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.

Uncategorized

Patch Tuesday Updates Include 3 Critical TCP/IP Fixes

February 10, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Although I think MS calls it Update Tuesday now, Patch Tuesday is the second Tuesday of each month. It’s the usual time when MS releases monthly updates, including security patches and fixes. This latest batch, released yesterday, includes some important stuff. These Patch Tuesday Updates include 3 critical TCP/IP fixes, according to BleepingComputer among other sources. They join MS In urging organizations to update them sooner rather than later.

Patch Tuesday Updates Include 3 Critical TCP/IP Fixes: Relevant CVEs

These vulnerabilities affect all Windows client and server versions starting at Windows 7/Server 2008 and up to present-day, current versions. The relevant CVEs are: CVE-2021-24074, CVE-2021-24094, and CVE-2021-24086. Each one may be exploited remotely. Two of them could lead to remote code execution (RCE) attacks. The third offers a means to crash an exposed Windows PC, offering a potential denial-of-service attack vector.

All three show February 9 release dates, which also makes them zero-day exploits as well. They also pose low attack complexity, which makes them easy for malefactors to foist. All require no privileges to launch which only increases their danger levels.

Who’s Covered By Patch Tuesday Updates?

Only older versions of Windows client and server OSes need to download and install their corresponding Monthly Security Rollups (Server 2008, Server 2012, Server 2012 R2, Windows 7 SP1). Check the afore-linked Security Bulletins (shown above as CVE links) for Microsoft Catalog download links. Other client and server versions can get their updates through normal channels, including Windows Update.

Don’t delay, dear readers. These updates are better installed than not, especially for any Windows PCs directly exposed to the Internet.

Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

Likely Windows 10 LTSC Usage Scenarios

February 9, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

In yesterday’s post, I explained the role of the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC). Indeed, it’s the most apt Windows 10 release for everyday use in most cases. In that discussion, the Long-Term Servicing Channel, aka, LTSC also came in for mention. I’ve just participated in an interesting TenForums thread on this topic. It raises the question of how to get an ISO for this channel, for which I helped find an answer. It also raised a broader question: LTSC, What is it, and when should it be used? This leads in turn to likely Windows 10 LTSC usage scenarios.

What Are Likely Windows 10 LTSC Usage Scenarios?

The preceding link is a 2018 Windows IT Pro Blog post from John Wilcox, He’s a “Windows-as-a-Service” evangelist at Microsoft. In that post he explains (and illustrates) one major LTSC use class:

devices purchased with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise pre-installed. Examples … include kiosks, medical equipment, and digital signs, i.e. use cases where devices are commonly treated as a whole system and are, therefore, “upgraded” by building and validating a new system, turning off the old device, and replacing it with a new, certified device.

He also goes on to explain for such systems that Microsoft

designed the LTSC with these types of use cases in mind, offering the promise that we will support each LTSC release for 10 years–and that features, and functionality will not change over the course of that 10-year lifecycle.

Understanding the LTSC Release Cadence

MS deliberately slow-walks LTSC releases to the delivery stage. Wilcox explains that a new release is created on a three-year cycle. In fact, “each release contains all the new capabilities and support included in the Windows 10 features updates … released since the previous LTSC…” Thus, LTSC releases use a year to identify themselves. Recent examples include Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2016 and 2019.

Changing Times vs. No Change

Wilcox is pretty adamant that only those scenarios where no change is anticipated over a system’s useful life are truly suitable for LTSC. That means: no new peripherals, no new applications, no new devices and capabilities. Anything different is a strong argument to use the SAC instead. Embedded or dedicated systems often qualify, but little else fits that bill. End of story.

[Note Added February 10:] 2022 LTSC Preview

Good timing. Just saw a notice at TenForums that a new Preview Build 20292 for LTSC 2022 is out: get all the details at the Announcing item. Glad to see MS is still at work on what’s next for LTSC. Be sure to check it out, if this is in your wheelhouse.

