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, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Visual Studio Subscription Shenanigans

Leave a comment

I’m happy to admit it: one of my fave bennies for the Microsoft MVP program is another year’s worth of Visual Studio Subscriptions, with access to downloads and keys. The downloads include any major version of Windows 10 or 11 you might care to name, plus the full line-up of MS 365 and related products and platforms. That said, finding my way into the walled garden sometimes leads to various Visual Studio Susbscription shenanigans. Let me explain…

Detailing Visual Studio Subscription Shenanigans

I started out with this program back in days of yore, when it was called MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network). That said, it’s been some time since the VS Subscriptions switchover occurred. Indeed, Copilot just told me it happened in 2015. Ever since that switchover, I’ve had to learn to navigate inside the massive collection of pages under the visualstudio.com umbrella. It’s been an ongoing learning experience, in fact.

A couple of years back, I switched the MSA that’s associated with my MVP identity from one email address to another. It took months for that change to fully percolate into all modes of access. That made VS Subscriptions a little too interesting. Then, Microsoft rolled its Windows Insider MVP program — which had been separate since starting up in 2016 or thereabouts (I got elected in 2018) — into its general MVP program as of January 1, 2024.

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

I’ll crib from Tom Petty to reveal that my old VS Subscription timed out with the end of the Windows Insider MVP program. I didn’t get inducted into Microsoft MVP (Windows) status until May, 2024. Thus I was on the sidelines for access from January through much of May this year. Now, I’ve been back in for the past month to 6 weeks. I’m finally able to access all aspects of the subscription, and delighted to be where I am. These days a VS Professional single-user subscription costs around  US$1,200 per year: it’s very nice to have.

Lately, I’ve been using VS Subscriptions to grab various Windows 10 ISOs. I’m down to one physical PC running that older OS, so I’m building some VMs to participate in its newly-reactivated beta program. The downloads and keys are ultra handy for standing up (and blowing away) temporary OS instances. I just use a MAK (multiple activation key) and keep on trucking. Good stuff!

If you’re a developer or just need access to “a little bit of everything” inside Windows-World, Visual Studio Subscriptions is worth buying. How do I know? I paid for it from the early 2000s until I made it into the MVP program. There used to be a 3-year-at-a-time discount available for subscriptions, but you had to go through a reseller to get that. Copilot says there’s a good chance you can still do this now.

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

Start11 v2 App Launch Fails

2 Comments

Here’s something interesting to ponder. I’m running Stardock’s mostly excellent Start11 v2 start menu replacement on a couple of Windows 11 PCs. One them runs Insider Preview on Canary Channel build 27686.1000. When I upgraded version 2.0 to 2.1 this morning, I couldn’t get the Start11 app itself to open from the Start menu. Click the icon, and nothing happens. Right-click the icon and select “Run as administrator…”: likewise nothing. Gosh, that looks like Start11 v2 app launch fails completely, doesn’t it? Not exactly, as it turns out…

Poking Around the UI When Start11 v2 App Launch Fails

Then I right-clicked the name underneath my avatar image on the right-side of the Start menu (which comes from Start 11 v2). Notice that the highlighted option at bottom reads “Configure Start11.” That’s the secret to launching the Start11 app itself, even though its app entry is currently unresponsive.

I found a Stardock webpage entitled Start11 Changelog. It shows the latest version of Start 11 v2 is 2.1 which dropped earlier this week on 8/20/2024. It’s a long one! Reading it over just now, it says “ARM support is now in all versions” (good to know). But I see nothing that indicates the Start11 app won’t launch when called explicitly. In fact, I see nothing that says this reading back into the changelog as far as I’d care to go (half-a-dozen screenfulls).

What About V1?

This is what makes things interesting. If you click on Start11 in the app list on the Start menu, it launched that app immediately. I’m a little non-plussed that a right-click manuever is needed on v2 to launch the app, but not in V1.

So I installed v2 on another test PC — the brand-new Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra that showed up here last week. Guess what? Opening the app works fine on that machine (as does the right-click trick as well. Something is wrong with the install on my Canary channel test PC, it seems. I’ll report into the Stardock Forums and see what they say. Stay tuned…things might get stranger still. We’ll see!

