Category Archives: Insider stuff

Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Nvidia’s Microsoft Windows 11 Game Ready Driver

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OK, then. As October 5 gets ever closer, more of the pieces start falling into place. This morning (September 20), Nvidia released GeForce Driver Version 472.12. As you can see in the lead-in graphic for this story, the GeForce download page bills this new offering as a Microsoft Windows 11 Game Ready Driver.

Obtaining the Microsoft Windows 11 Game Ready Driver

The driver weighs in at nearly 723MB (they keep getting bigger, don’t they). You can grab a copy using GeForce Experience or directly from its download page. With two Nvidia-equipped PCs here at Chez Tittel, I was able to confirm that it downloads and installs just fine on both Windows 10 and 11 rigs. I can also say it goes much faster on an 8-core 2021 CPU than a 2014 4-core model.

What Can Go Wrong, Didn’t — This Time

I’ve seen previous GeForce drivers from Nvidia cause occasional Windows problems. These have varied from effects as trivial as momentary screen blinking or blanking to out-and-out BSODs. So far, thank goodness, the 472.12 version seems entirely stable and well-behaved.

That’s good: the last thing users want to face when tackling a new OS is driver problems to make things more interesting. After the official upgrade to Windows 11 comes and goes early next month (October 5), we’ll have a better idea of where production issues may manifest. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the recent trickle of updates from the likes of Intel, AMD, and now Nvidia, as they get ready for an influx of Windows 11 updates. Indeed, I’m sure many are hoping for a flood of Windows-11 ready (and installed) PCs to hit stores and users’ hot little hands this holiday season, too.

 

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 11

Windows 11 Store Now Offers PowerToys

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Until Windows 11 Build 22454 came along, the only way to get PowerToys was to download or update it from GitHub. But, as shown in the lead-in graphic for this story, the Windows 11 Store now offers PowerToys for download. Windows 10 users, however, will need to stick with GitHub going forward — at least for the time being. That’s what I gleaned from the WinAero story on this fork in the PowerToys development path.

Visual Proof: Windows 11 Store Now Offers PowerToys

Because it’s available in the Store right now only to Windows 11 Build 22454 and higher, that restricts such access to Dev Channel Insiders. With the Beta Channel at Build 22000 at the moment, it could be some time before this pathway opens up to a broader segment of the Windows 11 population.

Being a “let’s try it and see what happens kind of guy” I checked the Store in the Beta version and searched on “PowerToys.” To my surprise, it came up there unhindered. It was absent, however, on Windows 10 when I tried the Store with the same search on my production PC (running Build 19043.1237).

I clicked the “Install” button on the Beta channel PC (a Lenovo X380 Yoga Thinkpad model), and it reported a successful install. That said, I already had PowerToys installed on that machine, and it still comes up in the Start menu as PowerToys (Preview).

Windows 11 Store Now Offers PowerToys.Start-entry

The (Preview) qualifier still shows up, which makes me wonder if anything really got installed.

So I uninstalled it, and then tried the Store-based install again. This time, it showed a download and I got a prompt asking if the installer could make changes to my device. The Installing progress circle continued until it said installed. And guess what: it still reads “PowerToys (Preview)” in its start menu listing. It did ask me to restart the tool as administrator, which tells me it is a new version (because I’d already made that change in its previous incarnation). I guess that means that PowerToys is getting ready for prime time, but has not yet reached production-ready status. That’s consistent with its 0.45.0 version number (a leading zero usually indicates something still in testing rather than production status).

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 11

Windows 11 22458 Enforces TPM Support

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On September 15, MS released the new Insider Preview Build 22458 into the Dev Channel. Widespread reporting indicates that the build won’t install on target PCs that don’t meet Windows 11’s TPM requirement. Thus, it’s fair to say that Windows 11 22458 enforces TPM support. In other words, that build won’t install on older PCs unless the user resorts to one of the well-known workarounds documented to bypass this limitation.

Indeed, for PCs already in the Insider Program, a visit to Start → Settings → Update & Security → Windows Insider Program will recommend against making such an attempt. This warning appears as the lead-in graphic for this story. It comes from my Surface Pro 3, whose 2013-vintage 4th generation CPU and lack of TPM 2.0 support put it outside the scope of Windows 11 requirements.

Were I to try it on that machine anyway, I would get an error message and my attempt to install 22458 would fail. Here’s a snip from WinAero.com that shows what this would look like:

Windows 11 22458 Enforces TPM Support.no-tpm

Without TPM 2.0 support, the latest Windows 11 Build 22458 won’t install. Workarounds remain possible, however.

If Windows 11 22458 Enforces TPM Support, Then What?

