Category Archives: Windows 11

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

Teams Versions Running Side-by-Side

April 12, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Gosh, it gets confusing sometimes. But it could be mostly a Windows 10 vs Windows 11 thing. On Windows 10 I find myself with multiple Teams versions running side-by-side. That is: Teams (work or school) vs. Teams Classic. The lead-in graphic shows their taskbar icons serious magnified in that order (Modern: left; Classic: right). It’s interesting and a little vexing from time to time. Fortunately, MS will be retiring Teams Classic sometime later this year (no earlier than July 1, 2024 says Copilot).

Issues with Teams Versions Running Side-by-Side

I know I’m in the minority but I don’t have a current, actively administered MSA that’s tied to an AD, Azure AD, or Entra ID based environment. These are the MSAs that work best and most reliably with the new version of Teams (see about info from my ThinkPad P16 Mobile Workstation, running production Windows 11).

The latest version from my Windows 11 production PC (Build 22635.3430)

Here’s what Teams Classic tells me about itself (through an unusually tortuous path to get to its “About” info).

The latest Classic Teams from Windows 10 (Build 19045.4291)

I sometimes have trouble using the new Teams version as an app, though it does work consistently and reliably on the Web. But too often — especially in view of impending retirement — Teams Classic wants to run when I really want to use the new version. MS says the Classic version is supposed to uninstall automatically after switching over to the new version. So far, it’s not going anywhere…

I have to pay close attention to the icons to see which one I’m using at any given moment. Thus I’ve learned to distinguish the white background and blue symbol for new versus the blue background and white “T” for classic as a quick differentiator. Man, will I be glad when classic Teams finally retires into obscurity. But hey, that’s the way things go here in Windows-World from time to time where more versions of Teams may not be better but are seemingly inescapable in Windows 10. Sigh.

Cool Tools, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 11

MS Store 22043 Speeds Things Up

April 8, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I just read online that MS is pushing a new and faster version of its Microsoft Store out through the Insider Preview hierarchy. Figuring out which version I was running on my Canary Channel test PCs showed me that (a) I was running the new version, and (b) that indeed, MS Store 22043 speeds things up notably. Good stuff. The lead-in graphic shows the version number after the app restarted itself following that upgrade.

If MS Store 22043 Speeds Things Up, Then What?

On both of my Canary Channel test PCs (Lenovo Thinkpads: X12 Hybrid Tablet/11th Gen i7 and X380 Yoga/8th Gen i7) , the store was uniformly quicker than before the upgrade. Search times were shorter, update downloads and installs quicker, and navigating around the UI snappier. It still takes a while to download app info in the Library view (but not as long a while as before).

There’s even a new “What’s new…” page that explains new features and improvements in the MS Store, to wit:

Interesting stuff! Thanks to Sergey Tkachenko over at WinAero, whose MS Store story this morning clued me into this new regime.

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

Beta Channel Sign-up Spawns Bogus Reclaimables

April 4, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

“Hey, wait a minute,” I thought to myself, “I’ve been here before.” Indeed I reported in June 2023 about “13 spurious reclaimables” in a different Windows 11 installation. This time, the same thing showed up when I switched my Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme over from production Windows 11 (Build 22635.2274) to the latest Beta Channel release (Build 22635.3420). No sooner did I run dism /online /cleanup-images /startcomponentcleanup than it threw the error shown in the lead-in graphic. What you can’t see is that my beta channel sign-up spawns bogus reclaimables — 13 of them, to be more exact. Yikes!

Fixing Beta Channel Sign-up Spawns Bogus Reclaimables

For this version of Windows 11, I had a trick up my sleeve. This build includes the ability to repair a “hinky” Windows installation by repair installing the current version (aka “upgrade repair install” or “in-place upgrade repair install” in the can familiar to readers of TenForums and ElevenForum tutorials and advice).

This
Invoking this option downloads the files for the running Windows version and re-installs the OS, using files from WU instead of local copies to try to fix things. In my case it worked. You can see the successful outcome in the next screencap, which shows zero bogus reclaimables in either of the two dism /online /cleanup-image
/analyzecomponentstore entries it shows. Good-oh!

To me, this proves the value and convenience of this new Windows 11 facility. Previously I’d have had to visit UUPdump.net, create an ISO script, then download all this stuff myself. Now, Windows does it on its own automatically. I think it’s great, and it fixed my problem, too.

