around an inch) of additional clearance between the PCIe slot (and rear of the case where the outputs go) and the HDD cages at the front. Ouch!

So here’s what I had to do. My old Z170 (vintage 2017) build is in a monster Rosewill case with massive clearance. It housed an Nvidia 1070 Ti which I swapped out with the new 3070 Ti. Fortunately, the Corsair 750 PSU in the Rosewill case had enough power connectors for me to plug in 2x 8-pin power plugs to make that beast happy.

On the Antec side, I shoehorned the old 1070 Ti in. Even so, I endured some “cable snarl” to put everything in place. I had to use a tiny cable tie to hold the Reset, Power, and HD Light cablets together. Then, I used a “mosquito” (a tiny hemostat, very helpful for working inside tight spaces inside PCs) to plug them in together.

Other contortions were involved:

Went through a card slot at the back of the case to plug the HD97 audio connector in.
Used two HD power cables to reach each of 2 hard disks, to work around the 1070 GPU.
Used all but one of the power cables from the build’s Seasonic 650W PSU (first time ever for such a situation).

Power, Lights and Action…?

Eventually, I had all the parts together and mouse, keyboard and monitor plugged in. This time, when I hit the power switch the PC booted right into the Ventoy drive I had plugged into one of the USB 3.2 ports. I jumped immediately into installing Windows 11, only to be informed that the PC didn’t meet the necessary hardware requirements after getting past the “request for product key” screen.

Turns out that although the B550 Extreme4 motherboard and its Ryzen 5800X do support fTPM, they won’t do so unless it’s enabled in the UEFI. Figuring that out and fixing it turned into another series of adventures. They will serve as the basis for tomorrow’s story. Stay tuned, and I’ll tell you all about it then.

For now, I’m happy to report that the machine is running nicely at my second desk here in the office. I still have some setup work to do. Mostly that consists of installing a bunch of utilities, Macrium Reflect, Office 365, and then tweaking things just the way I like them. That should provide the basis for yet another story later this week. Cheers!

Uncategorized

Windows Reset Data Wipe Sometimes Falls Short

February 28, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

For some time now, Windows has included a “Reset this PC” option. Among other uses, it lets sellers provide buyers with a pristine OS installation on used PCs. Or so runs the theory, when the “Remove everything” option is elected. However, researchers have observed that Windows reset data wipe sometimes falls short of this goal. Let me explain…

[NOTE: the lead-in graphic above shows what “Reset this PC” looks like in Windows 10 (above) and Windows 11 (below).]

How Windows Reset Data Wipe Sometimes Falls Short

Two data sources sometimes persist after running “Reset this PC” using the “Remove everything” option:

1. Windows.old remains behind. It includes all kinds of sensitive or interesting data about prior users.
2. When local OneDrive file copies exist, they could persist after the reset.

This info appears in the February 24 edition of Microsoft’s Windows 11 Known Issues. Indeed, there’s a section entitled “Files might persist after resetting a Windows device.” It reports which Windows versions manifest this failing: Windows 11, version 21H2; and Windows 10, versions 21H2, 21H1 and 20H2.

What Known Issues Says

Here’s a verbatim quote from that page:

When attempting to reset a Windows device with apps which have folders with reparse data, such as OneDrive or OneDrive for Business, files which have been downloaded or synced locally from OneDrive might not be deleted when selecting the “Remove everything” option. This issue might be encountered when attempting a manual reset initiated within Windows or a remote reset. Remote resets might be initiated from Mobile Device Management (MDM) or other management applications, such as Microsoft Intune or third-party tools. OneDrive files which are “cloud only” or have not been downloaded or opened on the device are not affected and will not persist, as the files are not downloaded or synced locally.

Helpfully, two known fixes address these issues. First, disconnect from or disable OneDrive before initiating the reset. Second, remove Window.old after reset completes. Taking these two simple steps ensures no personal info survives reset . Worth remembering!

For more information…

Use Disk Cleanup (or some useful analog like TheBookIsClosed’s Managed Disk Cleanup) or Storage Sense to remove Windows.old from a Windows PC. Indeed, MS provides a helpful how-to link for that latter operation.

Signing out of, or unlinking from, OneDrive before the reset operation prevents local OneDrive files from hanging ’round. Likewise, MS provides an equally helpful how-to link for this maneuver, too.

MS plans fixes for these shortcomings. In the meantime, if you simply disconnect from OneDrive before the Reset, then remove windows.old afterward, you’re covered. Good to know!

