• rChaz

    rChaz

    @rchaz

    Viewing 11 replies - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)
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    • Oh, I also reported the issue on the Feedback Hub.  Nudge, nudge…

    • I too had the Event Logs begin flooding with the annoying 131 errors on 12-8.  I hadn’t just installed any updates, & the related URL in the registry had not changed from earlier registry values.  I suspect there was a problem with Microsoft’s servers.

      Rather than modify my Device Installation Settings (potentially missing an important device update), for the time being I merely turned off logging for Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin (Under Applications and Services Logs.)  The logging toggle is in the right side Actions panel of the Event Viewer.  I’ll re-enable its logging after Microsoft has a chance to fix the issue.

    • in reply to: Microsoft Photos, Photos Legacy, and Windows 10 #2609098

      One important function of a Photos oriented app is color management.  At one point I don’t believe the Photos app was properly color managed, and I used to resort to using a registry hack to reactivate the old “Windows Photo Viewer” dll for viewing .jpg and .tif files because it is color managed to use the display ICC Profile.  While this article is about the unexpected back-porting of new Photos app features to Windows 10, also of note, this current Photos app is especially useful in Windows 11 because of it’s current color management capabilities:

      For those with 10bit and\or wide-gamut calibrated & profiled displays, some may be able to use the new “Automatically manage color for apps” (AMC) OS-wide advanced color management in Windows 11.  This also requires access to special “Advanced Color” AMC versions of ICC display profiles.  It enables wide-gamut displays to show images without them appearing over-saturated as they would appear in a non-color-managed environment or a non-color-managed app that expects an sRGB display.

      The setting to use this Windows 11 AMC feature is a toggle that can be found under the Display\Advanced Display settings if the system is deemed capable of AMC by Windows. (This toggle setting is not even shown otherwise.)

      The only app I’m aware of that natively supports the AMC configuration is the Photos app (tough to find a native-AMC-aware app-listing though!)  It can accurately display standard sRGB images as well as wide-gamut tagged images, even side-by-side.  When AMC is toggled on, non-color-managed output or apps will be displayed as sRGB color space.  Legacy color-aware apps require a Compatibility setting checked in their properties in order to continue providing accurate color-aware output beyond sRGB (Windows will then use an emulated AMC version of the legacy ICC display profile.)  Ironically, the old legacy color managed “Windows Photo Viewer”, because it’s a DLL & doesn’t have a Compatibility tab in the Properties dialog, can’t be configured to use its legacy style color management and so isn’t as ICC capable under AMC.

      For me, this accurate color management capability for Win11’s AMC is among the most important current features of the Photos app.

      1 user thanked author for this post.
    • in reply to: Do you put your computer to sleep? #2601067

      I don’t agree that “modern standby” is not ready for prime time as far as a hardware feature. It’s how Windows uses it that needs work.

      I agree. I think Modern Standby would be fine if Microsoft supplied just a few configuration options – for instance, control of whether the SoC checks for “activities” 24/7, or instead just allows the system to sleep undisturbed until wakened by the operator.  People have different requirements for their systems – a few options would better allow that.  I know, it’s tough for Microsoft to give up their control.

      But as a hardware feature, if drivers are properly configured, there’s no reason the system shouldn’t be able to “standby” through interaction of the OS and SoC, even without the BIOS/EUFI support.

       

    • in reply to: Do you put your computer to sleep? #2601060

      I don’t think Modern Standby would suit me either, but I found this recent post encouraging. It covers both disabling Modern Standby and enabling the legacy S3 sleep state. If you decide to try it, please post about the outcome.

