Category Archives: Recent Activity

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Security, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Avoid Mystery Pop-up Windows

January 3, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It’s now a truism that one should NEVER click links in email from unknown or untrusted sources. This morning, I was reminded the same is true inside a browser. There, one should avoid mystery pop-up windows with equal attention and suspicion. Indeed, this happened as I visited one of my daily Windows-related news and info sites, much to my alarm and dismay.

Why Avoid Mystery Pop-Up Windows?

Any time you’re presented with a link you don’t recognize, didn’t ask for — and probably also, don’t want — leave it alone. In my case, I clicked CTRL-Shift-ESC to launch Task Manager. Then, I killed all related browser processes. After that, I restarted Firefox anew. It’s never smart to take any such bait, nor to let it linger on your desktop.

Indeed, Task Manager might have refused to kill one or more Firefox processes. Then, my next step would be: restart my PC, then run an immediate virus scan. As it was, an immediate follow-up scan showed Defender still on the job. It revealed neither lurking threats nor suspicious files. Good-oh!

You’ve Been Pwned!

Right here at edtittel.com, I fought off a series of WordPress-induced injection attacks last year. I ended up having to buy into a security service that prevented hijackers from altering URLs published into social media sites (e.g. X, Facebook and LinkedIn). These redirected would-be blog post visitors to certain potentially unsavory stop-offs en route to my daily posts. It now costs me $300 a year to protect website visitors from such stuff and nonsense.

I say this to explain that such things can happen to almost any website, at any time, as unpatched vulnerabilities get exploited. Knowing that this is always a possibility, savvy users recognize that mystery pop-ups hide much more malice and potential for harm than sources for wonder and beauty. Avoid them at all costs, is received security wisdom — and my best advice as well. That goes double if they come bearing offers that seem too good to be true…

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

DSA Update Succeeds Where Lenovo Vantage Fails

January 2, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Go figure! When Lenovo Vantage reported this morning that the ThinkStation P3 Ultra needed a new Intel Wi-Fi driver, I thought nothing of it. I elected the install, fired it off, and waited for the results. Oops: “Failed to install.” Tried again, and got the same result. So I checked Intel’s Driver and Support Assistant (DSA). Sure enough it reported the same outdated driver (23.60.0.10) and the same incoming new replacement (23.100.0.4). But that DSA update succeeds where Lenovo Vantage fails. As you can see in the lead-in graphic, a subsequent Vantage update check post-DSA reports no updates available (and shows a failed attempt below).

Guessing Why DSA Update Succeeds Where Lenovo Vantage Fails

I’m a great believer in the old principle that “if one tool fails, try a different one.” What’s trickier is figuring out why Vantage falls over while DSA does the job correctly. Copilot speculates it could have to do with compatibility, permissions, or software conflicts. Turns out one must enable a registry setting to get Vantage to log and report on failures — absent on the P3 Ultra, alas — so I can’t really tell what went south when Commercial Vantage did its thing.

If it were really important (and I hadn’t found an immediate and easy workaround) that’s what I’d be doing next. The key string involved is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Lenovo\
SystemUpdateAddin\Logs

The REG-SZ (registry string) value named “EnableLogs” needs to be changed from its default value of “False” to “True” for subsequent logging to occur. I’ve made that change, and will check out if and when future Vantage install or other update errors occur. Good stuff!

Prepped for the next gotcha: logging enabled.

Hopefully next time I won’t have to guess what happened. The log should tell me something. Whether I can parse its meaning is a whole ‘nother challenge!

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

8GadgetPack Is Now Just GadgetPack

December 30, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

We returned from our holiday travels over the weekend, and I’ve been slowly getting back into the groove here at Chez Tittel. While I didn’t apparently miss many updates or upgrades, one interesting item popped up. Helmut Buhler has renamed his epic 8GadgetPack tool to drop the leading 8 — making it GadgetPack — with a similarly truncated website to match. Hence my claim that 8GadgetPack is now just GadgetPack. But boy, does it bring a lot of welcome changes, too. Let me explain.

If 8GadgetPack Is Now Just GadgetPack, Changes Follow

You can see the complete list of changes to this essential Windows toolkit (IMHO, anway) in its December 25 changelog entry. But a quick look at the lead-in graphic shows some changes emphatically. The new version is at left, and the old at right, showing my go-to gadgets on Windows physical and virtual desktops everywhere. You can see a newer, more stripped-down approach to those tools, especially the Clock. Simply put, Buhler has updated icons, gadgets and controls (now called settings) to mesh more directly with standard Windows 10 and 11 UI stuff. It looks great, too.

