Backup/Restore, Benchmarking, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

Why USB Disk Speeds Matter

June 30, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It’s been a busy and interesting week. I’ve been messing around with numerous backups and restores. Ditto for mounting ISOs and running Windows repair installs. A LOT of disk reads and writes to USB drives have been involved. Because of the huge amounts of data involved, I’m better prepared to explain why USB disk speeds matter. A LOT!

Why USB Disk Speeds Matter So Very Much

In a word, the shortest possible answer is “Time.” If you can get something done faster, you can do more in a single work interval. Compare the USB disk speeds for an NVMe drive in a USB-C enclosure (left) to those for an mSATA drive in a USB-A 3.1 enclosure (right — see lead-in graphic). When backups and restores are concerned the top lines (which involve large file transfers) actually matter. Of course, all the times matter as well.

But those differences are pretty stark for backup and restore. Let me explain… If you look at the top pairs of numbers, these cover large data transfers with a queue depth of 8 (upper) and 1 (lower). In both pairs of numbers, the NVMe drive is over twice as fast as the mSATA drive. Those same results were born out in backups and restores (7 and 14 minutes for backup; 11 and 23 minutes for restore).

The More You Do, the Better You’ll Like It!

Those results show why I’ve long been a believer in using fast USB drives whenever possible. I’m still waiting to see what kind of bump I can get with a Thunderbolt 4 NVMe enclosure, proper cables and enclosure, and Thunderbolt 4 on the host device. From what I read, it should be 25-40% as fast again.

This realization came to me when I started copying a backup from a BitLocker protected NVMe drive to an mSATA unprotected drive. I got a consistent 26-27 MBps transfer rate between the two devices. It took over 20 minutes to copy the file!

If I could’ve gone Thunderbolt 4 all the way, I could have quadrupled the transfer speed or better. That would cut my wait time from 20 minutes to 5. Waiting for necessary data can’t be completely bypassed — but it surely shows the “need for speed” on such occasions.

Backup/Restore, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Wrong Backup Means Wrong Outcome

June 29, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I have to laugh. I’ve been fighting weird behaviors on my X12 Hybrid Tablet all week long. Only yesterday afternoon did I finally snap to an obvious visual cue that told me what was wrong. Among lots of other interesting things, I learned that wrong backup means wrong outcome when restored. It’s a testament to Windows 11 and to Macrium Reflect, because the target PC actually ran — sort of — even with the wrong image running the works. Let me explain…

If Wrong Backup Means Wrong Outcome, How Wrong Is It?

Here’s what I did: I restored a backup from my Lenovo X380 Yoga to my Lenovo X12 Hyrbrid Tablet. Different CPU, different biometrics devices and capabilities, different Thunderbolt support, and so on. Now that I know what I did, I’m amazed the OS ran at all. And actually, except for refusing to recognize (or work with) hardware present on the X12, but absent on the X380, it worked pretty well.

So how did I finally figure out what I’d done to myself (or rather, to the X12)? The answer’s in the lead-in graphic for this story. I use 8Gadgetpack on all of my PCs. I also use its analog clock gadget, and use the machine name from the target host as the clock name. So there it was on my X12 desktop: X380 (as you can see). That’s what told me I’d restored the wrong backup to the target machine. I have a number of roving SSD devices in USB enclosures. Apparently the backup I chose had moved from a USB port on the X380 to the X12’s Thunderbolt dock.

After that Aha! moment, I quickly located a recent backup from the X12. I had to jump through some hoops because it lived on a BitLocker protected drive (hint: the Macrium Reflect Rescue Disk requires additional options to restore backups from a BitLocker protected volume). But once I restored the right image, all my problems went away. I was able to use a UUPdump image I’d already built to quickly update to the latest Dev Channel version, too.

Lessons Learned

1. I’m glad I use my machine name technique on the Gadget Clock because it’s a good way to see where a backup originated.

2. I’ve started adding the machine name into my Reflect backup image names, so I can tell backups apart quickly and easily.

3, I’ve learned how to deal with BitLocker drives as restore sources, and how to re-enable BitLocker on a recovered C: drive

4. I’ve learned to be more careful in choosing which image to restore to a target PC, when a restore is necessary

Now, all I can hope is that I don’t do this again. Sigh, and sigh again.