One More Thing…

On the P3 Ultra I noticed that Start11 shows up in WinGet. So I updated all outstanding items on the Lenovo ThinkPad X380 (my other Start11 v2 test PC). Then I tried the old uninstall/reinstall maneuver on that PC. WinGet happily uninstalled the program, but I had to redownload and re-key the new instance from the Stardock website. But when I was done, the app once again worked as it was supposed to. Looks like the first upgrade broke something. Solved!

 

 

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

Reinstall Solves Nvidia Driver Issue

Leave a comment

This morning, I noticed a new GeForce driver for the RTX 3070 Ti on my production system via the NVIDIA app. Perforce I installed same. Then the screen flashing started: on and off, and on and off, and … you get the idea. I’ve been here before, but usually when an old driver needs replacing. I tried to roll back (but the option didn’t light up) so I used the REINSTALL facility you see at the upper right of the lead-in graphic. I’m happy to report that such a reinstall solves NVIDIA driver issue. The blinking/flashing is fixed. Good-oh!

Why Reinstall Solves Nvidia Driver Issue

When a graphics driver misbehaves  — as in going into blink mode — it’s usually because the driver itself is messed up. Or it might be that communications between the driver and the device aren’t working properly. Either way, something needs to change.

Ordinarily I’d use the rollback facility on the Driver tab for the RTX 3070 Ti to revert back to the previous version. But, as you can see in the next screencap, the “Roll Back Driver” button is greyed out. Alas, that means there’s nothing to roll back to. Looks like the new NVIDIA app doesn’t keep old driver versions around. What to do?

Because it’s greyed out, I can’t use Roll Back Driver.

Fortunately, as you can see in the lead-in graphic, the NVIDIA app offers a REINSTALL option for the current driver. Because the installed version was blinking I figured I had nothing to lose by giving REINSTALL a try. So I did just that.  Just to make sure everything got replaced, I also checked the installer’s Clean Installation option. And fortunately for me, it worked!

The desktop is back to normal, and the blinking is behind me now. All’s well that ends well in Windows-World, especially when it comes to misbehaving graphics drivers.

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

Recall Gets October Retry Date

2 Comments

OK, then. If you’re anything like me, one big impetus for trying out a Snapdragon-based Copilot+ PC was to experience Recall. This tracks all Windows interactions and provides a … wait for it … window into your Windows usage patterns and history. Alas, it also raised severe security concerns. That’s why it got scrubbed just before Copilot+ PCs appeared about two months back (June18). Now, MS says that Recall gets October retry date. It’s explained in a Windows Experience blog post updated today (August 21).

Wait for It Again: Recall Gets October Retry Date

I’m guessing this will coincide with the official public release for Windows 11 24H2, for which Copilot+ PCs are already the standard bearer. The real news is that MS will be offering an opt-in preview of Recall to members of the Windows Insider Program “in the coming weeks” ahead. That means hardy souls — including your humble author — will volunteer themselves to give Recall a try, and see what it can do for them (and report on related slings and arrows encountered).

MS intends to address security concerns as follows: “Recall snapshots will only be decrypted and accessible when the user authenticates,” in keeping with the company’s Secure Future Initiative (SFI). This should be interesting. I can’t wait. Hopefully, Recall will return sooner rather than later. Whatever happens, I’ll keep you posted…

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra Intake

4 Comments

When Lenovo asked me if I’d like to review another one of their well-engineered SFF PCs last week, my immediate reply was “Heck yeah!” The ThinkStation P3 Ultra Small Form Factor Workstation showed up lateThursday. I got to unboxing and setup over the weekend. So far, it’s been a gas, but a bit of a mixed blessing. Let me explain…

Working Thru Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra Intake

I’ve looked at a couple of recent Copilot+ PCs (Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x and ThinkPad T14s) and a couple of other late 2023/early 2024 laptops in the last 12 months. All of them included plastic-free packaging.  Thus, I was SHOCKED to see plastic bags and plastic twist ties in the P360 Ultra packing materials. That was my first clue this is no bleeding edge PC.

My next big clue came when I opened Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > USB and found no USB4 hubs in evidence. In fact, I had to revert to the old Thunderbolt Control Center (TBCC) to see (some of) my faster USB4/Thunderbolt4 devices and connections. Here’s a screencap:

My newest USB4 NVMe enclosures didn’t show up in TBCC, but the 2022 Acasis model did. Go figure!

I have two newer USB4/TB4 NVMe enclosures (Konyead and Maiwo models) that don’t pop up in TBCC. Because they DO show up on the Copilot+ PCs in the USB4 hierarchy, and I can observe they run at higher speeds, I know they’re working OK. But it’s a bit distressing to lack the level of insight and monitoring I get on USB4-capable Windows 11 PCs.

