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Allrighty, then. As per Brandon LeBlanc at the Windows Blog on September 18, Build 19042.508 (KB4571756) likely represents the Version 20H2 final build. He puts it this way “We believe that Build 19042.508 is the final build and still plan on continuing to improve the overall experience of the October 2020 Update on customers’ PCs
After updating one of my Release Preview test PCs to KB4571756 my Lenovo GbE dongle quits working. Quick testing confirms a driver problem, and reverting to the previous driver version quickly fixes things.
Fuzzing is a technique that deliberately generates randomized inputs to code under test, and seeks to exercise (and violate) all possible code paths. This makes it a peachy technology for automated testing. MS has made its fuzz testing tools Open Source, which is big news.
OK, then. Today’s the day my pre-recorded presentation about Ventoy — the GitHub project that creates bootable Windows 10 media that can boot into any bootable ISO file in one of its partitions — at the virtual version of this year’s annual SpiceWorld gathering. As promised, I’m providing links to the underlying PowerPoint file and
A new version of Samsung Magician lets me examine benchmarks from my 3-year-old 950 PRO NVMe and reminds me it’s time to start planning my next PC build to bring current generation speeds into my office.
In checking performance options for Ventoy UFDs, I learn that my current choice doesn’t support write caching. This leads me to investigate best options for Ventoy media. I settle on a Sabrent NVMe USB-C/3.1 enclosure with a cheap-o 256 GB NVMe M.2. Deets supplied!
Ace Windows 10 detective ferrets out a redirect registry key to push Windows 10 users from Control Panel to Settings in the latest Dev Channel release (Build 20211). Other such changes can’t be too far off.
For companies and organizations that manage their own Windows Updates, getting the right Servicing Stack Update (SSU) is crucial before or alongside installing the Latest Cumulative Update (LCU). At a single stroke, MS does away with this requirement.
For those who’ve wondered why I’ve been posting less frequently over the past week, an explanation. For those who’d like to help us out at Win10.Guru, a couple of simple, quick favors for you to ponder (and hopefully, grant).
One week ago, the latest version of the terrific bootable USB installer tool Ventoy became available for download. I’m talking about V1.0.20 taking up position as the Ventoy “Latest Release” on GitHub. To update an already-installed copy, unZip the download into some target directory and plug in your Ventory USB device. Then, run the Ventoy2Disk.exe
An ISO-based RAM diagnostic tool makes a fine addition to Ventoy USB drives, with the minimal space necessary to accommodate the file (874 KB). Worth fooling around with.
You can create menus for your PowerShell scripts in various ways. In this story, I will demonstrate one of the easiest methods. First, we create a menu as a variable, then, within a Do – While loop, we call the menu, let the user select an option, then perform whatever task(s) the user selected. Finally,
Since Version 2004 went public in May, Defragment and Optimize drives has suffered from a bug that caused it to lose its memory of recent actions, checks, and optimizations/defrags. Happily, KB4571744 fixes that properly.
Two new versions of PowerToys are out this week. v0.21.1 is the latest stable release with bug fixes and minor improvements. Pre-release v0.22.0 gains an interesting videoconferencing item that can mute/unmute microphone and camera via simple key sequences.
SuperFly’s excellent ShowKeyPlus tool can tell users if they’ve upgraded to Windows 10 from a previous version and what kind of license they’ve got. Use slmgr to check activation status at any time, to make sure your license is valid and active.
If you’re an active USB device user, you may occasionally see the Unknown device item bearing a “Device Enumeration Failed” error in Device Manager. If that happens, there’s an easy fix…
According to Microsoft Docs, “the Out-GridView cmdlet sends the output from a command to a grid view window where the output is displayed in an interactive table“. In my opinion, it is the most versatile and practical of all PowerShell cmdlets. As all cmdlets do, it tells PowerShell to “do this with that” (cmdlet syntax
An interesting and appealing rumor surfaces that MS will switch to once-yearly Feature Upgrades for Windows 10 in 2021. My reaction: it’s about darn time they did so. If true: hurrah! If not, they should make that switch indeed.
Warning for those running older (pre Version 2004) Windows 10 versions. KB4023057 not only repairs all hacks to block upgrades, it also forces an automatic restart once the GUI phase of the upgrade completes. This can sometimes be problematic, as it was for me!
In the spirit of easing the burden on IT operations during what it calls the “public health situation“, MS has extended the end-of-life, or EOL date, for Windows 10 1803 from November 10, 2020 until May 11, 2021. Thus, they’ve shifted a date less than three months from now to a different date about 8.5
When Dev Channel Insider Build 20201 appeared earlier this week, it came bearing a new Archive Apps function within Settings/Apps. Keep reading to learn more about this nifty new feature…
Because WinDirStat hasn’t been updated since 2016, I’m forced to de-list it from my Administrator’s Toolkit collection. I’m replacing it with the excellent (and quite similar) WizTree instead (most recent update: May 2020). ‘Nuff said.
If you want to sell or give away a Windows computer, be it a desktop, a laptop or a tablet, there are a few things to consider. Will you sell it with Windows licensed and activated, will you just delete your user account but let all software and apps remain intact? Or, would you prefer to wipe the disks clean and erase all traces of you?
Ever wondered about those four-letter codes that identify languages in Windows, like en-us for US English and en-gb for UK English? They’re called LCIDs (Language Code Identifiers) and there are a great many of them. Fortunately, I found a good tool to search and sort them, too.
There are several reasons why a user might want to change the Windows system language. Let’s say for instance that an expat living and working abroad buys a computer, which comes with preinstalled Windows in the wrong language. I am one of those expats; buying computers here in my adopted home country of Germany, the
When I read that the new Microsoft Store icon is everywhere, I’m amused to see it in both Start Menu and on the app itself in Insider Previews, but to see the old icon in the Start Menu with the new one on the app in Version 2004. Sigh.
For those running Version 2004 who don’t want to wait for 20H2 to go public, a very fast enablement package CAB will get them upgraded. My test machine did it in under a minute from start to finish. Amazing!
Windows cannot be upgraded on native boot VHD. Updating is OK, but when user tries to upgrade Windows, an error message is shown: “You can’t upgrade Windows on a virtual drive“. To upgrade Windows on native boot VHD, it must be attached to a virtual machine. After upgrade, virtual machine can be deleted, and user can now boot to VHD containing upgraded Windows.
With Dev Channel Build 20197 the new “Managed Disks and Volumes” facility in settings is supposed to work. I can’t tell if it’s broken or not, because I tweaked the OS earlier to try (unsuccessfully) to turn on this feature in July. Repairs will be needed!
The actual title of the Microsoft Tech Community blog post on this topic, dated August 20, is Windows 10, version 20H2 available for commercial pre-release validation. Come again? This apparently means that the up-and-coming feature update — namely 20H2 — “is now available for commercial customers to begin feature exploration and validation prior to being
The Windows 10 Sandbox remains a fleeting, transitory and evanescent way to try out Windows 10 software and capabilities. Thus, it still can’t be updated or activated, by deliberate design. Here are some further observations on this topic…
Bo Elam
Ed Tittel
Kari Finn
Toni Fasth