Windows 11

[Kent88]

I might've done something silly. I ordered a new computer from system76.

I'm really comfortable with Linux, so I don't have an issue with that. I've not ordered from them before, they're kind of expensive, and I didn't order a machine with a lot of upgrade potential.

Should be delivered tomorrow.

 

[day_trippr]

So MS was two days late with the KB5053656 update for W11 24H2. The article below lists lots of changes. If it shows up on my two 24H2 systems I will give it a try - after checkpointing first!

https://www.neowin.net/amp/windows-...-ai-powered-search-gamepad-keyboard-and-more/

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

KB5053656 installed on my workstation right after KB5054979 which is a .NET cumulative update. In true Microsoft fashion, the two packages "installed" then asked for a restart. But I noticed when the system headed to reset it didn't play the "percent complete" that always ends in 30% before restarting, nor was there any indication of an update finishing when the system was booting back up.

I checked the update history and sure enough, neither of those update appeared. So I tried the update again, but this time restarted after the first package installed (KB5054979) instead of waiting for both to finish. This time when the system was going down and coming back up it did the % complete things, and once logged in I checked the update history and KB5054979 showed as installed. So I installed KB5053656 which this time actually installed.

Looks like the full suite of features will be dribbled out over time (not really understanding this). For example there's is a purported addition to the Taskbar Personalization that adds an "Emoji Panel" that can be summoned via a pinned taskbar button, but while the panel can be summoned via 'Windows + period', the taskbar shortcut isn't available here yet. And many of the new features only appear on Copilot+ machines with their NMUs...

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Is this the Windows help desk forum? My desktop pc just had an odd error message stating that it could not repair the system, and that details were in D:\Recovery\WindowsRE\WinRe.wim\System32\logfiles\Srt\SrtTail.txt

Desktop won't boot at all. so I pulled the disk, and plugged it to into an external USB SATA device, to see if I could locate that "\SrtTail.txt" file, but nothing else sees any new/unknown drives (sample size: my laptop, my son's desktop).

The drive in question is a WD Blue 3D NAND 1 TB solid state, and I'm wondering if there's any hope for grabbing any files off of it, or is this a lost cause?

 

[day_trippr]

It would be unusual to get a message like that if the file hadn't already been written out. If the write failed you'd typically get notification to that effect.

Anyway, "D:" typically isn't a boot partition - but it could be a partition on the same physical drive as the boot partition (typically, "C:")
If there's only a single storage device on your sons PC, then this question is moot: are you sure the SSD has the "D:" partition, or could it be on a different drive?

 

[hilljack13]

Desktop won't boot at all

Are you talking about the black desktop that still shows your mouse pointer? I have had this issue since Oct/Nov 2024. Happened tonight. I thought it was related to updates, but after several months of random happenings, I found that if I create a new user and play around on that profile for a short while, I can login to my normal account.

I had the same issue on my desktop as well. Once I did a repair install I haven't had it happen. I'm just procrastinating on doing the same for my laptop.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Are you talking about the black desktop that still shows your mouse pointer? I have had this issue since Oct/Nov 2024. Happened tonight. I thought it was related to updates, but after several months of random happenings, I found that if I create a new user and play around on that profile for a short while, I can login to my normal account.

It was a blue screen, saying that repair failed, with two buttons: one to shut down, and one to repair. The repair fails every time, and the desktop box won't do anything else.

I had the same issue on my desktop as well. Once I did a repair install I haven't had it happen. I'm just procrastinating on doing the same for my laptop.

I'm gonna take this opportunity to just get a new hard drive, and put Linux on it. I really don't need Windows for much any more, mostly just some Steam games, and my motherboard didn't support Win11 (officially, at least), so I was planning on doing this anyway, but now it's just gonna be a few months early.

And rue the fact that I've not backed this dead drive up in the last 4 years

 

[tracer bullet]

It was a blue screen, saying that repair failed, with two buttons: one to shut down, and one to repair. The repair fails every time, and the desktop box won't do anything else.

Day_Trippr's got a good question about the D drive, it's possibly a backup partition (though that might normally be hidden), a CD drive (?) or even a USB or similar that was inserted at some point but now removed. So there's some chance you can find whatever used to be D and put it back into place?

Was it a purchased PC from a company such as Dell for example? If so there is probably a hidden partition with recovery stuff on it. With the right key combos you might even reinstall Windows and do it while keeping the majority of your files and programs and such intact. There's the totally clean install, but should also be a repair version.