Speeds, Feeds, and So Forth…

These are, however, pretty darn minor as quibbles go. The P3 Ultra is a speedy and capable PC in a nicely compact package. Indeed, as equipped, it retails for about US$2,500 so it’s no lightweight by any estimation. Here’s what’s inside:

  • CPU: Intel 13th-Gen/Raptor Lake 19-13900 (24 cores)
  • RAM: 64 GB (2x32GB DDR5-5600 Hynix)
  • OS: Windows 11 Pro Version 23H2
  • Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 770/NVIDIA RTX A2000 12GB
  • Networking: Intel I225-LM 2.5 GbE and I210 GbE,  Intel AX211 Wi-Fi6 adapter (with external antenna)
  • Storage: Hynix OEM PCIe x4/Gen4 2TiB NVMe SSD, 1 open M.2 slot, 1 open SATA slot
  • USB ports: 2xUSB-C/USB4-TB4 40 Gbps front, 2xUSB-A 3.2 back, 1 front
  • 3xDisplayPort 1.2 ports (both miniDP and full-sized)
  • PSU: External 300W power brick

This is a nicely-equipped PC for sure, but its lack of Wi-Fi7, USB4, older DP version (1.2) and packing materials that include a tiny bit of plastic all speak to 2023 standards. And indeed, a quick check on the release date says May 2023. It is what it is, and what it is is a fast and fairly powerful mini workstation. I’m glad to have it here.

Set-up and Intake Process

Once I got the P3 Ultra plugged in and attached mouse and keyboard (included) and wired into a Lenovo ThinkVision P27u-20 monitor the OS came right up into a generic Admin user account. As is my wont I set up my usual MSA as another Admin account. Then came a slew of upgrades and updates, starting with this handful of Quality updates:

Then came a number (8) of driver updates:

I also perforce picked up the latest MSRT when I got the latest quality update. The whole process took about 15 minutes, including reboot and restart. Interestingly, Lenovo Vantage didn’t find anything new to add to the July 2 Intel Chipset update. But it just now found a new chipset and graphics driver so I’m installing them now (total time: 2 minutes plus reboot/under 3 minutes to get back via RDP).

Then I used PatchMyPC Home Updater plus a few manual installs to add 7-Zip, 8GadgetPack, Advanced IP Scanner v2, CPU-Z, CrystalDiskInfo, CrystalDiskMark 8, Everything, FileZilla, Chrome, HWiNFO64, Intel DSA, NotePad++, the NVIDIA (beta) app, Revo Uninstaller, and WizTree to my runtime environment. That took 15-20 minutes in all. I still have to install Macrium Reflect for backup, but I’m mostly ready to start working with and testing this PC. More will come soon, but what I see so far is fast and capable.

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

Windows Sandbox Imposes Interesting Limits

Leave a comment

I read the other day in The Register that MS had dropped a new version of the Windows Sandbox. So naturally, I started messing around with it. I had to abandon a wild idea of using a Sandbox created environment as a base for WinGet export/import operations, too. I’ll explain why shortly. But I gave up because the Sandbox imposes interesting limits on its use, thanks in no small part to the absence of both WinGet and the MS Store from its runtime environment.

If Windows Sandbox Imposes Interesting Limits, Then What?

As you can see from the lead-in graphic, the Windows Sandbox is now available (and gets updates) from the Microsoft Store. One must still use Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features on or off to enable and install Sandbox. But after that, the Store takes over keep it up-to-date. Good stuff!

I quickly discovered that neither the MS Store nor WinGet were available inside the Sandbox. They also resisted my efforts to install and run them. That pretty much nixed my thought to use a Sandbox to make an export template. It’s hard to use WinGet export when the base command is itself MIA. Had to laugh, though…

Let Copilot ‘Splain It for Ya…

On a whim, I turned to the resident AI chatbot to help me understand what was going on. Here’s how it responded to the prompt: “Why is MS Store missing from Windows Sandbox?”