Clock is simpler, sparer and feels less dated.

What Else Ya Got?

The changelog entry for 12/25 cites to updated graphics for “many gadgets, gadget icons, gadget grip buttons and the GadgetPack installer itself.” This is no exaggeration. The program is updated and refreshed throughout. The version number is now up to 38.0, too. For those who already use this tool, this is a must-have update. For those who’ve yet to take it for a spin, it’s even more worth doing than it was before.

A great Christmas present for Windows-heads everywhere. Thanks for your hard work, and a great update, Mr. Buhler!

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

ThinkBook Hybrid Fails 24H2 Upgrade

December 16, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I can’t say I’m surprised, but I can confess to mild bepuzzlement. Over the weekend, WU decided that a new test laptop — a Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G5 — was ready for 24H2. Alas, for a variety of good reasons that ThinkBook hybrid fails 24H2 upgrade and goes down in flames. Indeed, I had to use the WinRE “Uninstall upgrade” option for the first time ever to bring that machine back to life.

Why ThinkBook Hybrid Fails 24H2 Upgrade

Of course, when I checked the machine this morning, I hadn’t interfered with WU, so it was already attempting this doomed upgrade again. You can see it’s at 25% complete in the lead-in graphic. I foiled that by restarting the PC, then pausing updates for 7 days in the WU controls, as you can see here:

While I’m troubleshooting, I suspended updates.

What the Panther Logs Have to Say

There are two primary logs worth checking into if an upgrade fails to complete successfully — namely:

C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\panther\setupact.log C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\panther\miglog.xml

These are liberally bestrewn with errors of all kinds including device drivers and storage items. The ThinkBook’s “hybrid drive” bridges between native Windows storage on the deck and native Android storage on the tablet. It takes the form of something called a Hybrid Tab in File Explorer (see next screencap). I believe it’s very likely involved in my snafu.

Because it uses a special driver and customized software, I’m betting that the Hybrid Tab is the source of storage and driver issues.

Copilot tells me that if I upgrade from bootable media, the ThinkBook may survive the upgrade process intact. Right now, I think it’s losing the Hybrid Tab scaffolding amidst the post-GUI reboots during the serious parts of OS install. That sounds like it’s worth a try. But first, I’ll make a fresh image backup and be ready to restore same should things go south again.

Stay tuned! This could get interesting…

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

Eliciting Windows Store App Version Info

December 13, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

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

Why I’m Eliciting Windows Store App Version Info

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

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

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

The version on this Canary PC is 1.24112.89.0.

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

Version number is at lower right.

Store Lookup Gets Weird

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

What an interesting ride this one turned out to be…

Concluding Hilarious and Unscientific Postscript

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

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

MS PC Manager Keeps Improving

December 12, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

When I first came across it a little over two years ago, Microsoft PC Manager was kind of an awkward curiosity. It had just been translated from Chinese into English, and it showed. The very first version had been out since February 2022, with the latter following in October that same year. In the 25+ months since then, the program has matured, improved and gotten much faster. You can see its MS Store info line in the lead-in graphic, which shows a new release a couple of days ago (12/10/2024).

Why Say: MS PC Manager Keeps Improving

I just used that latest version to clean up 3.2 GB from the ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 Mobile Workstation. It took under a minute to scan for stuff to clean, and less than that to do the actual clean-up. It’s much faster than Disk Cleanup (or the GitHub version, Managed Disk Clean) and does lots of other stuff, too. A recent clean-up shows a nice overview of those other capabilities in the left-hand column:

PMC quickly recovered 3.2 or 3.6 “cleanable” space.

The left-hand headings lead to general functionality that I’ll also list briefly:

Home: PC boost cleans memory, kills temp files; further links to Health Check, Process and Startup tabs in Task Manager, Deep Cleanup
Protection: Virus & threat protection, Windows update, Default browser settings, Taskbar repair, Restore default apps, Pop-up management
Storage: Deep cleanup, Downloaded files, Large Files, Duplicate files, Storage Sense
App management: Process management, Startup apps, Uninstall apps, Microsoft Store
Toolbox: Windows tools (e.g. screenshot, recorder, captions, …); Web tools (e.g. Edge Quick Links, Bing translator, currency converter…); Custom links (e.g. MSN)
Restore:Restore default settings throughout
Settings: PCM settings for boost, shortcus, general
Feedback: PCM feedback a la Feedback Hub

Sure, there’s some duplication in there. But the fractured English of yore is now as polished as help messages ever get. The tool could be an admirable clearinghouse for all kinds of Windows management, as you can see in the preceding annotated list. At any rate, I find it increasingly useful and helpful. If you try it out, you may find it does more — and faster — that you think it could.

