Category Archives: Cool Tools

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

Intel DSA Repair Lets Scan Complete

April 6, 2023 Ed Tittel 2 Comments

This morning, I read about a new Intel graphics driver over at Neowin. With 6 or more PCs likely to need an update, I starting using the Intel Driver & Support Assistant (DSA) to check things out. On one of my two Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga PCs (8th gen Intel CPUs, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD), the spinning balls for the system scan kept spinning … and spinning … and spinning … In looking for a way to fix things, I turned to an Intel Support note. That led me indirectly to learn that an Intel DSA repair lets scan complete.

How Intel DSA Repair Lets Scan Complete

I followed Intel’s advice to uninstall, then reinstall, the DSA app. Along the way, the installer offered a “Repair Installation” option( via Revo Uninstaller). “Hmmmm,” I thought to myself “Why not try this option first and see if it helps?” I did, after which the system informed me a reboot was needed to complete the process.

So I did that, too. And when the PC rebooted the next time around, the DSA system scan completed nearly instantly. After watching it grind for nearly two minutes earlier this morning, that came as a great relief. As irony would have it, DSA did NOT find new graphics drivers for me to install on that PC, either. Here’s what it told me instead:

Despite Neowin’s alert, DSA finds no need for a new graphics driver.

The Installer Will Show “Repair” When Available

This did remind me that many application installers include a “Repair installation” option as part of the installer’s bag of tricks. This time, repair was in the bag — and thankfully, it worked. Problem solved. And the old “remove & replace” operation proves its value yet again as a strategy for fixing application and update issues, but with an interesting twist. Cheers!

Impatient? Direct Driver Link for 31.0.101.2121

If you don’t want to wait for Intel to bring you these drivers via DSA (it’s now early afternoon on release day and they’re still not showing up there), you can grab them from the Intel Drivers & Software downloads page: Intel 6th-10th Gen Processor Graphics — Windows. As for me and my curiosity, I’m content to wait for now…

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

MS Introduces Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock

April 5, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

The field is getting increasingly crowded, and the features just keep coming. Microsoft is finally switching over from its proprietary Surface connector to more standard USB-C connections. Indeed, check out the lead photo. It pairs cable ends with ports as MS introduces Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock (MSRP US$300). And because MS is a little late to this party, they add USB4 support to their high-speed USB-C ports, along with TB4.

If MS Introduces Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock, Then What?

That puts another interesting and competitive option into an increasingly crowded market. The CalDigit TS4 remains at the top of the heap (US$400 and up). The Lenovo Universal TB4 Dock is priced on par with the Surface unit (US$305). Similar offerings are available from numerous other makers. These include Anker, Belkin, Kensington, Razer, OWC and many others (see this XDA Developers story for a pretty comprehensive run-down).

What makes the Surface unit unique — for the moment, anyway — is that it includes USB4 along with TB4 support on its USB-C ports. USB4 remains new enough that many docks on the market for a year or more (that is, most of them) don’t follow suit.

The USB4 Conundrum

If we see the next generation of docks adding USB4 to TB4 to one or more high-speed ports, we’ll know USB4 is gaining real traction. At present, it’s more of a rarity. When I went looking at latest generation laptops for USB4 last month (March 2023) I observed that fewer than 25% of models offer USB4 support. Most of those are higher-end PCs, too.

Ditto for higher-end NVMe drive enclosures. The vast majority support TB4, but only a few combine USB4 along with such capability. Indeed, the USB4 spec dates back to 2019, and “Thunderbolt 4 is a superset of USB4” (PC World). This may make calling out support for USB4 a distinction without a difference when TB4 is already present. MS’s recent inclusion of a USB4 page in Windows 11 Settings (Builds 23419 and follow-ons) and inclusion in this dock show a rising tide of USB4 support. We’ll see what happens, as a new generation of PCs and related peripherals make their way into the marketplace.

Cool Tools, PC/phone travel gear, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Phone Link Pairs Up iPhone Build 25330

April 3, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I’m jazzed! Here’s what Phone Link pairs up iPhone build 25330 means “Starting with the latest Canary Build, my iPhone and Phone Link are now working together.” I’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time. The lead-in graphics shows the “pairing success” message on my Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Hybrid tablet.

What Phone Link Pairs Up iPhone Build 25330 Brings In

On my PC, I can now see the messages in my iPhone message store. I can also access my contact list to place or receive calls via that device. Pretty neat. The set-up process was dead easy. There were messages on both PC and iPhone about what to do. They steered me through the pairing and synching processes.

I’ve been envious of Android users for years, because Phone Link has supported those devices from Day 1. When MS announced iPhone support was coming back on March 2, but in phased form, I quickly realized my PCs weren’t included. I’ve been waiting at least since Build 25314 (I had to clean install Windows 11 again on this machine after the announcement) for this capability to show up on my Dev and later Canary channel test PCs. And now it’s here: woo-hoo!

The Learning Process Begins…

Now the real understanding of what Phone Link can do for me begins. I’ve got the devices paired, and the iPhone on charger so it can run all do. I just had a notification of an incoming (spam) call show up on the desktop, but declined it before I could capture the screen pop that informed me about same. But I can show you the declined notification left behind:

Screen pops and notifications are all part of the service that Phone Link provides.

As I get more time working with the connection, I’ll understand much better what it can do for me. But I’m still jazzed, and happy to finally be able to leverage phone on PC and vice-versa, after more than a decade of rather more distant relations between the two platforms. Good-oh!

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

Happy World Backup Day 2023

March 31, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Courtesy of NeoWin, I’ve just learned that March 31 is World Backup Day. There’s even a website at — you guessed it — worldbackupday.com. Sponsors include Amazon, Mega (file download service provider), iStorage and Backblaze (online backup/storage providers) and mijn.host, along with the World Backup Day organization. There’s even a pledge: “I solemnly swear to backup my important documents and previous memories on March 31st. #WorldBackupDay.” Indeed, let me wish all readers a happy World Backup Day 2023.

Note: the intro graphic comes from the WorldBackupDay.com home page, and is intended to motivate people to back up their stuff. I can only endorse this proposition. I myself learned the importance and value of backups in 1990 when a 300MB SCSI drive on a Mac died on me, and lost me a book I was writing at the time (and more). It was a disaster! But I learned my lesson, and I’ve lost nothing important since to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

What Happens on World Backup Day 2023?

Ideally, everybody makes sure they make a backup of everything they want to keep, or protect against damage, loss or breach. Personally, I back up my production PC daily (including the system drive, plus two smaller drives where I keep all ongoing project work).

But there’s more:

You must know how to restore the backups you make.
You should make yourself familiar with rescue or repair media so you can boot and restore a backup even on a PC (or other device) that’s not booting normally. Some backup packages require separate bootable media for each protected PC (I have a tray full of teeny-tiny Mushkin Atom flash drives for just that purpose).
You should practice a restore occasionally. I end up using restore capabilities at least once a month myself — mostly because of self-inflicted issues arising from experiments — so I’m always ready to rock’n’roll.
Ideally, you should keep one or more backups offsite or online. That way if a meteorite takes out your home or office, you can still get back online by restoring to a different PC. I keep two backups in the cloud: one on OneDrive, the other in Norton Backup.

My basic guiding principle is that anything worth storing once is worth backing up at least twice (as just described). Thus, let me repeat the salutation “Happy World Backup Day 2023” and gently urge you to backup, backup, backup. Cheers!

(Free) Backup Software Worth Using

My go-to backup solution has long been Macrium Reflect Free (I also use the paid version). But its maker, Paramount Software, has announced its discontinuing that version at the end of 2023. I’m casting about for a replacement, given that something free is important for me and my fleet of 10 PCs (6 of which are loaners from Lenovo for testing purposes). I’m digging into stories like this one (and more like it) at PC World “The best free backup software and services…” and Lifewire‘s more comprehensive coverage to find a Goldilocks solution that’s “just right.” Stay tuned…

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Uncategorized, Updates, Windows 10, Windows 11

The Never-ending Windows Update Story Carries On

March 30, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Back on March 6, I posted an item about Windows Application Update Rhythms. This offered a snapshot for a week’s update activities across my various PCs. Since then, of course, the updates have continued as the never-ending Windows Update story carries on. I’ve made some interesting observations since then, too.

The lead-in graphic above shows one such data point. I’ve begun to notice that sometimes Winget will update Chrome, and sometimes it won’t. It seems to be related to whether or not the app is open at the moment (yes if closed; no if open).

Never-ending Windows Update Story Keeps Going…

The same thing appears to be true for PowerShell as well, as you can see in this next screencap. Amusingly, the app itself is PowerShell so indeed it’s obviously running too. But there are ways to force a PS upgrade within the app, so this default behavior can be over-ridden. The second post in this SuperUser thread explains how to do just that. It grabs and uses the PS install MSI from GitHub to make that happen.

Winget updates neither Chrome nor PowerShell here.

What’s Behind the Apparent No-Upgrade Behavior?

In various discussions online as to what’s at work here, I learned (or re-learned) a few things. When installer formats change (MSIX to MSI, MSI to EXE, and so forth) Winget won’t perform the update. Indeed, I’ve seen explicit messages to this effect in Winget output from time to time. This Answers.Microsoft.com thread explains how to grab, then use, the download URL for the Chrome installer to bypass the failed (and silent, error-message-wise) Winget update. Likewise interesting!

The more I work with Winget, the more I learn about its various hiccups and gotchas. But the tool continues to impress because there’s nearly always a clever workaround to get things done. It’s definitely made the various installments of the never-ending Windows Update story around Chez Tittel shorter and more entertaining. What more could a Windows-head like me want?

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

SUMo Developer Pays Attention

March 22, 2023 Ed Tittel 2 Comments

If you’ve been reading my posts lately, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve complained — just a little — recently about the Software Update Monitor (SUMo) update utility. Over the weekend, the developer himself tweeted me to let me know he’d seen my input and fixed the issue. In fact, he agreed with me that SUMo shouldn’t be recommending a preview/beta version of ANY software. Hence my assertion that the SUMO developer pays attention. He does!

If SUMo Developer Pays Attention, Then What?

He obviously read my recent (Feb 27) post entitled “Update Semantics: Current versus Preview.” And indeed, SUMo is no longer recommending an update to pre-release versions of OneDrive. As you can see in the screencap at the head of this blog post, the current version is indeed recognized as the current version now. It’s highlighted in blue, and comes up with the same version I agree is the current one. Good-oh!

But What About CPU-Z?

I thought I’d caught him out again for asserting this week that CPU-Z needed an update. The download page reports it as version 2.0.5, but SUMo wants version 2.0.5.1. And, sure enough, upon downloading and updating the latest version from the home page, it self-reports as version 2.0.5 (no fourth digit). But after updating and looking at the readme file, here’s what it says:

Sure enough, it really IS version 2.0.5.1. Says so right there!

I’ll be darned. Sometimes the toolmakers know more than the owners/developers do — or what they report, anyway. Very interesting! My thanks to @KCSoftwares: it is nice to know somebody’s paying attention.

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

P16 Mobile Workstation Gets Accolades

March 20, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Flipping through the Windows news this morning, I was tickled. I saw the very same Lenovo P16 Mobile Workstation sitting next to my desk come up first in MS PowerUser‘s rankings of the best i9 laptops for 2023. That’s right: in this story, the P16 Mobile Workstation gets accolades. And it IS a beast: i9-12950HX, 2 TB NVMe, 128 GB RAM and NVIDIA RTX A5550 GPU.

Here’s Why P16 Mobile Workstation Gets Accolades

It’s got a lot of power. The P16 can tackle tremendous workloads. The cooling is enough to keep it going even when taxed (excellent heatpipes & fans). It’s modestly expandable (my grouse: keyboard must come out to access second M.2 slot for NVMe). It’s especially laden with ports and connections (2 USB-A, 2 USB-C, HDMI, as shown in the lead-in graphic).

There hasn’t been anything I’ve thrown at this machine that it hasn’t chomped its way through faster than any of the other PCs around here. It really, truly is a beast of a machine.

What Might Stop Such a Stellar Purchase?

The list price on this monster is US$9,763.00 as configured. But with current coupons and discounts, it could be yours for a mere US$5,369.65, according to the Lenovo Store. I would have to get special permission from the Chancellor of the Exchequer (my wife, Dina) and be feeling quite flush in the bank account to go forward with such a purchase. But man: what a machine!

It’s got superlative USB4 and Thunderbolt 4support. The P16 delivers superfast IO, internally and through those ports. It’s got a great display, and works like a champ. Given its price tag, you’d have to expect all those things. Totally awesome, though: I completely agree with the MS PowerUser assessment, and understand how and why it showed up first therein.

Who needs a machine like this? It’s not a gaming box. It’s aimed squarely at people who need a portable workstation for developing code, creating media, or handling major, intensive workloads (lots of VMs, AI/ML tasks, 3D modeling, and so forth). Those folks will typically look at the price, understand what the PC can do for their productivity and throughput, and think “Good value for the money.” ‘Nuff said…

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Winget Suffers Blanche DuBois Effect

March 17, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

There’s a famous line in Tennessee Williams well-known play, A Streetcar Named Desire. It comes from trashy, tragic Blanche DuBois. It reads “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” I hope I’m not over-reaching in finding a connection between Blanche and Microsoft’s built-in package manager Winget. Why do I say that Winget suffers Blanche DuBois effect? Because third-party developers must provide package definitions so Winget can handle their updates. Some do, some don’t is my experience on this front.

Overcoming Winget Suffers Blanche DuBois Effect

I turn to other tools to help me catch what happens when the “Blanche DuBois Effect” fails — namely, when a developer or owner does not supply Winget with the necessary package definitions. You can see what I mean by this in the figure below. (Click on it to expand to full-sized view to read what it says for yourself.)

Note that Winget sees 4 items in need of update; SUMo sees 7 or 8.

For the record, Winget sees about half of what KC Software’s Software Update Monitor (aka SUMo) does, to wit:

Tool	Count	List of items
Winget	4	VSEnt22, SUMo, TeamViewer, Jabra Direct
SUMo	8	Firefox, CPU-Z, Jabra Direct, Edge, Snagit, TeamViewer, WizTree (2)

For accuracy, Winget sees one thing that SUMo does not — namely, Visual Studio Enterprise 2022 (abbreviated as VSEnt22 above). OTOH, SUMo sees 5 (or 6) things that Winget does not — specifically, Firefox, CPU-Z (a false positive, in fact), MS Edge, Snagit, and WizTree (in both 64- and 32-bit versions). That’s why I use other application update tools to help me keep up on the ten-plus PCs in residence here at Chez Tittel.

Winget Supplements of Choice Are…

My tools of choice to cover what Winget misses are:

1. Software Update Monitor (aka SUMo) from KC Softwares
2. PatchMyPC from PatchMyPC.com

Why two? Because PatchMyPC sees fewer things than SUMo does. But what the freeware version of PatchMyPC sees, it also updates automatically and easily. The free version of SUMo sees more, but only the paid version tries to update those things for you (and its track record is far enough from stellar on performing updates that I’m not sure it’s worth the US$25-30 you’ll be asked to pay for it).

I’ve learned to use SUMo solely for detection, then I let PatchMyPC handle for me what it can. I do the rest myself manually.

Frankly, though, I think MS should put some of its much-vaunted AI capability to work so that Winget can generate packages for third-party applications on its own with no need to, as Blanch DuBois once did, rely on the kindness of strangers.

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

RAPR V0.11.92 Remains a Real Gem

March 16, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I’m working on revisions to older stories I’ve written for ComputerWorld. Just yesterday, I revised my CIO story for them about purging duplicate and obsolete drivers from the Windows driver store. For that purpose, there simply is no better tool, nor one easier to use than Driver Store Explorer (aka RAPR or RAPR.exe). Indeed among my many Windows cleanup tools, RAPR v0.11.92 remains a real gem.

Why RAPR V0.11.92 Remains a Real Gem

Here’s the deal: when you update a Windows driver, it gets stashed in a special storage area with all the other drivers. What most people don’t know — including admins — is that when you update a driver, its predecessor remains present. And in fact, it never leaves unless you remove it yourself. In a nutshell: that’s one of the things that RAPR does with ease and grace.

When I wrote the afore-linked CIO story back in 2015, RAPR could help you find and remove duplicate and obsolete drivers. (Note: that item is now carried under the ComputerWorld masthead for IDG’s ineffable reasons.) But you had to do it more or less “by hand.” This took some time and effort to accomplish. No more: now RAPR includes a “Select Old Driver(s)” button. It automatically flags items that might potentially be removed from a target PC’s driver store. Click the Delete Driver(s) button next (see lead-in graphic) and RAPR will remove any selected driver that’s not in actual use.

Why (and When) to Use RAPR

The why comes from reducing the size of the driver store. This applies to any and all windows images for which driver updates get applied. If you put a new one in, RAPR lets you take the old one out. For deployment images — which may run on hundreds to thousands of PCs (or more) — this is especially important.

I’ve gotten in the habit of using this tool monthly. I seldom recover less than 100-200 MB of space. And when GPU drivers come into play (most of them occupy 1.0 -1.2 GB of disk space) those numbers really jump. My biggest-ever savings on an older PC that hadn’t been touched for a couple of years was on the order of 4-5 GB. That’s something fairly substantial.

You owe it to yourself to visit Github and download the latest version of RAPR. Use it to look at your standalone PCs, and the Windows images in your deployment library. I predict space savings all the way around.

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

Canary Escape Requires Clean Install

March 15, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I kind of knew this already. You probably did, too. But it bears repeating: the general rule for Insider builds is “you can go up by changing your Insider preferences; you can only go down with a clean install.” Simply put, a Canary escape requires clean install.

Thus, this recent Insider email from MS states:

You can only switch to the Dev Channel or other Insider channels that are receiving builds with lower build numbers by doing a clean installation of Windows 11.

Say What? Canary Escape Requires Clean Install

But wait! There’s more. Active Insiders will want to check their email inboxes. In their latest (March 13) email missive “Introducing Canary…” you’ll also find a one-time use code and link through which you can claim a free USB drive. I reproduce the mail-to notification from that web page as the lead-in graphic for this story, in fact. Indeed, I’ve sent my response in to claim my USB drive…

Alas, as you can see in the web page text, delivery time is 6-8 weeks. Does anybody else find this amusing? I keep a whole mini-tray of such drives around for install and repair activities. That’s mostly because Macrium requires users to agree that a rescue disk may only be used on the PC from whence it came. I see 11 on that tray right now (see below). I wonder if the one from MS will fit there, too?

Count ’em: 11. There MAY be room for the MS item here, too (depending on size).

Those little flash USBs are Mushkin Atom drives. They’re not the fastest, but they’re compact and eminently usable. As you can see, I keep a lot of them around… And any clean installs I need to do (and, in fact, have already done on my temporarily discommoded X12 Hybrid) will be done and dusted long before that new USB flash drive arrives via mail.

Shout-out to Neowin: Thanks to Taras Buria of Neowin for his March 15 story that brought this to my attention (and got me to read the Insider email all the way to the end… ;-).