Uncategorized

Understanding What 2004 Broad Deployment Means

February 8, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

On February 3, an interesting note appeared in the latest Windows 10 Status bulletin. To truly make sense of its import requires understanding what 2004 broad deployment means. Here’s a key snippet:

Current status as of February 3, 2021

Windows 10, version 2004 is designated for broad deployment. The recommended servicing status is Semi-Annual Channel.

Again: Understanding What 2004 Broad Deployment Means

The phrase “broad deployment” is addressed in code in the phrase “servicing status is Semi-Annual Channel.” I’d translate it as “ready for nearly everybody and anybody .” Microsoft displays a more specific view of this in a DOCs article. It’s entitled Assign devices to servicing channels for Windows 10 update. In fact, that article supplies the table shown as the lead-in graphic above.

Another quote that heads the foregoing table is pretty explicit about who should get which release channel:

The Semi-Annual Channel is the default servicing channel for all Windows 10 devices except those with the LTSB edition installed

What does this mean? It means anybody who depends on Windows 10 should run the Semi-Annual Channel release. To be more specific, that means users at work, at home and at school. Thus, if you’re not an insider or using an LTSB license, you should be running Windows 10 2004 . That’s the May 2020 release, currently at build 19041.xxx.

2 Releases Back Reflects Conventional Wisdom

For the longest time, businesses have long followed a pattern of hanging one or two releases back from the leading edge. This goes as far back as I can remember taking Windows seriously. More explicitly, I’d call it “the Windows 3.1/Windows for Workgroups era” (1992-1993).

On the ground, most businesses I visit run 1909 or 2004 these days. With 1909 not coming up on EOL until May 2022, this info from Microsoft is interesting. Between the lines, read it as a gentle nudge to businesses to start thinking about an upgrade. For sure, that’s sooner than they’d upgrade, if impending EOL were the driving force.

For ordinary users I also read this as sage advice for those who don’t work at Windows leading or bleeding edge. For leading edge, think current release (20H2). That makes the bleeding edge Insider Previews (21H1 and beyond).

Could It Be a Wake-Up for True Laggards?

The true laggards, of course, are those running 1904 or some earlier Windows release. This includes my optometrist, who I noticed is still on Windows 7 when I had my eyes checked two weeks back. Thus, if you’re not close to the Semi-Annual Channel level on your Windows desktops, it’s time to start planning that transition. I think MS has just given fair warning!

Networking, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting

Untangling Cascading Troubles Gets Frustrating

February 6, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I’ve been trying to untangle a weird mix of networking and telephony issues going on three days now. As I write this item, in fact, I’m texting with a Verizon tech support person. He’s trying to unsnarl a mix-up around a new 5G MiFi hotspot I purchased recently. When the device was set up, it was mistakenly tied to my son’s cellphone number. Then, the tech support people tried to switch things around. Alas, they exceeded the allowable number of reset attempts. This requires a 24 hour wait before a retry is allowed. The 24 hours are up, and I’m trying again. Does this explain why untangling cascading troubles gets frustrating?

How Untangling Cascading Troubles Gets Frustrating

Let me count the ways.

Verizon Tech Coaches can’t call my cellphone. It doesn’t ring because of a setting that’s available only in iOS 13 or higher. My iPhone is running 12.5. So I had to work through amazing contortions to get them to call my landline.
The MiFi device hadn’t been working properly. Thus, I wasn’t able to activate it myself. First I learned how to pop the back off the device. Then, I did the old “paper clip in the recessed reset switch” routine to return it to factory settings. After that the UI worked just fine.
As an iOS guy I found myself messing with Gregory’s Android OnePlus 7 Pro. This had me remembering and relearning all kinds of interesting stuff. I’m now more familiar with its UI, device settings and config data . I also now remember what’s up with ICCID and IMEI identifiers.
When my tech support person tried to reset the accounts properly, the provisioning software let him make the changes, then came back and told him “transaction disallowed.” He’s now roping higher level support team members in to reset database rules to make this happen.
The way I got into this snafu to begin with is that my Spectrum Internet connection won’t pass Remote Desktop Protocol through its firewall. When I attempted the necessary port forwarding operations, the device proved unable or unwilling to read the external (WAN or rather cable side) IP address, even though I can see it just fine (and Ping it) from my LAN PC. That led me to say “I can use my MiFi 5G hotspot instead” and started me down the rabbit hole.