Even if you give up on Windows you can diagnose the drive and see if it's OK - it might be, and if it is will save you some $'s.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Day_Trippr's got a good question about the D drive, it's possibly a backup partition (though that might normally be hidden), a CD drive (?) or even a USB or similar that was inserted at some point but now removed. So there's some chance you can find whatever used to be D and put it back into place?

The defunct desktop has a second, spinning hard disk with D: and E: virtual drives/partitions (the D: one being particularly useless). I will pull that out and pop it in the external USB SATA thingy and look for it tomorrow evening. Gotta finish up some crap for work before I sleep, or else I'd look tonight yet.

Was it a purchased PC from a company such as Dell for example? If so there is probably a hidden partition with recovery stuff on it. With the right key combos you might even reinstall Windows and do it while keeping the majority of your files and programs and such intact. There's the totally clean install, but should also be a repair version.

It was a pretty nice (at the time - 2019?) refurb Acer from MicroCenter in St Louis Park, MN, that I'd added the solid state disk, a really nice video card, and extra RAM 5+ years ago. Been trouble free until this evening, when I saw that error message.

Even if you give up on Windows you can diagnose the drive and see if it's OK - it might be, and if it is will save you some $'s.

Fingers crossed! I shall follow-up tomorrow...

 

[Kent88]

I might've done something silly. I ordered a new computer from system76.

I'm really comfortable with Linux, so I don't have an issue with that. I've not ordered from them before, they're kind of expensive, and I didn't order a machine with a lot of upgrade potential.

Should be delivered tomorrow.

Well, it handles video playback better than Raspberry Pi OS, plays FreeCol, and renders video with OpenShot.

I think there's a place for it in my home network.

 

[sibelman]

get a new hard drive, and put Linux on it.

I support this choice. But buy soon: tech is already showing price rises due to, er, developments.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Fingers crossed! I shall follow-up tomorrow...

Can't pull the other platter-based hard disk out of the case due to the way it's mounted, without removing the entire front panel again (not the side), and that is a nightmare I don't care to revisit. So I downloaded Linux Mint "Cinnamon" .iso, but the tool (Etcher) they recommended to use for making a bootable usb stick just locks up when I select that .iso file. Attempting to use Etcher's "from URL" option... (sofa king slow)

effin' computers, amiright?

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Can't pull the other platter-based hard disk out of the case due to the way it's mounted, without removing the entire front panel again (not the side), and that is a nightmare I don't care to revisit. So I downloaded Linux Mint "Cinnamon" .iso, but the tool (Etcher) they recommended to use for making a bootable usb stick just locks up when I select that .iso file. Attempting to use Etcher's "from URL" option... (sofa king slow)

effin' computers, amiright?

Bah, shoulda just gone with Rufus in the first place... making progress finally.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

So Rufus for the win(doh's)! Didn't feel like putting the desktop pc back together, so I just ran the Linux Mint "live" boot image on my laptop... and I gotta say it was very nice! Still going to boot the desktop with the Linux Mint usb thingy this weekend, just to see what Windows choked on with my old NAND flash drive and the "unable to recover" message, in that SrtTail.txt logfile, but I'm honestly looking forward to removing Microsoft and Windows from my life completely! Gonna miss all the crap that never got backed up on the old (dead? I'm 99% certain) drive tho

Also: balena/etcher is hot garbage, get Rufus for all your bootable USB disk-image needs.

 

[shoengine]

Hmm, etcher "just works" for all my pi images.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Only took me about 10 tries to "prove I'm not a robot" for Steam account recovery...

 

[balrog]

Only took me about 10 tries to "prove I'm not a robot" for Steam account recovery...

I just learnt that the simple act of checking a box to "not be a robot" had nothing to do with the box, or the checking thereof, but rather how the mouse moved as it went to, arrived, and checked the box. At least that's what I read on the internet. So it must be true.

 

[day_trippr]

Heads up for a broken update being recalled...

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-blue-screen-crashes-caused-by-april-updates/

 

[balrog]

Heads up for a broken update being recalled...

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-blue-screen-crashes-caused-by-april-updates/

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

Heads up for a broken update being recalled...