Benchmarking, Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog

ThinkBook Plus G5 External Storage

December 11, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I’ve been messing about with an interesting (and covetable) Lenovo hybrid laptop lately. it’s got an x86 PC for the keyboard deck, and a plug-in 15″ Android tablet that also doubles as a laptop display when docked with that deck. I plugged my fastest external USB storage devices into the free TB4/USB4 rated USB-C port and ran CrystalDiskMark. That gives me some basis to talk about ThinkBook Plus G5 external storage. I’m checking outUSB4 NVMe, TB4 NVMe, USB3.0 Msata, and USB 3.0 HDD storage devices.

ThinkBook Plus G5 External Storage Capability

I’m running CrystalDiskMark version 8.0.6 through its standard testing paces to see how these various devices all compare, in the same USB-C port and using the same USB4 rated cable. So far, what I’ve seeing is not bad, but not on par with other high-end Lenovo laptops or mini-desktops. (FWIW, I’ve also noticed that Snapdragon X Copilot+ PCs offer excellent USB-C USB4/TB performance, but only 5 Gbps capability on their built-in USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports.)

The internal SSD in the ThinkBook Plus G5 (I’ll abbreviate that as TB5 for brevity) gets reasonable performance. It’s a Samsung OEM NVMe MZAL81T0HDLB-00BL2 (vintage 2022, Gen4x4 M.2, middling performance). It does pretty well on large data transfers (~6GB read/4.7GB write queue depth 8; 3GB read/2.9GB write queue depth 1). On Random 4K reads, it’s somewhat less thrilling: 337.7MB read/264.5MB write queue depth 32; 60 MB read/113MB write queue depth 1). Those CrystalDiskMark (CDM) results provide the lead-in graphic for this story.

When I shift to external storage via USB, the story gets darker quickly:


Type   1TibRWQ8  1TibRWQ1   4KRWQ32  4KRWQ1
USB4   3062/447  1692/521   337/8    11/4
TB4    2615/530  2211/491   345/14   62/10
mSATA  465/331   436/121    138/20   23/2
HDD    118/117   117/52     1/1      0.4/0.4

On the whole, I’d have to say that I/O performance with external storage is NOT a strong suit for the otherwise interesting and occasionally excellent/amazing TB5. I see at least 15% better performance across the board for all those devices on the 2022 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 Mobile Workstation and the 2023 vintage Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra mini-Workstation. For example, here are the internal drive results from the 2022 vintage P16:

The Internal NVMe on the P16 is mostly 15+% faster across the board. Only 4KR/QD=1 is slightly less.

Note: the P16’s internal drive is a WD SN810 2TB NVMe (PCIe Gen4 x4 drive with performance nearly equal to the TB5’s Samsung OEM drive).

Space and Cost Are at a Premium, So…

In a hybrid device like the TB5, I have to believe that space and device costs are important elements to control. My best guess is that Lenovo went with more compact and possibly lower-cost USB circuitry than they put into those other two devices. Then again, the internal SSD could be slower than those used in the other devices as well. Both will impact overall I/O performance.

On the other hand, as I use the TB5 for surfing the web, doing workaday tasks, installing and running all kinds of software and tests, and more, I’ve not really noticed I/O as a bottleneck. Perception is vital to user experience, so these numbers I’ve shared may paint this fascinating two-in-one less positively than they should. Bear that in mind as you consider “buying this dream.” I’m reading that MSRP will be right around $2K for a 22-core Ultra 7-155H, 32GB, 1TB SSD model. It just may be worth it.

Next up: I’m going to take the Android tablet for a ride on its own, to see how it does as a detached tablet. Stay tuned!

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, PowerShell, Recent Activity, WED Blog

OMP Changes Update Handling

December 10, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I should have seen this one coming. Jan De Dobbeleer’s excellent Oh My Posh (OMP) prompt glyph handling (for PowerShell on Windows Terminal in my case) is going through lots of changes lately. Among those is an “upgrade” option in its configuration file. I’d seen prompts about it awhile back (September, perhaps?) but hadn’t take the time to investigate. But when OMP changes updated handling, I did so. Turns out it’s dead easy and I should’ve done it right away. Live and learn, right? The lead-in graphic shows how easy: a one-liner OMP instruction: oh-my-posh enable upgrade. Done!

