Category Archives: Tips, Tricks and Tweaks

Want to know how to make the most out of your Windows 7 system?
Here we share the things we have learned for what to do (and what not to do) to make Windows 7 perform at its best.

Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

WinKey+P Powers Display Projection

August 13, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Sometimes, it isn’t until things go terribly wrong that one appreciates the power of simple syntax. Check out this TenForums post, which explores the impact of the WinKey+P gone wrong: Win p key pressed. Because WinKey+P powers display projection, a user’s nephew’s wrong menu choice made him think he’d lost access to 2 of his 3 displays in a multi-monitor configuration. Not so!

WinKey+P Powers Display Projection — Usually Into a Menu

Normally, when you strike Winkey+P on a Windows 10 or 11 PC, you’ll get a pop-up menu like the one shown in the lead-in graphic. It highlights the current setting — Extend in my case, because I have my desktop extended over a pair of Dell 2717 monitors. Overall, it offers these four settings:

PC Screen only: (tantamount to striking WinKey+P once)
Duplicate: copies primary monitor to all other monitors (select by striking WinKey+P twice)
Extend: extend the desktop across all available monitors (select by pressing WinKey+P three times)
Second screen only: use only Display #2 for graphical output (select by pressing WinKey+P four times)

Our hapless user’s nephew struck WinKey+P once, which apparently forced his PC into “PC Screen only” mode. On my PC, however, I got the menu shown above, and was easily able to move among the selections using my mouse.

When Key Combos Go Wrong, Try More!

Interestingly, advice on TenForums about what to do in this situation is spot on. It reads “Did you try pressing ‘WinKey+P’ again? Sometimes a key acts like an ‘on off’ switch.” In this case, our user wanted to press WinKey+P 3 times to get to the extend option through the keyboard. There’s no discussion of using the menu instead, which I find infinitely preferable.

For some odd reason I’m reminded of one of William Blake’s epigrams from his Proverbs of Heaven and Hell:

The fool who persists in his folly soon becomes wise.

This turns out to be good, if oblique, advice when dealing with unwanted WinKey key combinations. As for myself: I’d have looked it up online, and found all the insight I ever could have wanted, and more.

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Downgrading Dev Channel Is Now Sometimes Possible

August 3, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s an interesting tidbit from the July 29 version of Microsoft Docs “Deeper look at flighting.” And of course, as the lead sentence reads “Flighting is the process of running Windows Insider Preview Builds on your device.” In an amendment to prior policy, downgrading Dev Channel is now sometimes possible for test PCs or VMs. Let me explain…

What Downgrading Dev Channel Is Now Sometimes Possible Means

The key to switching without requiring a clean re-install (the prior policy in all cases) is that the Dev Channel must have the same or lower Build number than the target channel. That means switching from Dev Channel to another channel requires users “to find your current build number and compare it to the current build number in the channel you wish to switch to.” Build numbers appear in the output from winver.exe, and in Start → Settings → System → About.

I quote the step-by-step process verbatim from the previously linked flighting document:

Open Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program.
Select Choose your Insider settings.
Select the desired channel, either Beta Channel (Recommended), or Release Preview Channel.
The next time you receive an update, it will be for your new channel.

This will make the process of downgrading channels simpler. It also provides an “exit strategy” for Dev Channel PCs. Prior policy insisted that the only escape from Dev Channel could be a clean re-install of some other Windows version. The other channels have always offered the option to drop back to production/RTM versions when they become available. This extends that out to Dev Channel, but requires two steps to get there: first drop back to Beta or Insider Preview, then drop back to production/RTM. Good stuff!

Why Am I Telling You This … Now?

