Copilot+ PCs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows Update

WU Throws First 24H2 Offer

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OK: I admit it. I already had 4 PCs running 24H2. Two are Copilot+ laptops (Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 and Yoga Slim 7 15ILL9) and came that way. Two others were force-upgraded: the Ryzen 5800x desktop via in-place ISO-based upgrade, and the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 via the Windows 11 Installation Assistant. Last Friday, I saw the Dell D7080 SFF PC had received (and downloaded) the latest release on its own. That’s right: here at Chez Tittel, WU throws first 24H2 offer. It’s done and dusted now, in fact…

Success When WU Throws First 24H2 Offer

As you can see in the lead-in graphic, I didn’t even catch the notification until the target was already through the GUI-based portion of the install. Indeed, the D7080 informed me it needed a reboot to continue that process. Once allowed to proceed, in fact, it finished up in under 15 minutes (it’s an 11th Gen i7 with 64GB RAM and a reasonably fast SSD so it moved along right smartly). It’s now upgraded and running Build 26100.2033, and WU says it’s up-to-date.

Just for grins I checked my other production level Windows 11 machines, but both of them are still standing pat with 23H2 — namely:

  • Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (8th Gen i7)
  • Lenovo P360Ultra SFF PC (13th Gen i9)

I’m guessing they’re either subject to the Intel Audio hold (X1) or the well-known Gen13/14 issues with 24H2. I’m going to keep watching and will report when and as those holds lift, and WU extends further offers. But gosh: it’s nice to see things working as they oughter, here in Windows-World. Cheers!

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Insider stuff, Microsoft 365, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

MX Error Provokes Outlook Account Fix

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Ever since Microsoft pushed an Outlook update in late September, Outlook hasn’t let me access my primary email account. Something about handling of DNS info related to mailservers changed, and not for the better. Simply put, the configuration I’d been using to ingest incoming email and send outgoing email quit working. But when I checked the dreamhost config recommendations, everything agreed with same.  Despite repeated fix attempts, account setup kept foundering because of a reset to some whacko domain I never heard or read about –namely: smtp. mailchannels.net. This morning I had an astonishingly positive encounter with Microsoft 365 chat support, during which an MX error provokes Outlook account fix. Buckle up: this is going to take some explaining…

How an MX Error Provokes Outlook Account Fix

Outlook is obviously reading from MX records for the domain names it runs into. The only way I can get my home account (the one for this very website, in fact) to work is by over-riding both incoming and outgoing mail server values that the lookup process finds on its own.

It gets worse. If I tell Outlook to repair itself, it overwrites my over-rides with those selfsame values again. Fortunately, I’ve now got all this stuff memorized and I know how to fix it. But it wasn’t until we tried and failed to use my domain name (edtittel.com) for the mail servers that the inbuilt Outlook facility started reading the right MX records. Only then was I able to use those for the email host instead of whatever Outlook was dredging out of the MX records it finds on my behalf. Sigh.

Automation Had Best Be Correct…

I understand that MS is just trying to help by automating the mail server lookups and name assignments. That’s terrif, as long as they get those lookups right. But as I’ve just learned, over-riding errors in such lookups can get excessively interesting.

Shoot! I couldn’t even get email to work in Outlook until I figured out I should ignore its findings and insist on what the provider’s configuration page told me I should use. What’s interesting is that’s what was in there in the first place, and quit working late last month. I wasn’t able to get back into the fold, however, until I tried my own domain name, at which point the error trail finally located workable MX records.

Go figure! That’s what keeps me on the edge of my seat, and makes Windows-World an always-interesting place to work and live.

