Category Archives: Cool Tools

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Remote Desktop (RDP), Troubleshooting, WED Blog

Thunderbolt Share Gets Interesting

March 24, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then. I asked Lenovo to send me another Thunderbolt 4 capable laptop so I could try out the new Intel Thunderbolt Share app. Looks like I’m at least temporarily stymied, and have learned some things I don’t especially like, either. Indeed, Thunderbolt Share gets interesting from the get-go possibly because of licensing issues. Right now, I’m stymied because when I run a TB4 cable between my 2 TB-equipped laptops right now, I can never get past the “Waiting for connection” screen shown above. Sigh.

Thunderbolt Share Gets Interesting Because…?

Notice the disclaimers beneath “Connect both Computers” in the foregoing screencap. I may be stuck on the clause that reads:

At least one PC or Thunderbolt accessory must be Thunderbolt Share licensed by the manufacturer

From what I can tell, the newest of my pair of PCs — the only one that could possibly qualify here — had its Windows image burned on November 20, 2024. Given that Thunderbolt Share made its debut in May of the same year, it’s entirely possible that Lenovo didn’t license this program for the ThinkPad T14s Gen5. At any rate it’s not working between my only TB4-capable laptops right now. I’ve asked Lenovo for help, and we’ll see what happens. But there’s more…

Thunderbolt Share Won’t Open in RDP Session

My usual way of working on test and eval PCs is to RDP using Remote Desktop Connection (mstsc.exe) on my primary desktop. That’s what I tried first to get into Thunderbolt Share on the two target machines. Guess what? Thunderbolt Share won’t launch from inside an RDP session. I have to physically use the target PCs to get the app to run. I have to laugh…

Once launched, it keeps running if I then remote into either the P16 or the T14s. But of course, it’s stuck at “Waiting for connection” right now. So I’m getting nowhere, fast. That means my plans to compare TB4 cable transfer speeds against GbE and Wi-Fi transfers are on hold for now. Stay tuned. I hope to get this straightened out soon.

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, PowerShell, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog

Extirpating WinGetUI Requires Registry Cleanup

March 20, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s an odd one. A few months back, I tried out a pre-release version of UniGetUI that still fell under the WinGetUI umbrella. The package info involved — as you can see in the lead-in graphic — was ID=MartiCliment.UniGetUI.Pre-Release Version=1.5.2. I thought I’d deleted same, and it showed up in none of Programs and Features, Settings > Apps, or Revo Uninstaller. Yet it kept showing up in WinGet‘s upgrade and list commands anyway. TLDR; extirpating WinGetUI requires registry cleanup to “make it go away.” Sigh.

Why Extirpating WinGetUI Requires Registry Cleanup

Apparently, adding packages to Windows leaves all kinds of traces in the file structure, as well as settings and pointers that get instantiated in the registry. Furthermore, it looks like WinGet relies what it finds in the registry to create its view of what’s installed on a Windows PC. Thus, I had to remove all registry entries that included the string “WinGetUI” and/or “UniGetUI” (except for stuff not related to the application or its package info, such as pointers to Word files I’d written about those tools).

And indeed, that did the trick. Neither WinGet Upgrade nor WinGet List Marti.Climent.UniGetUI,Pre-Release posits pointers to something I know isn’t there. The next screengrab provides visual proof. Good-oh!

After removing all WinGetUI references in the registry, WinGet no longer sees the older package.

It just goes to show that some uninstall facilities work better than others. For all its good features, it appears that WinGetUI/UniGetUI does not clean the registry upon uninstall deeply enough to tell WinGet that it’s gone, gone, gone. You’d think that wouldn’t happen with a WinGet-related and -focused follow-on tool. But here’s a counter-example that says otherwise.

That’s the way things go here in Windows-World, where not all is as it seems, not always works exactly the way it should. Sigh. When that happens, we clean up manually and keep on truckin’…

Cool Tools, Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Packing Portable Water-Cooled PC

March 12, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

When I first started working in networking back in 1988, I carried a Compaq Portable III PC to customer consultations. The rig was unique at the time, because it could accommodate the full-length PC board needed to host the Excelan TCP/IP Ethernet adapter. (It ran the protocol stack on an 80186 processor to offload the 80286 CPU.) When I looked up that unit online I was amazed to see it weighed 9.8 Kg (~20 lbs)! What provoked my recollection? Reading about a new Kickstarter initiative at Tom’s Hardware, I wondered if packing portable water-cooled PC would be as vexing as that old Compaq model was back in the day.

What Would Packing Portable Water-Cooled PC Be Like?