So here we are solving problems we didn’t know we had, and dealing with mixups based on pure human frailty.

Tech Support Needs Unified Communications, Badly!

The most amazing thing I’ve learned is that at least two separate tech support operations at Verizon are inappropriately silo’ed. Their Tech Coach operation cannot place voice calls. They are restricted to online chat only. I made the mistake of initiating contact with them on my cellphone, and they couldn’t easily switch over to a PC session, either. I did figure out how to make that happen later on, though so online via cell and via PC do have some integration.

But their app is limited to calling only registered Verizon devices. So when I tried to have them call my cell early on for a voice session, I found myself in a Catch-22. I wanted them to call me, they called me, but my only acceptable target device wouldn’t allow that call to ring in (that’s the iOS setting for version 13 and up, which is turned on and immutable for 12 and under versions and so can’t be accessed or changed on my aging iPhone 6).

At this point it’s taken me over 7 hours to solve a set of problems that are only tangential to the real problem I want to solve with accessing a public IP using Remote Desktop. I’ll get to that and another series of tech support calls with Spectrum next week.

Take a Deep Breath, and Keep Waiting

But I’m learning how to keep calm and carry on in the face of massive frustration. I suppose I should be glad that I’m not the human responsible for the error that triggered this cascade. Lord knows I have been the guilty party often enough myself to write about it regularly in this very blog!

But Wait: There’s More

Yesterday when I wanted to blog about this situation, my ISP’s behind-the-scenes MySQL WordPress server went down. Thus, I was unable to access or post anything until that got fixed. The error cascade is apparently catching, so perhaps you shouldn’t have read this far. Brace yourself!

Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

Pondering Microsoft Viva Introduction

February 4, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, I admit it. I’ve been biting my lip since last week, when MS briefed MVPs about this upcoming milestone. Now that they’ve made an official announcement, I can share my thoughts and reactions. (That’s also where the nifty graphic comes from. I doubled it up for a better WordPress look.) All this goes to explain why today I’m pondering Microsoft Viva introduction. Potentially, it means much for modern digital workers everywhere — including me (and you too, dear reader).

When Pondering Microsoft Viva Introduction, Don’t Get Carried Away

Q1: What is Microsoft Viva?
A1: It’s an “Employee Experience Platform,” aka EXP “built for the digital era.” It is designed to bring together “knowledge, learning, resources, and insights into an integrated employee experience…
Further, it “… builds on Microsoft Teams to empower people to be their best, from anywhere.” See the Official Announcement Blog.

Q2: Name the four faces of the Viva EXP?
A2: They’re repeated in the next graphic. You’ve got Viva Insights, Viva Topics, Viva Learning, and Viva Connections.

Pondering Microsoft Viva Introduction and its four major components. — Pondering Microsoft Viva Introduction and its four major components, we see Insights, Topics, Learning, and Connections.