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-blue-screen-crashes-caused-by-april-updates/

Good source for information, I've used them for years

 

[day_trippr]

So my best laid plans wrt upgrading my system from an i9-12900KS to an i9-14900KS went awry. Even though I waited patiently for Intel to claim they had solved the 14th gen CPU self-destruction issues this fall via microcode, and gave it another three months just to see what the consensus opinion on the "fix" might be, the i9-14900KS I bought locally and installed on February 15th only took a bit over 2 weeks before it yakked up its first bluescreen bug check.

From there I started noticing applications abending, drivers borking, and BSODs roughly 3 days apart in the beginning, then increasing in frequency until three weeks ago it was bug checking when restarting from bug checks. No bueno! Went through the usual debugging protocol checking memory and drivers and even doing an OS roll-back, but in the end it was clear, that processor was heading towards the light.

I had already moved my old i9-12900KS into a brand new build for my wife so that wasn't available, so I bought another one locally (so thankful for Microcenter Cambridge!), plugged that in, and all of the crapola immediately went away. Let that chip run for the last two and half weeks with literally zero issues, then started the RMA process with Intel to get a replacement 14th gen CPU.

Intel just tonight concurred from all the log files I sent that the processor was defective and they have initiated the replacement process, even sending a pre-paid mailer to return the chip. The rep I'm dealing with when asked claimed that the replacement chips are going through an extra level of qualification testing, so hopefully the i9-14900KS - which as the nee-plus-ultra flagship 14th gen CPU is also the most prone to the failure mechanism that plagued the 13th and 14th gen Core processors - will work for long enough to be worth the effort (and $$)...

Cheers! (fingers crossed )

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Update on my transition from win10 to linux mint (cinnamon)... It's been very easy to adjust to. My 4 biggest peeves are:

• Inkscape doesn't work exactly like it did on win10 (I haven't put much effort into figuring out why yet)
• Haven't found anything as nice/simple as paint-dot-net for raster image editing (installed gimp: YIKES, Pinta looks like it might do with some effort put into learning it's interface layout).
• Most of my steam games don't work on anything but windows
• I liked having Visual Studio on hand to whip up a quick-n-dirty WinForms app in C# for any old task and I don't know where to even begin for anything like that in linux.

 

[mac_1103]

Heads up for a broken update being recalled...

Well I let my guard down and KB5055523 installed on my laptop overnight. No blue screen yet.

 

[Kent88]

Update on my transition from win10 to linux mint (cinnamon)... It's been very easy to adjust to. My 4 biggest peeves are:

• Inkscape doesn't work exactly like it did on win10 (I haven't put much effort into figuring out why yet)
• Haven't found anything as nice/simple as paint-dot-net for raster image editing (installed gimp: YIKES, Pinta looks like it might do with some effort put into learning it's interface layout).
• Most of my steam games don't work on anything but windows
• I liked having Visual Studio on hand to whip up a quick-n-dirty WinForms app in C# for any old task and I don't know where to even begin for anything like that in linux.

The Gimp is a bit intimidating, but I think there are a lot of tutorials out there for it.

I don't do anything remotely complicated with image editing/manipulation, so it far exceeds anything I would need.

Steam games... I feel your pain. I'd like to game more, but I get by. Looking at the new Nintendo console that should be available later this year.

There are plenty of Linux programs for software development. I don't know about C# though. That's something I have never been interested in coding in.

 

[shoengine]

Most of my steam games don't work on anything but windows

This may not fit your use case, but for years I've been running a laptop as my main PC because I love the mobility. However once I'm done with my classes I'm nuking Windows on the laptop and moving to Xubuntu. Steam is a problem but I've had extremely good experiences streaming from a Windows PC and playing directly on a different laptop with Linux, so my plan is to build a proper gaming rig, and when I want to play Windows only games I'll just use that rig or stream onto my Steam from the laptop.

 

[balrog]

claimed that the replacement chips are going through an extra level of qualification testing, so hopefully the i9-14900KS - which as the nee-plus-ultra flagship 14th gen CPU is also the most prone to the failure mechanism that plagued the 13th and 14th gen Core processors - will work for long enough to be worth the effort (and $$)...

Just, wow. Makes me want to keep avoiding Intel.

 

[day_trippr]

Yeah, probably best advise. I would as well, but given my sunk costs for motherboard and memory and CPUs it'd be hard to justify going to Team Red right now (though if I did that Ryzen 9 9950X3D looks sweet!)