I’m playing things straight. The PCs I can’t upgrade to meet Windows 11 requirements will stay on Windows 10. The Surface Pro 3 is a great example. Most of my fleet already meets those standards. I’ve got one more PC — my production desktop — to upgrade to match those requirements. I’m going to try to get it done this weekend.

But for those who don’t mind — or outright enjoy — flouting MS requirements, there are workarounds based on ISO installs and registry hacks that bypass the TPM and other hardware checks. MS recommends against such tomfoolery and warns those who indulge that future security updates may not be provided for out-of-spec machines. That isn’t stopping a lot of folks, as the “Let’s run Windows 11 on … incompatible hardware” thread at Elevenforum.com clearly indicates. To these brave stalwarts I say “Have fun, but keep a backup handy, and be ready to roll back to Windows 10 when and if that’s needed.”

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Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

Dual NVMe Enclosure Supports RAID

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Whoever built this product clearly saw me coming. After upgrading both of my older desktops, I find myself looking for ways to use their now-idled NVMe drives. One is a Samsung OEM 512GB NVMe from the 2014 vintage PC, and the other is a Samsung 950 EVO 1TB NVMe from the 2016 model. As it happens, Sabrent has an offering for just that. In fact, its dual NVMe enclosure supports RAID, too.

What Dual NVMe Enclosure Supports RAID Means

Thanks to built-in RAID support,  this enclosure offers faster throughput than a single-drive configuration. It even handles Thunderbolt, so I can use it in my newer docks and on my newer laptops and desktops. At a list price of US$249 my initial though was: “Ummm. No!” But after I visited the Amazon page and saw it was marked down to US$149 (about double the price of two phantom-powered Sabrent Thunderbolt 3 NVMe enclosures) that response changed to “Ummm. Yes…”

The specs claim speeds up to 1,500 MB for single drives, but up to 2,500 MB for drives in RAID configurations (I’m guessing that means striped or mirrored, rather than JBOD). Watching some of the videos that Sabrent provides on how to set things up, my guess is confirmed.

Should I Take the Plunge?

Now, I have to decide if I want to further raid the exchequer to cover an additional US$149 outlay, on top of the ~US$1,300 I’ve already spend to get my production desktop hardware refresh funded. I’ll have to chew on this for a little while, and perhaps ask “the Boss” for permission. Should I indeed buy into this device, I’ll review it in a future blog post.

In the meantime, I must consider how deeply I feel like digging into available funds right now. That’s a perennial problem for hardware junkies like myself, and one I’ve wrested with before. Stay tuned: I’ll keep you posted.

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Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

USB-3/C Header Cable Mystery

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OK then. I’ve got the parts for my second hardware refresh. I now understand I may have been rooked. The Asrock B550 Extreme4 mobo comes with a perfectly serviceable 19-pin USB 3.1/3.2 header block on the motherboard, but no cable to match. And upon looking around, I find precious few such cables available at any price. To me, this poses something of a USB-3/C header cable mystery. It’s a mystery I’d like to solve before I start building.

Solving USB-3/C Header Cable Mystery

The situation raises an interesting question: should such cables come with the mobo or the case? In my case (pun intended) I’m recycling something that predates USB-C and USB 3.2/Thunderbolt 3 or higher. Thus, I’m purchasing the 5.25″ drive bay plug-in shown in the lead-in graphic. It needs a 19 (sometimes called 20) pin connector to get from the mobo header to the front panel device.

Thing is, I can’t tell if the device includes any cables or not. I can tell, having just checked, that the Asrock mobo includes no cables except for some SATA cables for hooking up such drives. To span the distance from the front panel to the back of the motherboard, it looks like I need to buy 3 (!) 15 cm cables to be sure to get from the bottom and back of the case to the top and front. Sigh.

When in Doubt, Spend More $$$

Just to be safe, I’m going to order the cables along with the front-panel device. If that device includes cables I’ll be sure to email Amazon to get them to update the product info. It’s currently silent on that all-important subject (to me, anyway).

And indeed, these are the kinds of conundrums that face people like me trying to refresh hardware in anticipation of meeting Windows 11 hardware requirements. I can’t see any point in having an unused high-speed USB header on my motherboard without making those ports easily accessible. Stay tuned: I’ll let you know how it all turns out.