Models discussed on the Kickstarter project page weigh in at 4.8 to 5.2 Kg — that’s around half the old Compaq model. Ditto for the dimensions, too. The Compaq measures about 41 x 19.2 x 24.8 cm. The new ultra high performance integration liquid cooled laptop (UHPILCL) measures out at 34x42x3 cm. It’s much more like a big, fat laptop than the portable sewing machine the Compaq resembled.

Indeed, I remember coming home from a trip after it had snowed and lugging the unit around while I tried to recognize my car under its white blanket. Hopefully, the UHLILCL won’t be quite as big a burden.

Who Would Want One, and Why?

The target audience for this mini-ITX based DIY luggable is gamers or other high-end users who need a high-performance CPU/GPU to take on the road. I can see it in the cards that it might host AI models or other high-end runtime environments for demos and such, as well as pushing frames fast for 3D games, CAD, and simulations that require speedy, complex rendering.

I like the idea that buyers might be able to choose their components, and populate such PCs with lower-end Xeon CPUs and up to 128GB of DDR5 RAM. Because the rig is water cooled and requires ionized water (the home page says nothing about how much water, exactly, it uses) I’m curious about how hard it is to fill and drain. Water and integrated circuits seldom mix well.

Details are still pretty scarce, including pricing and availability/timeframe. But hey, it’s an interesting proposition. And it gave me a nice jaunt down memory lane. And Kickstarter is nothing if it’s not a gauge of public willingness to back a proposition via funding. It should be even more interesting to see if this proposed project gets off the ground.

One More Thing…

As I think about this unit and what “laptop” typically means, I must observe that it will HAVE to plug into A/C to work. When people hear the l-word (laptop, that is) they usually think of something that can run — for a short time, at least — on battery. I don’t think that’s happening on a unit with a mini-ITX mobo and a high-end GPU. Notice in the specs, there’s nothing about battery capacity or life. I’m sure that’s deliberate…

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Skype Attains Oblivion in May 2025

February 28, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

First it was a swelling rumor, based on some eagle-eyed code scanning (reported at XDA.com on Feb 27). Today, it’s established fact, as Zac Bowden at WindowsCentral updates his story with “Microsoft has confirmed that Skype is shutting down in May, with warnings now appearing within Skype apps.” MS wants everybody to move to Teams instead, and offers tools to move chats as needed. If all goes according to plan, that means Skype attains oblivion in May 2025.

Note: I’ve morphed the screencap from the afore-cited XDA story that shows the warning “Starting in May, Skype will no longer be available. Continue your calls and chats in Teams.” in text form. Reading the code can occasionally provide insights (and reveal future plans, as in this case).

After Skype Attains Oblivion in May 2025, Teams Takes Over

With a much broader range of capabilities, and options to scale audiences into the thousands, Teams can do everything Skype can, and quite a lot more. The transition is already over for some — including your humble author. Hopefully, it won’t be too difficult for those hold-outs still using Skype to switch over to Teams, too.

A Skype Timeline and Some Recollections

Skype started out on the Internet back in 2003 as a standalone service. Mostly it required establishing credit to offset upcoming charges, with occasional replenishment to keep a positive balance after that. For a while, my wife used it to interact with members of her family (who live in Germany) via voice and video on her PC. Microsoft acquired the company in 2011, and made a half-hearted attempt to build it into Windows 10 in 2015.

If memory serves, we all quit using it around that time. FaceTime on the iPhone was free and easier to use. Plus phones are better suited as communications devices than bigger laptops or deskbound desktops. I’d argue that Skype’s demise has been foreshadowed for a long, long time, and that it’s planned end-of-life-and-service date is no big surprise to anyone.

So long Skype. For my purposes, Teams already works better, and does more, than you ever did.

Note Added 2 Hrs Later

See Tom Warren’s Verge story Microsoft is shutting down Skype in favor of Teams for more useful details. The drop-dead date is reported as May 5, and further info on options open to current Skype users is provided. Apparently, he got an MS spokesperson to provide additional tidbits to help prepare the userbase for this change.

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog

PatchMyPC Updates 9 Apps Today

February 27, 2025 Ed Tittel 1 Comment

Gosh: I don’t see this very often. On the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra just now, PatchMyPC Updates 9 apps today. You can see them in the lead-in graphic. The whole thing took less than 4 minutes to complete. My appreciation for this handy update tool knows no bounds!

OK PatchMyPC Updates 9 Apps Today: Next?

The full name of the tool is Patch My PC Home Updater. (I’ll call it PMPC for brevity here). With 516 apps in its library, PMPC is not as comprehensive in coverage as is WinGet or the MS Store (2,600+ packages in the former, and over 60,000 in the latter). But it’s completely automated, incredibly easy (and fun) to use, and — for some odd reason — almost always faster than running the same installers in PowerShell or the Command Prompt.

