Category Archives: Copilot+ PCs

Bitlocker Boot Loop Finally Broken

After at least half-a-dozen failed attempts to build bootable media for the ThinkPad T14s ARM laptop, I finally put a usable UFD together. The secrets? First, I used the Lenovo Digital Download Recovery Service (DDRS) and its associated USB Recovery Creator Tool.  Second, it built me a UFD that actually booted up on the T14s on another ARM laptop (an ASUS Zenbook A14). With the BitLocker boot loop finally broken, the Lenovo Recovery Media successfully reinstalled Windows 11. It was a long, wild and sometimes harrowing ride!

How Was BitLocker Boot Loop Finally Broken?

Because the .wim files for Windows 11 were so huge, I’d been formatting the repair UFD using NTFS. That was apparently not working on the T14s. The Lenovo tool built a UFD using FAT32, and assigned no drive letter to its repair partition. Because the basic Windows 11 .wim files exceed 4GB in size, that means it did some juggling work to create a boot.wim of about 700K, and a Recovery WIM of just under 3.9GB. And then it went through the most complex unattend.xml I’ve ever seen go by on-screen, with no less than six (6!) reboots to get the recovery image installed, updated and ready to run. It took about 100 minutes to grind through its process. Color me impressed.

I had tried using various other tools to fix things on my own, but none of them produced a working and bootable UFD from which to run the Windows installer. I believe all of them foundered either on the use of NTFS. complex partition structures, or lack of complete ARM support:

  • MCT (Media Creation Tool): doesn’t work properly on ARM PCs right now, and cannot generate ARM installation media
  • Ventoy: The UFD could boot initially and select the correct ISO for hand-off, but would not boot into that mounted image. Here, because the Ventoy partition is formatted NTFS, I’m presuming that caused the problems.
  • Rufus: I told Rufus to use NFTS, not realizing this could stymie proper booting into its runtime environment.

One More Thing…

I also learned that ARM PCs want fast, standard UFDs as boot media. Me, I’m fond of those tiny micro-UFDs (in this case, Mushkin Atom devices). Turns out they work fine on Intel and AMD; on ARM, not so much. I ended up using a Mushkin full-size USB 3.0 MKNUFDVP64GB device (or half of it, rather, because its FAT32 partition maxed out at 32GB). It did the job, though, so I’m glad.

This has been one of my wilder, woolier adventures in Windows-World lately. First, I had to find the right medium. Then I had to use the right format. And finally, I had to use the right tool. Only then could I reinstall Windows and put the T14s back into service. Sheesh!

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Escaping BitLocker Recovery Loop Poses Problems

Apparently, ARM64 compatibility issues can bite in unexpected — and time-consuming — ways. Yesterday, I decided to upgrade the ThinkPad T14s that Lenovo has loaned me to Beta build 26220.7262.  Bad move! Instead of rebooting to the post-GUI installer after the first reboot, I found myself stuck in a boot loop around BitLocker recovery. I’d enter the key, get it confirmed as correct, then circle right back to the initial BootLocker Recovery screen. Safe to say that escaping BitLocker Recovery loop poses problems on this otherwise spiffy little laptop.

Escaping BitLocker Recovery Loop Poses Problems, But…

Indeed, I spent most of the afternoon trying to build and run a suitable bootable UFD from which to re-install Windows 11 on the T14s. Here’s what I learned along the way:

  • One shouldn’t use miniUFDs for bootable media on ARM PCs: they’re too slow
  • The port matters when trying to boot from a UFD
  • It’s necessary to turn Secure Boot off in UEFI before you can boot from a UFD
  • Rufus has problems with building bootable media for UFDs on ARM PCs
  • I couldn’t get Ventoy to mount and run the ISO I painstakingly built via UUPDump to run setup.exe, either

Long story short: it’s incredibly challenging to repair an ARM PC with low-level problems (like my BitLocker Recovery loop) using only Intel and AMD x64 PCs. For the moment, I’m stuck!