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

Windows 11 Keeps Strange Component Store Cleanup Behavior

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Since June 28, Windows 11 has been available  to Insider Preview program participants. Those willing to devote a VM or PC to running the new OS may do so. Needless to say, I’ve got it running on multiple PCs (2 Dev Channel, 1 Beta Channel). As I’ve been getting to know the latest OS version, I noticed that Windows 11 keeps strange component store cleanup behavior. Let me explain…

What Windows 11 Keeps Strange Component Store Cleanup Behavior Means

Check out the lead-in graphic from this story. It comes from PowerShell v7.1.4. It shows results after running a specific command –namely DISM /online /cleanup-image /analyzecomponentstore under a special set of conditions. One: the target PC has recently had a Cumulative Update (CU) installed. Two: the target PC has not been rebooted since that install occurred.

If you look at the image, you’ll see there’s a progress line that ends at 10.0% (above). A second progress line shows 44.2% complete on its way to the 100% mark. Believe it or not, Windows 10 also shows this very behavior. I’d kind of hoped that MS would have noticed, and made sure that Windows 11 didn’t manifest the same. As the screencap shows, apparently not.

If you reboot the PC after installing the CU, this doesn’t happen. Either way, component store cleanup proceeds as it should and gets rid of no-longer-needed backups and disabled features.  Here’s what the whole thing looks like on my Lenovo X380 Yoga Beta Channel test machine:

Windows 11 Keeps Strange Component Store Cleanup Behavior.entire

[Click image for full-sized view.]

Notice that the initial “analyze” shows 7.94 GB/7.52 GB as the reported and actual size of the component store before cleanup. After cleanup (bottom of screencap) those numbers drop to 7.06 GB/6.81 GB for a savings of 0.88 GB/ 0.71 GB from the 2 reclaimable packages cleaned up during the process.

It’s Only a “Flesh Wound”

To recall the famous gag line from the Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with all apologies due to the artistes, this little oddity is neither terribly worrisome nor significant. That said, I do find it interesting that at least some of the eccentricities present in Windows 10 persist into Windows 11 as well.

Please post a comment here, or send me an email through my contact form if you know of any other Windows 10 oddities that carry over into Windows 11. Inquiring minds want to know, mine most definitely included.

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New Windows 11 Requirements Check Tool Available

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It’s not just “yet another Windows 11 requirements check tool.” Prosaically enough that’s how it’s named, though. But with this new Windows 11 Requirements Check Tool available, curious PC users can get more insight into their upgrade situations. The tool is available from ByteJams.com a site/author I hadn’t run into before. But thanks to Martin Brinkmann at Ghacks.net I’m reasonably comfortable using — and recommending — this tool.

Where Is New Windows 11 Requirements Check Tool Available?

Looks like the site is based in Europe, possibily in the Netherlands (see this NSlookup output). The home page includes reasonably complete Release Notes (bottom of page) that show 9 releases in the period from July 21 through September 8 (that’s today, as I write this item). That latest version is numbered v.1.1.0 at present.

The tool resides in a standalone executable file named Win11RCT.exe. It is 647 KB in size (File Explorer value). It runs extremely quickly and is easy to use (no installation required). I like it more than any of the three such tools I covered yesterday — namely, Microsoft’s PC Health Check Tool, JB Carreon’s Win11CompChk.bat script, and the GitHub WhyNotWin11 project. I’d put the MS tool and WhyNotWin11 tied for second place now.

What Win11RCT v1.1.0 Has to Say

The tool goes through all of the Windows 11 hardware requirements. It reports on minimum requirements (upper portion of output, as shown in lead-in graphic), and on feature specific requirements (lower portion of display). Among other things, the tool informed me that the  Samsung NMVe driver is not Windows 11 compatible, and that the generic MS “Standard NMVe Express Controller” must be present to support DirectStorage (I was unaware of this, as some readers here may also be likewise unaware).

Interestingly, I also observed one downside for running the tool via RDP. It reports on display characteristics for the RDP output rather than the built-in or primary device monitor. That said, it does mention the built-in display as you can see under the minimum reqs “Display” field as “3840×2160, 15 inch” (which does meets HDR requirements, FWIW).

At the moment, I’d recommend Win11RCT.exe as the best of the bunch. Be sure to check it out. Thanks, Martin!

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Checking Target PC Windows 11 Readiness

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I’ve found 3 tools useful in checking my PCs — mostly laptops — to see whether or not they’ll run Windows 11. When it comes to checking target PC Windows 11 readiness, I turn to one of:

1. Microsoft’s PC Health Check* (re-released August 30). Its output serves as the lead-in graphic for this story from my 2018 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (8th gen i-7 CPU, etc.)
2. GitHub project WhyNotWin11
3. GitHub/ElevenForum project Windows 11 Compatibility Check

Please note: Microsoft’s tool is currently available only to registered members of the Windows Insiders program. Knowing that some readers may not want to register simply to get the tool, I also provide links to the other two as alternatives.