Uncategorized

In-Place Repair Install Basics Revisited

June 28, 2022 Ed Tittel 2 Comments

OK, then. I’ve been messing about with one of my Dev Channel test PCs lately. And it’s for the usual reason: experimentation leads to self-inflicted damage. Right now, the X12 Hybrid is limping along. It’s having driver problems with Windows Hello and Thunderbolt. The standard response when things get weird gives cause for in-place repair install basics revisited. I’ve been reminded of some important elements worth sharing (and repeating).

Why Are In-Place Repair Install Basics Revisited?

Generally, an in-place repair install involves running the setup.exe from an ISO to replace the OS files in the running image with known, good working equivalents. All this is wonderfully described in Shawn Brink’s terrific ElevenForums tutorial Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-Place Upgrade.

I started my exercise by visiting the Windows Insiders Using ISOs page. But I noticed that ISO version is 21540, whereas I’m running 25145 on my test PC. Alas, that explains why, after mounting the incompatible ISO on said test PC, it offers only the “Keep nothing” option. That’s what’s shown in the lead-in graphic for this story. It was my profound clue that I needed a different ISO.

Of course, the “Nothing” option is exactly what I DON’T want. So I went to UUPdump.net instead, and grabbed the ISO for 21545. And sure enough, once mounted it provides access to the “Keep personal files and apps” option I really want.

The Requirements Tell the Story

If you look at the “Repair install requirements” at the tip-top of the afore-linked tutorial, item 2 therein reads:

The Windows 11 installation media (ISO or USB) must be the same edition, same version, and same or higher build as the currently installed Windows 11.

That’s what was holding me back. And that’s why I needed to remind myself of the basics, so I could get the repairs I wanted. Indeed: back to basics turns out to point me where I needed to go.

Insider stuff, Networking, Recent Activity, Remote Desktop (RDP), WED Blog, Windows 11

Overcoming RDP Access Hurdles

June 27, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here at Chez Tittel, I’ve got 9 PCs in my office. 2 Desktops and 7 laptops, to be more specific. I like to access most of them from my primary desktop. That’s because it sports a couple of aging but still decent Dell 2717 Ultrasharp monitors. Over the years, I’ve encountered interesting issues in making RDP (remote desktop protocol) connections to my “Other PCs.” For me, overcoming RDP access hurdles usually involves one or more of three workarounds.

Three Workarounds to Overcome RDP Access Hurdles

These workarounds help to address a list of problems that include:

Can’t find remote PC
Can’t authenticate login credentials
Password error despite known, good working account/pwd pair

Workaround #1: Try the device IPv4 address

When the Remote Desktop Connection (or Remote Desktop app) simply can’t find a machine name, it’s always a good idea to try the target PC’s IPv4 address instead. As shown in the lead-in graphic for this story, it worked to get me into a Lenovo X380 Yoga I just put through a bunch of Windows 11 upgrades.

Workaround #2: Try a Different MSA

On occasion, when I try to login to a remote PC using my current Microsoft Account (MSA) it just won’t get past authentication. This is often a symptom of difficulty in getting MS authentication to work properly. When that happens, I will try another one of my known, good working MSAs (I have three, as I write this story). That does occasionally work, especially if I’ve already used that MSA on the target machine already. Go figure!

Workaround #3: Try a Local Account Instead of MSA

Sometimes, RDP will strenuously resist allowing you to establish an RDP connection over the LAN using a Microsoft Account (via its associated email address). In fact, it generates an account name/password error, even though I’m using a known, good working MSA account name and its associated password to try to login.

When that happens I’ve found that setting up a local admin account — one named, LocalU, for example — will get me right into the target PC. That’s also on display in the lead-in graphic where I had to use both workarounds at once to get into that PC. Sigh.

Remember: Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

If you need to establish an RDP session on a remote PC, you can usually figure out a way to make such a connection work. If the preceding workarounds don’t do the trick, try the other tips in this 2021 WindowsReport story: it offers pretty good tips, tricks and advice.

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

25145 Gets File Explorer Tabs

June 24, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then. It’s been a gradual roll-out, so I can’t know if everyone running Dev Channel can see this. But once I got it running, Build 25145 gets File Explorer tabs on both of my test PCs. It’s pretty cool, too, as I hope to show in the ensuing discussion.

To get this party started, you can see File Explorer in the lead-in graphic. It’s got the default tab (“Home”) open at left, the UUPdump folder from my D: drive open at right. The latter shows the various files left over after an .ISO file is created (~4GB item, 6th from top).

When 25145 Gets File Explorer Tabs, Then What?

