Category Archives: Hyper-V and VMs

Hyper-V and VMs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 11

Chkdsk /f Fixes DISM Issues

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Here’s an interesting item. As part of routine maintenance, I ran DISM /online /cleanup-image /analyzecomponentstore on the P16 Mobile Workstation this morning. Imagine my surprise when it threw  “Error 2; The system cannot find the file specified.” at about 80% complete. I’d never run across this one before. But a Google Search soon revealed that this happens when DISM encounters a corrupted entry in the component store. MS Answers also reported that, nearly always, chkdsk /f fixes DISM issues of this kind. So that’s what I tried: as you can see from the lead-in graphic, it worked!

How Chkdsk /f Fixes DISM Issues

This particular disk scanning operation repairs any corrupted files it finds, if it can. That has me wondering if sfc /scannow might not have had the same salutary effect. I think that’s at least possible, so I’ll have to try it next time around. The only follow-on is that repairs to the C: drive (especially for the kinds of files that DISM cares about) must run while the Windows OS image is not in use. That means scheduling that check and repair during boot-up before the OS takes over operation of the PC (that is, while the boot loader is running things).

Thus, I had to reboot the P16, and watch the check run as a pre-boot task (large white text against a black screen). Here’s a capture from inside a Hyper-V VM (otherwise, it’s challenging to grab boot-time screens from Windows).

Once that repair had completed, I was able to run the previously inoperative DISM command without trouble. Every now and then, one gets lucky in Windows-World. This time, the repair worked just like it was supposed to. Good stuff!

 

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Cool Tools, Hyper-V and VMs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Accessing Hyper-V VM WinRE

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Talk about deja vuI! I was trying to access the Windows Recovery Environment inside a VM today. I needed to make some screenshots for a TechTarget story. Turns out the only way to do that is at the command line, using shutdown /r /o /f /t 00. But there’s a problem: this command doesn’t work inside RDP, nor when running an “Enhanced mode” session. Thus, accessing Hyper-V VM WinRE is a little trickier than it could — or should — be. Sigh.

Tricks to Accessing Hyper-V VM WinRE

Turns out, turning off “Enhanced mode” is key in this case. After I did that, not only did the shutdown command work as advertised from a local session, it also worked through RDP, too. Go figure!

I’m used to working on test and road machines via RDP from my production desktop, so this kind of thing comes as no surprise to me. But each time I find one of these bumps in the road to Windows success, I seem compelled to find said bump with my nether regions.

But at least I now know how to get right to WinRE inside a VM. All the other tips I found online — such as extending the timeout interval to give time to hit the F8 key, for example — required too much time and effort (and happy chance) to work. I like doing things through the command line because it’s straightforward and direct, and does not require getting lucky to achieve success.

And boy, howdy, isn’t that just the way things go here in Windows-World sometimes? I’ll take the command line every time, especially if chance (happy or not) must otherwise be involved. You should do likewise…

 

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Hyper-V and VMs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Hyper-V VM Setup Drill Step-by-Step

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Gosh, it’s been busy here at Chez Tittel this week. I’ve found myself setting up numerous Hyper-V VMs, both for Windows 10 and 11. Thus, it occurred to me that reciting my Hyper-V VM setup drill step-by-step might be of interest to some readers. I’ll explain what I have to do when creating the VM, and then in making it “minimally usable” (IMO, anyway). Here goes…

Following Hyper-V VM Setup Drill Step-by-Step

If I have some specific Windows build (10 or 11) I need to virtualize and test, I’ll build a matching ISO using the batch files from UUPdump.net. Most of the time, my ISOs come from either the MS Download Windows 10, Download Windows 11 or the Windows Insider Preview Downloads pages.

Creating and Installing the VM Itself

I usually use the New  > Virtual Machine path from Actions (top-right control pane) in Hyper-V Manager to create new VMs. That’s because of two gotchas in default setup: it chooses Gen 1, and it doesn’t enable TPM 2.0 (though it does enable Secure Boot). If you catch the VM and turn it off before the first boot, you can fix these items easily. Be sure to choose Gen 2, and to enable TPM 2.0 (for Windows 11 VMs; Windows 10 doesn’t care).

Another thing: it’s necessary to use a low-level KVM or gain direct physical access to the Hyper-V host PC to run the Windows Installer when creating the VM. Then, there’s one more gotcha to fix after you bring up the VM for the first time. It won’t work in enhanced mode because of an OS default in Sign-in options. You can’t use an enhanced RDP session unless you disable the default  to “Require Windows Hello sign-in for MS Accounts” (it doesn’t work with RDP).

