20H1 – Win10.Guru

War Story: Wandering Network Printer IP Address

October 30, 2020, Comments Off

Every now and then, I’ll send a print job off on my production desktop that goes to an application (today, it was Snagit) instead of target printer. When that happens, I know it’s time to reset the default printer using its new IP address. Let me explain. . .

MS Catalog Gets Update to Remove Adobe Flash Player

October 28, 2020, 1 Comment

With end of support scheduled for the Adobe Flash Player on December 31, 2020, Microsoft releases a catalog update to uninstall that Player from Windows 10 (normally, it’s built right into the OS). Here’s a link…

2 File Explorer crashes and 5 blackscreen events may indeed be a pattern.

Post-KB4579311 File Explorer Crash Is Real (and Happening)

October 25, 2020, Comments Off

In looking over my production PC’s Reliability Monitor output I see errors that ring a distant bell somewhere. Turns out lots of people are experiencing them in the wake of installing KB4579311 on their Windows 2004 PCs. Sigh.

Even on a nearly 9-year-old laptop, Lenovo Vantage still does its thing.

Where Laptop OEMs Truly Add Value

October 19, 2020, Comments Off

It’s true one has to wait a while for OEMs to obtain, test and sometimes tweak device drivers, firmware, and BIOS/UEFI updates before making them available to users of their laptops and PCs. But some such offerings go on for a surprisingly long time, and are of exceptionally good quality. Read the deets…

All apps option in the new Office PWA menu

MS Office PWAs Appearing Unsolicited on 2004 and Insider Preview Versions

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I read with interest about growing hoopla about MS Office Progressive Web Apps showing up uninvited on Insider Preview PCs. Then I find it on my production Version 2004 PC, too. Interest changes to “WTF?” pretty quickly, and leads me to spread the news. It’s easily uninstalled, though, if you decide you don’t want it on your PC(s).

IE retirement timeline from MS August announcement

Credible Report Puts IE Out of Business Use Next Month

October 12, 2020, Comments Off

MS published a timeline announcing a gradual phaseout for Internet Explorer starting in November 2020, with EOL scheduled for August 2021. A German source reports that the degradation of the IE experience promised for November may be more faqr-reaching than expected.

RAPR.exe gets an update to version 11.42

Admin Toolkit: DriverStore Explorer (RAPR.exe) V0.11.42 Update

October 9, 2020, Comments Off

The excellent GitHub project Driver Store Explorer gets an update to version V.0.11.42. If you have it installed, get current; if you don’t have it installed, it’s worth getting to know (and using occasionally, to keep the Driver Store slimmed down).

typical modern Win10 sys/boot disk layout

NVMe Replacement: Cloning vs. Backup Restore

October 7, 2020, Comments Off

When it comes to swapping an older (usually smaller) NVMe boot/system drive for a newer (usually bigger and faster) one, you can either clone the old drive, or restore an image backup from the old drive to the new one. Deets on pros and cons and choices in this story.

Cint Rutkas offers survey to let users help set development priorities

PowerToys Offers Survey, Goes to v0.23.0

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Three different PowerToys stories pop at around the same time: a new release, a user input survey on upcoming tools, and a “functional spec” for Video/Image capture. Good stuff!

Wifinian shows active known Wi-Fi in blue, inactive in black.

Toolkit Item: Wifinian Wi-Fi Utility

October 5, 2020, Comments Off

This Admin Toolkit item is named Wifinian. It’s a Github open source project, costs nothing, and provides useful immediate control over Windows 10 Wi-Fi networking.