Why, you mess around with them to see what they can do. So far I’ve discovered multiple techniques to open such tabs, including:

Click the Plus sign (“+”) to the right of the rightmost open tab, and an open tab set to the default appears. Navigate anywhere you want from there.
Right-click a folder inside the main File Explorer pane, and a new option labeled “Open in new tab” appears. I *like* this one! Here’s what it looks like (annotated for easy recognition).

3. I remember reading about a keyboard shortcut to open such a tab, but I can’t find the reference. Winkey+E still opens a new File Explorer window, and WinKey+T doesn’t do anything. I’ll keep poking about on this front, and see what I can learn. So far, the best third-party coverage of the feature I’ve found is at WindowsLatest.

This is a cool and helpful new feature. As I learn (and find out) more about it, I’ll either update this post, or write a new one. Stay tuned!

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

Recent 25145 Dev Channel Hijinks

June 23, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

The last two Dev Channel builds are 25145 and 25140. For both of them, my Start Menu has been munged when first accessing the desktop. On 25140, a restart set things back to rights. On 25145, I launched File Explorer, then restarted the process in Task Manager. That worked, too. So while recent 25145 Dev Channel hijinks have been irksome, they’ve been by no means insurmountable.

Limits to Recent 25145 Dev Channel Hijinks

Interestingly, this phenom occurs only my Lenovo X12 Hybrid Tablet. It does not pop up on the Lenovo X380 laptop. I don’t see any interesting errors in Reliability Monitor on the X12 that could point to possible causes. Once again, I find myself wondering if it might be related to 8GadgetPack, which has wonked around for a while lately in the wake of new Dev Channel builds.

This time Relimon doesn’t have much useful to say (the SearchHost item is a known gotcha, unrelated to my issue).

Frankly, it’s hard to pinpoint the cause of this trouble without more data to go on. But now that I know how to work around it without a restart, I’ll keep plugging away as new Dev Channel builds keep coming. Either the problem will get fixed in the background, or I’ll get enough data to identify — and hopefully deal with — the actual cause.

FWIW, I’ve sent feedback to the hub about this. It’s entitled “Build 25145 start menu nonresponsive on first boot.” Please upvote if you encounter the same thing on one of your Dev Channel PCs or VMs. Cheers!

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

Windows Insider Page Gets New Look

June 22, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Upon visiting the Windows Insider info page in Settings → Windows Update → Windows Insider Program, I just noticed some interesting changes. That’s right: there, the Windows Insider Page gets new look. You can see what’s up in the lead-in graphic. First, there’s a link to “Latest build notes” (very handy). Second, information labels the insider account in use (I blanked it out on the screenshot). Third, there’s clear status info available. In this case it reads “You’re on the latest build for your device.” Good-oh!

Why Is Windows Insider Page Gets New Look Nice?

Upon checking Dev Channel Build 25140, I see the exact same look and feel there also. Going back to the Release Preview on Windows 10, however, shows the old look and feel is unchanged there.

Windows 10 Release Preview Insider Stuff remains unchanged.

In general, I prefer the new “dress” for the Windows Insider stuff in Windows Update in Windows 11. The info is more readily accessible, more compact, and more usable. I especially like one-click access to the release notes for the latest build. Checking those notes, I don’t see any info about changes to the Windows Update and Windows Insider program pages in Settings. Kind of makes me wonder how long this has been going on without my noticing.

Sigh. That’s the way things go in Windows-World — for me, sometimes, at least. Good changes can happen, but they don’t really hit home until they’re noticed. Hopefully, this notice, however late, remains welcome to you, dear readers. Sigh again…

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

DISM Component Store Cleanup

June 21, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

This morning, I recalled the value of occasional “check-and-clean” operations on the Windows Component Store (aka WinSxS). Check the “Before and After” screencap at the top of this story. It shows that applying updates can leave old components behind. Checking the component store tells you what’s up. Performing a DISM component store cleanup recovers wasted space. To wit: 1.72 GB in reported size, and 1.47 GB in actual size.

How to run DISM Component Store Cleanup

What you see in the before (left) and after (right) image is syntax to check the Windows Component Store. Run it in an admin cmd or PowerShell session, like so:

DISM /online /cleanup-image /analyzecomponentstore

Two notes. One, the output from the before (left) tells you how many reclaimable packages are found (2, in this instance). Two, it tells you whether or not component store cleanup is recommended (yes, this time around). Running the check and report syntax shown above takes 1-2 minutes on most Windows 10 and 11 PCs.