Avoiding How OMP Changes Update Handling Brings Trouble

The next screencap shows the pickle I put myself in yesterday. The latest OMG update (v24.12.0) uses a different install technology from the previous version, so handling it via WinGet meant an uninstall/install manuever. You can see what happened when I did that.

After uninstalling OMP, the Terminal startup can’t initialize it.

After uninstalling OMP, Windows Terminal can’t execute its initialization (’cause there’s nothing to initialize). And when I install it, it won’t run in that Terminal window (or pane). It must be invoked. That’s why I opened a second terminal session (right-hand pane) so OMP would actually load and run. Simply enabling OMP to update itself via the aforementioned command is a heck of a lot easier, and far less disconcerting.

Now, I need to go through and do this on all of my Windows PCs with OMP installed (the vast majority, in fact). Again: I should’ve done it right away. Maybe that’s the moral of the story…

Insider stuff, PowerShell, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

Identify Spurious Windows Reclaimables

December 9, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then: thanks to some excellent detective work by ElevenForum stalwart @Bree, it looks like DISM can tell curious Windows users which packages are “stuck.” That is, you run the DISM command sequence: Analyze-Clean-Analyze, with a positive number of reclaimable packages still showing. (You can find all the details in my 11/2023 blog post on this topic.) This time around, I’ll show you how to list out the actual items that identify spurious Windows reclaimables. Warning: some PowerShell hacking is involved!

How-to: Identify Spurious Windows Reclaimables

@Bree shows the source for the data needed to identify these strange offenders. It’s based on analyzing data within a DISM generated text file. Here’s the specific command that creates that data:

DISM /ONLINE /GET-PACKAGES /FORMAT:TABLE > KB.txt

What this does is to inspect the current running Windows image (/online), grab all packages it finds with some related data (/get-packages), and format it into a table (/format:table). That last bit (> KB.txt) redirects command output into that named file. The column headings in that output read: Package Identity, State, Release Type, and Install Time with vertical bars (‘|’) used to separate entries.

Bree’s analysis concurs with my own prior inspection of this same kind of output. We both agree that only lines with the strings “Staged” and “Feature Pack” in them point to spurious Windows packages. His analysis depends on sucking the output into a text file, converting to Excel format, sorting by State, and counting groups of lines to match the spurious reclaimable count to what’s reported by DISM /AnalyzeCompontentStore. Remember: those are packages that stay in the component store even after a DISM /cleanup-image operation has completed successfully. I simply write the output from the /Get-Packages DISM command to a file named KB.txt and filter its results.

Automating Analysis of KB.txt Contents

Next, my PowerShell script comes into play (such as it is, it’s pretty primitive). Unzip kbfilt.zip and then move kbfilt.ps1 to the directory where you created kb.txt (to run this file type .\kbfilt.ps1 inside an administrative PS Terminal window: screenshot follows later).

# Path to the input text file
$inputFilePath = "kb.txt"

# Path to the output text file
$outputFilePath = "kbfilt.txt"

# Read the file line by line and filter the lines
Get-Content $inputFilePath | ForEach-Object {
# Check if the line contains both "Staged" and "Feature Pack"
if ($_ -match "Staged" -and $_ -match "Feature Pack") {
# Output the line to the output file
$_ | Out-File -FilePath $outputFilePath -Append}}

# Confirm the script has finished
Write-Host "Lines w/ 'Staged' and 'Feature Pack' written to $outputFilePath"
Write-Host "Remember to delete kb.txt, kbfilt.txt before next use"

I used the -Append directive for Out-file which means the script appends text to the file and doesn’t over-write (“clobber” in PS-speak) other content. That’s why you’ll want to delete these files if you want to run the script again.

My Copilot+ PC (an Intel Aura Yoga Slim 7 model from Lenovo), running Windows 11 24H2 Build 26100.2134, has 2 spurious packages as shown here:

2 packages with LONG names (typical for Windows)
[Click image to view full-sized.]

This investigation is simply to show you which packages are stuck. You can get rid ofthem with DISM /Remove-Package. But if you do, they’ll most likely pop back up again after you install the next Cumulative Update (CU). Windows images are funny that way. But at least, now you can identify the packages involved.

Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Intake: Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G5

December 6, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK then, I’ve gotten far enough past my holiday backlog to take a first look at an odd but intriguing new hybrid laptop PC. On intake, Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G5 shows itself to be an interesting and powerful performer. The unit is actually two PCs: an Intel x86 PC embedded inside the keyboard deck, with a detachable Android tablet that serves as a Windows monitor when docked with the deck. Good stuff! You can see the tablet in position for docking above the deck in the lead-in graphic (image courtesy of Lenovo).

Observations During Intake:
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G5

I knew this was going to be interesting when I opened the shipping carton and saw it contained two boxes. As you might guess: one for the Android tablet, the other for the x86 Intel deck. What you might not guess is the Matrioshka-like box within a box for those inner boxes themselves — one each for tablet and deck. Indeed, everything used for shipping these units (and other new items from Lenovo since 2012, believe it or not) is made of paper. Over the past dozen years in fact, I’ve watched the plastic content drop to zero. They even use paper-covered twist ties (when they use them at all). So kudos to Lenovo for easy-to-unpack, sustainable packaging.

Deck spes

Here are the specifications for the deck in this paired hybrid laptop whose full official product name is ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid (14″ Intel) Station & Tablet:

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (16 Cores, 22 logical processors)
Memory: 32 GB dual-channel LPDDRX5 7467 MHz RAM
Storage: 1 TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD (Samsung OEM)
Ports: 2xUSB4 Thunderbolt4 USB-C ports on deck,
1 RCA audio mini-jack
Network: Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz

Tablet Specs

Here are the specs for the tablet side of this duo:

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (8 Cores)
Graphics: Qualcomm Adreno GPU
Display: 14″ 2.8K (2880×1800) OLED multi-touch
Memory: 128GB LPDDR5x (soldered, no upgrade)
Storage: 256GB UFS 3.1 on tablet motherboard
Sensors: Accelerometer, ambient light, color, gyroscope, hall, ToF, and e-compass

I can’t say much about battery life just yet. The tablet has a built-in Li-polymer 38.7Wh battery with life estimates from 6.83 hours (web browsing) to 52.14 hours (local audio playback). Thurrott sez it gets 4.5 hours using it as a normal Windows laptop. He also says the 100W brick charges the deck’s 75 Wh battery to “almost full capacity in about an hour.” For now, it tells me the combo unit is intended as a desktop replacement, while the tablet is more prepared for extended untethered use. I’ll learn more later…

Initial Start-up and Setup

I had to wait for the deck and tablet to garner minimal charges before I was able to start the hybrid pair up into Windows for the first time. No biggie, but Lenovo usually sends units out fully charged. It took patience, but was easily overcome.

Lenovo Vantage hit a new update record when I used it to check for outstanding items: 11 on the first try, 2 on the second try. I was pleased the unit shipped with Windows 11 Pro installed, and amused to see it running Version 23H2 (Build 22631.4541 after all updates were applied). This process took the better part of an hour to work through, with a handful of restarts along the way.

As Windows laptops go, this one’s pretty peachy. It runs nearly as fast as the P16 Gen 1 Mobile Workstation (with its 24 core i9-12950HX CPU and double the RAM). I’m still in the process of getting all the apps installed, Windows Terminal customized, and working through the usual intake and setup drill. But so far, you can color me impressed!

Tablet Remains Terra Incognito

Last night, I pulled the tablet off the laptop to show my wife it displayed an Android screen when disconnected. Pretty colorful, too. But that’s as far as I’ve gotten with that half of this dynamic device duo. I plan to read some manuals, and fool around, over the weekend. More to follow on that front next week.

Pros and Cons So Far

There’s a lot to like about this dual unit. It’s sturdy (made of machined aluminum throughout with a matte grey silver finish), attractive, and a pleasure to use. The tablet display pops with color and text is rendered crisply and legibly. So far, I love the concept of running the tablet separately but I haven’t put that to the test yet, so I can say if I love the execution or the actual use.

There are a few cons about the ThinkBook Plus G5, though, but nothing too onerous or serious:

1. The combined weight of the units is ~3.9 lbs (2.14 deck & 1.73 tablet). That’s heavier than I’m used to for a modern laptop.
2. This sucker is kinda costly, with an MSRP of US$1,999 for the current configuration. It also included a US$38 accessory called the Lenovo Tab Pen Plus.
3. Despite its 160MHz rated Wi-Fi adapter, I couldn’t get it to work at 160MHz with my ASUS AX6000 router. Works fine at 802.11ac levels, though. That said, it runs at 380-500 Mbps on my LAN.
4. With only two usable USB-C ports and no USB-A ports, users will have to carry a hub or use a dock if they want to attach more than 1 or 2 devices.

All in all, it’s a pretty nifty machine. I look forward to putting it through its paces and seeing what more (and what else) it can do. Stay tuned.