The last time I ran into this problem I had to perform an in-place upgrade repair install to clear out the bogus reclaimables, too. If you ever find yourself in this boat, be aware that this technique has fixed this problem for me every time it’s happened on one of my PCs. Hopefully, it can do the same for yours.

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

Windows 11 Insider Preview Channel Switching

April 1, 2024 Ed Tittel 1 Comment

OK, then: I HAD to do it. I read this morning that MS is releasing a redesign of the All Apps aspect of the Start menu in the Beta Channel. Naturally, I kicked one of my production laptops upstairs to join the channel to see that change for myself. Along the way I got to remember (or relearn) what’s involved in Windows 11 Insider Preview channel switching. (Hint: no remote control needed.)

Getting Into Windows 11 Insider Preview Channel Switching

It’s been a while, so I had to go through the motions to remember them. First, I had to join that PC to the Insider Preview program. Then I had to select my Insider Preview channel — Beta, in this case. Then I had to restart the PC and run WU again. In fact, I had to do that twice (run WU, that is — only 1 restart required at that point). And finally, as you can see in the lead-in graphic:

The Update Stack Package that makes the Insider Preview installable
The actual Insider Preview package itself (Build 22635.3420)

Of course once all that stuff gets installed, I’ll reboot again and go through the post-GUI installer stuff. That’s what actually upgrades the OS from the current production version 22635.3374) to the aforementioned Beta build. When all that’s done I can go look for the new Start menu All apps stuff. As is typical, this takes a while (I’m about 12 minutes into the process and “Installing” for the OS is at 35% complete right now. Thus, it could be another 20 minutes before it’s done.) In the meanwhile, I’m standing by… And indeed it took a total of about 26 minutes to go from start to desktop for that process.

What About All Apps?

It’s another one of those things where MS may still be testing internally only, or doing another of its gradual rollouts. Thus, you guessed it: I still get the left-justified all apps list on my freshly-upgraded test PC. I can’t say I’m surprised, but it’s always disappointing to go looking for something new only to see the “same old, same old.” Sigh.

Of course, I’ll keep checking back and see when the switchover happens. Stay tuned: I’ll keep you posted…

Note Added 1 Hour Later

As I continue catching up with Windows news, I see over at NeoWin that a vivetool hack is required to enable the All apps grid in the latest beta version. I don’t do that on my beta machines to keep them in line with MS releases (it’s an MVP thing). So I guess I’ll have to wait awhile. Rumor has it this might hit “for real” on Patch Tuesday (April 9). We’ll see!

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

Achieving Windows 11 Moment 5

March 27, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I knew I had to have it, as soon as I read it was available. The “It” in this case is what many observers are calling “Moment 5” — the next step in the evolution and release of Windows 11. Thurrott says it’s supposed to be available as a “Week D Preview” from WU. But I had to visit the KB5035942 announcement, and follow its link to the Update Catalog to get myself a copy. I’m still only partway toward achieving Windows 11 Moment 5 right now, because the MSU is still busy getting the update installed.

It takes a good while for this update to process…be patient!

Is Achieving Windows 11 Moment 5 Good?

The Microsoft Standalone Update (MSU) installer ticks along for several minutes as the install process grinds through its paces. I didn’t see a lot of heavy CPU activity (Thanks to the 8GadgetPack CPU Usage widget, I can always see what my processor is up to) while this was happening, either. A closer look via Task Manager showed the TiWorker.exe process consuming 1-2% of CPU and less for WmiPrivSrv.exe and TrustedInstaller.exe. Otherwise, it didn’t show much evidence of installer activity, either.

TLDR version: it takes forever while the MSU says “Copying packages to the Windows Update cache.” And a funny thing, too: I just checked one of my other production-level Windows 11 PCs (the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme) and it’s already been updated automatically, entirely on its own. It’s the source of the Winver output that leads off this story, in fact. That leads to an interesting question:

Why X1 Extreme and not P16?

The P16 machine I’m running the MSU on right now is also set to “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available?” just as is the X1 Extreme. Yet the latter gets it on its own, while the former does not (nor does it see the update offered in WU, either). Methinks there may be some kind of device hold on this newer, more capable mobile workstation model (P16) to which the older laptop (X1 Extreme) is not subject.