Indeed, PMPC is also less careful or respectful of running apps than WinGet. It cheerfully stops web browsers (and other apps) to update them, then restores their previous runtime context. In WinGet, you will often either be unable to update a running browser (e.g. Chrome) or you’ll have to relaunch it manually (e.g. Edge or Firefox).

It’s a handy tool, and comes in a variety of commercial forms that work with Autopilot and InTune, among other patch and update management systems. As with WinGet, you can also use it to install and uninstall the items in its library as well. Highly recommended, and a treat to use.

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Networking, WED Blog

Right Networking Tool Delivers Visibility

February 25, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I spend at least 15 hours a week on TenForums.com and ElevenForum.com. To me both sites are invaluable sources of intelligence as well as information, fixes and tutorials. In lurking on the Eleven Forum Network and Internet threads recently, I was reminded that the right networking tool delivers visibility that File Explorer can’t match. You can see what I mean in the lead-in screencap, where File Explorer shows the network with 4 PCs, one printer and one router. To the right, the free Advanced IP Scanner (a personal fave) shows 6 computers, 2 printers, 2 TVs, an iPhone, and various other networking devices, including smart thermostats, cable TV boxes, and two routers. Big difference!

Why Stress That Right Networking Tool Delivers Visiblity

The aforementioned Eleven Forum networking threads often gripe that File Explorer fails to show all network devices. They also provide oodles of ingenious hacks and settings to force that tool to show more, more, more of what’s on the network. I simply turn to Advanced IP Scanner instead, because it not only shows me everything within a private (or public) IP address range, it also provides quick, ready access to remote access and management functions that let me reach out to them.

There is a stubborn streak in the Windows community that sometimes says: “Heck no, I won’t use 3rd-party tools. I’ll do it ONLY with native Windows facilities.” That strategy may be understandable — in theory, at least — but in practice it’s sometimes easier to achieve in some cases, and not so much in others. Getting active network nodes to show up in File Explorer is one of the latter. To me, it’s as much about tail-chasing as it is about getting stuff to show up in the UI.

I’ll skip that tail-chasing myself, and use Advanced IP Scanner instead. It does the job right away and requires no drama, nor other unseemly contortions. As I’ve said before, and will say again: In Windows-World, “Cool Tools Rule!”

Backup/Restore, Cool Tools, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Free Macrium Update Conundrum

February 24, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then: I’m chuckling. I’ve noticed for the past two months that while Macrium Reflect Free (v8) notifies me updates are available, it never downloads them. Then, I used one of my two remaining paid-for v8 licenses and presto! v.8.8.8325 is now available for download. That poses a free Macrium Update conundrum — namely, are they or aren’t they? So I asked Copilot about company policy on updates for that free version.

Here’s what it told me:

Yes, Macrium has stated a policy regarding updates for the free version of Macrium Reflect. As of January 1, 2024, Macrium Reflect Free v8.0 no longer receives feature, compatibility, or bug fix updates. Security patches were provided until that date, but no further changes are made to the v8 Free code base.

You can continue to use Macrium Reflect Free, but to receive updates and new features, a paid license is required.

Timing the Free Macrium Update Conundrum

Again, I’m chuckling because I’ve managed to go nearly two full months before catching this on my various testbed PCs. That’s also a clever use of notifications from Paramount Software (the makers of MR). It let me know — somewhat more slowly than I’m sure they intended — that my old free licenses were orphaned.

Now that I’ve updated as many of them as I can, I need to figure out how many MR version X licenses I’m actually still using. I’ve sent at least 3 or 4 such machines back to Lenovo after installing paid-up versions on them. I need to reclaim them so I can use them for other such machines as and when they show up here at Chez Tittel.

And now, at least, older members of my mini-fleet can get their Macrium updates on. Boy howdy: Isn’t that just the way things go here in Windows-World from time to time? Keeping up isn’t a full-time chore, for sure, but it does require paying a certain amount of attention…

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

WinGet Installs Neofetch Directly

February 19, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK then, I’ve had a little more time to research and think about yesterday’s blog post, which seized upon the Chris Titus install/update/tweak PowerShell script as a way to get Neofetch installed on Windows. It most assuredly works, but there are easier ways to get this done. Indeed, with the right knowledge and syntax, WinGet installs Neofetch directly. Here’s the syntax:

WinGet install Neofetch

You can see that in the lead-in screengrab. It shows that WinGet knows about a package named neofetch-win with an associated ID of nepnep.neofetch-win. Indeed, that turns out to be the key to finding this project at GitHub. Turns out that nepnep39 is the developer’s handle, and neofetch-win is the name of this GitHub project.

Why WinGet Installs Neofetch Directly

TLDR answer: because the developer has created a package definition for neofetch-win that’s known to WinGet. Indeed, I got the simplest possible syntax shown in the lead graphic from the GitHub project’s README file. Who knew? A lot of people, apparently (he thanks visitors for 50K downloads in March 2024). But alas, not yours truly until yesterday. Sigh.

