Tag Archives: featured

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

New GSOD Implicates Intel Firmware

October 24, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s something nobody wants to see on a Windows PC. The lead-in graphic shows a Windows crash screen. Because this one is green, it’s sometimes called a GSOD (“Green Screen of Death”). The error message it carries is one I’ve not seen before — namely: secure_pci_config_space_access_violation. A bit of online research, and some inspection of reliability monitor’s copious error output tells me this new GSOD implicates Intel firmware.

Why Say: New GSOD Implicates Intel Firmware?

It’s not like I didn’t have plenty of potential issues from which to choose. Relimon pointed to Windows stop errors, improper shutdowns, unexepected shutdowns, and hardware errors. Indeed the actual BlueScreen error that provoked the GSOD refers to (and depicts) a CPU-Z .sys file. So again: why point at Intel firmware?

Online research (Reddit, Lenovo forums, and more) all report this very same error code after Intel firmware updates. And indeed WU itself delivered a — you guessed it — Intel Firmware update just before I upgraded to the most recent version of the DevChannel Insider Preview on this test PC.

One More Thing:

After I removed the program that caused the GSOD: Piriform Speccy, the problems have completely ceased and desisted. I imagine this program attempted to check the firmware during its scans, and that’s what threw the error. I’m guessing that a fix will come along in a future update. As long as my system stays stable otherwise, I’ll leave it alone and hope it does the same for me.

Stay tuned: I’ll keep you posted…

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

Working Reclaimable Packages Mystery

October 23, 2023 Ed Tittel 2 Comments

For months now, one of my test PCs has claimed something remarkable. It’s a Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga (8th-gen i7, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe SSD). It’s a working reclaimable packages mystery, as you can see in the lead-in graphic. Note please: it shows 13 (!) reclaimable packages in the component store. But they never go away…

Why Is There a Working Reclaimable Packages Mystery?

Gosh, I wish I knew. But it’s got me learning more about DISM and the Windows Component Store (WinSxS) than I’ve known before. In particular, I’ve been digging into DISM’s /Get-Packages capability, to look into the contents of WinSxS to see what is — and apparently isn’t — going on in there.

Reading about the output of the /format:table directive, I see that the state column can produce a range of values. These include the following, as mined from Learn.Microsoft.Com by Copilot (quoted verbatim):

NotPresent: The package is not present in the image. It has not been installed or added to the image.
UninstallPending: The package has been marked for uninstallation, but the process is not complete. There are some additional steps that need to be performed before the package is fully removed from the image.
Staged: The package has been added to the image, but it is not active. It can be activated by using the /Enable-Feature option.
Removed: The package has been removed from the image, but some metadata about it remains. This allows the package to be reinstalled if needed.
Installed: The package is installed and active in the image. It can be deactivated by using the /Disable-Feature option.
InstallPending: The package has been marked for installation, but the process is not complete. There are some additional steps that need to be performed before the package is fully installed and activated in the image.
Superseded: The package has been replaced by a newer version of the same package or a different package that provides the same functionality. The superseded package is still present in the image, but it is not active.
PartiallyInstalled: The package has been partially installed in the image, but some components or files are missing or corrupted. This may cause errors or malfunctions in the package or its dependencies.

Digging Deeper Into the Mystery…

As I understand it, the dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup command will remove at least some of the packages in the “Superseded” state from the WinSxS. So I fired up the following command to look into the component store on another test machine. It reports 4 reclaimable packages via DISM, and inspection of the /format:tables output from that PC via Notepad++ reports 106 instances of the term “Superseded” in that text file.

Next, I run the afore-cited “cleanup” command. This takes a few minutes to complete. When I run /analyzecomponentstore again, the number of reclaimable packages is zero (0). So I generate new /format:table output, and open it in Notepad++ again. This time, a search on “Superseded” produces 0 hits. My theory is that the cleanup flushes these items out of the WinSxS, and this data seems to confirm that.

And Now, Back to the X380 Yoga

Here’s where things get interesting. Even though /analyzecomponentstore is reporting 13 reclaimable packages, the /format:table output from that PC includes no instances of “Superseded” in its contents. Somehow, DISM is seeing something that I can’t see via this lens into the WinSxS contents. Therein lies the mystery.

I’ll keep digging and see what else I can learn. Stay tuned! This could get interesting — at least if you, like me, find this kind of thing engaging.

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

Mouse Goes AWOL: Panic Ensues

October 20, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I have to laugh — and mostly at myself. I confess: I was playing MS Solitaire this morning when my mouse quit working. It was a timed event so I wanted to get back at it ASAP. Because of that as my mouse goes AWOL, panic ensues as I try to get it working again. Long story short: I keep a backup, replacement mouse around just for occasions like these. It’s now in place, doing the job of the old one. Time to order another pair of replacements!

When Goes AWOL Panic Ensues Because of Timing

The lead-in graphic shows a picture from Amazon of my likely replacement mouse. It’s a Microsoft Mobile Mouse 4000, instead of the 3500 model that just quit working. They cost the same, so I figure why not get a newer model if I can at no extra charge? My only problem right now is that the best price is for delivery from China (!): $19.95 vs. $28.95 from US outlets, including the MS Store itself.

Let me be clear about one thing, too: I don’t blame MS for my mouse fail. Meese are consumables and I use them enough that I wear one out every 18-24 months or so. This comes as no surprise — except for today’s timing — and is a cost of doing business for me. Indeed, that’s why I always order them in pairs rather than singletons. I know it’s just a matter of time before another one drops out of service. My wife’s and son’s desktops also have external wireless meese, too. One or more of those will probably crap out before 2023 is over.

The Proper Stocking of Spare Parts

So, here’s a short list of the spares I keep around the house knowing that I’m going to need them sometime (preferably later, rather than sooner):

Mice, both wireless and wired (mostly MS wireless, but also Logitech Bluetooth and Unifying Receiver models)
Keyboards: mostly MS Comfort Curve 4000s, but a couple of Logitech wireless models, and a couple of wired el-cheapo chiclet types
GbE switches: I like the NetGear unmanaged 8-port models, but I also have 5-port and an 8-port models (house brand from Fry’s).
Cables of all kinds: RJ-45 Ethernet in lengths from 6″ to 100ft, USB: 2.0 and 3.0 (Type A), USB-C 3.1-2, Thunderbolt 3 and 4, plus other miscellany; and video cables including HDMI 1-3 and DisplayPort 1.2-1.4 (also in various lengths and models).

This lets me deal quickly with predictable troubles as they happen. And when they do, I always order replacements plus at least one extra as things happen. That way, I’m already prepared for next time.

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

Appreciating Microsoft’s Update Ecosystem

October 19, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

As part of my daily Windows routine, I run the winget package manager to keep most of my applications up-to-date. Occasionally, I’ll also check in on the MS Store to see what it’s been finding and updating on its own. As the spirit moves me, I sometimes click the “Get updates” button to spur its actions along. I find myself appreciating Microsoft’s update ecosystem more and more (yes, even WU) as I work with it constantly. Let me explain…

Why I’m Appreciating Microsoft’s Update Ecosystem

The lead-in graphic shows an artfully arranged update view of MS Store’s Library tab, with three items “modified momens ago” in front. Behind, you see winget inside Windows Terminal/PowerShell working to install 8 different updates.

The amount of effort involved is pretty negligible, and the results are almost always trouble-free, speedy and reliable. Although I still have to turn to third-party tools to catch updates outside this ecosystem, under its umbrella things work pretty darn well.

Now, if only those other app makers would get on the manifest circuit and start offering packages for winget to use, life would be entirely peachy. But alas, life isn’t like that — especially here in Windows-World, where a certain amount of chasing one’s own tail is too often a necessary part of the daily grind.

But a WIMVP can always hope for a better future, right? Surely, someday it will all be completely automated and totally easy. Yeah, right: I’ll keep dreaming about it, but that’s the closest I’m sure I’ll ever get.

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

October 2023 Windows 11 Monthly Active Users

October 18, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s an interesting item, for a variety of reasons. Yesterday, Zac Bowden at Windows Central reported that “Windows 11 is now in use on over 400 million monthly active devices” (emphasis his). In typical headline fashion the title of the story inflates it to “almost half a billion devices.” I have to laugh about that, but the number of October 2023 Windows 11 monthly active users is no joke. Even if those numbers come from, as Zac puts it, “…my sources who are familiar with the matter…” Right!

What October 2023 Windows 11 Monthly Active Users Means

Mr. B observes that this uptake comes at half the rate for Windows 10, but without the upgrade pressure that Windows 7’s retirement put on those numbers. Ditto for the notion, widely held at the time, that the free upgrade would only last for a year or two. In light of those factors, he also reports that these numbers beat internal MS expectations.

IMHO, business users don’t really care that much about the Windows running on their desktops or devices. Business will migrate when it’s good and ready, which means the clock really hasn’t started ticking too loudly just yet (Windows 10 EOL date is 10/14/2025). In fact, it’s just barely audible right now… That will change next year.

So Good, So Far

In my own experience, I ‘ve found Windows 11 to be a workable, reliable and attractive desktop OS. I’m almost completely migrated myself, with only 1 physical PC still running the older version, along with a handful of strategically placed VMs. I have at least 9 physical PCs running Windows 11 here at Chez Tittel, and another 2 off at college with my number-one son.

But what about those numbers? Given that many (if not most) businesses have yet to move from 10 to 11, I think they’re pretty high. In other words, I’m pleasantly surprised as MS apparently is also. My gut feel is those numbers will swell by as much as 200-300M next year, and more the year after that.

Meanwhile, somewhere between 1.2 (IDC) and 1.4 (Statista) BILLION smartphones sold in 2022. That’s a whole different ballgame. Increasingly it’s the game that matters most. So let’s keep this all in perspective, shall we? That said, Windows-World remains my home!

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

KB5031356 Error Calls for KIR

October 17, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I just got an example of what makes Microsoft’s KIR, aka Known Issue Rollback, useful in the field. A recent story at WindowsLatest recites how an install KB503135 error calls for KIR. (This KB takes Windows 10 to Builds 19044.3570 or 19045.3570.) Some users are getting error code 0x8007000d along with a failed update. Because the problem is apparently of MIcrosoft’s making, they can use KIR to clean things up through WU by pushing an amended update.

When KB5031356 Error Calls for KIR, Then What?

The lead-in graphic provides some important clues to what KIR does (and comes from a Microsoft Community piece entitled How KIR works for the end user). KIR works by loading a configuration change from the cloud. Devices connected to WU (or WU for Business) get notified (settings data to the PCs at bottom). As the same time the new, problem code gets turned off.

MS tries to head trouble off by identifying and pushing out rollbacks before updates get widely applied. As they put it in the afore-linked item “most end users will never see the regressions.” PCs that agree to provide diagnostics info to MS will send information related to the affected code to which the update and regression apply (that’s the diagnostics data in grey). This idea, says MS is “to help us learn how well the rollback is succeeding…”

What About KB5031356 Itself?

The Update rolled out on October 10 (last Tuesday). Reports started appearing immediately. Apparently, MS pushed the rollback on or around October 12. They say it takes 48 hours for the rollback to interact with updated PCs, so that would indicate users who attempted updates between October 10 and October 14 (Friday) could be affected. Those who do fall prey to the error, according to WindowsLatest, should be able to recover using the DISM … /RestoreHealth command.

The error didn’t bite me, even though I updated on Patch Tuesday. But by now, it should be fixed. Worst case, one could uninstall the original KB then re-install the by-now patched version. That should work!

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

X12 Upgrade Quit Halfway

October 16, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Yesterday morning, I tried to remote into my Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Hybrid tablet. No go. I got the familiar error “Remote Desktop can’t find the computer…” Interestingly, when I went to restart that PC, nothing happened. Eventually I had to disconnect all cables, then hold the power button down for a full 60 seconds to force it to reboot. Then I remembered: I hadn’t touched the machine since the 25967 upgrade hit on Tuesday. That means the X12 Upgrade quit halfway through the process and didn’t come back up after the reboot.

If the X12 Upgrade Quit Halfway, Then What?

Poking around on the Lenovo website, I found an evocative forum post. It was entitled “Laptop suddenly shuts down, won’t turn on.” It confirmed something odd was up, and prevented the PC from restarting. And indeed, my approach (disconnecting all cables, holding down the power button for 60 seconds) is just what the forum rep recommended to the poster, too.

When all else fails, this is one way to get a Lenovo PC to restart normally. And sure enough, once the PC did get far enough along to tell me what it was doing, it showed the spinning circle and progress that goes along with finishing up an upgrade or update install.

Just for grins, I opened up Reliability Monitor on the X12. I found a shutdown error staring me in the face. The detail reads: “The previous system shutdown at 5:55:00 PM on 10/10/2023 was unexpected.” Last Tuesday, at the end of the working day, just when I wouldn’t notice that the X12 failed to come back from the pending reboot during the update process. Go figure!

There’s proof that the PC shutdown when it shouldn’t have.

Speculating on Causes…

This device is attached to a CalDigit TS4 hub for power, GbE, video and storage. I’m wondering if something about that kind of complex USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 connection might not complicate boot-up. OTOH, I’ve upgraded plenty of times before on the same overall rig without difficulty. That’s what keeps things interesting, here in Windows-World.

Cool Tools, Hyper-V and VMs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10

Recent Windows Terminal Follies

October 12, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It’s always a humbling experience to work and work with Windows. This week, I’ve been relearning how Windows 10 works with Windows Terminal (and sometimes doesn’t). I had to stand up a squeaky clean Windows 10 instance in a VM for some WT testing and research. Tongue planted firmly in cheek as I went through some recent Windows Terminal follies, I realized I’d forgotten more about WT than I’d ever known. Let me explain…

History Underlies Recent Windows Terminal Follies

Today, my production Windows 10 installation has been running since 2016, when I stood up my present primary desktop PC. There have been a LOT of changes to Windows since then. And indeed, Windows Terminal (WT) is one of the things that has changed the most. But because I’d gone along with those changes — growing more experienced and wise to the ways of WT — I really didn’t remember all of the little twists and turns along the way.

Thus, installing a clean Windows 10 OS image came as a series of shocks where WT was concerned. Let me list a few of them:

1. Windows 10 made its Insider Preview debut in 2014, WT didn’t come along until May 2019. Thus, it’s not set as the default command line environment in Windows 10.

2. WinKey+X, to my consternation, kept launching an older PowerShell version (v5.1.19014.3570). And the only version of WT present was an older Preview that I didn’t want.

3. Thus, I found myself visiting the MS Store to grab the latest copy of WT, installing it, then setting it as my default terminal application (see lead-in graphic: notice further than this version needs an upgrade).

Eventually, I got things sorted and where I want them to be. But it did come as something of a shock to understand how much change I’d been introducing to my desktop runtime, step by little step. Only when I had to jump the whole stretch in a single bound did I see how far things has really come.

Some Unexpected MSA Bonuses Also Present

OneDrive picks up files from my User folder as part of what it keeps in the cloud. Apparently this includes my PowerShell Profile, because an invocation to OhMyPosh showed up as I fired off the new WT install for the first time. That made setting up OMP even faster and easier than usual.

The moral of today’s story is that one doesn’t really recognize how far one has come (or how much things have changed) until one is forced to recover the same ground and see what’s different. That’s one good reason why — for me, at least — Windows-World is always an adventure.