Checking Target PC Windows 11 Readiness Is Easy

PC Health Check is the only one of the three that needs installation. It downloads as a Microsoft self-installing file (extension: .msi). Of the other two tools, one runs straight from the executable download (WhyNotWin11.exe). The other consists of a batch file named Win11CompChk.bat: it runs in an administrative command prompt.

Of these three tools, all do an adequate job or better. Were it not for the Insider program membership requirement, PC Health Check would get my highest accolades. That status won’t last long though: it should soon go into general release (probably no later than the official GA date for Windows 11 itself, October 5).

Right now, WhyNotWin11 gets my top vote because it requires no installation, runs quickly, and delivers accurate results.

Win11CompChk.bat has a few rough spots still, but experienced users can steer around them pretty easily:

  • For one thing, it treats support for WDDM 2 as a must-have (it’s only required for those who want to wirelessly project to an external monitor).
  • For another thing, it won’t pass Secure boot capable systems unless secure boot is turned on (both other tools pass systems, whether or not secure boot is enabled or disabled, so long as it’s present).

Be sure to check them out, and see which one(s) you like best. Cheers!

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows Update

Windows 11 Dev Channel Goes Nickel

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Just yesterday, September 2, the MS Windows Insider team re-forked the Beta and Dev Channels for Windows 11. The Windows 11 Dev Channel goes Nickel. Thus, it picks up a new release branch where experimental features not tied to specific upcoming releases can be exposed and explored. Note the major Build number in the lead-in graphic. It jumps to 22449, far ahead of other build numbers of any sort.

The Beta Channel, on the other hand is still tied to 21H1 and Build 22000.  As the upcoming Windows 11 release date — October 5 — edges ever closer, that should remain constant. Beta will be the focus for bug hunts and ongoing fixes. The run-up to that GA date (32 days away as I write this story) should be interesting.

Finally, these two release forks now diverge. I predict Beta will continue to track “the next, upcoming Windows 11 release.” Dev will show us what’s possible but not inevitable for future releases .

When Windows 11 Dev Channel Goes Nickel, What to Expect?

MS has already warned Insiders about future Dev channel releases. They will be less stable and more subject to gotchas and bugs. The 22449 release blog says (emphasis mine):

These builds are from the earliest stage in a new development cycle with the latest work-in-progress code from our engineers. These aren’t always stable builds, and sometimes you will see issues that block key activities or require workarounds while flighting in the Dev Channel. It is important to make sure you  read the known issues listed in our blog posts as we document many of these issues with each flight.

And please: if you participate in the Dev Channel, I urge you to follow Microsoft’s advice. That is: “read the known issues” as each new upgrade emerges. More than once, I’ve been bitten because I jumped first, and read the issues list second. Thus, I’ve learned from first-hand experience, little of it positive, to heed that warning.

I’m glad to see this happening. I look forward to what emerges in  Dev Channel releases going forward. That’s why I joined the Insider Program to begin with. It’s why I look forward to bashing bugs, reporting (and learning from) issues, and making things work. For some of us in Windows-World — including me — this passes as entertainment!

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Managing Windows 11 Defaults Gets Tricky

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Oho! I just learned something interesting from Martin Brinkmann over at Ghacks.Net. It seems that in Windows 11, MS has re-jiggered the way default application selection works. In Windows 10 one could grab an application and associate it with all typical file or link types in one go. Alas, managing Windows 11 defaults gets tricky, because you must now choose them one at a time.

MS also supplies various defaults by default so to speak, which explains why Microsoft Edge shows up so persistently when opening web-related file types. Thus, for example, I count 22 such entries in Settings → Apps → Default apps → (Browser name here). I chose Google Chrome as my example in the lead-in graphic above. If you really want to make Chrome the overall default, you must jump into each of the 22 associated file or link types and pick Chrome from the pick list for each one.

Why Say: Managing Windows 11 Defaults Gets Tricky?

Maybe I should have said “labor intensive” instead. But “tricky” makes for a more compelling headline, so I’ll admit to taking just a wee bit of artistic license here. Truth is, as long as you know that this is how Windows 11 works, it’s the kind of thing you need to do once for those applications you want to make default when Microsoft supplies something different. This takes time and a little effort, but it’s not the end of the world as we know it by a long shot.

I’m hoping Nir Sofer reads this blog post, though, and whips out a Windows11Default tool to help automate this task. Seems like it should be fairly straightforward for someone with the right understanding of Windows internals to make this happen. I see a fascinating thread on this topic in the Spiceworld Forums that explains that GPOs and an XML file can do the trick. I’ll be noodling around with this for a while and see if I can figure something further out. Hopefully, Windows 11 and 10 work the same way in this regard. Stay tuned, and I’ll find out…

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