      A year ago, I was shocked when I found out what had been substituted for my good old S3 standby on my shiny new machine, and that method was the first I soon tried to “revert” to S3 from S0.  Afterward, the “powercfg /a” command even indicated that I had successfully activated S3.  Unfortunately, S3 standby requires support from the BIOS/UEFI, and most of the manufacturers are no longer providing that code in their latest systems.  When I attempted to place the system into S3 standby:

      The system immediately went into 0-watt “sleep” (rather than typically taking a few seconds.)  But the power LED was still lit full time instead of its typical blinking for standby.  When I attempted to return from standby, power resumed to *some* components, but not to others, and video didn’t resume.  I was forced to hard-power off to restart.  So back to Modern Standby.  I’ve done so many “Sleep Studies” and even “Windows Performance Analyzer”  event tracing, trying to resolve the issues, but the only consistencies are inconsistencies.  I hate it for many reasons and am currently resigned to just powering down most of the time.  Giant step backward for me, as the legacy S3 had worked so perfectly for my prior systems – I hope S0 works better by the time I acquire my next system.

      By the way, some hackers developed a BIOS/EUFI supplement (required disabling Secure Boot, etc.) to add back S3 support, but it doesn’t seem advisable – for security purposes and possibility of bricking the system.

       

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    • in reply to: Do you put your computer to sleep? #2601056

      Hibernation writes the current system state to the drive (hidden file hyberfil.sys)  This can entail a VERY large file, depending on RAM capacity and everything that’s currently open prior to hibernation.  Writing to SSD’s over previously written storage locations many times (more likely as the drive is filled closer to capacity, and when very large files are being written frequently) can eventually wear it out.  Not sure how long that would take, but it seems like the hibernation process would be prone to SSD wear over time.  That’s the idea anyway.

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    • in reply to: Do you put your computer to sleep? #2600870

      I’ve had a few HP desktop PCs over the last couple decades, but the most recent one, rather than using the legacy S3 standby (BIOS controlled), uses the “Modern Standby”/”Instant On”/S0 low power state for “Sleep” controlled by the OS in conjunction with a System-on-Chip (SOC). Apparently with pressure from MS to comply, the hardware vendors no longer provide BIOS support for the legacy (S3) Sleep state, so standby has to be managed through the OS/SOC (S0).

      I loved the old legacy standby – I never had to restart my HP machines except for monthly updates or an occasional new hardware driver. Because it takes me 10 minutes or so to setup my preferred environment when I start my machine from boot, it was *so* much better to instead return from standby in a few seconds ready to work, or put it back to Sleep in seconds knowing I could quickly pick up where I left off. Reliably, every time – I NEVER had any problems returning from standby. Even if you didn’t have reliable electric or at least a UPS, you could configure it for Hybrid standby – which would normally return from standby quickly, but if there was a power outage the machine would recover using the contingency hibernation file.

      One related thing I’d do is make sure Scheduled Tasks weren’t configured to “Wake the computer to run this task” – no waketimers, pet peave, so they’d stay sleeping until *I* woke them.

      Now with “Modern Standby” (S0) there is no Hybrid method. And every time the monitor is soft-powered off, the system goes into S0 by design. (With legacy S3 I’d often soft-power-off the monitor while keeping the system running tasks or if I wouldn’t be using it for a while. Now I have to use a jerry-rig to keep the system running when the monitor is off: either hard-power off the monitor, or run the UAP Media Player with a song on loop & the app’s sound muted – it keeps the system from going low-power.) While in S0 deep sleep (DRIPS), the System-on-CHIP (SOC) frequently polls to see whether the system should run various tasks. This is on a FAST system that could run these tasks in a split second whether it’s idle or not, in the background without breaking a sweat. What I DON’T want is the system coming out of low power state to run these tasks all day & night. I have a hybrid SSD/HDD storage; wear & tear on the HDD from all the power-cycling is really racking up in the SMART stats. Alternatively to S0, Hibernation would put wear on the SSD & be slow. Worse, new-to-S0 users don’t initially understand why their PC doesn’t go into low power standby on request (indicated by the power-light flashing or color changed, etc.) It’s often because it’s running maintenance & myriad other tasks the moment it goes “idle” before it will eventually reach low power “DRIPS”, maybe.