Of Insights, Topics, Learning and Connections

The emerging scoop on these Teams-based facilities goes like this:

Viva Connections allows an organization’s leaders to shape in-house cultures and mindsets. It also invites employees to help build “an inclusive workplace.” Further, it “helps everyone succeed by giving people a curated, company-branded experience that brings together relevant news, conversations, and other resources.” More at Viva Connections Blog.
Viva Insights wants to help people form better work habits, achieve improved work/life balance, and find focus. Using AI (I’m guessing of both global and local varieties) this tool offers insights to individuals, managers and leaders. They’re described as “personalized and actionable insights that help everyone in an organization thrive.” Mo’ info at Viva Insights Blog.
Viva Learning creates a centralized learning hub within Microsoft Teams. There, people can “discover, share, assign and learn from content libraries available across the organization.” “[M]ake learning a natural part of your day” is the goal. MS says it “seamlessly connects into the day to day for our 115 million daily active users in Teams.” Futher deets from Viva Learning Blog.
Viva Topics uses AI to provide its users “with knowledge and expertise in Microsoft Teams and the Microsoft 365 apps they use every day.” Based on Teams and Graph, it seeks to “deliver knowledge directly through the Teams users experience later this year.” At present it “has [already] reached general availability for our commercial customers.” Oh, and here’s the link to the Viva Topics Announcement (no blog just yet, I guess). This is the area that, as a Windows Insider MVP, interests me most.

Big Trouble in Little China

…is a delightfully awful 1986 throwaway movie starring Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall. It also humorously restates my mild concern, understanding now how much MS knows about us through Teams. And then, how much more we’re all going to know about ourselves and each other through that same nexus.

This could might be the best thing that’s ever happened to productivity workers. Or, it might be the first sign that SkyNet is getting itself together to subjugate wee, slow, puny humans. Should be fun to see which way this particular mop flops, eh?

Stay tuned! We’ve all got a lot to ponder as the next step in the man/machine interface takes another small step into the future. Personally, I’m jazzed…

Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

Remembering Santayana’s Dictum Win10-Wise

February 3, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I learned this one as “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Turns out that upon checking Santayana’s aphorism, it’s actually “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” But when it comes to remembering Santayana’s dictum Win10-wise, I was forced to re-learn an important lesson today. Let me explain…

What Remembering Santayana’s Dictum Win10-Wise Means

A funny thing happened to me today: I installed KB4598291 but it didn’t show up in Update History nor in its Control Panel counterpart under Programs and Feaures. Why was this? Because I’d wandered off the update track to force my test PC ahead to 19043.XXX builds using a series of linked DISM statements. Sigh.

Today, I learned why that’s a BAD IDEA. When I realized that something was amiss, I learned that things were further out of whack than I’d dreamed possible. The hack meant that I could no longer use the tried-and-true “in-place upgrade repair install” technique to return my test PC to some semblance of normality.

That Key Doesn’t Work. Try Another…

I used UUPdump.ml to build a customized install ISO for 19042.789. But when I tried to run same on my “unofficial” 19043.782 machine, the installer asked for a Windows 10 key before it would proceed. None of the following worked:

The generic Windows 10 Pro key
The actual key for the current install, as elicited by Showkey Plus
A still active MAK key for Windows 10 Pro I purchased from Crayon, Inc. in 2018

Ouch! I was in trouble. Fortunately, i was able to restore a backup from a time when this test PC was still on the regular Beta/Release Preview build track. Once I’d done that, I was able to catch up and bring the PC up to build 19042.789, as shown in the lead-in graphic for this story.

The Moral of the Story

I’d been warned by friends and colleagues that wandering off the usual Insider Preview track is OK for experiments, but not for ongoing use. Now I know why: once you hit the next Cumulative Update (as I did today) the off-track releases will get weird in a hurry. My advice: learn from my mistake, and don’t go there, unless it’s on a throwaway VM. I now understand that’s how I should have played that, too. Live and learn!

Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10

X380 Yoga 21301 Installation Issues

February 2, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I’ve been struggling since last Thursday to get the latest Fast Ring version — namely, 21301.1000 — installed. That’s right, I’ve got “interesting” X380 Yoga 21301 installation issues running hot and cold right now. So far I’ve seen at least 4 different error codes, all of which hit at about the 48% mark after the first reboot. I call this the “post-GUI” phase of Windows 10 installation, because it occurs after the WinPE environment takes over the install process following that first reboot.