Performing the Actual Cleanup

As with the check and report DISM command, the cleanup command must also run in an administrative cmd or PowerShell session. That syntax is slightly different:
DISM /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup
Depending on how many reclaimable packages are found, and how big they are, cleanup can take upwards of 5 minutes on most Windows 10 or 11 PCs. That wait goes up, as the number (and total) size of packages increases. Be patient! I’ve only had this fail a handful of times over the years I’ve been using this tool (and many of those failures were self-inflicted because of prior use of /resetbase, which locks existing packages into place in the Component Store).

Nevertheless, this is an excellent and recommended Windows cleanup technique, which I try to run after each month’s Cumulative Update (CU) is installed. The check and report command doesn’t always find something to cleanup, but when it does, I follow up with the /startcomponentcleanup to trim down the Component Store footprint. It’s a great technique for regular Windows image management, in fact.

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

MS 365 Brings New Defender Aboard

June 17, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK, then. Now I finally understand what’s up with the Store-based version of Windows Defender. It’s been “out there” for while now for Insiders. Called “Microsoft Defender for individuals,” it’s available to anyone with an active Microsoft 365 subscription. (Either Personal or Family subscriptions qualify.) That’s why I say “MS 365 brings new Defender aboard” in today’s title. The lead-in graphic shows the dashboard (in part) from my production Windows 10 desktop. Both “other devices” run Windows 11.

When MS 365 Brings New Defender Aboard, Then What?

According to MSPowerUser.com the tool is built on Microsoft Defender Endpoint technology. Thus, it brings the same cloud-based security to end users already available to Enterprise customers. A June 16 Microsoft Security blog post confirms this assertion. It describes this new Defender version as “an exciting step in our journey to bring security to all.” The tool works on Windows, iOS, Android, and macOS devices to provide family-wide protection across whole households.

MS explains Microsoft Defender for individuals as enabling the following capabilities (also including “continuous antivirus and anti-phishing protection for your data and devices”):

Manage your security protections and view security protections for everyone in your family, from a single easy-to-use, centralized dashboard.

View your existing antivirus protection (such as Norton or McAfee). Defender recognizes these protections within the dashboard.

Extend Windows device protections to iOS, Android, and macOS devices for cross-platform malware protection on the devices you and your family use the most.

Receive instant security alerts, resolution strategies, and expert tips to help keep your data and devices secure.

I’m giving it a try on my production PC which still runs Norton 360, along with a couple of my Defender-only test machines running Windows 11. Should be interesting to see how it all turns out! If you’d like to check it out for yourself and your devices (and your family’s, if applicable) visit the Microsoft 365 Defender page for a download link.

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, PowerShell, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

WingetUI Offers Useful Update Capability

June 16, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Lately, I’ve been using the Winget PowerShell applet to assist with updating my Windows 10 and 11 PCs. Thanks to Martin Brinkmann at Ghacks, I’ve found a GUI front end for that tool. Indeed, the aptly-named WingetUI offers useful update capability.

Winget.UI does other things, too. It let you explore all 3460 packages under its purview (“Discover Software” tab). It also shows a complete list of all packages already installed on your PC (“Installed applications”). On first blush, Winget.UI looks like a good tool. Its GitHub page provides the lead-in graphic for this story.

“Available updates” quickly identifies and provides ready access to item-by-item update launch. [Click image for full-size view.]

What WingetUI Offers Useful Update Capability Means

To update an item from the Software Updates tab in Winget.UI (shown above), simply double-click its corresponding Winget entry under the “Installation source” heading. Personally, I find this prefereable to the winget upgrade --all command. Why? Because it provides item-by-item control. That lets me skip elements (such as MS Teams), which experience has taught me isn’t really amenable to winget updates.

The double-clicking takes a little getting used to, but by and large the update function works well. It worked well for third-party packages, including Kindle, Python 2, and Revo Uninstaller. It hit errors on some built-in MS components, such as the WADK and Edge Runtime. Based on prior history, I didn’t even try the Teams components.

Good, But Not Perfect

I’ll need to spend more time with WingetUI to fully understand and appreciate its foibles and strengths. For now, it’s much like other update tools I use: good — indeed, pretty helpful — but by no means either great or perfect. Perhaps that’s just the way that update tools work here in Windows World!

[Note: Nochmals Danke schoen to Mr. Brinkmann for an interesting find.]