Making the VM Runtime “Road-Worthy”

A bare bones OS isn’t really usable for me without some changes and additions. The rest of my drill is what I think Windows needs. You are free to disagree, or to vary the choices involved. But here’s what else I do after I get through installation and the OOBE (out-of-box-experience doing post-install configuration and choices):

  1. Run Windows Update to catch the image up. Run updates in the MS Store.
  2. Download PatchMyPC Home Updater, then use it to install Chrome, Firefox, 8GadgetPack, Notepad++, Advanced IP Scanner, Everything, CPU-Z, CrystalDiskMark and CrystalDiskInfo. Over time, I may add other of its options…
  3. On Windows 10 images it may be necessary to install Windows Terminal and the latest PowerShell version. I also update and customize my WindowsTerminal settings for OhMyPosh prompts.

There are one or two applications I may install manually because PatchMyPC doesn’t support them as yet: the WizTree disk space optimizer the UniGetUI WinGet alternative. Then, I’m ready enough to put my new VM to work. Basta!

 

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AI, Cool Tools, Hyper-V and VMs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

UUPDump Covers ARM64 ISOs

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OK, then: now that I’ve got a Copilot+ PC with Snapdragon X Elite CPU, I’m paying attention to backups and restores, plus repairs and rebuilds. Thus when I saw Paul Thurrott’s (Premium) post this morning The Windows 11 on ARM ISO Conundrum I immediately jumped over to UUPDump.net to check ARM64 status. To my great relief, UUPDump covers ARM64 ISOs — along with other kinds — as you can see in the lead-in graphic. This is doubly valuable, because neither the Windows 10 nor the Windows 11 download pages provide ARM64 ISO options. Thus, they can’t build ARM64 ISOs, either (10 offers x86 32- and 64-bit, 11 x86 64-bit only).

Thank Goodness: UUPDump covers ARM64

I used the search string “24H2 arm64” at UUPDump.net to produce the lead-in graphic. Checking my Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Copilot+ PC using winver.exe, I see it’s running Build 26100.1000 right now. As you can see in the lead-in graphic, that’s the top/most recent version of Windows 11 24H2 available at present.

Just for grins, I’ll visit the site and generate myself an ISO for this version later today. Who knows? It may come in handy for repairs and/or as the basis for a bootable flash drive. Lord knows they’re handy whenever Windows gets weird as it will sometimes do on its own. And when I’m beating on a review PC I do have a tendency to break things a-purpose, just to see what happens. Repair/recovery media are always good just in case they’re needed, right?

Other News on the ARM64 Front

I’ve got some deadlines today, but I’ll be reaching out to Lenovo tomorrow. I still haven’t been able to get into a VM on the Slim 7x. I keep getting hung up at the Start screen, which goes straight to PXE boot and then gets nowhere. There’s got to be a trick I haven’t been able to figure out on my own, so I’m going to ask the real professionals for help — namely the support SMEs who try to help hapless reviewers like yours truly who dig themselves into the occasional hole.

Stay tuned: I’ll keep you posted on my ongoing adventures with limited-access Windows 11, as well as all the other versions I’m running around here.

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Hyper-V and VMs, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows Update

Forced Win10VM Upgrade Gets Stuck

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This is pretty strange. I checked in on one of my Windows 10 VMs this morning, and found WU stuck part-way through a Windows 11 upgrade. This popped up, courtesy of toggling the familiar “Get the latest updates…” option in Settings > Windows Update. Alas, this forced Win10VM upgrade gets stuck. I’m trying some things to undo that state. Bear with me, as I report on what things I try…

Before I start introducing repair maneuvers and upgrade counters, let me explain I’m running this VM deliberately to check and test Windows 10 stuff.  Thus, I have ZERO desire to upgrade it to Windows 11, even though I know full well that I could if I wanted to.

Fixing Forced Win10VM Upgrade Gets Stuck

The excellent and usually reliable batch file from TenForums.com “Reset_Reregister_Windows_Update_Components….bat” returned WU in the VM to a normal appearance. Then I ran “Check for updates…” While watching the sliding balls, I wondered if I’d find this VM in the same situation as before. Not yet: it offered a routine Defender update, plus KB5037849. I let things roll.

Interesting results ensued. Defender download threw a 0x80070643 error.  A quick jump into Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Check for updates showed that everything was already up-to-date. Subsequent “Retry” attempt dropped the same error anyway. Odd…

Back in WU, KB5037849 went through download and install. Eventually it got to the “Restart now” button, which I pressed. I’m pretty sure the Security Update error was bogus because of internal status in Windows Security, so off it went…

Beta Channel Sign-Up Effected!