What’s Next? Tune in Tomorrow for Pt2

In reading Windows news this morning, I learned that Best Buy is offering Asus Zenbook A14 Snapdragon X laptops for US$550. Further, they’ll give me US$250 to trade in my X380 Yoga. That means, with tax and such, I’ll get another Snapdragon X laptop for Chez Tittel for under US$400. I’m going out to pick it up later today, or tomorrow morning.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to build bootable media for the T14s that actually works using the same architecture to built the tools that I must then run. We’ll see. In the meantime, I’m distressed and amazed that previously dead easy tasks — e.g. building and using recovery media for Windows repair — has completely failed here at Chez Tittel. THIS is the kind of unpleasant surprise that pops up here in Windows-World. Hopefully, I’ll be able to weather that storm. Sigh.

 

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Pricing Rugged Copilot+ Tablets

Cruising X yesterday, I hit a thread touting Dell’s Pro Rugged 10″ and 12″ tablets. Out of curiosity, I started digging. Want a 12″ Copilot+ Rugged tablet? Think hard, and dig deep! Expect to spend between $4-5K for the privilege of owning one. I costed one out and it came to $3,745, not including the detachable keyboard. So I looked for other makers including  MobileDemand, Getac, and Panasonic/Toughbook. Pricing rugged Copilot+ tablets tells me they’re painfully expensive. That means other makers are charging about the same for comparable offerings as Dell. Ouch!

For the record, spending that kind of money gets you a Copilot+ system with at least 40 TOPS of NPU, bright graphics (has to be visible in sunlight), 32 GB RAM, and at least 1 TB of storage. It also typically includes at least one form of long-haul wireless capability (e.g. 5G). If you’re going this route, you’ll want to spring for a second, hot-swappable battery as well. Don’t want to run out of juice in the middle of nowhere!

Pricing Rugged Copilot+ Tablets Means $$$$

I’ve long been fascinated with powerful tablet PCs that come with detachable keyboards. They make great readers, untethered, and they work reasonably well as laptops with keyboards plugged in. But gosh, this latest generation costs up to 4X as much as any model I’ve ever purchased. I’ve owned or reviewed other Toughbooks, Dell, Fujitsu, and Microsoft Surface models configured to work this way. Of those the Fujitsu Stylistic Q704 was the most costly at just under $3K; the Dell Latitude 5285 was my definite favorite. Neither was ruggedized, though…

The markets for rugged tablets and PCs are usually the military, first responders, field crews for utilities, field scientists and data collectors, FEMA and disaster relief teams of all kinds, and other folks who must work outdoors or in hostile environments (sometimes, literally). Adding expense to achieve reliability and dependability is something that comes with such roles– and related uses, for PCs or tablets.

There are lots of specialized niches in Windows-World. This is one I’m happy to visit when companies like Panasonic want to send me review units. But at those prices, I’m unlikely to buy one myself, unless I get a job that requires me to compute in the field where I might have to work in rainy, dusty, or otherwise hard-to-handle environments. At this stage of my career, that seems kinda unlikely — but you never know.

 

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Copilot+ PCs Hit 25H2

OK then, yesterday was Patch Tuesday. It included amidst its offerings the eKB enablement package KB5054156. All (both) of my current Copilot+ PCs got the upgrade. The Intel-based AIO got it automatically, with an after-hours upgrade. I just used the self-installing upgrade package (.msu) for ARM64 on the Snapdragon X based ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 laptop. The whole process: download, GUI install, post-GUI install and reboot to desktop took less than 2 minutes. I’ve been waiting for this for some while, so I’m glad that, finally, my Copilot+ PCs hit 25H2 version levels.

When Copilot+ PCs Hit 25H2, Then What?

Time to poke around in Settings (and elsewhere) to see what’s different and potentially new. I just learned that because the AIO doesn’t have a battery I don’t have access to the new Power Mode settings under Settings > System > Power & battery. Go figure!

On the Snapdragon X PC, however, the new “Best Power Efficiency” and “Best Performance” options do indeed appear. I opted into the latter (“Best Performance”) to see what impact it might have.

Learned something else amusing: because I’m remoting into the AIO, I can’t mess with Recall settings (nor, presumably, other AI stuff as well). Apparently, I need to set up Windows Hello authentication locally to make that happen… goes off to do so … OK now it’s working through RDP.

Adventures Ahead, For Sure!

Copilot tells me it’s gained new capabilities (as have other MS app) especially via Click to Do. There’s a new “help agent” in Settings that can actually manipulate Windows configurations and settings to some degree. All kinds of AI stuff all over the place. Now, I just need to find the time to actually DO this. And wouldn’t you know it? Right now, I’m swamped in paying work, so I have less time to learn and play. A welcome change of pace in Windows-World, but one that may frustrate me for a while…

Stay tuned: as soon as I have more time, I’ll share what I’m learning.

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SFF Copilot+ PCs Remain Scarce

Last year, I really got my hopes up when ARM announced a developer’s kit version of a small form-factor (SFF) PC with Snapdragon X. Alas, it never materialized. I’ve also read about plans from numerous vendors to offer mini but mighty PCs of this type, including Geekom and ASUS. But right now, SFF Copilot+ PCs remain scarce. In fact, I can find only two for sale presently: the Lenovo ThinkCentre Neo50q Tiny (Snapdragon) and the MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG (Intel).

Why Do SFF Copilot+ PCs Remain Scarce?

I speculated about this when ARM announced, delayed and then canceled its own SFF SnapdragonX based model. Looking at the enclosures for the 2 aforementioned models, I’m still leaning that way. Mostly, in fact, it has to do with support for only 1 or 2 USB-C ports (typically 40Gbps/Thunderbolt 4/USB4).

Thus, there’s a nearly inescapable add-on expense when buying such a unit — namely, a TB4 or TB5 dock, most of which cost from US$350 to over $500. That’s a big bump in cost, cubic volume, and complexity for PCs designed to be affordable and, above all, compact.

I’m Interested, But Is the Market?

Because of the need for more ports, power, connections and displays, I have to believe the general marketplace finds current Copilot+ SFF PCs unappealing. It’s one thing to get useful capability in a compact and reasonably powerful package. It’s another thing entirely to have to turn around and spend from 44 to 63 percent of the purchase cost on a TB4/5 dock to get all the ports and connectivity modern office workers need.

If these OEMs build such SFFs, will buyers come? Initial excitement and plans said “Yes.” Subsequent actual product offerings, options, and limited choices say “Maybe” at best. Too bad: I like the category and what it brings to the desktop. I may be in a (small) minority, though…

Note Added 9/24: Oops! Wrong One..

As you can see in the lead-in graphic, I’d originally landed on the Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q as a Copilot+ SFF PC. Closer examination researching this topic yesterday showed me, it’s not. It lacks sufficient NPU oomph to qualify as such. But that’s when I discovered that indeed Lenovo DOES have an SFF Copilot+ PC — namely the ThinkCentre Neo 50 (Snapdragon) Tiny now mentioned at the head of this story. I guess I got my minis mixed somehow. Glad to fix it, though…

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Dynabook Tecra A60-M2 Intake

I guess Sharp/Dynabook must’ve liked my coverage of their Portege X40-M2 unit. Why say so? Because about 2 days after I sent that unit back, they sent me another more powerful laptop to look at. Today’s blog post describes my Dynabook Tecra A60-M intake experience (Model PNL21U-017004). It’s a bigger beast, but a little less sturdy (it’s got what feels like an all-plastic lower/keyboard deck) albeit with minimal flex. For the first time, ever, it comes with Windows 11 24H2 Enterprise loaded as well.

Describing Dynabook Tecra A60-M2 Intake Process

Again and suprisingly, Dynabook uses closed-cell plastic foam inserts to enshroud the unit in an otherwise all-cardboard set of nested shipping boxes. It comes with exactly two parts: the laptop itself and the power brick/power cord. Initial setup was absurdly easy. But, for some odd reason, Intel BE201 802.11 Wi-Fi 7 adapters won’t let me log into the 5GHz band on my Asus router. I have to use the 2.4 GHz band instead. If I need to go faster than that, I can plug my trusty StarTech GbE USB 3 adapter into one of its two 5 Gbps USB 3.2 version 1 ports.