There’s another way to use WinGet to install Neofetch, also shown in the lead-in graphic, albeit indirectly. You can use the ID mechanism as well, to wit:

WinGet install --id nepnep.neofetch-win

This approach specifically calls out the package by its full ID string, as registered in the WinGet package database.

Even GitHub Provides More Ways

If you visit the “Latest” release page for neofetch-win at GitHub (1.2.1 as I write this), you’ll also find links to an .exe file and an MS Installer (.msi) file there. They work, too, to provide access to this nifty little tool from the UNIX/Linux world.

Where there’s a will to use WinGet, it’s often possible to find a way to exercise same. In this case, I simply needed to find the right handle. It must’ve been too obvious for me, but now I know how to get there from here. And so do you… But heck, based on nepnep39’s March 2024 thankyou, maybe you already did.

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, PowerShell, WED Blog, Windows tools

Bringing Neofetch Aboard via WinGet

February 18, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I knew there had to be a way. I just couldn’t find it or figure it out on my own. The venerable old OS info command line tool Neofetch (best known to UNIX and Linux users) works at the Windows command line, too. But I struggled with Chocolatey and Scoop to get it installed without liking the results. This morning Eleven Forum user Lance1 posted a terrific WinGet-based install/update tool from Chris Titus with an understated title “You may find this handy.” Indeed I did — and I also successfully tried bringing Neofetch aboard via WinGet on my production PC. You can see it running in the lead-in screengrab.

What’s Behind Bringing Neofetch Aboard via WinGet?

Running the command from Lance1’s post — namely

iwr -useb https://christitus.com/win | iex

absolutely did the trick for me.

Here’s how Copilot breaks this command string down (all six numbered items are quoted verbatim therefrom):

iwr: This is an alias for the Invoke-WebRequest cmdlet. It sends an HTTP request to a web server and retrieves the response.
-useb: This parameter tells Invoke-WebRequest to automatically unblock the downloaded file, which is useful when downloading scripts from the internet.
https://christitus.com/win: This is the URL of the file you’re downloading. In this case, it’s a script hosted on Chris Titus’s website.
|: This is the pipeline operator, which passes the output of one cmdlet to another cmdlet.
iex: This is an alias for the Invoke-Expression cmdlet. It runs a script or command that is passed to it as input.

In summary, says Copilot: “this command downloads a script from https://Christitus.com/win and then executes it immediately on your system.” It’s what pops up the partial console that includes a checkbox for Neofetch, like so:

And when I clicked on Install/upgrade selected in the console pop-up window, it showed the following output as it used WinGet to handle the Neofetch install:

I’m jazzed. I need to spend more time with this Chis Titus tool and see what ELSE it can do. Lance1 was certainly right in his low-key estimation of its utility. I’ve already found it handy, so to speak. Cheers!

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog

Recent Upgrade Traffic Heavy

February 12, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It’s been a busy past few days here at Chez Tittel. Yesterday’s Patch Tuesday was pretty intense — MS and third-party updates addressed 67 CVEs — for all my Windows 10 and 11 PCs and VMs. And today, I’m noticing anywhere from 6 to 9 updates via WinGet on those same PCs and VMs. IMO, this makes recent upgrade traffic heavy (or at least, heavier than usual). You can see the list of 9 updates from the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme in the lead-in graphic, for example.

Is Recent Upgrade Traffic Heavy Important?

Hard to say. The number of CVEs addressed on Patch Tuesday may sound high, but Copilot says it’s way below the 350-400 monthly average over the past 12 months. Wait?! Can that be right… Yes, it can. Indeed, the monthly average for CVEs reported for Windows in 2024 was over 3,300. With the number addressed in fixes, you can see how far Windows trails behind in catching up.

Where WinGet is concerned, 7-9 on any given day is higher than usual, but not extraordinary. Here again, Copilot says “it’s safe to say that WinGet handles hundreds of updates daily across various systems.” On any particular systems, or on Chez Tittel systems (they’re similarly configured and run a fairly consistent set of tools and apps), that number varies by what’s there and what’s updated.

The Tools Keep Working, and So Do I

I’ve experienced relatively little difficulty with WU and WinGet updates in past months (see my February 6 post on upgrading Canary to 27788 as rare exception). Keeping up with Windows and its apps and applications involves regular — but not extreme — effort. I’ll keep on keepin’ on as long as that stays true.

In that same vein, I haven’t seen much action recently through the lens of Patch My PC Home Updater. My typical suite of 20 to under 40 of its apps have been mostly quiescent for the past week and longer. That said, my production desktop just reported two C++ redistributables and CPU-Z all need updates. Go figure!