When I got back into Windows Update, I found a successful transition to the CU, but an error report on the Security Update, to wit:

But because another visit to Windows Security showed the same update was still current, I’m seeing this as a Windows Update problem, not as an issue with security updates on this VM. So I jumped over to Windows Insider Program and signed up for the newly re-opened Beta Channel for Windows 10. Indeed, that was the whole reason I started down this rockier-than-expected road.

Then I restarted again, to see what would happen on the next go-round. WU came back clean, and I’m opted into the Beta Channel. Success, but without some oddities along the way. Another magic day in Windows-World…

 

 

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Win10 VM Login Gotcha Manifests

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Boy, I’m glad I’d seen this one before. I was setting up a Windows 10 VM this morning while researching an AskWoody newsletter story. When I’d gotten to the point of logging into the desktop I found myself unable to get the PIN or Password prompt from the lock screen to complete that maneuver. “Aha” I thought “I’ve seen this before, but on Windows 11.” Turns out the same Win10 VM login gotcha manifests when “Enhanced mode” view is turned on. Let me explain…

How the Win10 VM Login Gotcha Manifests

By default, Windows 10 and 11 both set the toggle for “Require Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts” in Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options. For situations where users are logging in directly to a suitably equipped PC, that’s fine. But that doesn’t work for RDP sessions (my usual way to access other PCs here at Chez Tittel, including 3 desktops and up to 10 laptops).

The fix is to turn off Enhanced mode, sign in, visit Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options and turn that toggle off. Then you can switch to Enhanced mode and get the login prompt from the lock screen. That’s on par in importance with the ability to cut’n’paste from a VM in an RDP session — another thing I do quite frequently. That also requires enhanced mode to work.

Keep an Eye on ComputerWorld

Fortunately I just finished an upcoming story for CW on “Building Windows 11 Virtual Machines” on May 5. I went into the whole RDP razzmatazz in getting that written so I was both forewarned and forearmed for today’s RDP gotcha with Windows 10. I hadn’t confirmed this shared little zinger beforehand, but now I know for sure. That made it super-easy to fix things, too. Good-oh!

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Dev Home Environments Missing Local ISO Access

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As far as I can tell the ability to create and manage Hyper-V VMs using the latest release of Dev Home (Preview) is nothing short of terrific. Whereas Hyper-V Manager makes it difficult or blocks use of RDP during VM set-up and install, Dev Home is completely friendly to this oh-so-common way to get stuff done on Windows networks. I have 8 PCs (1 desktop, 7 laptops) in  my office right now. I work on the desktop and RDP into the other machines as a matter of course. Alas, I suffer with Dev Home Environments missing local ISO. Let me explain…

Why Say: Dev Home Environments Missing Local ISO Access

I could be wrong, but I don’t see any way to access a local image source on the “Choose an image to use*” pane when setting up a Hyper-V VM inside Dev Home. If you look at the lead-in graphic you’ll see dev options for Windows 10 (top) and 11 (bottom) with three Ubuntu items inbetween. That’s it!

Given Dev Home’s focus on developers and developer environments, this may make sense. But given that Dev Home works seamlessly and properly in an RDP session, and Hyper-V does not, it makes me want more. Specifically, it makes me want the ability to use a local ISO file of my choosing as the basis for a Hyper-V VM when I click the Create Environment button in Dev Home.

Why? Because it “just works” in setting things up and getting them running. Working with Hyper-V Manager to create VMs through RDP is tricky and frustrating. Working with Dev Home to create VMs is an absolute breeze.

A Different Alternative: Fix Hyper-V Manager

If MS doesn’t want to add a local filesystem link to this aspect of Dev Home, that’s OK. But if so, they should fix Hyper-V Manager so that it works properly with Windows 11 (default to TPM support, turn off Windows hello login that doesn’t work on RDP). Is that too much to ask? Gosh, I hope not!

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Hyper-V and VMs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Dev Home Now Creates VMs

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A new release of the Dev Home (Preview) toolbox hit the streets on Tuesday, April 23 (v0.13). I updated but didn’t really pay much attention. Then, this morning I learned something noteworthy from WindowsLatest — namely, that you can now use Dev Home (DH) to set up and manage Windows VMs including Hyper-V instances. Because I’m working on a “How-to” story right now on such VMs, this definitely caught my eye. And indeed, on a test PC, I see strong evidence that Dev Home now creates VMs. Not too much effort involved, either…

If Dev Home Now Creates VMs, Then What?

