Category Archives: Recent Activity

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows Update

In-Place Repair Upgrade Gotcha

April 30, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

If you’ve been following my recent adventures with Dev Channel feature upgrades and WU updates lately, you already know I’ve been struggling a bit. Yesterday, when the 21370 build emerged, it installed just fine on my 2018-vintage Lenovo X380 Yoga. Alas, it got stuck at 0% download on my 2012-vintage Lenovo X220 Tablet. I simply couldn’t get WU to download the file. So I built an ISO for 21371 from UUPdump.net. Then I installed it by mounting the ISO, and running setup.exe from its root directory. Only this morning did I notice an in-place repair upgrade gotcha bit me. You can see it in the lead-in graphic for this story.

What Is the In-Place Repair Upgrade Gotcha?

A common Windows 10 repair technique is to run setup.exe from the same version of Windows against itself. Hence the term: “in-place repair upgrade.” This is really running an upgrade from setup.exe inside the next version ISO, but works the same way.

The gotcha, as shown in the story’s lead-in graphic, is that the Feature Upgrade info is absent from Update History. You can plainly see at left that the X220 is running 21370.1. But there’s no record of that install in the Update History at the right. It shows the preceding build — 21364, dated 4/21/2021 — as the most recent Feature Upgrade.

A Return to Normal Behavior Beats the Gotcha

I’m guessing that because Windows Update did not handle that upgrade, it also didn’t record it in Update History, either. Stands to reason, I presume. This is a go-to strategy for me when I cannot use WU to perform a Feature Upgrade. So I’ll just have to learn to live with that missing history entry when I take that alternate route.

Now that I know it works this way, I can understand what’s going on. Hopefully, it will shed some light on an apparent anomaly to other Windows Insiders. I’ll also take this opportunity to make a request of the Insider Team: Please change Update History behavior to record ALL Feature Updates applied to a PC, whether manually or through WU. Sounds easy, but may be a huge PITA. We’ll see how they respond!

Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows Update

Update Download Stuck Forces Interesting Maneuvers

April 29, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s something I’ve not run into before. In trying to update my production PC to KB5001391 I found the download phase of the update stuck at 0% indefinitely. “No problem,” thought I, “I’ll download the .MSU file from the Microsoft Catalog.” Yeah, right!

Update Download Stuck Forces Interesting Maneuvers.stuck-at-zero

I guess the Catalog is smart enough to avoid duplicate, parallel downloads. It wouldn’t let me download the MSU file to that PC. So I jumped on one of my test machines, and downloaded the file there. Then I copied it over the network, and installed it by double-clicking its MSU file. This took a while longer than I was expecting (around 5 minutes or so) but it did work.

Why Update Download Stuck Forces Interesting Maneuvers

I can only speculate that WU informs the OS that it’s already downloading the requested KB item on that PC. Thus, clicking the download link from the catalog does nothing. That said, it worked as expected on a different PC, so I found a two-step workaround where a single step wouldn’t cut it. Please keep that in mind if you ever find yourself in this boat.

More Update Weirdness Follows

After the reboot to install KB5001391, I see it is installed in Update History. Nevertheless, Windows Update still shows me it’s available as an “Optional quality update…” (see screencap following).

Even though it’s already installed (and showing in Update History), I get another offer anyway. Sigh.

Of course, I am compelled to click the “Download and install” button to see what happens. When I do that, the Windows Update page comes back in about 30 seconds with nothing to download nor any status or error message to explain itself, either. I guess it figured out the update was already installed, and withdrew the offer. That’s a reasonably intelligent thing to do. Checking Reliability Monitor, I see no error reports about this there, either. So it looks like a clean save, so to speak. I’m glad!

Hardware Reviews, Networking, Recent Activity, Services, WED Blog, Windows OS Musings

Pondering Amazon Fire HD vs. iPad

April 28, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Today’s disquisition is a bit off the beaten track and brings Windows 10 to bear only tangentially. My family is in the market for another tablet, primarily for reading and media consumption. I’ve already owned an iPad 2 (now retired) and currently own an iPad Air 2 (2014 vintage). You’d think I’d buy another iPad, right? But the model I want (iPad Air, 256 GB, cellular) costs a whopping US$879 at the Apple Store right now. And then, there’s a new generation of Fire HD tablets about to arrive, at less than half that cost. By the time I add in a cover and keyboard, it’s more like a 2.5:1 cost ratio. Frankly, that’s what has me pondering Amazon Fire HD vs. iPad.

Price Provokes Pondering Amazon Fire HD vs. iPad

On the plus side, the iPad offers more power, lighter weight, and higher screen readability. On the minus side, it ends up costing $700 more for more or less the same capability, most of the time. At 12 hours versus 10 hours of battery life, the Amazon Fire HD comes out ahead on untethered operation, too. Then too, the Fire HD Plus Pack costs under US$300. The device even accommodates a MicroSD card for added storage capability (which the iPad does not, though you can attach storage through its input port, using a special US$13 to 20 adapter).

What’s fascinating to me, though, is the front-and-center add-in on the Fire HD of a Microsoft 365 subscription. Though it means you can use the unit for web-based Office right away, I’m also convinced it will be usable as a Cloud PC client (as will the iPad also, no doubt) when that comes out later this year. Thus, either platform will serve as a “thin client” for my Windows 10 stuff sooner or later.

To me that raises the very real question of why I should spend 333% more to get an iPad? Shoot, it looks like Fire HD can do most of what I need for substantially less. For a lot of people, I’m thinking that’s exactly what Amazon wants. I may just try it, and see what happens!

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

1.3 Billion Active Devices Run Windows 10

April 27, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Today, April 27, MS held its quarterly earnings call for Q3’FY2021. Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet reports that among the many items the company shared was a disclosure that 1.3 billion active devices run Windows 10. Yes, that’s “Billion,” with a B. To the best of my knowledge that makes Windows 10 the most widely used PC software of any kind. Last year, MS trumpeted it out that Windows 10 had cracked the 1B mark in March. 13 months later, that number has grown 30%.

If 1.3 Billion Active Devices Run Windows 10, Then What?

MS is careful to identify active devices, because it can count how many copies of Windows 10 are checking in for updates and such. As somebody in a household with 3 people and 10 PCs (all running some version of Windows 10) I can understand why they use that terminology.

I have two things to say about 1.3 B active devices:

That’s a lot of devices, and a pretty big installed based for MS to support and maintain.
Statista puts the global number of Android users at 1.6 B as of 2019, and claims 3.5 B smartphone users as of 2020. I’m guessing there could be over 2 B Android users worldwide now with the number of android devices higher than that. There are about 3 Android users for every iOS user, so that total population is probably around 2.67 B.

The Windows 10 user/device population looks like a monster (and probably is). But it’s not as big a monster as smartphone OS population, which currently outnumbers it at least 2-to-1. That ratio is bound to keep expanding in the smartphone’s favor, because so many people in the third world are getting those devices (and may never, ever own a PC of any kind).

From Small Things, Big Things Can Come

From the perspective of the Microsoft Cloud, and Cloud PC’s ability to use smartphones as “thin clients” for virtual PCs in the cloud, this all looks absolutely fascinating. It’s no wonder that MS is working to bring Azure everywhere, and ready to let smartphone users remote into more capable, data-enriched and powerful apps and services from “the small screen.”

This should make the next few years extremely interesting, especially as it regards the future evolution and expanded use of (remote) Windows. Stay tuned: I’ll keep you apprised of what’s going on…

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10

21364 Update Woes Continue

April 24, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then: i’ve recently reported a documented issue with KB5001030. It’s a CU Preview for .NET 3.5 and 4.8 and has been documented in the 21364 release announcement as a “known issue.” But now, a new cumulative update KB5003397 — a so-called “do-nothing update” which “does not include anything new and is designed to test our servicing pipeline” is out. However, my 21364 update woes continue because now I can’t install either one of these new updates. Sigh.

Nothing happens, in fact, when I try to update my Lenovo X220 Tablet. As the lead-in graphic above shows, it hangs while downloading at 0% completion. Running the update troubleshooter or even the TenForums Update Reset Batch Script doesn’t help either. Thus I say: my Dev Channel machines are stuck, going nowhere fast!

What Does 21364 Update Woes Continue Mean?

It means I can’t update either of my Dev Channel Insider Preview test machines successfully right now. I also think it means that I’m waiting on the next Feature Upgrade (a new version, in other words) to get things moving again. It’s a little hard to tell.

My gut feeling is the update pipeline is currently blocked for Dev Channel images (on my two test machines, at least). Usually, when things go sideways with Insider Preview updates I can figure out some way to get around the roadblock, though.

Later on today, or perhaps tomorrow, I’ll visit UUPdump.ml and see if they’ve got a 21364 image that can slipstream in those two troublesome updates. If so, I’ll build an ISO and use it to perform an in-place repair upgrade as a workaround. Right now, I’m increasingly convinced it might be my only way around this roadblock.

Stay tuned! I’ll report back and let you know if that works. It’s possible that working offline on the image might get around whatever is interfering online (it often does). We’ll see…

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10

RTFM Illuminates 21364 Install Error

April 22, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

If you’re going to walk the Windows Insider path, it really, really, really helps to read Build announcement blog posts. These pop up like clockwork on the Windows Blogs. Thus it was for Build 21364, the latest Dev Channel Insider Build released April 21. Although my problem didn’t make the first cut of that blog post, the Insider Team quickly added a note about it when reports started flooding in. It shows up as the lead-in graphic above, in fact. And indeed it shows that RTFM Illuminates 21364 Install Error by taking responsibility for install issues with KB5001030, and promising a forthcoming fix.

After I got through the upgrade install, a notice to install KB5001030 Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 appeared on my two Dev Channel PCs. On one of them, it sailed through to completion (the Lenovo X220 Tablet, vintage 2012). On the other (the Lenovo X380 Yoga vintage 2018) it failed repeatedly. Here’s what WU says about this on the X380:

Even after a complete WU reset, the error persists. That’s when I re-checked the announcement post…

How RTFM Illuminates 21364 Install Error

You’ve already seen what I found in the blog post when I went back to check again. This terminated my WU troubleshooting immediately. Thanks to this text “We are working on a fix for a future build.” I knew this was not something I could fix on my own.

I must say the Insider Team is doing a bang-up job lately in acknowledging and responding to issues as they break. In that same vein, the issue I reported here in my Tuesday item about “News & Interests Follies” has already been fixed. Both of my Dev Channel test machines now have a working News & Interests item that behaves as it should. Still waiting on same on my Beta and Release Preview channel test machines, though…

In closing, I will say I’ve learned through experience to read announcement blogs for new Insider releases carefully. This is the first time that a return to said announcement has conferred additional illumination. But it’s emphatically not the first time such an announcement has informed me of pending issues, so I can steer clear or work around them. Good stuff!

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, WED Blog, Windows 10

Compact Mode Great New Explorer Control

April 19, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

If you’re using an Insider Preview at Build 21377 or higher, you have access to a nice new view tool in File Explorer. It reduces the spacing between entries in File Explorer views, so you can see more in the display area. The more expanded view is now the default, to make it easier for touch access and control. But if you’re like me, you’re mostly still using a mouse and keyboard. In my book, that makes compact mode great new explorer control for most of my usage scenarios. The item is checked and outlined in red in the lead-in graphic for this story (above).

Why Say: Turning on Compact Mode Great New Explorer Control?

Open up the control panel utility named File Explorer Options, click the View tab, then scroll down until you can see the Navigation Pane folder. The Use compact mode checkbox appears 5 lines above. If you open both Explorer and this utility at the same time, you can see for yourself how it affects the various File Explorer views (icon based by size, Tiles, List, Content and Details).

Open a View, click the checkbox by Use compact mode, then watch how it affects File Explorer. Uncheck the box to see what wider spacing means in each view. To my untutored by experienced eye, it looks like I can see about twice as many entries in compact mode as opposed to regular mode. My strong preference is for compact mode, and it’s something I set on all new Insider Preview installations.

Not at Issue in 20H2 or 21H1, Earlier Builds

This new spaced-out version of File Explorer only affects Dev Channel builds at present. You won’t see a “Use Compact Mode” option in those older incarnations of Windows 10. Thus, there’s no call to mess with a default that’s not there, either. For those of you not using Insider Previews, then, file this for possible future reference. Cheers!

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows OS Musings

News & Interests Gets General Dev Channel Release

April 16, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Just over a week ago, I wrote a post here bemoaning my Dev Channel test PCs’ lack of the News & Interests notification bar feature. It has been in A/B test mode — that is, available to some but not all Dev Channel PCs — for months. It’s a gamble of sorts whether one gets such features or not, and explains that post’s title: Losing Win10 A/B Testing Wagers. But with the release of Build 21359, News & Interests gets general Dev Channel release. My two Lenovo ThinkPad test machines — the X380 Yoga and the X220 Tablet — now sport this new feature, fully-realized.

When News & Interests Gets General Dev Channel Release, Contortions Follow

The first I noticed after rebooting into 21359 was that N&I (my shorthand for News & Interests) was still MIA. A quick check on the Windows Insider MVP Yammer community told me two things:

I was not alone in this experience
Another reboot would put N&I in its rightful place

This worked perfectly on my X220 Tablet where I’d left hidden feature tweaking alone. My X380 was another story…

ViVeTool Rears Its Vexing Head

I’m not the world’s most patient guy. When I learn about A/B feature testing in Windows 10 and I’m not on the receiving side, I’ve been known to turn to hacking tools to turn them on anyway. One such item, named ViVeTool, comes from developer Albacore aka thebookisclosed whose work I’ve been following for years. Here’s how he describes this offering “ViVeTool is … a straightforward tool for power users which want to use the new APIs instantly … to interact with Windows 10’s A/B feature mechanism.” In other words, it lets you turn on what might be turned off in your image, or vice-versa.

I’d done that on the X380 Yoga some while back. But this tweaked N&I did not work properly on that machine. “Hmmm” I wondered “could ViveTool be responsible?” It seems to have been. Once I enabled, then disabled the ViveTool settings for N&I, then rebooted again, it worked perfectly on the X380 Yoga, too.

Tweaking Requires Self-Cleanup

I’ve learned a lesson from this. From now on, if I want to mess with the base test image for Windows 10 that MS gives me, I’m doing it in a VM. I can use snapshotting mechanisms to roll back tweaks quickly and easily. I feel lucky that do/redo with ViveTool in 21359 set things back to rights so that N&I could work as designed. Otherwise, I’d have been forced to clean install that build to heal my own self-inflicted wounds.

If you want to play or tweak, I recommend you do so in a safe and pseudo-sandboxed way. That’s my approach from now on. It comes with the ability to fool around as one likes, without having to live permanently with the results afterward. Please learn from my mis-steps and do likewise!

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, WED Blog, Windows 10

New 21359 Power Option Restarts Apps

April 15, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Just yesterday, a new Dev Channel Build arrived for Insiders. Among the many items mentioned in the 21359 announcement comes an interesting new Restart item in Start → Power. Shown boxed in red in the lead-in graphic here, it reads “Restart apps after signing in.” This new 21359 Power option restarts apps after it restarts the OS, to put things back as they were.