The Microsoft Store is indeed absent from Windows Sandbox. When you’re working within the sandbox environment, software remains “sandboxed” and runs separately from the host machine. Unfortunately, Windows Sandbox doesn’t include the Microsoft Store app or WinGet by default. To install applications, you’ll need to download the latest WinGet package from the WinGet releases page on GitHub1. If you’re specifically interested in using Microsoft Store apps within the sandbox, you can explore alternative virtual environment solutions that allow you to download apps from the Store2. Keep in mind that beginning with Windows 11 version 24H2, inbox store apps like Calculator, Photos, Notepad, and Terminal are also unavailable inside Windows Sandbox, but support for these apps will be added soon3

That pretty much put paid to my templating efforts, but it also taught me a thing or two about what Sandbox can and can’t do. I need a VM to make my vision a reality and will try that approach next. FWIW, I did try to bring WinGet into the Sandbox but kept running into underlying dependencies, also missing. Ultimately, it was more time and effort than I wanted to expend, so I decided to go the VM route instead.

It’s another case of “try it out, and see what happens” leading to a valuable learning experience here in Windows-World. Great fun, too!

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

MS Store Splits Updates & Library

Leave a comment

You can tell it’s been a busy week. I just now tried out the new Microsoft Store organization as of version 22407.1401.2.0. In that iteration, MS Store splits updates & library in the left-hand menu, as you can see in the lead-in graphic (lower left). The item is actually labeled Downloads when none are pending. You can see a down-arrow from the cloud symbol in that screencap (above Library) to show that updates are available. This makes it faster and easier to get to updates inside the Store, and to know when to do so. I like it!

When MS Store Splits Updates & Library…

Alas, it also did away with its settings controls inside the Store. No more three dots to the right of the user icon. I couldn’t even get Microsoft Store itself to come up inside the Microsoft Store. Instead I had to use WinGet list “Microsoft Store” inside Windows Terminal/PowerShell to show me which version was running on this Canary Channel PC:

Unable to access “About” info for the MS Store, I got it from WinGet instead.

This is a good change. And I also realized that because the Microsoft Store is pre-installed on modern Windows versions, there’s no “store page URL” available for that app itself. Instead, uninstallling and/or reinstalling requires some PowerShell magic, as explained in this MS Answers tutorial (from the always helpful Andre Da Costa).

That’s probably why I also had to turn to PowerShell and WinGet to obtain the current Microsoft Store version number, too. That’s the kind of thing that keeps life interesting, here in Windows-World.

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

Qualcomm Manages Intel End-Around

Leave a comment

Here’s something interesting to ponder. On my current Copilot+ PC — a nifty Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 — I found myself poking around in Device Manager this morning. After looking around pretty extensively, I wrote some quickie PowerShell to dump all device names into a text file. It confirmed what I’d already observed informally: there’s no mention of Intel (the well-known PC device maker) anywhere therein. Hence my claim that Qualcomm manages Intel end-around in building its latest Snapdragon X PCs. The lead-in graphic confirms my claim, insofar as showing no explicit use of “intel” or “Intel” in Device Manager friendly names.

What Qualcomm Manages Intel End-Around Means

It’s pretty hard to build a complete PC package without buying at least some parts from Intel. Cases in point: AMD-based PCs and laptops. Over the years, I have seen many designs that mixed and mingled Intel and AMD devices along with those from other vendors (e.g.  A-Volute, Microsoft, Realtek, Logitech, and more). That said, I will also note that my 2021 Asrock B-550 Ryzen 7 5800x build also comes up dry on Intel components.

In particular, I’ve seen plenty of AMD laptops and desktops that included Intel Bluetooth, USB and/or Ethernet adapters or controllers (sometimes both) as part of their bills of materials. But wow: Qualcomm seems to have pulled off an entirely Intel-free build capability. I say “seems” because I’m going off text data from Device Manager, not absolute conclusive knowledge.

Grabbing Friendly Device Names to Check for Intel

Here’s the PowerShell I used to create a text file for so-called “Friendly Name” values for devices known to DevMgr. These match the legends it uses to identify devices inside its own listings. Note: you must create the C:\temp directory to ensure the third command creates the output file properly if one doesn’t already exist on your PC.

$devices = Get-PnpDevice | Select-Object -ExpandProperty FriendlyName
$outputFile = “C:\temp\DeviceNames.txt”
$devices | Out-File -FilePath $outputFile -Encoding utf8

Then, you can use notepad (as I did in the lead-in graphic), open DeviceNames.txt in the C:\temp folder and search for the string “Intel(R) ” or “intel(R) ” (note the text-based registered trademark chars at the end of the search string ) to see if the company pops up anywhere. It doesn’t. Amazing!