Note Added March 9, 2022: Issues Fixed (with Caveat)

With the release of Patch Tuesday fixes for Windows 10 and 11 yesterday (KB5011487 for 10; KB5011493 for 11) MS has fixed these “file hangover” problems. That said, both announcement include this language:

Some devices might take up to seven (7) days after you install this update to fully address the issue and prevent files from persisting after a reset. For immediate effect, you can manually trigger Windows Update Troubleshooter using the instructions in Windows Update Troubleshooter.

Thanks to Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet for bringing this to my attention.

Uncategorized

Build 22563 Makes Advanced Startup MIA

February 25, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve observed something odd and interesting. Many of my Windows 11 PCs were missing the Advanced Startup option. Ordinarily, it’s in Settings → System → Recovery → Recovery Options. Just yesterday, undeniable curiosity let me observe that Build 22563 makes Advanced Startup MIA again. This time, I’m NOT going to create an ISO and run an in-place upgrade repair install. Though I think it would fix it, I won’t do that this time. Instead, I’m convinced this needs reporting to Feedback Hub as a recurring problem.

Build 22563 Makes Advanced Startup MIA Again: FB Hub Report In

I upvoted and added to a thread on the Feedback Hub entitled “The Advanced Startup option is missing from the recovery menu.” I’m now convinced this is a recurring problem that can occur when upgrading an Insider Preview to a new Insider Build, or when applying a Cumulative Update to an RTM Build. I’ve had it happen on 3 of my 5 Windows 11 machines in the last week, in fact. That’s disheartening, after spending a half-day repairing the issue. See my Feb 21 post about the fix for all those gory details.

But now, I know there’s a problem across the board in Windows 11. The only thing I don’t know is if the problem is just across the board on MY Windows 11 PCs, or more of them than that. That’s why I’m reporting to Feedback Hub and hoping for results. Peferably, sooner rather than later. We’ll see.

I will observe that my lone “native Windows 11” PC seems immune to this issue. All of my other Windows 11 PCs were (a) upgraded from 10 to 11, and (b) regularly manifest this issue. I’d be curious to understand the connection, if any, that might be involved…

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

RTFM Stymies New PC Build

February 24, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I have to laugh at myself. I’ve been trying to assemble a Ryzen 7 PC build here at Chez Tittel. But I’ve been unable to get to the UEFI on the PC. Turns out it’s for a very, very good reason. Today’s post bears the title “RTFM Stymies New PC Build” to recognize a certain lack. Let me explain…

If RTFM Stymies New PC Build . . . Order Parts!

My chosen CPU is a Ryzen 5800X. It’s a gaming CPU. As such, it includes no inbuilt GPU capability. Instead, it assumes builders will pair it up with one or more presumably high-end graphics cards.

Sigh. Guess what’s missing from my Bill of Materials? Indeed, no GPU. So, I finally broke down and ordered an Nvidia 3070 Ti from Amazon for a whopping US$1,200 or thereabouts. I’ll actually install that in my son’s PC — he’s the gamer in the family — and take his old 1070 Ti into the new build instead.

About that RTFM Thing

I just sort of assumed that because my Asrock B550 Extreme4 motherboard had graphics outputs, I’d be able to make the build work sans external GPU. But for that to happen, the CPU must include GPU circuitry. The 5800X does not, so no wonder the BIOS wouldn’t post: it had no display to talk to.

You might be amazed to learn it took me hours to figure this out. Then again, you might not… But whatever that reaction might be, the fix is in the mail so to speak. I’ll get the card next Tuesday, and try again. I predict a successful Windows 11 install. I’ll be interested to see how the Ryzen CPU does with the latest flagship OS. I’m still hearing occasional rumblings of performance and other issues for AMD PCs in this realm. Soon, I hope to find out first hand. Stay tuned.

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

AdwCleaner Roots Out PUAs

February 23, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

For months now, I’ve been seeing traces of a low-risk “potentially unwanted app” (PUA) on one of my Dev Channel test PCs. You can see the Windows Security log trace entry for this item above. It’s named FusionCore.C and it shows up as low-risk adware. This morning I ran Malwarebytes’ AdwCleaner (v 8.3.1) to see if it would make it go away. It did, so I can report that AdwCleaner roots out PUAs. It’s free and doesn’t install so it inflicts no system footprint, either.

Because AdwCleaner Roots Out PUAs, Use It!

Now that Microsoft Defender has shown itself to be a great first-line of security defense for Windows PCs, I don’t recommend third-party AV or other real-time protection tools anymore. That said, cleanup tools like AdwCleaner can be helpful. That goes double, because while Defender flags FusionCore.C and other adware instances, it doesn’t offer its own clean-up capability (or even remediation advice).