As you look at the WinVer output from Dev Channel (left) and Beta Channel (right) in the lead graphic, right now the Build numbers are the same. That means that you can downgrade Dev Channel PCs as I write this story. Given that MS hasn’t released a Dev Channel build in a while this can’t last forever. If you want to try it out, act fast — or wait for the next synch-up. Your call…

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, WED Blog, Windows 11

Confusing Windows 11 Scissors and Trashcan

July 21, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Sometimes, I have to laugh at myself. Yesterday, in cleaning out my Downloads folder on a Windows 11 test PC, I noticed that clicking the Scissors icon didn’t delete selected files. Duh! That’s the job of the Trashcan icon, as I figured out a little later using mouseover tactics. By confusing Windows 11 scissors and trashcan icons, I showed myself that minor mistakes can stymie routine file handling tasks. Sigh.

If Confusing Windows 11 Scissors and Trashcan, What Next?

Before I figured out my category/identification error, I found another quick workaround to delete files. By clicking “More options” at the bottom of the first right-click menu, another more familiar menu appears. It’s more or less the Windows 10 menu transplanted into Windows 11, like so:

A second menu has the familiar text entry to make my choice more obvious: Delete appears three up from the bottom.
[Click image for full-sized view.]

As is nearly always the case in Windows (including 11), there’s more than one way to get things done. When one fails (or operator error leads to unwanted outcomes), another way can lead to success. My next step would be to turn to the command line, had this alternate path not led to the desired results. It’s always good to keep working at things until they get solved. That goes double when my silly mixup led to an initial lack of success.

As I learn new UIs and tools, this kind of thing happens from time to time. Call them Windows follies or funnies if you like. For me, it’s just another day, and another lesson learned, here in Windows-World!

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, WED Blog, Windows 11

WhyNotWin11 Offers PC Health Check Alternative

July 5, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Some Windows users are purists by deliberate choice. Given the option of a Microsoft and a third-party too, they’ll take the MS route every time. I am no such purist. I appreciate good tools, whether from Microsoft or another (reputable) source. Thus, I’d like to observe that the GitHub project WhyNotWin11 offers PC Health Check Alternative. Indeed MS has temporarily taken down its tool. PC Health Check is available only from 3rd-party sources, such as TechSpot right now. Thus, WhyNotWin11 has the current advantage.

Why Say WhyNot11 Offers PC Health Check Alternative?

Though PC Health Check has been out of circulation for a week or so, WhyNot11 got its most recent update on July 3. Visit its Latest Release page for a download (version number 2.3.0.5 as I write this). You can also update the previous version 2.3.03 by downloading the latest SupportedProcessorsIntel.txt file and copying it over the previous version in the %Appdata%\Local\WhyNotWin11 folder.

Note: on my PC, that’s
C:\Users\\AppData\Local\WhyNotWin11\SupportedProcessorsIntel.txt.

WhyNotWin11 Is More Informative, Too

This story’s lead-in graphic shows the information that the third-party tool displays about target PCs. It provides a complete overview of which requirements are met (green), which aren’t listed as compatible (amber), and which are missing or disabled (red). This is more helpful than the output from PC Health Check. See it output below:

PC Health Check only briefly explains part of what’s at issue, and tersely at that.

While the message above does explain the “the processor isn’t supported,” it also fails to note the absence (as I know it to be on this PC) of a Trusted Platform Module (2.0 or any other version). WhyNotWin11 notifies users about both conditions directly and obviously.

IMO, easy access and operation, and more information about the target PC all make WhyNotWin11 a superior choice over PC Health Check. At least, for the purpose of finding out why a machine will (or won’t) upgrade to Windows 11. PC Health Check does offer other capabilities that users may find helpful, including (questionable) info about backup and synchronization, Windows Update checks, storage capacity consumption and startup time. I’m not arguing against use of the tool, when it returns to circulation. I’m merely suggesting that for the purpose of evaluating PCs for Windows 11 upgrades, WhyNotWin11 does a better job at that specific task.

