Bo Elam
Ed Tittel
Kari Finn
Toni Fasth
Grooming MS Office 365 Licenses & Activations
October 18, 2019, 0 Comments
The Office Software Protection Platform (ospp.vbs) script is an invaluable tool for inspecting and managing Office 365 (and other Office version) licenses. Check it out!
Editorial
Win10 Provokes Strong Q3 2019 PC Sales Growth
October 16, 2019, 2 Comments
Here’s an interesting and bright bit of recent news about PC sales. Analyst firm Canalys reports a jump in global PC sales growth for Q3 2019. In fact, their numbers show an increase of 4.7% for that quarter, a rate not seen since Q1 2012 when growth hit 5.4%. For the record, that translates to
Insiders Warned to Prep for November 2019 Update Release
October 11, 2019, 1 Comment
Yesterday, Brandon Leblanc, Senior Program Manager for the Windows Insider Program posted on Insider blog. Entitled “Getting the November 2019 Update Ready for Release,” it sets the state for the next and coming Feature Update. Among other things worth reading, LeBlanc says “We believe that Build 18363.418 is the final build and we will continue
Toolkit Item: 8GadgetPack
October 10, 2019, 0 Comments
Supposedly, Windows Gadgets came in with Vista and went with Windows 7. Even before Windows 8 came along, MS decided to retire Windows Gadgets in 2011 (see this Spiceworks Community post that quotes the MS info from the time). This post states that the decision lets the company “focus support on the much richer set
Windows 10 and UUP – What’s wrong?
October 9, 2019, 4 Comments
Up through December 2016 and Build 11082, Windows 10 feature upgrades including new Insider builds were delivered in the form of so-called ESD (Electronic Software Distribution) updates. Upgrades were generally speaking quite fast, and worked as expected. In November 2016, Microsoft introduced a new feature upgrade system called UUP (Universal Update Platform). The idea was,
Team lead Dona Sarkar leaves Windows Insider team
October 8, 2019, 0 Comments
The Windows Insider team announced yesterday, October 7th, that Dona Sarkar had left the team. Although that was hardly a surprise to anyone having followed the team since the 1809 catastrophe, the way it was handled shows it was done suddenly and without advance preparation. There was no clean transition this time: no new lead
Ruminating on New PC Setup
October 7, 2019, 0 Comments
Last Thursday, I received a welcome interruption to my working day. Late the previous week, I’d uncovered what I believed to be a “killer deal” on a Lenovo Thinkpad X380 Yoga laptop. Because it was an eBay thing, I was mildly apprehensive about what would get delivered. But when I unpacked the unit I ordered
Windows 10X: Another Try at Compact Windows 10
October 4, 2019, 1 Comment
Big doings at the Surface event in NYC on October 2 included yet another attempt at a compact, touch-mostly/only version of Windows 10. Think back to Windows R/T and Windows S (multiple iterations). Now, take a look at this Windows Insider Program blog post. It’s entitled “Introducing Windows X: enabling dual-screen PCs in 2020.” The
Investigating 1903 PortableBaseLayer Partition
, 0 Comments
When a strange new storage device with a single 8 GB partition named PortableBaseLayer shows up on my Yoga X380, I start investigating. I’m not 100%, but there may be a Sandbox in there somewhere.
USB-C HDD Disappoints Vis-a-vis USB3
September 30, 2019, 0 Comments
When I compare benchmarks and Macrium Reflect backup times for the same 2.5″ HDD in USB-C and USB 3.0 enclosures, I’m stunned to observe the USB 3.0 results are better than those for USB-C. Must be the hardware!