It took me a while to get where I needed to go with setting the right environment toggles. Eventually, I settled on the first three (Environments Creation, Environments Management, and Environments Configuration) and turned all three on. Then, I had to close and re-open Dev Home to gain the ability to actually use the “Create environment” button.  It’s hiding in the upper right corner of the lead-in image; you can see it up there if you check.

At that point you can give your environment a name (I called it DHWin11 to indicate I was using Dev Home to build a new test Windows 11 VM in Hyper-V). Then you pick the reference image from which it gets built. I chose the Windows 11 Development Environment option that Dev Home supplied. I’m sure I could have navigated to another ISO of my choosing.

Take a While, But Gets Things Right…

It took over 15 minutes for the setup, download, and install processes to get far enough along to do something. But gosh, I was able to get into the Hyper-V window to fire things off, then get to the desktop with no hiccups or gotchas along the way inside RDP. Things don’t work that well using Hyper-V Manager.

I found myself running a 22H2 Windows 11 instance labeled “Windows 11 Enterprise Evaluation” for Build 22621.3447. I know from prior experience this is a 30-day eval or thereabouts. Indeed, Copilot tells me it expires on June 19, 2024. But gosh, this makes standing up and using a plain-vanilla Hyper-V VM as easy as it’s ever been in my personal experience.

Now, I need to do it again, and use an image of my own choosing. That should be interesting! Stay tuned, I’ll write about this soon. Meanwhile, you can see that VM running on my P16 test PC as shown in an RDP window for the whole shebang.

Wow! That was almost TOO EASY. I must say, I’m impressed. Need more time and exploration to really formulate a more useful opinion, though. First look is a doozy, though.

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Creating New Windows 11 VM Gotchas

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Whoa! I hit a couple of interesting snags when setting up a new Hyper-V VM, late yesterday and this morning. Indeed I came across a couple of interesting gotchas that I want to document — if only to help me to remember what to do the next I have to do this. These creating new Windows 11 VM gotchas include getting the ISO-based install to run, and then being able to log into that VM. Pretty basic but vital stuff, in other words…

Creating New Windows 11 VM Gotchas Recited & Explained

Gotcha #1: Getting the installer to run from an ISO. Turns out you can’t do this from an RDP session. I had to do this from the physical desktop, probably because of too many levels of indirection from keyboard stuff in the input path. I also had to set up the VMs with TPM to get Windows 11 install to complete (otherwise, I would get the “doesn’t meet hardware requirements” error message). This turned out to be fairly easy, if vexing from the standpoint of “Why doesn’t Hyper-V do this by default?”

Gotcha #2:  Logging into the new VM, once installed. One must log into the VM with “Enhanced session mode” disabled, then go to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Additional settings, then turn off “…allow only Windows Hello sign-in…” toggle. Turns out, this doesn’t work with RDP either, as explained at MS Answers. Boy, won’t it be nice when Copilot gets smart enough to do this with a single prompt (no luck right now).

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Another Great UUPDump.Net Use Case

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Monday-Wednesday I was working on an article for the AskWoody newsletter. Among a variety of tasks, one that I found interesting hinged on working with and taking screenshots of a Windows 10 app around a certain date (late July 2022). This makes for another great UUPDump.net use case. Let me explain…

What Makes For Another Great UUPDump.Net Use Case?

It took me a while to figure out the right date before which I had to stand up Windows 10. And because a Microsoft Store app was involved, I also had make sure the VM didn’t have Internet access. Otherwise, because the Store does auto-updates it would have replaced that point in time’s version of the app with something else. Because I was interested in seeing that specific version (or something older) at work, updates were a no-no.

Another ingredient was also key to my research: An MS Support note entitled “Windows 10 update history.” This handy document lets one see all Windows 10 releases and their dates of issue. Because I knew what date I had to hit, I wanted something as close to but still prior to it to show me what I needed. Ultimately, that worked!

Getting Past a Few Little Details

Setting up the VM also posed a handful of minor challenges. Because I set up a Type 2 VM I had to use the Restart button in the Hyper-V window to forcibly get the ISO I built for my test image to boot. I also had to remember to turn off enhanced mode to login via RDP (a known issue). And finally, I had to do some creative rooting around my file system to find a usable Windows 10 key (I persevered, and succeeded). Other than that, things went off just as I’d hoped.

Using my approach, I was able to run and screencap the target app. Luckily for me the date I picked still had the right (older) version installed. Once I brought it up, it told and showed me what I was looking for.

Great fun — and like the title says — it really is a great use case for UUPDump.net, thanks to its complete historical record of Windows 10 and 11 release, including Insider Previews. Glad my heretofore unsubstantiated theory about using historical versus current Windows versions worked out.

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