Insider stuff, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, WED Blog, Windows 11

Windows 11 Store Updates via Library

July 3, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

One minor befuddlement about the newly-refreshed update to the Microsoft Store has puzzled me. Since updating to Windows 11, and obtaining the latest Store version, I haven’t been able to find its Update mechanism. This morning, on a whim, I opened the Library left-column menu item. Voila! Now I know one obtains Windows 11 Store updates via Library buttons. You can see the previously-elusive “Get updates” button at the upper left of the lead-in graphic for this very story.

Push the Button, and Windows 11 Store Updates via Library

And indeed, pressing the “Get updates” button from the Library controls behaves pretty much the same way as in Windows 10. The button goes dim, the busy circle icon circulates for a while, and if any updates are pending a list appears and begins to take care of itself.

I wish I could show you a picture of that update process. But only one of my test machines needed an update. It was for the commercial version of Lenovo Vantage (the ThinkPad update utility). Thing is, it flew by so quickly I didn’t have time to grab a screencap. That said, it does show up in Reliability Monitor as an Informational event. So here’s a screencap that shows it installed at 9:02 AM on July 3.

There it is: Non-highlighted (second) item with LenovoSettings in the name string.
[Click image for full-sized view.]

As the old saying goes, I KNEW it had to be in there somewhere. A little poking around and I did eventually find it. My only question now is why did Microsoft decide to call this the “Library?” My guess: because it points to the repository of apps on the host PC where the Microsoft Store is currently running. The Help button is surprisingly mum on Store UI details and related info, so I guess I did what we’re all supposed to do. I figured it out for myself. Maybe you’ll find it helpful, too…

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

Identifying Windows 10 Mystery Startup Items

June 3, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s something new and helpful about working with Task Manager. Take a look at this story’s lead-in graphic. It shows you can right-click any column header in Task Manager’s Startup tab, to see a pick list of columns (checked items). Add the “Startup type” and “Command line” items, and learn more about the startup entries they describe. In fact, they helped me with identifying Windows 10 mystery startup items on my production PC.

When a generic “Program” entry showed up in Startup items, adding fields let me see where it was coming from.
[Click item for full-sized view: see top table entry.]

How-to: Identifying Windows 10 Mystery Startup Items

The “Startup type” tells you where the directive comes from. For “Program” it came from the Registry. Better still, Command line data tells you what Startup executes as Windows 10 gets up and running. The particular instruction is malformed and can’t work:

"C:\Program" Files\Teams Installer\Teams.exe --checkinstall --source=default

The closing double quote is misplaced (it should be at the end of the line). Also the directory path referenced in the command does not actually exist on the PC in which this Registry entry resides.

What did I do about this spurious startup item? I cheerfully disabled it. Indeed, that means there’s an orphaned key-value pair in my registry. I can live with that. I do intend to report it via the Feedback Hub, because it definitely includes a syntax error (the misplaced closing double quote). Otherwise, though, it’s no big deal and I’m satisfied to disable it.

[NOTE} Here’s a shout-out to WinHelpOnline, whose story What is “Program” in Task Manager Startup Tab helped me understand my mystery item. It’s worth reading in its entirety for those who want to learn further details about what’s going on, and how to remove related orphaned registry items.

Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 10

WinGet 1.0 Updates Most Win10 Applications

June 1, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

A production version of the Windows Package Manager “WinGet” made its debut on or about May 26. You can grab it from GitHub as version v1.0.11451. It offers the remarkable ability to update any Windows 10 applications for which update packages are defined. Running the tool as a test of this capability, I was able to update 7 of 9 applications the tool flagged as outdated. The 8th item was Firefox, which didn’t get updated within WinGet, but was easily handle through its own update facility. The 9th item was the UWP app for Zoom, which I quickly updated from within its own GUI as well. Thus I confirmed for myself that WinGet 1.0 updates most Win10 applications, if not all of them.

What Does WinGet 1.0 Updates Most Win10 Applications Mean?

In the past, I’ve turned to 3rd party tools such as SuMO or PatchMyPC to keep my Windows PCs up-to-date. The most usable version of SuMO costs €20 and up. PatchMyPC is free but somewhat limited in the programs it can recognize and update. So far, WinGet finds — and updates — programs that not even SuMO recognizes (e.g. Strawberry Perl and SpaceDesk). And of course, it’s free for the download from Microsoft’s GitHub repository.

If you look at the lead-in graphic for this story, you’ll see the command syntax to ask WinGet to list programs for which it knows upgrades are available. That syntax is simple:

WinGet upgrade

does the trick. If you want to actually run those upgrades, you need only add --all to the preceding command to fire it off (note the double dashes that precede the word all). You can see the tool at work in this oversized screencap:

WinGet skipped Firefox and Zoom (a UWP app) and owing to my mistake hung up on updating the final item: spacedesk Windows DRIVER.
[Click image for full-sized view.]

The tool hung while trying to update SpaceDesk. This was probably a self-inflicted wound, though, because an earlier Macrium Reflect update did leave a reboot pending to complete its own installation. I had to kill the PowerShell process tree to terminate that apparently never-ending update, thanks to my oversight.

After Restart, All’s Well That Ends Well

And sure enough, after a restart, another round of WinGet upgrade -all took care of the SpaceDesk item. It ran through to completion (and even reset the graphic driver automatically to “make room” for itself). This capability is worth getting to know. I predict some admins will find it eminently capable of keeping up with (most) upgrades on Windows 10 PCs, especially reference image machines for deployment use. Check it out!

What Did WinGet Miss?

To give the Devil his due, I just ran SuMO to see what WinGet’s update check missed. Here’s a list of what it didn’t find (and for which apps, therefore, update packages are presumably needed):
1. CPU-Z
2. SuMO itself
3. Snagit
It just goes to show that none of these tools is absolutely complete, though some are more complete than others. I still like what WinGet does and how it works just fine!

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

Power Options VM Surprise

May 28, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It’s been a painful last few days here in Windows World. I’ve been working on a loaner, locked-down machine in connection with a code analysis project. Because that code is protected and valuable intellectual property (IP), I’m able to access its GitHub repository only through a VM running on a hardened and isolated system. Essentially, I have to access the VM through a browser tab set up inside a VPN-accessible secure store. It hasn’t been going too well, either: each time I tried to use the VM and left the machine alone for a while, it would drop its connection. And then, to make things worse, I couldn’t get back in without asking an IT admin to reset the server side of the remote access environment. That’s where an unwanted and unexepected Power Options VM surprise came into play.

What Is a Power Options VM Surprise?

If you look at the lead-in graphic, you’ll see that one change I make on my Windows PCs post-upgrade or install is to change the sleep interval to “Never.” The default is 30 minutes. Accessing the VM used a commercial VPN into a host server. Then, a remote access client (first RDP, then VNC) connected to the VM itself. For a long time, the firm’s IT guy kept fiddling with RDP settings and such. Eventually he switched to VNC for remote access, thinking it might be an RDP protocol issue at work (or not).

But the disconnect issues kept popping up, where the VM connection would drop when the machine was idle for 30 minutes or more. This finally caused him to investigate the Power Options, where it was immediately obvious the default “sleep after 30 minutes” was the culprit. Resetting the value to my usual preference — that is “Never” — has since fixed things, hopefully for good.

Troubleshooting 101: Don’t Overlook the Obvious

As an outsider with only a regular user account, it wasn’t up to me to mess with default settings on the locked-down machine furnished to me for this project. Ditto for default settings for the VM I was accessing to get into the target code base. But gosh: I have to believe we were looking for complex solutions to a seemingly complex problem. Instead, we should have been looking for simple solutions for a straightforward default settings check.