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Backup/Restore, Insider stuff, Security, WED Blog

CVE-2024-6768 Exposes Scary Windows Vulnerability

Leave a comment

In reading through my usual Windows news and info sources this morning I came across a scary notification at MS Power User. The named item is from the national vulnerability database. CVE-2024-6738 — which makes it item 6,738 for 2024 — comes with scary implications. It’s been reported in some form since last February. It attacks by altering meta-data for Windows base log files (BLFs) and can cause doom loops like those recently experienced from a Crowdstrike update last month. Thus, CVE-2024-6768 exposes scary Windows vulnerability that is hard to fend off and tricky to repair.

BLF Alteration in CVE-2024-6768 Exposes Scary Windows Vulnerability

A base log file (BLF) sits at the heart of the Windows Common Log File System (aka CLFS). As MS Learn’s “Creating a Log File” article begins, it says:

Before you can use CLFS, you must create a log file using the CreateLogFile function. A log file is made up of a base log file that contains metadata, and a number of containers that hold the actual data. On any local file system, containers can be in one or more separate files; on NTFS, containers can be in one or more streams within a file.

The BLF contains key information that describes the associated containers for log data. If the BLF is wrong, the log won’t make sense and cannot be read. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is. Let me explain further…

Several Interesting Copilot Responses…

When asked to describe BLF files, Copilot notes how they’re used:

Usage: These files are crucial for maintaining system stability and integrity. They help manage user-level registry information and other system-level data. For example, the Windows component that writes user-level registry information to the NTUSER.DAT file uses CLFS logging, which involves BLF files1.

Indeed it seems that CVE-2024-6768 wreaks havoc by breaking the base log handler with a bogus “size of data field” value. This kind of error triggers a BugCheck error, and in turn provokes a BSOD.

Further investigation shows that any time a registry change occurs BLF files get updated. They are also essential to system boot-up, application installation and update, as well as system update. To get more details ask Copilot: “When do Windows base log files get written, and when do they get read?” You’ll see what I mean right away.

What Does the Future Hold?

The Fortra release note for this vulnerability shows its history, while a companion research note shows more details. So far, MS has yet to respond. Other than research work, I see no evidence of successful exploits in the wild. That said, this kind of attack is nearly impossible to fix without knowing the exact details of the registry values changed to mung some (or more) specific .BLF file(s).

IMO, this means the only real protection is a recent image backup that will replace the altered Windows image with a known, good working copy. Stuff like this is why I keep such things handy, and make one at least daily. This could get interesting…stay tuned!

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog

Halfway Chrome Update Foxes Downloads

2 Comments

Here’s a new one on me. I was trying to grab an email attachment last night from my webmail client and got stuck in a twist. These items normally take an ICS (Internet Calendaring and Scheduling) extension. Repeated downloads included same, but ended with the CRDOWNLOAD. I slowly figured out Chrome couldn’t correctly conclude its normal download process. Further, it seems a halfway Chrome update foxes downloads until it’s complete. Let me explain…

Why say: Halfway Chrome Update Foxes Downloads

If Chrome is running while it auto-updates, it requires user intervention (permission, really) to relaunch. That’s when it finishes its update process. This is depicted in the lead-in graphic, where the user must click “ReLaunch” (weird intercap, BTW) to finish things up. I guess this prevents losing user data on unsubmitted input pages or forms.

As fate would have it, the Chrome instance I was running was waiting for me to ReLaunch to complete its update process. Until that happened, every download failed to complete and ended in the CRDOWNLOAD file extension. As soon as I finished the update, those files disappeared from my download folder and left only a single, correct, valid and working ICS file for my use in Outlook.

Before this happened, I had no inkling this kind of thing was possible. Now I know, and understand that it’s yet another interesting side-effect of self-update behavior. In Windows, things can get a little strange when programs have to change themselves, and then need to transition from “previous version” to “current version” status. This is just another odd and indicative case in point.

Note: Report on recent missed posts

Those of you who follow this blog will note I’ve missed some days lately. Last Thursday, I took the day off to celebrate my birthday. Yesterday, I had a medical appointment occasioned (at least, in part) by all those accumulated birthdays. Indeed, in the months ahead I’ll be missing more days, as I go in for lens replacement surgery to “fix” my cataracts. I’ll keep writing around those little bumps in the road, but wanted to explain recent and upcoming interruptions in my usual daily output. Your good thoughts and wishes will also be gratefully accepted!

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin