I’m flummoxed. As part of my production PC repairs the other day, I ran an in-place upgrade install. It didn’t fix my problem, but it ran to reportedly successful completion. Here’s the thing: I used a Windows 10 Pro image for build 19045.2546 (from UUPdump.net) to make those repairs. I’m surprised it worked!

Why Say: Win10 Enterprise Image Repair Mismatch?

As you can see in the lead-in Winver graphic, this PC is clearly running Windows 10 Enterprise (2nd text block). Yet the filename and download info at UUP Dump clearly identifies the Windows version as Pro:

19045.2546.230118-0641.22H2_RELEASE_SVC_PROD3_CLIENTPRO_OEMRET_X64FRE_EN-US.ISO

Targeting install.wim from the Sources directory, DISM unambiguously identifies the Windows version as Windows 10 Pro.

Yep: it definitely says the image is Windows 10 Pro.

IDKYCDT

IDKYCDT = “I didn’t know you could do that.” But apparently, you can. Indeed the MS Answers advice on this technique says only that one must

download the latest .ISO file available for Windows 11 or Windows 10.

It says nothing about version. Likewise, the TenForums tutorial on this topic simply says

• If you have a 32-bit Windows 10, then you must use a 32-bit ISO or USB.
• If you have a 64-bit Windows 10, then you must use a 64-bit ISO or USB.

Again, there’s nothing here about version, simply that a valid ISO is required. I don’t where I got the idea that the version and kind of ISO used for repair had to match the repair target. But it does NOT have to match. I got explicit evidence to the contrary earlier this week with my own eyeballs, on this very PC.

Thus, I learned something useful and can pass it on to you, dear reader. Any valid Windows 10 ISO works for Windows 10; ditto for Windows 11. Cool!

This is actually pretty handy because you can use UUPdump.net to cobble together an image for the current build number for Windows (10 or 11) including all recent updates and CUs. Then, when you repair the image it should work for Home, Pro, Education and Enterprise even if you — as I did — download the Pro-only ISO. No further updates will be required, when that repair completes.

I’ll be darned. This has been going on for awhile, but I just recently learned about it. If you look, you too can find a September 18, 2021 Thurrott.com story. It says: PowerToys are now available in the MS Store. I spent some time this weekend switching over from the GitHub version (installs as an application) to the Store version (installs as an app). This led me to considering the differences between PowerToys application versus app.

Switching from the application version to its app counterpart is also neither documented nor obvious. Neither installer knows about the other, so it doesn’t clean up old stuff from “the other fork,” either. Let me explain later on here…

Understanding PowerToys Application versus App

In Windows, Applications live in two primary folder trees. 32-bit applications (of which there are fewer and fewer, now that Windows 10 is mostly 64-bit, and Windows 11 completely 64-bit) live in:

C:\Program Files (x86)

Their 64-bit counterparts, alternatives, or replacements live in:

C:/Program Files

Apps live in their own corner of the preceding folder tree — namely:

C:/Program Files/WindowsApps

Distinguishing Application from App

The only way you can tell if you’re running an application or app version of PowerToys is by where it lives in your Windows installation. If it shows up in Programs and Features, it’s an applicatioon. If it shows up under Installed Apps in Settings, it’s an app. Otherwise, they look — and behave — identically.

You can see the Settings-based App info to the left, and the Programs and Features-based Application into at the right, in the lead-in screencap above. Same name, same size, same version, same date.

So why go with the app version rather than the application one? Two primary reasons I can think of:

1. Apps get updated via the Microsoft Store automatically. You have to use the Update function inside PowerToys Settings/General to update the application version.

2. Apps are supposedly more secure than applications, because they run within a sandboxed environment. FWIW, I haven’t seen or read about that playing into the presence or absence of security exploits.

Making the Application to App Switch

First, visit Programs and Features and uninstall PowerToys there (or use your favorite third-party uninstaller: e.g. Revo Free). Then visit the Microsoft Store, search for PowerToys and install the version that comes up there (v.0.67.0 as I write this). Done!

If you try to install the app without removing the application, you’ll end up running both side-by-side. It’s much easier to follow an “out with the old (install), in with the new (install)” approach. How do I know this? I went the other way at first and had to clean up the resulting overlap. Save yourself that trouble, please!

Here’s a nice little tweak for a great set of useful tools. That’s right, the venerable PowerToys v0.67.0 gets Quick Launch in that release. You can see what you get by default on the left of the lead-in graphic. At right, you can see what comes up under the “More” selection scrolled to the top.

What Makes PowerToys v0.67.0 Gets Quick Launch News?

You’ve always been able to launch individual PowerToys using key combinations, once those tools are enabled. You can find those various key combinations (aka “shortcuts”) in the PowerToys documentation files (right-click PowerToys, choose Documentation from the resulting pop-up menu).

What’s new here is that you need now simply left-click PowerToys and the Quick Launch menus shown above become available. This is a great boon to me, because it means I don’t have to learn or remember the various keyboard shortcuts anymore. It takes fewer clicks and key presses, too. Always good! Be sure to check this out for yourself after you update to v0.67.0.

Installing PowerToys…

If you don’t have them already, you don’t need to grab PowerToys from GitHub unless you want to. GitHub does, however, remain the only source for the Preview version of PowerToys. Instead, you can grab the stable version of PowerToys from the MS Store. That’s what I did on the test machine where I captured the screencap(s) above. I couldn’t believe this PC didn’t already have it installed, but it gave me a terrific opportunity to take the MS Store install path. Works like a charm!