So now, I’m waiting to see how it all turns out. And meanwhile, the MSU just keeps grinding away at copying packages. Stay tuned … I’ll report back when the wheels stop turning to tell you what happened.

Progress! The status window just changed to “The updates are being installed” with a progress bar for “Installing.” Perhaps it’s finally getting somewhere. Let’s see…

Now the mills of the Gods are back to grinding at their usual glacial pace. But it is indeed moving ahead, so fingers crossed for a successful conclusion, about 20 minutes into download and install. At 22 minutes in: success! See the next screencap for confirmation:

Time to restart, and let the OS patch itself. Nice to see the Catalog update at work, for a change.

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog, Windows 11

24H2 Versions Gain Storage Pool Delete

March 19, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Once upon a time Storage Pools in Windows fell under Control Panel’s sway. Bit by bit, control over Storage Spaces has been moving from Control Panel into Settings. With Build 26080 (Canary channel) Windows 11 24H2 versions gain Storage Pool delete capability in Settings as well. I learned this today, thanks to an article in WindowsLatest by Abishek Mishra. Note: this article also provided the source for the lead-in graphic, as I did not have time to set up a NAS to build a local storage pool myself.

Reflecting on 24H2 Versions Gain
Storage Pool Delete

There’s been a slow but inexorable switchover from Control Panel (and its CPL executables) to the Settings app since it first appeared in Windows 8 in February 2012 (Technical Preview). That’s been underway for over a decade now, and the process is not yet done. But each little step away from CP toward Settings marks incremental progress toward a new way to control and manage Windows.

This has me wondering: will I live long enough to see that switchover complete? My best guess is that the switchover is somewhere between half and two-thirds accomplished. There are still around 20 CPL executables in Windows 11, of which most still run. Thus, MS still has work to do to make the switchover complete. I’ll keep watching, and keep reporting, as this process grinds its way along. Stay tuned!

Warning: AskWoody Item Coming Soon!

I’ve actually been working on a series of stories for the AskWoody newsletters to look at the ongoing move from Control Panel to Settings. I am completing a piece on Settings that shows where CP still comes into play. I’ll follow that up with a complete listing of all CPLs still present in Windows 11, and also indicate which ones lead back into Settings and which ones remain necessary and outside that umbrella.

It’s fascinating stuff, trying to tease the details out of an OS as big and complex as an average Windows 11 instance. Fun fact: a typical Windows install will have a Settings tree (a map of all the functions and capabilities it provides) of between 1800 and 2000 nodes. That’s big, and it changes to reflect what’s plugged in at any given moment, and moves around as the OS gets updated. It’s both fascinating and mind-boggling at the same time…

Backup/Restore, Cool Tools, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Restore Point Pros & Cons

March 18, 2024 Ed Tittel 3 Comments

By default, Windows 10 and 11 both turn on restore points (RPs). These may be used to return an OS environment back to a prior state. The OS typically shoots one RP daily, and takes one as it starts the WU process. In addition, app developers may include taking an RP snapshot early on during their own install processes. All this said, there are plenty of Restore Point pros & cons.

What Are Restore Point Pros & Cons?

These days you reach Restore Points through the System Protection tab in the System Properties window in Control Panel. Interestingly enough, you have to navigate through Settings > System to get there. Once you find what you’re looking for (see lead-in screencaps) you can enable or disable RPs, and also allocate a maximum percentage of the system/boot disk which these system snapshots can occupy.

RP Pros

RP’s positives include the following:

Convenience and ease of use: you can create an RP manually with a few mouse clicks, and it takes little time to complete one. It’s also fairly easy to revert to a Restore Point using either Windows built-in tools or one of my faves (it’s an oldie, but a goodie): System Restore Explorer. It tool 33 seconds to create one on my i7Skylake desktop, and 1:05 to restore same on that PC.
Provides a simple layer of system protection: can easily revert Windows to undo update, app or application, and driver changes. This is faster — but more limited in scope — than even the fastest image backup restore. As a knock-on effect: this can also undo software or library conflicts (after adding an app or application, or a new .NET version, or something else that’s similar).
Some cleanup when removing new software: This might be somewhere between a pro and a con. Restoring an RP does result in removal of executable files and dlls added when installing apps. But shortcuts, preferences, and other files (including home folders — e.g. inside C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86)) remain intact.