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Copilot+ PCs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Intel’s Initial Copilot+ Salvo

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OK, then. As I was gearing up for medical adventures on Tuesday, Lenovo shipped me a new Copilot+ PC. Because I apparently munged my initial login, I wasn’t able to upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Pro at first. A factory reset (described in yesterday’s blog) set things right, and I’m now digging in to see and understand what I can about this Yoga Slim 7 15ILL9 unit. So far, Intel’s initial Copilot+ Salvo seems a little less bodacious than the Snapdragon X ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 I’m getting ready to send back to the reviews team. Let me explain…

Absorbing and Interpreting Intel’s Initial Copilot+ Salvo

We’ll start with the port map (side views) of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 15ILL9. You can see it sports 2 TB4/USB4 ports — one on each side — along with a power button, camera shutter, and USB Type A 5 Gbps, plus HDMI and 3.5mm audio jack. Very basic, very simple.

Here’s a more detailed list of its various innards:

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 256V (8 cores/8 logical processors)
RAM: 16 GB LPDDR5x-8533 (2 modules, soldered)
SSD: WD SN740 1TB (NVMe PCIe Gen4 x4; M.2 2242)
Integrated Intel Arc Graphics 140V
Display: 15.3″ 2880×1800 Touch screen
NPU Capacity: 45 TOPS

As configured, it costs US$1,322 at the Lenovo Store. Thus, this is clearly a consumer oriented mid-range laptop. This explains why it isn’t as full featured or snappy as the T14s I’m sending back (it doubled up RAM and offered a 12-core CPU, but lists for US$1,700).

Sorry About the Bloatware…

Unlike most other new Lenovo PCs and laptops I’ve encountered lately, this one comes a bit more laden with bloatware, including:

  • Numerous Lenovo helpware items: Hotkeys, Now, Vantage, and Vantage Service (I usually keep Hotkeys and Vantage)
  • McAfee Trialware: removed
  • WebAdvisor by McAfee: removed

Initial startup also flogged numerous subscriptions including YouTube and other video items, Amazon MusicDropBox 100 TB, and special offers (that’s what Lenovo Now delivers, I’m removing it). I’d rather see this kind of thing as opt-in if I have to see it at all. Thankfully, that’s how Lenovo handled it. If flogging is required, it should be easy to circumvent.

Initial Take on the Yoga Slim 7 15ILL9 Itself

The unit offers a bright, clear display with snappy graphics and handling. By default brightness was set to 13: I had to bump it up to 60-something to see things properly. It’s pretty lightweight, too (1.53kg/3.38lbs) despite the over 15″ display with narrow bezels. The all-aluminum case in gray is sturdy and attractive enough, but not in the same league as the ThinkPad. Wi-Fi7 (Intel BE201 320 MHz) is included in all configurations, too. Chez Tittel is still on 802.11ax, though…

Overall, I like the Snapdragon Yoga Slim 7X  better than this Intel model, but that’s mostly because its OLED monitor pops like crazy. I do think the 12 cores in the Snapdragon X somewhat outperform the Ultra Core 7 256V’s 8 cores, but that could be subjective. I’ll be digging deeper into SSD and USB4 port performance in the future, but so far this offering seems like a pretty good value. See this October 12 NoteBookCheck story for more details on this nice little notebook.

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Copilot+ PCs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Upgrading Home to Pro Proves Challenging

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OK, then. It’s been a busy week, but not all work-related. I had a lens replacement (cataract surgery) in my right eye yesterday. Perforce that meant a day off. In the meantime, I’ve been involved in intake on a new Copilot+ PC: an Intel Model this time. It’s a Yoga Slim 7 15ILL9. And indeed, for this PC upgrading Home to Prove proves challenging. I had to perform a factory reset on the PC to get it to work. Let me explain…

Why Upgrading Home to Pro Proves Challenging

Simply put, when I tried to upgrade from Home to Pro, none of the keys I tried would work. In fact, not even an attempt to purchase one from the MS Store did the trick, either. That’s when I knew something with my login wasn’t copascetic. So I used the System > Reset > Recovery > Reset this PC option to restore the OS to its “fresh from the factory” reset state.

This time, when I logged in I duly furnished an MSA into which my login account could be tied. And guess what: that did the trick! I was able to run updates (they hadn’t worked either) and then used a one-time key from Visual Studio Subscriptions (Thanks, MVP Program!) to upgrade from Home to Pro. I’m now logged into the new test PC via RDP which is how I like to interact with my test/review machines.