Diagnosing X380 Yoga 21301 Installation Issues

I’ve just confirmed that these issues persist in the latest CU 21301.1010, as well as in 21301.1000. I’ve been using the MS tool setupdiag.exe to get to the bottom of things. But because it finds the NT driver as the culprit for the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_
EQUAL and the bugcheck 0X0A error, that puts the onus on MS to fix something beyond my control. You can see this in the setupdiag output in the lead-in graphic for this story.

I can tackle and fix lots of Windows 10 drivers. But as I understand it when the NT driver (shows up as lowercase nt in the screencap) is mentioned, it’s general indicator. According to dbgtech.net, “the error might be caused by a device driver, a system service, a virus scanner, or a backup tool that is incompatible with the new version.”

Coming Up Dry Is No Fun at All

I’m running Defender on this PC so I’m pretty sure it’s not involved. I’ve stripped my services down to the bare minimum. Macrium Reflect is my backup too (and still working on the X220 Tablet that has managed both of these recent updates/upgrades). The same device drivers work on 19042.746 on my other nearly-identical X380 Yoga PC (only difference: Toshiba SSD vs. Samsung).

I’m still looking for enlightenment, but not finding any. Last time something like this happened, I just had to wait for a new Fast Ring/Dev Channel release, and it installed just fine. Here’s hoping!

[Note Added Feb 12] 21313 Brings Success!

I’d been contacted by a member of the Windows Insiders team as a result of sharing a link to this post on the Windows Insider MVP Yammer community. I was informed that a future Dev Channel release would fix my problem. As I learned earlier this afternoon, 21313 installed without difficulties. Seems that this PC got bit by a known bugcheck error. It’s the first item on the Fixes list in the 21313 release notes. This has been a known issue for some time, and is apparently now fixed. Woo hoo!

Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10

UFD Failure Presents Strange Symptoms

February 1, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I had one of my 16 GB Mushkin Atom USB Flash Drives (UFDs) fail on me this weekend. Alas, it happened in the middle of a boot-into-restore operation on my Lenovo X220 Tablet. Because I didn’t think I’d built Rescue Media, I stuck the UFD into the machine while that process was underway. After the restore ended, because that very same UFD failure presents strange symptoms I blamed Reflect. Wrong!

When UFD Failure Presents Strange Symptoms, Then What?

As is my usual practice when a device presents odd behaviors or symptoms, I go into diagnostics mode. When I dug into the drive using MiniTool Partition Magic (MTPW), I could see 5 NTFS partitions on that device. Each was a miniscule 3.8 MB in size. But no set of contortions would return that device to operation. Diskpart didn’t do it at the command line, nor was MTPW able to return it to working order. When I inserted it into Disk Management, I got the ultimate judgement on its condition shown in this story’s lead-in graphic: “Bad Disk.” That seemed to sum things up pretty nicely.

This is the second UFD I’ve had fail on me in the past 5 years or so. I just counted 28 of them here in my office, in sizes ranging from 8 GB to 128 GB. I use them all the time. The smaller ones are usually bootable with OS images, rescue media, or repair tools. The larger ones act primarily as portable storage for project work when I go on the road. And apparently, they do fail from time to time.

Macrium Reflect Forum Sets Things Straight

I hope I can be forgiven for initially wanting to blame Reflect for trashing the UFD. It did go south on me in the middle of a Macrium operation, after all. Then, I learned more about how Rescue Media works, courtesy of MR forum regulars “Froggie” and “jphughan.” Now, I am inclined to agree with their analysis that the UFD’s failure was coincidental.

Let me explain: it seems that when invoked using the “boot to restore” operation, jphughan told me “the WIM file inside the Rescue Media cached build folder — but that is a folder on (by default) your C partition.” Given that member jphughan has 8.5K posts on the forums and has reached “Macrium Evangelist” level, I’m inclined to believe he knows what he’s talking about.