RP Cons

By contrast, RP’s negatives include:

No antivirus protection: restoring an RP won’t necessarily eliminate triggers for or stealth executables that cause malware infections. Thus malware can return even after using an RP.
No data file backup: RP copies the contents of the system volume shadow using the Volume Shadow Service (aka VSS). This does not include data files by intention. So RP provides no data restore capability (see the note at the end of this story for a 3rd-party tool that does provide such capability, however).
New user accounts are not protected by RP: if you define a new user account after the point in time at which an RP shapshot is created, those accounts will no longer exist when that RP is restored. That said, the User files for that account will persist. IMO, this is a kind “worst of both worlds” situation. Sigh.

My Net-Net Is: Don’t Rely Solely on RPs

Reading through the previous plusses and minuses, it’s pretty easy to see that RPs can have value in a limited set of circumstances. But they’re no substitute for a recent image backup, and they’re no panacea for solving non-trivial Windows issues or problems.

I don’t use RPs much myself anymore myself (though I did in the Vista and Windows 7 eras). These days I rely mostly on in-place upgrade repair install for semi-serious to serious troubleshooting, and a clean install (or image restore) for outright system failures and boot problems. It’s also my repair of last resort when nothing else will produce a working Windows instance. Go figure!

Note Added March 19: More Madness

I got a comment from TenForums.com and ElevenForum.com regular “Old Navy Guy” (ONG) this morning reminding me that the NirSoft ShadowCopyView tool does allow users to view and copy certain data files from a VSS snapshot. This *does* allow access to user files and folders and adds to what you can recover from such a snapshot.

I totally forgot about this tool, and am glad to be reminded of same. More important, I’m grateful to have the chance to point this out to you, dear reader — and to make that tool known and possibly useful for you. AFAIK, this capability applies only to files and folders in the Users folder hierarchy, so if you keep stuff on a data drive — as I do — it won’t help much, or at all. But it could still be helpful nevertheless. Cheers!

Note Added March 21: Including Other Drives

Another Homer Simpson moment has come and gone for me. ONG commented again to remind me that ShadowCopyView does data drives, too. I initially wondered how VSS could accommodate drives other than the C: (boot/system) drive where the OS and other key stuff lives. Then it hit me: you must enable RP protection on those drives, too. Here’s an illustrative screencap:

Turn on Protection for the D: drive so it gets VSS snapshots, too.

Maybe there’s more to this protection scheme than I originally gave it credit for. It took 12 seconds to capture an RP for my C: drive and 13-14 seconds for my D: (Data) drive on a Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga. WizTree says C: contains ~80GB of data, while D: contains ~400GB. So it is indeed remarkably fast. And with VolumeShadowCopy providing access to contents, it provides workable file and folder level access to bring back items one-at-a-time or as portions of a target drive’s file hierarchy. Good stuff!

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Widget Screenshot Users, Beware

March 15, 2024 Ed Tittel 2 Comments

Wow! Did I get an ugly surprise in the mail yesterday. I got two demand letters from a Canadian image rights company, seeking payment of US$1,334 for use of two thumbnails in a screen capture I made. Where and how did this happen? I was reporting about the introduction of the Windows News Bar (Beta) app, before the whole news and weather widget stuff rolled onto the Windows taskbar. That’s why I admonish fellow bloggers and Web content developers: “Widget screenshot users, beware!”

Ouching into Widget Screenshot Users Beware

The actual images the claimant asserts I’m using without a license are thumbnails. They measure 78×41 pixels. They’re included as an illustration of what the news bar looked like on the Windows desktop at the time (after I downloaded and installed the app).

Of course, news and weather info is now available from the taskbar. It comes courtesy of the so-called “Widgets” icon there, where the popped-up window that clicking on it produces is simply called Widgets. It shows both captions and images because it has more pixels to work with. This original design let users pick whether to see captions or images (images by default). Because I screen-capped two of their clients’ images on March 30, 2020, I must pay . . . says the claimant.