When you run the AdwCleaner executable (adwcleaner_8.3.1.exe), it finds the two offending PUA elements right away. These consist of a .tmp file and and .exe file. Both have FusionCore.C in their file names. If you check those items under the PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program) heading, you can flag them for quarantine and removal. The following screencap shows the two items checked for potential quarantine.

All you need to do to flag items is to check the box to the left for each one you’d like to quarantine or remove.

Then, simply click Next to get to the quarantine Window. On this PC a bunch of pre-installed Lenovo items also appear (I don’t care about those: I actually USE most of them). I check none of those items, which are hidden behind the fore-window that says “Cancel” and “Continue.” I choose “Continue” and the items get quarantined. I run another Defender scan and sure enough, the PUAs no longer get reported. A visual inspection of the source folder (shown in the lead-in graphic) shows the items are no longer present there as well. Good-oh!

Click “Continue” and the checked PUA items go into quarantine, and off Defender’s scan radar. Done!

Insider stuff, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows OS Musings

Windows 11 Watermark Warns Against Unsupported Hardware

February 22, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then. With the advent of Build 22557 (Dev Channel), MS is testing a new watermark. It shows up on some PCs running Windows 11 that don’t meet hardware requirements. This Windows 11 watermark warns against unsupported hardware. It’s shown in the lead-in graphic above. The image source (shown at 200% native resolution) comes from a story at WindowsLatest.

What If Windows 11 Watermark Warns Against Unsupported Hardware?

Rumors have been flying for weeks that MS planned an on-screen “nag” for non-compliant PCs. MS has been straight-up all along. Install and run Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, and you may be ineligible for future updates. MS won’t support PCs running Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, either.

Even so, lots of people are doing it anyway. Consider the number of threads and posts on this topic at ElevenForums.com. For example, there’s the “Let’s install Windows 11 on a incompatible hardware” thread. It’s up to 35 pages/697 posts as I write this ditty.

Clearly, certain intrepid do-it-yourselfers don’t care about Microsoft’s warnings. Personally, I think it’s a bad bet. The reason I had to turn to WindowsLatest for a screencap of the watermark is because I’m not running Windows 11 on incompatible hardware here at Chez Tittel .

The old saying goes: “You pays your money and you takes your chances.” But this is one chance I won’t take. I have other things that need doing…

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

Fixing MIA Advanced Startup Takes Time

February 21, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Last Thursday (2/17), I wrote about how “Advanced Startup” had gone missing on all my upgraded Windows 11 PCs (5 of them). Though the repair was simple and straightforward, fixing MIA Advanced Startup takes time — lots of it, in fact. Though I was able to grab the latest production ISO with ease, I had to use UUP Dump to build ISOs for the Dev and Beta channel versions of Windows 11. All by itself, that took about an hour (or a bit more). Then came a series of repeated in-place repair upgrades to set things right.

Fixing MIA Advanced Startup Takes Time (and Plenty of It)

My maneuvers could have gone better, too. I had no trouble grabbing the latest files for the Dev Channel ISO. But I misidentified my target for Beta Channel, and ended up having to go through the ISO construction process twice for that Windows 11 version. Sigh.

And while the in-place upgrade repair install itself seldom takes more than 15-20 minutes to complete on any given PC, getting to that point takes longer than that. My average “build time” for the ISO ran about 30 minutes (so doing one over put a big ding in my afternoon).

All’s Well, and Ends Well Nonetheless…

Right now the final repair install is running on my Beta Channel X380 Yoga. I’ve gotten all three of the other machines installed and cleaned up now. I’ll do likewise for my straggler as soon as the install completes, and I get past the OOB (out of box) experience.

It’s interesting that this repair leaves a Windows.old behind, just like any other typical Windows install. I find myself turning to TheBookIsClosed’s excellent “Managed Disk Cleanup” to help sweep away the leftovers after the party’s over. Next, I’ll run Macrium Reflect on each of these PCs to catch a pristine image for possible future restoration. I pray I don’t need it, but better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it!

Houston, We Still Have a Problem…

Turns out that the repair install on the Beta version did NOT fix the MIA Advanced Startup. For some reason, this X380 Yoga still does not show the Advanced Startup option along with “Reset the PC” and “Go back.” I’m filing this one with Feedback Hub, and glad to report further that the Shift+Restart key works, as does the shutdown command, to bring up the WinRE environment after a reboot.

The mystery continues…much to my ongoing interest and delight. It’s rare that an in-place repair upgrade fails to fix this kind of thing, but here’s a case in point for me to noodle at further. Love it!