Why New 21359 Power Option Restarts Apps?

This has sometimes happened in earlier Insider Previews, but not at the user’s behest. One can one suppose that enough users provided feedback that this feature might be nice. But it’s definitely something that users will want to choose (or not) as circumstances dictate.

Thus, for example, when I’m troubleshooting or getting ready to install new hardware or a new app, I’d much prefer to restart without all the “stuff” currently occupying my desktop. OTOH, if I’m restarting after an update or to incorporate a new driver, I’d just as soon go back to whatever I was doing beforehand.

This new option lets users pick a restart scenario. The old, plain Restart brings no apps back. The new “Restart apps after signing in” restores current desktop state. Both have their uses, so I must approve and endorse this change.

NOTE: New Setting Is a Toggle

One more thing: this new item is actually a toggle. If you choose it and use it, the checkbox remains on. Thus, if you don’t want to use it the next time you restart, you must uncheck the item to go back to the prior status quo. Don’t forget! Especially if you don’t want this setting to become your default Restart behavior.

Benchmarking, Hardware Reviews, Networking, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 10

Thunderbolt 4 Is Getting Underway

April 14, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then: first things first. Thunderbolt is a joint technology effort from Intel and Apple. The first iteration appeared in 2011, and version 4 (aka Thunderbolt 4) is just showing up in the marketplace. Intel’s 11th gen processors and supporting motherboards are the first to provide native Thunderbolt 4. And of course, add-on PCIe cards for Thunderbolt 4 are also starting to trickle out (see this ASUS item, for example). Hence the assertion that heads this story: Thunderbolt 4 is getting underway.

I’ve had recent experience to show me that the speed advantages it can confer are measurable and tangible. At the same time, I’ve learned that the right cables can — and do — make huge differences.

What Thunderbolt 4 Is Getting Underway Really Means

The following table sums up the differences among Thunderbolt 3 and 4, and USB 3 and 4 versions. Basically, it offers more and faster capabilities, but is limited to special, certified cables no more than 2M in length. It can also handle either 2 4K displays or 1 8K display, and works with the latest PCIe 32Gbps lanes. It is, in fact, a pretty strong argument for all-around hardware upgrades (mobo and ports, cables, and peripherals) all by itself. Check the table for details, please.

.	Thunderbolt 4	Thunderbolt 3	USB4	USB 3/DP
1 universal port	✓	✓
40Gb/s cables up to 2 meters	✓
Accessories with up to 4 TB ports	✓
Min PC speed requirement	40Gb/s	40Gb/s	20Gb/s (40Gb/s is optional)	10Gb/s
MinPC video requirement	2 x 4K displays or 1. x 8K display	1 x 4K display	1` display (no min resolution)	1 display (no min resolution)
Min PC data requirements	PCIe 32Gb/s USB.3.2 10Gb/s	PCIe 16Gb/s USB 3.2 10Gb/s	USB.3.2 10Gb/s	USB 3.2 5Gb/s
PC charging port required	At least one
PC wake from sleep w/TB dock connected	Required
MinPC port power for accessories	15W	15W	7.5W	4.5W
Thunderbolt networking	✓	✓
Mandatory certification for PCs and accessories	✓	✓
Intel VT-d based DMA protection required	✓
USB4 specification	Compliant	Compatible	Compliant	Compatible
Source: Table from 11/20/2020 Liliputing story about Thunderbolt and USB versions.

What I Plan To Do About Thunderbolt 4

I’ve got a new PC build in my relatively near future (as soon as finances allow). I’ll be making sure to pick motherboard and CPU with Thunderbolt 4 support. I’m looking around right now and while some cases do offer USB-C support, none of them have caught up to Thunderbolt 4 capability just yet. I may end up waiting for that to occur, and go ahead and recycle the trusty old Antec 902 case I recently reclaimed from my sister. This may take some further thought and research. Stay tuned!