And in fact, I saw my system go into Recovery from the usual boot drive (a Plextor SSD) on that PC. Turns out that there’s a sub-older inside C:\Boot that’s named Macrium. It in turn has folders for the drivers it needs, various Windows 10 Assessment and Deployment Kit elements (aka WA10Files) folder, where the all-important boot.wim file for the WinRE version that Macrium uses to boot its Rescue Media resides.

Given that the UFD doesn’t function properly, but the system not only booted and ran its restore, this is the only way to explain how that process occurred. Thus, I concur with my informants from the Macrium Forums that (a) restore ran from the C: drive and (b) the UFD was either dead or died somewhere during the reboot process that proceeded just fine without its help or involvement.

Just goes to show that coincidence is a powerful force, but one that can be reasoned past when needs must.

Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10

Relearning X220 Tablet Macrium Restore Takes Time

January 29, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I spent most of yesterday afternoon, and a fair chunk of the evening, working on an article about repairing damaged, unresponsive or misbehaving MS Office installs. Naturally, I used a test machine for this project. Thus, I could do potentially horrible things to one machine, while writing about them on another. I backed up the old (2012) Lenovo X220 Tablet using Macrium Reflect before starting. That meant I could later restore my pristine OS and Office environment once playtime ended. This morning, I realized relearning X220 Tablet Macrium Restore takes time. Over an hour, in fact, when all was said and done.

Why Relearning X220 Tablet Macrium Restore Takes Time

Two reasons. First, the X220 Tablet is old enough that 300 Mbps is as fast as it can transfer data disk-to-disk. This is true, even when both disks are SSDs. One’s a Plextor mSATA 256GB PX6 SSD, the other is an ancient OCZ Vertex-3 128 GB SSD. The backup only took 8 minutes to lay down. But because a reboot required booting into WindowsPE, then into Macrium’s runtime, then restoring said backup, that part took over 30 minutes to complete.

The second reason falls rather more under the heading of “operator error,” subclass “I didn’t know Reflect could do that!” Let me explain. When I went to run the restore this time, Reflect asked me if I wanted to boot right into its bootable recovery media, ready to run the restore I’d just requested.

Silly me: I said “Yes!” That meant I needed to add the Macrium Recovery entry to my boot menu, build a Macrium Recovery partition, and wait for all that processing to finish before the machine could reboot and run the restore. That took another 15-20 minutes.

Good News, Bad News

I didn’t understand that Reflect would do this on my boot/system disk. The lead-in graphic for this story shows that my C drive layout now sports an 837MB Recovery Partition at the end of the sequence. Thus, the reboot worked after I removed the 8 GB UFD I’d inserted into the X220 Tablet, thinking I needed to build external WinRE media. The restore proceeded to a successful finish after that. That’s the good news.

The bad news is, the software ate my 8GB Mushkin UFD. It now shows up in diskmgmt.msc as “No media” with 0 Bytes capacity. When I tried to reformat it on another PC, I got an error message saying the UFD malfunctioned and could not be mounted. I’ll be sharing this experience on the Macrium forums, but I’m surprised that the program was allowed to (apparently) eat my flash drive. It won’t respond to low-level format commands at the command line, either. (Diskpart reports “an I/O device error.” I think this one is beyond repair.) Weird.

It’s no great loss (the device cost under US$10). But it still shouldn’t happen. I hope to follow up when I learn more. Stay tuned!

Letters from the Ed, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

My Insider Preview Working Routine Revealed

January 28, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

On January 18, I reported here that the Insider Team at MS renewed my Windows Insider MVP (WIMVP) status for 2021. Since that renewal came through, I’ve been keeping an eye on my daily activities and taking notes. Now, I’m prepared to share a mini-expose. It’s what I call “My Insider Preview working routine revealed,” as in the title for this story. I’ll explain what it means, what I do, and how much time it takes to stay involved in the program. Here goes…

Digging In: Insider Preview Working Routine Revealed

There are 5 major activities involved in the Insider Preview working routine, as far as I can tell. I’ll enumerate them first, then provide some details and ruminations.