Fair Use to the Rescue

“Not so fast,” is my response. I replied in writing as follows:

I make no money from my website
I was reporting news about a new MS Store app (News Bar Beta)
I used the image strip (5 or 6 of them altogether, if memory serves) purely to show what the app looked like, and made no reference to individual images
I reproduced the strip as thumbnails only, heavily cropped
I do not sell or license images to any third parties, and I make no money from the site, so it can’t impose commercial losses on the copyright holders

These are all part of the arguments through which “fair use” is proven in the US. I think I’m on solid ground, but it’s pretty disturbing nonetheless. Going forward, I’ll look more closely at exactly what’s in my screencaps. I’d advise you to do likewise for anything that goes online as well. Better to avoid trouble than to have to (de)fend it off.

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, WED Blog, Windows 11

Another Teams Iteration Hits Build 26080

March 14, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Yesterday, March 13, Windows 11 Canary Channel saw a new feature update hit the Insider Preview Canary Channel: 26080.1. Amidst the many changes it brought, I found an add-on of particular interest — Microsoft Teams. In an era when Teams (classic) and Teams (work or school) coexist side-by-side, a new version of the latter is available via WinGet or the Microsoft Store. You can see its icon in the lead-in graphic. If you read this blog, you can probably guess that when another Teams iteration hits Build 26080, I got it via WinGet. You can also see its traces in the next Windows Terminal screencap that follows.

Examine this closely to see a new Teams version ending in .1505.
[Click image for full-size view.]

Why Another Teams Iteration Hits Build 26080 Matters

For the longest time I’ve had to use both Teams (classic) and the previous iteration of Teams (work or school). Actually, I’ve often used its web-based counterpart to avoid Taskbar confusion.

No longer! This latest version lets me use the same program, define multiple accounts, and switch easily between them. Minor quibble: MS says this switching is “fast” but it does take a while. Indeed, some of my Teams logins use 2FA and require re-authorization each time I enter the environment. I guess I’m starting to grok what passwordless authentication is about, eh? But once you’ve got multiple taskbar elements open, switching takes only a mouse click.

For the moment, though: I’m tickled. It is a lot more helpful to be able to use both AD- or Entra-managed work or school accounts alongside personal ones. Good work, MS. I wish you’d done it this way from the outset. But, as things sometime turn out in Windows-World, later is always better than never.

News Flash Added 1 Hour Later

In both 26080 announcements (it’s out in both Dev and Canary channels) MS talks about “a preview experience of the new, unified Microsoft Teams experience on Windows.” Windows Central calls it a “unified Teams client.” I like that terminology and wish I’d made it up. You’ll definitely want to read the announcement for lots of useful deets and examples. Good stuff.

Another Possibly Helpful Test/Observation

Just for grins, I made an image backup of one of my Canary Channel test PCs, then uninstalled the old version of Teams from same. With the new version installed by itself, I am still able to do what I need to do with just the one version installed. That said, I do seem to have lingering MSA issues when using only my personal account. Very interesting!

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

Checking Wi-Fi Signal Strength

March 12, 2024 Ed Tittel 2 Comments

Here at Chez Tittel, most PCs use wired Ethernet for their network connections. That is: of the 10 PCs on various LAN segments here, 7 use GbE connections; the other 3 use Wi-Fi. But our cellphones, iPad, and other devices — including 3 thermostats — are all on Wi-Fi. It’s a mixed bag. I like to check Wi-Fi quality from time to time, so I have to thank Mauro Huculak at Windows Central. He just reminded me about what’s up with checking Wi-Fi signal strength. See his story “How to check Wi-Fi signal strength…” for a raft of potential ways in Windows 11.

Checking Wi-Fi Signal Strength: Command Line

I’m a command line junkie, so I’ll skip the various UI-based methods he describes. There’s a single command in the network shell (netsh) that will tell you what you (or I, in this case) want to know:

netsh wlan show interfaces

Mr. Huculak also provides a tasty one-liner version in his article that’s worth sharing and keeping around (cut’n’paste into a text editor like Notepad, and remove all but one space between the text on the 1st & 2nd lines, please, so it will run in Command Prompt or PowerShell):

(netsh wlan show interfaces)
-Match '^\s+Signal' -Replace '^\s+Signal\s+:\s+',''

You can see both of these at work in PowerShell on one of my Windows 11 test PCs in the lead-in graphic above. The short version produces all of the interface info for the one and only Wi-Fi interface on that machine; the long version simply shows the signal strength as a percentage (i.e. the “99%” at lower left above). You can go either way. Works the same on Windows 10, too. Very handy!

Thanks again, Mauro. Made my morning…