      By configuring specific Scheduled Tasks to not run unless there’s an internet connection, combined with disconnecting my Ethernet cable before *every* standby, I’ve been able to tame it to behave fairly similarly to legacy S3. (There’s a “Network Disconnected” setting, but it’s ignored for most purposes.) And the system by design wants to check for updates, emails, telemetry, VoIP, “news” & other distractions, etc., *frequently*. So my work-arounds usually only work until the next Windows Update or driver update causes the power cycling to go back into over-drive or worse – fail completely in reaching low power standby. Even when working well, it can vary anywhere from 10s to 5+ minutes to not-at-all reaching low power. (You can sometimes determine what blocked it by running Microsoft’s Sleep Study reporting utility & trying to decipher the cryptic codes that can’t be found anywhere online.) The only thing it attains reliably is turning the monitor off, so at least the “perception” is that the system is sleeping.

      I often end up using my slow old equipment because S3 standby on them is so much faster & more reliable. Modern Standby, for me, severely dampens my enthusiasm for an otherwise great HP desktop system. (I won’t even get into laptop systems overheating or draining the battery from Modern Standby.) I understand why S0 would be great for *some* users, but it’s not ready for prime time and the old BIOS alternative has been removed…

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    • in reply to: My hot annoyances #2600849

      useless, uninformative notice that Windows gives when you’re trying to remove a flash drive and it tells you that it is “in use” and you can’t remove it safely. But it never tells you WHAT is using the flash drive.

      For a flash or external drive, use the Event Viewer, System event ID 225.  It should give you a pretty good idea what the lock is.  Another tool is the Process Explorer utility, Find: Handle or DLL, and search for the drive letter (with colon-backslash) of the device you’d like to safely eject.  It’ll highlight any processes pointing to that device.

      Similar notification for file sharing, when you’re trying to remove the sharing & it’s still referenced from another machine. But there are ways to track them down, such as from an elevated command prompt:

      “openfiles /query /s [node]”

      But yeah, annoying notifications, on their own, especially when Windows seems to have access to the information through various means.  Guess they’re just trying to keep it simple?

       

       

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    • in reply to: Why I leave Windows 11 alone #2593191

      Because touch screens have become fairly ubiquitous, it can lead to another challenge:

      While I enjoy touch screens on mobile devices & am sure they can be useful for desktop monitors as well — if I ever review something on my desktop monitor with a nearby person watching, I hand them one of those voting-machine-style rubber-tipped disposable pens & ask them to please not point with their fingers!  I know the inclination to assume touch screen & don’t want those hard-to-remove smudges on my carefully calibrated, profiled & immaculately clean imaging-monitor, ha, ha.

       

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    • in reply to: Why I leave Windows 11 alone #2592946

      And for those keyboardists who prefer shortcut keys over mousing to an icon, let’s not forget the alternate “Start” menu (Quick Link or WinX or Power menu, actually) that’s almost identical between Win 10 & 11:

      Windows Key combined with ‘X’.

      From there you can type ‘U’ to bring up the “Power” options (plus “Sign out”).  Or ‘N’ for “Settings”, etc…

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    • in reply to: BitLocker, Windows 11 security, and you #2577095

      On an online-ordered HP Desktop Windows 11 21H2 Home edition machine, my OOBE setup included intentionally forcing a Local account & I had not yet logged into my MS Account on the machine.  I had both an SSD primary drive and a HDD secondary drive.  To my dismay, BOTH were encrypted OOB & I didn’t realize this until I eventually visited the setting for “Device encryption”.  The setting was “On” & there was a highlighted message “Sign in to your Microsoft account to finish setting up encryption”.  On this stationary desktop I felt that with encryption I was more exposed to losing data myself than having it protected from theft.  So I DIDN’T proceed to login to a MS account, but rather was able to just toggle the setting Off, at which point both drives went through the process of decrypting.

       

      I had already made an initial disk image of the SSD onto the secondary HDD, so there was a significant amount of additional decrypting to be performed.  If I hadn’t been able to boot, I expect backup images on the secondary drive would have been fairly useless – I don’t believe the key had even been generated since I hadn’t logged into a MS account yet.  I guess the assumption is pretty good that most Home edition users will have logged into their MS account OOB rather than skipping to a Local account.

       

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    Viewing 11 replies - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)