Introducing the Yoga Slim 7 15ILL9

It’s got an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe SSD, with something new to me: integrated Arc Graphics 140V. Compared to the Snapdragon X ThinkPad T14s I’m getting ready to return to Lenovo, it’s got 8 cores (instead of 12), half the RAM, and a different CPU architecture (x64 vs. ARM64). But so far, it seems to run reasonably well. It got through the Home to Pro upgrade in under 5 minutes, handled WU updates with alacrity, and chuffed through a dozen items via PatchMyPC Home updater in under 2 minutes. So far, so good.

Now that I’ve got the device set up on my network, I can start putting it through its paces. Stay tuned as I start understanding how Intel based Copilot+ PCs compare to their Snapdragon X counterparts. Should be interesting…

 

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Backup/Restore, Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Macrium Reflect X Rocks

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I’ve known about this for a couple of months, but until last week I was under embargo, as they say in trade press lingo. Macrium Reflect X (version 10, so it’s a Roman numeral) went public on October 8, so now I can talk. Reflect X not only backs up ARM PCs — the lead-in graphic comes from my Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Copilot+ PC — it does so swiftly and surely. As you can see it created a 47.24GB full disk image backup in under two minutes (1:51). But there’s more…

Why Say: Macrium Reflect X Rocks

It’s not just way speedy (it would be two to four minutes faster than version 8 for the same setup on a Wintel PC), it’s also got other things going in its favor as well. ARM support is a big deal (it’s one of a very few tools that offers scalable backup for ARM CPUs). But Macrium Reflect X also offers:

  • Resumable imaging: Even after interruptions, image backup can pick up where it left off, with no data or time losses.
  • Open-source file formats: Reflect has published specifications for its .mrimgx and .mrbakx file formats so other programs can use them.
  • Enhanced filtering: Relect X can ignore files (e.g. contents of the Temp directory, caches, and other transient items that don’t need backing up) to reduce backup size and speed image capture time.
  • Improved compression and backup optimization techniques (see this video for a backup that goes from over 8 minutes for version 8 to under 2 minutes for version X).

Reflect X Does Come at a Cost

With this latest release, Paramount Software (the company behind Macrium Reflect) has changed its licensing approach. It’s moved over from perpetual licenses plus annual maintenance fees to a pure annual subscription model. Because I had 8 licenses (4 from a 4-pack perpetual license, 4 more from a version 8 subscription purchased last year) my upgrade costs to get into Version X were right around US$200 (approximately US$25 per license per year).

I think that’s a reasonable price, but understand that new buyers won’t get as good a deal. That said, the company runs occasional specials wherein they drop list prices anywhere from 25 to 50%. Best to keep an eye out for such, if you’re planning on getting into the latest Macrium Reflect X version. IMO, it’s completely worth it, and very much the best backup/restore/repair option available for Windows PCs. You can check out a free trial for 30 days.

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USB4 Version 2 Devices Emerge

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I knew they were coming, but not as fast as this. I just wrote a newsletter item for AskWoody. Entitled Using USB-Attached Windows media (subscription required for full access) it talks about issues related to USB ports, cables and devices in getting the best available performance from external storage. Thanks to reader comments on that story, I’m now aware that Amazon is selling 80 Gbps USB cables. That’s a clear signal that USB4 Version 2 devices emerge in the marketplace. Let me explain…

Links Show USB4 Version 2 Devices Emerge

Thank goodness the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) has changed its approach to labeling cables and devices. As you can see in the Amazon product shot that serves here as the lead-in graphic, it’s clearly labeled with speed (80Gbps) and wattage (240w) maxima. This beats the heck out of USB 3.2 Gen 1 or USB 3.2 Gen 2. Shoot! It even shows maximum video resolution (16K) supported, too — on the right-hand backside info.

