Here’s an interesting thing. For conventional Windows applications, a quick trip to Help > About is all it usually takes to see their version info. Alas, by and large, Windows apps lack such facilities. In reading about a recent update to the Phone Link app at WinAero this morning, I went looking at my various installations to see what I could see. Turns out that eliciting Windows Store app version info is doable, but may take a little finesse. I found two can’t-fail methods, which I will share here.

Why I’m Eliciting Windows Store App Version Info

The afore-linked WinAero study avers, and my own checks confirm, that only Insider versions of Windows 11 currently get the required version of Phone Link. Indeed, Phone Link’s version number must be 1.24112.73.0 or higher on the PC for the new pop-up share file menu to pop up. This raised the question: how to check Phone App version number in particular, and Store app numbers in general.

I found two relatively easy ways, neither of them glaringly obvious:

[Method 1] Use the WinGet list command, e.g. WinGet list “Phone Link” in this case (because the name includes an interior space, it must be enclosed in single or double quote marks).

The version on this Canary PC is 1.24112.89.0.

[Method 2] Visit the Microsoft Store, and look it up on its product page there. Some scrolling (look for the “Additional information” subheading) is required. Using the Phone Link entry as an example, here’s what you see:

Version number is at lower right.

Store Lookup Gets Weird

I wasn’t able to look Phone Link up using Windows Store search. I had to go to the Downloads icon in the left-hand column and look for the most recent update to Phone Link  there. That took me to the product page where I grabbed for foregoing information, including version number.  And when I asked Copilot to give a link it gave me something different instead “Sync your PC and phone easily with Phone link.” It includes a link to open the Phone Link app (Open-URL:ms-phone) which seems to indicate that while the Phone Link app gets updates from the Store, it comes pre-installed through some other means. Go figure!

What an interesting ride this one turned out to be…

Concluding Hilarious and Unscientific Postscript

Just for grins I asked Copilot “What version of Phone Link is running?” It gave the right answer too. So there’s a third possible method. But when asked what version of Copilot was running Copilot sez: “While I don’t have specific version details, I am always here to provide accurate information and support.” I have to laugh!

In the past two-plus years that I’ve used WinGet nearly every day, I’ve seen one error show up occasionally. It reads “Failed in attempting to update the source: winget.” This means that the winget command is looking to its own repository of known packages to obtain the latest list but unable to complete that access request. You can see what this looks like at the top of the lead-in graphic. The error follows right after the initial WinGet upgrade… command. The bottom part of that same screencap (it’s two pieces stitched together, actually) shows what’s involved in fixing WinGet Source update fail.

Fixing Winget Source Update Fail Has Its Own Command

It should come as no surprise that there’s a WinGet Source command that takes various subcommands to add, list, update, remove, reset and export WinGet sources. You can read all about these items in this MS Learn item The winget source command.

As you can see at the bottom of the lead-in graphic I used WinGet Source Update -n WinGet for my fix. Basically, that tells Winget to “try again” with updating the default WinGet source named WinGet. It does so automatically when you run WinGet Upgrade… But it does occasionally fail. And when it does, most of the time the Source Update at the head of this paragraph fixes things.

When Might WinGet Source Update Itself Fail?

A variety of problems could provoke error messages from the WinGet Source Update -n WinGet command I used for my fix. It might be that the WinGet source is offline. It might be some kind of networking communication problem is preventing access. I’ve never had this happen, but it would no doubt produce a different error message to help point you in the right direction. WinGet is well engineered that way.

Indeed, WinGet is now an essential part of my admin toolbox. I simply can’t live without it anymore. Cheers!

I’m closing setting up and tweaking my Lenovo loaner SFF PC , just the way I like it. Indeed, I plan to switch my production desktop over from the 2016 vintage Skylake i7 I now use.Instead I’ll go with an uber-powerful ThinkStation P3 Ultra. It’s equipped with a 13th-Gen i9-13900, 64 GB RAM, Nvidia RTX A2000 12 GB, and a Hynix 2TB Gen 4 SSD. As a near-final step, I am fumbling through WinTerm customization remembered & repeated. You can see what I mean in the lead-in graphic…

Digging Thru WinTerm Customization Remembered & Repeated

It took four steps to get all the pieces lined up to customize my Windows Terminal as you see it in the graphic:

1. Install Jan DeDobbeleer’s OhMyPosh for a custom prompt. That also required creating a $Profile file for startup. There are plenty of good how-tos around on this. I’m sad to report, however, that TekkiGurus.com is off the air. And thus, my series on this subject, too — find it instead on the WayBack Machine.
2. Download and install the CaskaydiaCove Nerd Font (which I grabbed from NerdFonts.com) so that OhMyPosh can do its fancy thing with Windows Terminal prompt characters and environment variables. Handy now that drag-n-drop font install works inside Settings > Personalization > Fonts.
3. Grabbed one of my favorite MS SpotLight images and then dimmed it up (30% opacity or thereabouts) to use as the Windows Terminal background. Dare I say I find it fetching?
4. Ran the command Install-script WinFetch inside WinTerm to visit the script archive and install the eye candy that this displays about target systems when run.

Looks pretty good, doesn’t it? I’ve learned to expect and appreciate a bit of Windows Terminal pizazz to keep my eyeballs entertained while working at the command line.

And there you have it. Just another day in the paradise known to some as Windows-World. Good stuff!