Cool Tools, Recent Activity, WED Blog

WT Update Requires Application Restart

October 11, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

In the wake of the latest Patch Tuesday, MS has released an update for Windows Terminal. As it works its way through the upgrade process it makes two identical warnings: “Restart the application to complete the upgrade.” If you look at the lead-in screencap, you can see that because I hadn’t yet closed, then re-opened WT it’s still showing the old version in the list sub-command at the bottom of the PS session. As I’ll explain, WT update requires application restart before the upgrade truly takes effect.

Why WT Update Requires Application Restart

Indeed, the WT update requires users to close all open WT windows and then open a new one. That’s so it can terminate the (old) running WT process(es). These are, of course, still running the 1.18.2681.0 version. When they’re all closed, the pointer switches to aim at version 1.18.2822.0 instead. Then, when you fire off a new WT instance, it’s running that new version, as you can see in the About info here:

After the open/close, the new WT version number pops up in About.

As I’ve explained in a number of recent blog posts here (see this September 28 item as an example), self-update activities can be tricky. The cleanest way to handle this kind of thing is to request users to kill the current running instance after installing a new one. That way, it makes a cleaner hand-off from old to new, and provides a “quiet moment” between when the old and new instances start running to handle the housekeeping involved (changing file pointers, registry entries, environment variables, and so forth).

Still Waiting On Winget to Follow Suit

I’d like to see the Windows Package Manager/App Installer tool known as winget follow Windows Terminal’s lead when it comes to updating itself. Indeed, winget upgrade Microsoft.Winget.
Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe does work. That said, it’s a Store app so mostly this gets handled automatically in the background during its daily update cycles.

But when winget updates itself, even though it succeeds it often ends in a status labeled “Cancelled.” That’s not really true, but it is a valid indicator of the kinds of tricky things that self-updates can do (and cause). I’d like to see it take the same approach as WT, hold itself in abeyance, and let users re-jigger the works to make the transition from old to new versions neat and clean. Is this a pipedream? I hope not!

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

Reboot Fixes Winget Hiccup

October 10, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I have to laugh. If you take a look at the lead-in graphic you might be tempted to believe something amiss with winget. I was yesterday when this happened on one of my test PCs. So naturally, I tweeted (X’ed?) an MS colleague who runs the winget team. About 5 minutes later he responded with “Try a reboot!” Seems that others had been reporting similar woes amenable to this approach. To my chagrin, indeed a reboot fixes winget hiccup — this time, at least. Sigh.

If Reboot Fixes Winget Hiccup, Then What?

That adds another thing I need to try before bothering the developers another time. And, if that works for me (and some few others), it might also work for you, too. Thus, it should become a part of the normal troubleshooting routine.

Indeed, I had closed and re-opened Windows Terminal prior to contacting the team. And it hadn’t done the trick this time. In fact, I even uninstalled and reinstalled winget and that hadn’t worked, either — as you can see in the lead-in graphic.

Had I known then what I now know, I would’ve tried the reboot before those other more severe fixes. And it would have worked. Thus, the next time winget goes wonky on me (especially after an update) I’ll be sure to reboot my PC and trying again before sounding the alarm.

Interesting, eh? Things may not always look simple or obvious in Windows-World. Thank goodness they may sometimes be both, and amenable to a simple solution. All hail the “three-fingered salute” (remember when CTRL-ALT-DEL would force reboot a PC?) There’s no school like the old school!

Note Added October 10 (early PM hours)

As fate would have it, MS pushed an update to PowerShell today for version 7.3.8 through WU. After it updated my problem test PC, the same issue recurred: winget source was essentially not working. None of my previous fixes (reboot, uninstall & reset sources) worked. I had to force install the current production version (1.6.2771) over the current preview version (1.7.2782) to get things working properly again. Funny that this problem should happen on the very day I attempt to document a different issue. Amazing!