It took me some time to get all the bits and pieces in place for my usual setup. I used Patch My PC Home Updater to bring in 7Zip, GadgetPack, CystalDisk mark & info, CPUID, Everything, Chrome, and more. Because this is an Intel-flavored Copilot+ PC, I also installed Intel Driver and Support Assistant as well, along with the Dynabook Support Utility to check for vendor UEFI, firmware, and driver updates.

A Clean, Clean, Clean Machine

I’ve got to say this is one of the cleanest review units I’ve ever gotten. It required very little by way of update or clean-up to bring entirely up to snuff. It’s also got the fastest and most accurate fingerprint scanner I’ve ever used (Device Manager identifies it as a FocalTech Electronics device). So far, it’s fast, has a nice 16″ display, and does everything I’ve asked it to in short order.

The Tecra A60-M2 Components, Listed

According to the vendor web page, this unit goes for US$1249 (MSRP). I don’t see any major discounts available online but it’s pretty new still, so they may be coming. Here’s what’s inside:

  • CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 225U
  • OS: Windows 11 24H2 Enterprise (26100.4946)
  • 16.0″ WUXGA display (1920×1200)
  • 16 GB DDR5-5600 (Samsung)
  • 0.5TiB Samsung OEM PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD
  • Ports: 2xUSB4/TB4 USB-C ports, 2xUSB3.2 Gen 1 ports, HDMI, RJ-45 GbE, microSD, mini-RCA (headset) jack
  • 60 Wh Lithium polymer battery; 65W USB-C power brick

What it doesn’t have that I might want? Offhand, I’d say a Hello-capable IR camera, and a touch display. Other than those things, and a bigger SSD, it’s pretty well-equipped. What one gets for US1,250 for this unit isn’t at all bad.

All in all, I like it pretty well so far. I’ll report further as I spend a bit more time with it, and learn more about what it can and can’t do. I’m curious about its SSD speed, USB-C performance, and general processing oomph. Expect to hear more from me on all of those topics, soon. In the meantime, I’m having fun playing with this new toy.

 

 

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Thunderbolt 5 Era Is Finally Dawning

It was nearly two years ago — September 12, 2023, in fact– that the Thunderbolt 5 specification made its debut, including a prototype. But the road from prototype to “tech for sale” has proved long and somewhat fractured. Cables, docks, and peripherals started to show up about a year later (e.g. Kensington SD5000T5 Dock). Gaming laptops blazed the way on the PC front, with the Razer Blade 18 the first to offer TB5 ports as an optional upgrade (April 2024). And as I write this screed in August, 2025, it looks like the Thunderbolt 5 era is finally dawning for real. Let me explain…

Why Say: Thunderbolt 5 Era Is Finally Dawning?

When Thunderbolt 5 (of which USB4 v2 is a subset) first showed up about 12-16 months ago in shipping products, it was a kind of exception. Initial offerings were costly, or provided as added-cost options. Now, they’re starting to appear as standard ports on higher-end  laptops. That still means gaming devices, mostly, though business/developer platforms and high-end mobile workstations are also getting in on the fun.

You can see the specs for the MSI Vector 16 HX AI A2XW in the lead-in graphic. It retails for right around US$3,700 at Amazon. Its CPU goes to 24 cores (8 P-cores, 16 E-cores), includes 64GB RAM, a 4 TB NVMe SSD, and various mobile NVIDIA GPU options. It also offers 2 Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports. It’s even Copilot+ capable. Kind of a beast, actually…

I see another MSI model available similarly equipped, plus one each Gigabyte and ASUS laptops (all offer 2 TB5 ports except for the ASUS, which offers a singleton). What’s missing from this picture? How about HP, Lenovo, Acer, Dell or Microsoft Surface models?

