Ed Tittel

Round Rock

Writer at Freelance

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

Articles

Still No Snapdragon X Mini-PCs

1 day ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

I’m disappointed, and more than a little curious. Last year Qualcomm announced a pilot program offering developer kits with Snapdragon X CPU in a mini-PC format. I bought in, only to see the program cancelled. Then, I spent two months chasing my refund down. The lead-in graphic is a publicity still of that very device from Qualcomm itself. Other companies, including Lenovo and Geekom, announced plans to release SFF PCs built around this SoC in early 2025.
Recent Rising Reclaimable Counts

2 days ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

Recently, I’ve been noticing that Cumulative Updates (CUs) typically leave upwards of 10 or more reclaimable packages around, following installation. If my memory is any guide, numbers from 2-4 had been more typical until earlier this year. But recent rising reclaimable counts seem all too likely these days.
WinGet Source Winget Goes MIA

3 days ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

This morning, I find myself in an interesting pickle. On about half the PCs in the mini-fleet here at Chez Tittel, the default source for WinGet came up “missing” this morning. You can see the evidence in the lead-in graphic, which shows winget missing from the list of available sources, and says it cannot find a source with that name. Thus, when I say that WinGet source winget goes missing, I mean winget itself cannot find its usual default source, period.
Prepping New 5800X Production PC

4 days ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

Son Gregory went off to college in Fall 2022. He took a desktop PC with him. Next Fall, he’s off to LA for a film industry internship as his capstone semester. That desktop is now mine: that’s why I’m prepping “new” 5800X production PC with a few items on order. The old Antec A201 case got too beat up in return shipment to remain usable.
Windows 11 24H2 Makes USB4 Mandatory

5 days ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

I have to chuckle, just a little. Last Friday (May 30) MS released a Tech Community blog post that changes the latest Windows 11 Windows Hardware Compatibility Program (WHCP) requirements. I’m chuckling, because this change attaches to a 2024 version and it’s already half-way past 2025 (or nearly; and it’s almost 8 months after this OS went public on October 1, 2024).
「Windowsが動く仕組み」をカーネルから読み解く OS“心臓部”の正体とは：Windows「カーネル」の基礎【前編】

6 days ago | techtarget.itmedia.co.jp | Ed Tittel

カーネルはOSとハードウェアの橋渡し役として常に動作し続けており、保護されたメモリ領域（カーネル空間）に配置されている。その主な役割は以下の通り。タスクのスケジューリングや処理プロセスの割り当てと管理メモリ、ストレージ、ネットワーク通信、デバイスアクセスなど、システム全体のリソース管理このようにカーネルは、OSの稼働を支える要となる存在だ。カーネルがクラッシュすると、PCは完全に停止して操作ができなくなる。Microsoftはこのエラーを「STOPエラー」と呼んでいる。画面全体が青くなり、白い文字でエラーメッセージが表示されることから、「ブルースクリーン」あるいは「ブルースクリーン・オブ・デス」という名称でも知られている。...
Disturbing Thunderbolt 5 Revelation

1 week ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

I just read (and recommend) an interesting WinCentral story about the latest, emerging Thunderbolt standard from Intel — namely, Thunderbolt 5. It confirms my suspicions that laptop and PC makers have been slow to incorporate this technology in their products. Indeed, the story’s author, Cale Hunt, reports he’s found exactly ONE laptop with such capability: the Razer Blade 18 2024, whose weight, size and accoutrement position it as a gaming-oriented device.
Time Server Selection Gradual Rollout

1 week ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

Here we go again. I get back to the office after a week away, to learn that time server selection is moving from Control Panel to Settings in Dev and Beta Channel releases. But, there’s a pretty typical time server selection gradual rollout underway. And guess what: my Beta Channel test PC, as usual, is not in the vanguard of those being offered that update. That’s a distressingly familiar phenom, for yours truly.
Outlook .DOCX Files Won't Open

2 weeks ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

Here’s a pretty pickle. My most-used professional writing tool is MS Word, and I’m an Outlook user, too. A couple of days ago, I noticed that sent as attachments to Outlook .DOCX files won’t open. The first time it happened: I thought: “Corruption.” The second time, I thought: “Hmmmm. Something is up.” The third time, I KNEW “Time for Office repairs.”Over the years I’ve written about fixing MS Office when it breaks or gets weird.
X380 Yoga Is Not Quite QMR-able

2 weeks ago | edtittel.com | Ed Tittel

It’s been a long time coming, and it’s on its way out. QMR is, of course, Quick Machine Recovery. It’s a facility to let an unbootable Windows image grab a repair and fix itself, from WU or other sources. MS announced it at Ignite 2024, and it started rolling out to the Beta Channel for Windows 11 24H2 in March 2025. It showed up on my Beta test PC — a Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga –earlier this week. But alas, that X380 Yoga is not quite QMR-able just yet.