The moral of this story is not lost on me. I hope it will likewise inspire you to make a checklist when working with VMs, and to put “check default settings” (especially in Power Options) right near the head of that list. Sleep may “knit up the raveled sleeve of care,” as the Immortal Bard put it. But sleep causes all kinds of interesting problems for Windows PC — and now I know, for Windows VMs, too. Funny thing, I’ve learned to make this tweak because I use RDP extensively here at Chez Tittel to get from my production desktop to the 10-plus other PCs usually running around here. I shoulda known…

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

Blinking Monitor Gets Easy Fix

May 26, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

When it comes to Windows, it’s always something. When I logged in this morning, it was my number two (right-hand) monitor, blinking on and off at about 3 second intervals. From long experience, I know the most likely cause for such misbehavior is the graphics driver. Thus, I immediately fire up the GeForce Experience app, see a new driver is available, download and install same. And that, dear Readers, is how my blinking monitor gets easy fix. If only all of my problems were so easily solved!

Driver Update Means Blinking Monitor
Gets Easy Fix

Graphics drivers are notoriously finicky beasts. They can cause all kinds of interesting problems, especially when new drivers cause hijinks on older graphics cards (or circuitry). My production desktop incorporates a GeForce GTX 1070, which is now about 5 years old. Because of the scarcity of newer generation (2xxx and 3xxx) GPUs right now — coin miners are snatching them up in droves — this model is still in extremely wide use. Hence, I’m inclined to trust new drivers. That’s because Nvidia would aggravate a sizable population if they let a substandard GTX 1070 driver out the door.

Luckily for me, my inclinations proved justified. After installing v466.47, I see no further blinking from the right-hand monitor (#2 in the lead-in graphic). It’s nice when the most obvious fix turns out to be the only one that’s required. Again, I know from experience that troubleshooting issues further would get more interesting and probably end up costing money.

My next move would have been to swap the DisplayPort cables that tie monitors 1 and 2 to the GeForce card. If the blinking had switched positions, that would indicate a cable replacement. If not, card troubleshooting would begin in earnest. And with GPUs so expensive and hard to find right now, that could have been a real problem.

Sometimes, here in Windows-World, you get away with an occasionally easy fix for your problems. Today, I’m celebrating my simple and painless escape!

Recent Activity, Software Reviews, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 10

Macrium Reflect 8 Drops Commercial-only Versions

May 25, 2021 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

As I was perusing my usual Windows 10 news sources yesterday, I noticed that version 8 of the excellent Macrium Reflect backup tool made its debut. My excitement deflated quickly, as I figured out that Macrium Reflect 8 drops commercial-only versions.

Fortunately, I have a 4-license package of Macrium Reflect Home. This I upgraded to version 8 for a “mere” US$75.72 (US$69 plus tax). This got me to v8 on those PCs that run a commercial version. That means my production desktop, my road/travelling PC, and my wife’s and son’s PCs. But what about Macrium 8 Free?

This terse statement about MR V8 Free popped up on TenForums yesterday (Thanks, Kari!).

Macrium Reflect 8 Drops Commercial-only Versions: Free Comes Later

A mainstay in the Windows 10 toolbox is the no-cost version of Macrium Reflect (MR). Known as Reflect Free it offers about 85% of the functionality of the commercial version. I’ve used it for 6-plus years on my test PCs and have yet to find a situation the free version couldn’t handle, backup and restore wise. I bought a 4-license pack to do my bit to support a company whose products I like and endorse.

Word on the street is that the v8 Free version is coming, but won’t be out until the end of the summer (see preceding graphic). That item was dated May 20. Doing that calendar math puts the date on or around August 18. For the time being, users have no choice but to wait for the v8 version of Macrium Reflect Free to makes its appearance.

What’s New in Reflect Home v8?

The software’s maker — Paramount Software UK Ltd — has helpfully put together such a list in handy graphic form. I copy it here verbatim from their “Reflect 8” web page:

Some of these features won’t be included in the Free version when it appears, but many/most of them will.
[Click image for full-sized view.]

Of these features, intra daily backups (repeated, frequent copies of specific data files) are quite interesting plus well-informed and -intentioned. I need to spend some time with the new version to really understand what it can do. Alas, that must wait for the press of paying work to abate a bit (I’m kinda busy these days, which has its good and bad points).