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:

1. The Update Stack Package that makes the Insider Preview installable
2. 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!

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.

Here’s a good one, right from my Windows 10 desktop this morning. As per usual practice, I ran winget upgrade –all –include-unknown to see what updates might be available after the weekend.  I promptly ran into a Catch-22 as you can see in the lead-in screencap. I call it an MS Edge 1220.2365.106 Winget Upgrade puzzle, because the package manager finds an upgrade for Edge that I can’t figure out how to install. Let me explain…

What’s the MS Edge 122.0.2365.106 Winget Upgrade Puzzle?

In a nutshell, here’s what the lead-in graphic depicts (there’s more, as you will shortly see in the following list of items):

1. Winget reports that an upgrade for Edge from version 122.0.2635.92 to …106 (first three groups of digits stay the same) is available.

2. Winget upgrade –all –include-unknown fails because “install technology of the newer version is different…” I’ve definitely seen this before. Note the error message advises an uninstall/reinstall maneuver to fix things.

3.  Winget uninstall Microsoft.Edge fails with exit code 93

4. An attempt to force the uninstall fails with the same exit code

5. A visit to Settings > Apps > All installed apps offers no uninstall option for Edge. Indeed, it’s pretty well known in Windows circles that Edge is notoriously tricky to uninstall. See, for example. this github “Remove-MS-Edge” script…

When in Doubt, Report to the Winget Team…

I have to believe this is a slight hiccup on the Winget team’s part. From long experience in working with the program daily since it was introduced at the end of June, 2020, I know that (a) Catch-22s sometimes pop up and (b) they usually get fixed fairly soon after they appear. My best guess is that this particular instance will get handled in the next few days.

For my part, I’m sending a link to this blog post to Demitrius Nelon, the leader of the Winget team via Twitter. This usually provokes immediate and corrective action. Let’s see what happens…

Stay tuned! Note: FWIW, Windows 11 versions are not subject to this gotcha. AFAICT this is a Windows 10 thing only. I even tried a repair install for Edge through its “All installed apps” entry and that didn’t help, either.  Indeed, a version check on the 122.0.2365.92 version comes back to report “all’s well”:

Note Added March 26: Gone!

Edge is still running as version 122.0.2365.92. But Winget is no longer reporting that it needs to upgrade it to 122.0.2635.106. Indeed, Winget show Microsoft.Edge now reports the latter as the current version, in need of no upgrade at all. Thanks Demetrius and team: problem solved!