Ed Tittel

Round Rock

Writer at Freelance

Full-time freelance writer and consultant. I cover markup languages, Windows OSes, infosec, and Web technologies.

Articles

Windows Start Soliloquy Gets Fanciful

2 days ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

MS has started a new design blog under the general heading of “Behind the Surface.” It’s entitled “Start, Fresh –Redesigning the Windows Start menu for you.” The “Windows Design Team” is named as the author, rather than one or more specific individuals. It’s an interesting read, if a bit too breathless and wonder-struck for me. Indeed although this Windows Start soliloquy gets fanciful and overdone, IMO, it’s still worth your perusal.
Copilot PowerShell Scripting Improves

6 days ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

Hopefully, the observation that Copilot PowerShell scripting improves — and keeps improving over time — is noteworthy. And I mean outside a small circle of Windows nerds. From September through November of 2023, I wrote a series of stories about customizing Windows Terminal and PowerShell for TekkiGurus. As part of my research I used Copilot to help me build a raft of PS scripts. They served to read and write files, including JSON for profiles and configurations, counting text items, and more.
Interesting UniGetUI Update Shenanigans

1 week ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

I have to laugh. I read yesterday on NeoWin that UniGetUI — Marti Climent’s excellent UI skin for WinGet, Scoop, Chocolatey and other package managers — had gotten a big update. So naturally, I wanted to try it out. Instead, I got tangled up in someĀ interesting UniGetUI update shenanigans. They were almost entirely of my own making, but worth explaining. Here goes…I’ve actually had UniGetUI installed on my PC since the days when it was named WinGetUI.
Chasing Intel esrv_svc.exe

1 week ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

Looking over my various Windows PCs and Reliability Monitor reports after a week away, I stumbled across an interesting — but not unexpected — APPCRASH. It’s got me chasing Intel esrv_svc.exe, to learn what it does, and see whether or not it’s serious. TLDR version: runs various Intel update facilities; no, it’s not.
OhMyPosh Upgrade Needs WinGet DB Reset

1 week ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

Something interesting just popped up in Windows Terminal. Literally. Upon starting Windows Terminal, I got a notification from OhMyPosh that it was updating to the latest version: 25.21.0. So I closed WinTerm and re-opened it to run WinGet upgrade –all — include-unknown. As you can see in the intro screenshot, WinGet went ahead and updated OMP again anyway.
Dev Home Leaving Soon

1 week ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

I’ve been away on a family trip to Boston. Upon returning to my desk this morning, WinGet brought a Dev Home update to the Lenovo P16 Mobile Workstation (see lead-in graphic). “Hmmmm,” I thought, “Isn’t Dev Home leaving soon?” Indeed it is, as per MS Learn as you can see in the next screencap. Good question! In the afore-linked MS Learn item, MS announced last January that Dev Home would be discontinued in May, 2025.
RDP Strangeness Requires Dogged Pursuit

2 weeks ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

There have been plenty of reports about weird Remote Desktop access issues and Windows 11 of late. Search Google for “RDP issues with Windows 11 updates” to see what I mean. Until this morning, I remained blissfully beyond that fracas. Then I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to RDP into my Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra. Indeed, overcoming this RDP strangeness requires dogged pursuit, as I will now explain.
Can Restart Application Mean Reboot?

3 weeks ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

I found myself asking the query posed in this blog post title after updating WinGet (aka Microsoft.AppInstaller) inside Windows Terminal this morning. Why? Because a routine WinGet Upgrade fielded an update to its own self (see lead-in graphic). Then it advised in yellow to “Restart the application to complete the upgrade” as shown. I did so, but it didn’t help. Indeed the upgraded version (see next screencap) didn’t appear in Windows Terminal until I rebooted the test PC.
Windowsが起動しない場合にも役立つ回復環境「WinRE」とは？

3 weeks ago | techtarget.itmedia.co.jp | Ed Tittel

ISOファイル（イメージファイル）を書き込んだブータブル（ブート可能な）メディアを使えば、「Windows」のインストールや修復が可能だ。ブータブルメディアでPCを起動すると、軽量のリカバリー専用OS「Windows Recovery Environment」（WinRE：Wiondows回復環境）を利用できる。WinREは本来のWindowsが機能しない状況でも動作し、インストールや修復などの処置を可能にする。WinREの使い方と、その機能を取り上げる。 WindowsをISOファイルからインストールする方法 WinREの実行方法ブータブルメディアでPCを起動すると、「オプションの選択」画面が表示される。WinREを実行するには、画面左下の「トラブルシューティング」をクリックしよう。画面ブータブルメディアを使ってPCを起動したときのオプションの選択画面...
Explorer AppHangB1 AppHang81 Gotcha

3 weeks ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

Whoa! Things are getting pretty esoteric. Via Reliability Monitor, I just got caught in a File Explorer AppHangB1 AppHang81 gotcha. But first, let me explain that following last Fall’s cataract surgery, I can’t see the fine print without my reading glasses anymore. I cheerfully confess I can’t see the difference between the “B1” and the “81” parts of those Problem Event Names in ReliMon unless I put my glasses on. So I have to laugh.