So far, though, 80 Gbps USB-C support appears limited to cables, and cables alone. I can’t find any docks, hubs, monitors or storage devices that support that data rate anywhere. And, FWIW, CoPilot agrees that while such things are coming, they’re not yet out. Here’s its reply to a query about 80 Gbps monitors, for example:

USB4 with 80 Gbps is cutting-edge, but mainstream adoption often takes a bit of time. Up to this moment, no 80 Gbps USB4 monitors are commercially available. But hey, tech innovation is like a speeding train. They’re likely not too far off!

How Soon is RSN?

I’ve been reading tech journalism long enough to remember Jerry Pournelle’s excellent Chaos Manor column in BYTE magazine many, many years ago. (It ran from the early 1980s until 1998.) He used the phrase “real soon now” (sometimes abbreviated as RSN) to poke fun at breathless promises of emerging technologies on the cusp of availability. That’s exactly where 80 Gbps USB4 Version 2 stands at the moment: on its way, but not here yet. Stay tuned (and check out those nosebleed cable prices. Ouch!). Don’t get hit by any speeding trains, either…

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

24H2 Compatibility Holds Block WU

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OK, then: thanks to Paul Thurrott, I think I know why my half-dozen Windows 11 23H2 PCs are getting no 24H2 offers. Among the half-dozen “Known Issues” that could bollix such an upgrade is an item named Fingerprint sensors might experience problems after a device is locked. And wouldn’t you know it: every one of my Lenovo laptops that could get the offer has one. And now I know: 24H2 Compatibility holds block WU from offering 24H2 to such PCs. You can see the issue label and first ‘graph of text as the lead-in graphic above.

When 24H2 Compatibility Holds Block WU…

One can always decide to upgrade forcibly if WU declines to make an upgrade offer. That’s what I did on the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Mobile Workstation — which includes a fingerprint sensor and a Windows Hello IR camera. And indeed, it’s been running 24H2 since October 2 without issues or hiccups.

If you decide you want to upgrade ahead of WU offers, just be sure to make an image backup beforehand. That way, if anything goes sideways, you can reboot to WinRE and run a repair or rescue disk (Macrium Rescue Media, in my local cases) to restore that image. It takes 3-7 minutes to make such an image on my PCs, and up to 15 minutes to restore same. Well worth it IMO, to sidestep potential or actual trouble when needed.

In the meantime, I’m standing pat on my other Windows 11 23H2 PCs (both test and production units) waiting to see how long the compatibility holds will persist. If history is any guide, it’ll probably take another month or three before that happens. Stay tuned: I’ll keep you posted!

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WinGet High Water Mark 14

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Holy mackerel. It’s not so much that I’ve been ungodly busy lately. It’s more like my ongoing visual impairment (I’ve had one lens replacement done, and go back in next Monday for the second) is limiting my activity to only what’s essential. Thus, while I’ve been distracted from my usual routine. WinGet’s been piling up updates. Today, I hit a WinGet high water mark: 14 updates pending, as you see in the lead-in graphic. Wow!

When WinGet High Water Mark (14) Hits, Then What?

Wait. Wait. And wait some more. The whole process took about 18 minutes to complete, much of which went to a Visual Studio update. Interestingly Windows Terminal did NOT come in at the end of the batting order, as it normally does. Why? Because WT needs restarting when it’s updated. But this time, Teams snuck in at the end, so it got updated before I could get WT restarted. Go figure!

As usual, my hat’s off to Demitrius Nelon (@denelon) and his WinGet team, for their stellar work in making updates safe, easy and routine. I’m a rabid partisan on their behalf, and recommend this tool unreservedly to all charged with keeping Windows PCs current and correct.

Best of all I got a clean bill of health from WinGet after a single run: “No installed package found matching input criteria.” That’s WinGet speak for “everything is up to date.” Good-oh!