Dealing with Insider Preview releases
Reporting on installation and use experiences
Researching news and reports related to Insider Preview Releases
Participating in the WIMVP community
Raising awareness for Windows 10 plus related tools and utilities

1. Dealing with Insider Preview releases

I watch all the release channels — namely Dev, Beta, and Insider Preview, with at least 2 test machines devoted to each channel. Every time a new release comes out, I go through a specific drill, as follows:

Download and install the release
Observe any issues, hiccups or out-of-baseline behaviors during the install and initial trip to the desktop
Perform post-install clean-up, which consists of deleting Windows.old, running file cleanup, and making a fresh backup of the new version in Macrium reflect
Report on experience and findings at TenForums.com in the News forum and, if necessary, in the Installation and Upgrade forum
Check Event logs and Reliability Monitor for out-of-the-ordinary stuff
Report anything interesting or noteworthy to Feedback hub

As occasional updates to IP releases emerge, I repeat the steps above except for post-install clean-up, though I may run DISM /online /cleanup-image /analyzecomponentstore to see if any install packages need cleaning up in the wake of the new update. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t.

I do about 6 of these a week on average, where each one takes anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour if everything works as it should. Sometimes, troubleshooting can take an hour or more, as when troubleshooting installation failures. Right now, for example, I’m dealing with a Bug Check 0xA IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL stop error on Build 21301 on one of my test machines. I may not get this resolved until after dinner tonight because I have three deadlines to meet today (this article, a story for ComputerWorld, and a blog post for ActualTechMedia).

2. Reporting on installation and use experiences

Once I get the IP release installed and cleaned up, I start using it from time to time. As I observe its behavior and try out commands, programs, apps and utilities, I report any issues I encounter to Feedback hub. This depends a lot on my overall workload and may involve only 10 minutes on some days, and an hour or two on others. Varies a lot.

3. Researching news and reports related to Insider Preview Releases

I read the Windows 10 coverage on at least a half-dozen sites daily to keep up with current events, reported bugs and issues, emerging features and rumors of same. I also keep a partial eye on Microsoft business and tech news, as well as PC software and hardware industry news. This takes me at least an hour a day; longer if I get interested in something and start tracking stuff down. My daily visits include WinAero.com, Windows Latest, MSPowerUser, NeoWin, OnMSFT, Ghacks, ZDNet, Windows Central, and TenForums.com (where I try to read all new threads every day).

4. Participating in the WIMVP community

I belong to the WIMVP Yammer group, and scan its posts daily. We have weekly meetings to discuss Windows 10 topics which I sometimes attend (but not always). When we have online meetings — as we will later this morning — I try to attend those pretty regularly. I make a point of attending our conferences, and used to enjoy the physical ones. Now, like everybody else, I get what I can from their online/virtual counterparts, and look forward to when traveling for a real meet-up is once again possible. This takes me an hour or two a week on average, with 2-3 full days for conferences.

5. Raising awareness for Windows 10 plus related tools and utilities

I’m always on the lookout for good Microsoft-built or third-party tools, utilities, scripts, and whatnot. As I find them, I write about them in my daily reporting, and try to get articles placed to write about them in more detail and depth. You can get an inkling of what I do from my end-of-last-year story here Top 3 2020 Utilities. This is about the most fun I get to have in this role, but seldom takes more than an hour or two a week, sometimes less.

I also give an annual Windows 10 presentation at the Spiceworks SpiceWorld conference, and try to pick up other speaking and presenting gigs as they make themselves available. If you want me to talk about Windows 10 stuff at your conference and I don’t have a conflict, I’d be happy to oblige. Contact me through Ed Tittel Contact Info, where you’ll find an email form that goes straight into my inbox.