When Will Things TB5 Heat Up for Real?

When the aformentioned bigger players jump firmly onto the TB5 bandwagon. I expect that could happen later this year, or early next year, after vendors get the OEM bits from Microsoft for Windows 11 25H2. It’s coming soon — probably in October — so we may see more than a dawning in the near term.

I’m surprised that it’s taken this long, and that uptake hasn’t been what I would call either aggressive or enthusiastic. Could it be that most ordinary PC users and laptop buyers simply don’t care about or don’t need the higher performance and greater bandwidth that TB5/USB4 v2 provide? Maybe so.

I’ll keep watching, and keep chiming in on what I see. I’m still waiting for somebody to send me a review unit with TB5 ports, so I can put an entire device chain to work, including dock, monitors and external NVMe storage devices. Will somebody at MSI, Gigabyte, or ASUS take the hint? I reviewed all your stuff back in the day when I was building PCs and sussing out laptops for Tom’s Hardware. Why not let me pick up where I left off now, with a TB equipped laptop?

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Snapdragon X Wakes Into RDP Session

Here’s an interesting tidbit to consider. Lenovo having sent me a splendid Yoga AIO 32Ill10 last month, with its brilliant 31.5″ display, I’ve been using it a lot. Last night, I put it to sleep when I went to bed using its lock screen power controls. That’s something like what you see in the lead-in graphic, where I chose the middle option labeled “Sleep.” This morning, I observed that the Snapdragon X wakes into RDP session, as I poked the Window Terminal session I had running remotely on my desktop. No hesitation, no delay, just an instant response to my command input. Nifty!

What Snapdragon X Wakes Into RDP Session Means

Snapdragon X includes an Instant Wake feature, which describes its ability to resume activity from sleep in a second or two (no noticeable delay). I didn’t realize that the Modern Standby and Always Connected capabilities that support this feature would also maintain an RDP session until I started typing into the Windows Terminal pane I had open on that remote desktop this morning.

This is great for a variety of reasons, including:

  • Cutting down on light output in my office when the whole house is sleeping.
  • Saving energy not used to keep the lock screen showing even when away from the unit itself (or the desktop holding its RDP session)
  • Letting me get right back to work doing remote stuff without having to log back into RDP first. Older Windows PCs lose their network connections when put to sleep, in my experience.

Another Copilot+ PC Advantage?

AMD and Intel alternatives to Snapdragon CPUs are getting the very features that make Snapdragon X do its thing so well (e.g. Modern Standby and Always Connected). But Copilot says that these systems won’t get them across the board until 25H2 updates go into general release. I’m guessing this means they’ll work on some of the Insider Previews already, but that one can’t count on general availability until after 25H2 hits a target PC.

Indeed Copilot alluded to those famous words of frustration in this context — namely “gradual rollout.” Here’s the quote from whence this observation springs: “Feature rollout is staggered: Snapdragon systems got first dibs; AMD and Intel systems are receiving Copilot+ features gradually through updates.”

As is often the case in Windows-World, YMMV applies to Copilot+ PCs that don’t include Snapdragon CPUs. That, in a nutshell, explains why I begged and pleaded with Lenovo to send me some review units with Snapdragon X circuitry. Thanks, people — I’m grateful to have access to this stuff!

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Copilot AI-driven Settings Helpful

The first Copilot+ PCs made their debuts about 13 months ago (June18, 2024). I’ve been waiting to see some low-hanging AI fruit from that stock ever since, mostly with only ho-hum results. But lately, it looks like those PCs are gaining some useful capabilities accessible to ordinary mortals (like your humble correspondent). Indeed, I just read an Ashwin story for Ghacks with great interest. Entitled Microsoft rolls out a bunch of AI features for Windows 11, it shows Copilot AI-driven Setting helpful, given the right prompts. You can see some visual evidence in the lead-in graphic. Note: MS has a cool demo video about this on YouTube.

What Makes Copilot AI-driven Settings Helpful?