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Uncovering Create Dev Drive Gotcha

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Yesterday, I blogged about a real, but apparently small, performance boost for ReFS volumes vis-a-vis NTFS ones. While I was undertaking that testing, I switched a USB4 NVMe from NTFS to ReFS to keep everything else the same. I’m pretty sure that’s the best way to isolate file system differences because port, cable, enclosure and drive all remained the same. Along the way, I found myself uncovering “Create Dev Drive” gotcha. Let me explain.

Uncovering Create Dev Drive Gotcha:
Two Create Dev Drive Buttons

If you attach an unallocated drive to a Windows PC, then navigate to System > Storage > Disks & Volumes, you’ll not only see the “Create Dev Drive button” at the top of that UI pane as shown in the lead-in graphic. Should you scroll down to said unallocated drive, you can evoke a different Create Dev Drive button by clicking on the down-caret for “Create volume” like so:

Here’s the gotcha: if you use the upper Create Dev Drive button, everything works as it should. But if you use the lower one, the create operation fails every time, and reports it fails because the drive is read-only. Here’s what the Settings UI looks like after that error:

Something odd and interesting apparently happens when you use this button instead. I’m reporting this to Feedback Hub. Here’s that link, if you’d care to upvote: Create a dev drive button doesn’t work.

Clean-Up and Fix

Once you do this to yourself, you need to clean things up before you can set things up correctly using (only) the upper “Create Dev Drive” button. You must open Disk Management and delete the RAW volume you’ll now see there (right-click, and select Delete Volume… from the pop-up menu). Then you can return to Settings > System > Storage >Disks & volumes and do it right this time. Enjoy!

One more thing: the Dev Home app is a great place to get started when creating an ReFS volume. It does the Settings navigation for you and drops you right where you want to be. Just remember: it only works when you select the upper, general “Create Dev Drive” button, NOT the lower, device-specific “Create Dev Drive” button. I have no idea why this is so, but that’s the way it seems to work at present. Mysteries like these are what keep me forever fascinated with the wrinkles in Windows-World.

 

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Benchmarking, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog

Exploiting ReFS Speed Advantage

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I’ve been reading articles online about a supposed speed advantage for the Resilient File System, aka ReFS, in Windows. But I’m observing some caveats when it comes to exploiting ReFS speed advantage. Let me use a speed check from the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra as an example, mounted in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) NVMe enclosure. Quick examination makes the point nicely: one sees no difference vis-a-vis NTFS. Indeed the speeds shown are entirely typical of any UASP devices at nominal 10 Gbps speeds.

Exploiting ReFS Speed Advantage Requires 20 Gbps or Higher

Do the math: 982.75 MBps = 7,862 Mbps = 7.67 Gbps. That’s about as fast as a USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) device can go in a real-world situation, such as running the CrystalDiskMark benchmark. My basic point, therefore, is this: Don’t switch to ReFS for performance gains unless you have a device that can deliver 20 Gbps (or higher) performance. That means USB 3.2 Gen2 (20 Gbps) or USB 4/Thunderbolt 3 or 4 (40 Gbps).

So I tried the same enclosure, same SSD, same cable (all of these factors count) with both ReFS and NTFS. I found it easiest to use the “Create a Dev Drive” option in the Dev Home app to start the former. Disk Mgmt worked find for the latter. Here are those results, which do show ReFS has a speed advantage — but it’s pretty small.

If you compare the big block write speeds (upper 2 left cells) that’s where the advantage is noticeable. For the rest of the cells, it’s barely there.

True, But Nugatory

I’m going to have to mess around with faster SSDs and see if that helps. But so far, I don’t see the uptick as big enough to be worth a lot. That said, as 24H2 goes final I should try again. The P3 Ultra isn’t getting that update offer yet, and that’s usually for good reason. If this changes, I’ll update this post accordingly. Right now, it’s mostly a ho-hum level of added performance.

OK, so I tried it on a different PC — a ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 Mobile Workstation — running 24H2 preview version. It shows modest improvements over the P3 Ultra but nothing spectacular. I’ll keep checking and reporting back here. It’s possible there’s more to see than I can tell just yet. I’m going to run a Macrium Reflect Backup next…

 

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