The impetus here is to ask Settings for help and information to address specific problems or issues. After monkeying with cursor size on one of my Copilot+ test PCs, I realized  I’d made it too big. So I prompted “cursor too big.” You can see what popped up before I hit the Enter key. Pretty helpful, and going in the right direction.

After I hit Enter, things got more focused and even more helpful. Here’s what showed up (including my overlarge cursor positioned at far right).

These are just the controls I needed to see, with the “Size” item the very thing I needed to fix my problem. That got me started on trying problems or issues in settings, to see where AI would take me. In most cases, it took me right where it would do some, and often the most, good. That’s not good, that’s great!

What Else Ya Got?

The afore-linked Ghacks story  provides further discussion of AI-driven facilities in Click-to-Do, Snipping Tool, Copilot Vision, and more. Could be that spending some time digging in might be rewarded. After all the hoopla and hype around AI of late, I’m glad to see something that’s helpful and potentially useful that’s also easy to understand and implement. Good-oh.

I’ll know that AI is really on my side in a constructive way when I can say to it “Examine these files and give me a specific analysis” (where that analysis depends on the contents) and get something useful back right away. AI can do that right now, of course, but it still leaves users responsible for the set-up and framing to put everything in context. When it can handle that part, too, then we’ll really have something.

Vital Thanks and Shout-Outs

First, I’d like to thank Ashwin from Ghacks for sharing his article. It’s what encouraged my to take the AI-driven Settings facility for a spin. Muchos gracias, mi amigo!

Second, I’d like to thank Jeff Witt and Amanda Heater in the Lenovo Reviews org for providing me with ongoing parade of test PCs. It’s been going on for years and years now and has been a great working relationship. Right now I’ve got TWO (2!) Copilot+ PCs for testing: a 2024 ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 (Snapdragon X1E-78-100 CPU) and a 2025 Yoga AIO 32ILL10 (Intel Ultra 7 258V) with a gorgeous 31″ display. They’re giving me the opportunities I need to learn and dig more deeply into Copilot+ features and functions. Thanks, thanks, thanks.

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MS Updates Phi Silica for Copilot+ PCs

Very interesting. I was checking WU this morning on the peachy-keen Lenovo AIO 9i the company sent last month. Seems there’s an update available for a local NPU focused language model called Phi Silica (see lead-in graphic). Seems it’s focused on handling SLMs (Small Language Models) on behalf of Windows 11. It drives the OS’s new “AI facilities,” such as Recall, Click-to-Do, and so forth. As MS updates Phi Silica for Copilot+ PCs, I decided to dig in and learn more… So I asked Copilot, and it told me a LOT.

After MS Updates Phi Silica for Copilot+ PCs, Then?

Turns out there’s a special Update History section for this kind of thing, as the lead-in graphic shows. it’s called “AI Component Updates” and it indicates that Phi Silica has already been updated twice on this machine.

Phi Silica is a small-language model (aka SLM) purpose built for Copilot+ PCs. It runs as well as it can on such a PC’s Neural Processing Unit (aka NPU). It lets such models execute locally without having to use a cloud-based back end to do the heavy lifting.

Here’s how Copilot itself describes Phi Silica: It’s “a 3.3 billion parameter model, derived from Phi-3-mini, optimized for speed, accuracy and low power usage.” It “runs directly on the Snapdragon X Series NPU” (and obviously also their AMD and Intel counterparts, because the AIO 9i is an Intel PC), ” enabling fast private and offline AI tasks.” Phi Silica is what’s behind Click-to-do, on-device rewrite and summarization in Word and Outlook, and Windows Recall.

What Can Users Do with Phi Silica?

Quite a lot, as it turns out. When I asked Copilot if I could use my source files for the hundreds of books and thousands of articles and stuff I’ve written as the base for my own SLM, it said “Sure.” Then it pointed to the GitHub-based, open-ource Phi Cookbook as a good place for me to get started. I’m not sure I’m ready to go there, but it’s nice to know that door is open on Copilot+ PCs to someone with the time, wit and energy to make such a thing happen.

 

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