If the replacement CPU has legs it'll be ok. If not...the 12th gen to 14th gen performance uplift is roughly 30%. I could live with the 12th gen chip for a year I'm sure and think about changes then...

Cheers!

 

[Kent88]

Oddly enough, this is a Linux console:

https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck/

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

Just a heads up I just read an email that said don't delete this folder "inetpub"


⊞ Windows

Warning: Do not delete inetpub folder in Windows 11
Microsoft recently warned Windows 11 users not to delete the "inetpub" folder that appeared after the April 2025 update. Initially, many users suspected this folder was a bug introduced by Windows 11 KB5055523 and other April updates, including those for Windows 10. However, Microsoft has confirmed that creating this "inetpub" folder is intentional and related to a security patch for CVE-2025-21204

 

[balrog]

Just a heads up I just read an email that said don't delete this folder "inetpub"


⊞ Windows

Warning: Do not delete inetpub folder in Windows 11
Microsoft recently warned Windows 11 users not to delete the "inetpub" folder that appeared after the April 2025 update. Initially, many users suspected this folder was a bug introduced by Windows 11 KB5055523 and other April updates, including those for Windows 10. However, Microsoft has confirmed that creating this "inetpub" folder is intentional and related to a security patch for CVE-2025-21204

I saw that yesterday.
I do have that on my Win Sys drive, but hadn't noticed it.

 

[doug293cz]

I saw that yesterday.
I do have that on my Win Sys drive, but hadn't noticed it.

I have the inetpub directory, but it's (apparently) empty. What could it be for?

Brew on

 

[day_trippr]

I came across that a week ago last Tuesday, first on my wife's system, then mine. I created a Restore Point and messed with it on my machine and then learned I shouldn't have, so did the System Restore and all was fine again. Left it alone on both systems from there.

One article I read back then said the folder was empty, but my system had folders and files in a tree rooted at C:\inetpub. One of the files is this IIS image:

and the other file launches a "free" IIS trial...

Cheers!

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

https://www.windowslatest.com/2025/...elete-inetpub-folder-after-causing-confusion/

 

[doug293cz]

https://www.windowslatest.com/2025/...elete-inetpub-folder-after-causing-confusion/

"Microsoft will not explain why the empty folder is required to apply the security fixes." wtf?

Brew on

 

[balrog]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. MS knows what is best for you.



When does Clippy come back I wonder.

 

[Kent88]

From what I understand Clippy is living well on his royalties from his ... ahem... adult book.

Don't Google it. I wish I hadn't.

Or do Google it. I still don't recommend googling it, but I have no say in what a bunch of random people on the Internet do, and I'm not here to kink shame.

 

[shoengine]

I came across that a week ago last Tuesday, first on my wife's system, then mine. I created a Restore Point and messed with it on my machine and then learned I shouldn't have, so did the System Restore and all was fine again. Left it alone on both systems from there.

One article I read back then said the folder was empty, but my system had folders and files in a tree rooted at C:\inetpub. One of the files is this IIS image:
View attachment 873514

and the other file launches a "free" IIS trial...

Cheers!

inetpub is the default root of IIS, but that is strange that they are sticking it on machines with no IIS. Mine is devoid of anything for sure. No symlinks as far as I can tell.

Hopefully we all get obligatory IIS installs to vastly increase our attack surface!

 

[estricklin]

Update on my transition from win10 to linux mint (cinnamon)... It's been very easy to adjust to. My 4 biggest peeves are:

• Inkscape doesn't work exactly like it did on win10 (I haven't put much effort into figuring out why yet)
• Haven't found anything as nice/simple as paint-dot-net for raster image editing (installed gimp: YIKES, Pinta looks like it might do with some effort put into learning it's interface layout).
• Most of my steam games don't work on anything but windows
• I liked having Visual Studio on hand to whip up a quick-n-dirty WinForms app in C# for any old task and I don't know where to even begin for anything like that in linux.

Don't grieve for the loss of Winforms, it's outdated at this point. In Linux, GTK is a very widely used GUI toolbox, but can also be used cross platform. I've only used it in C, so if your dead set on C# there are some options out there, but I won't speak to them because I have no personal experience.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Don't grieve for the loss of Winforms, it's outdated at this point. In Linux, GTK is a very widely used GUI toolbox, but can also be used cross platform. I've only used it in C, so if your dead set on C# there are some options out there, but I won't speak to them because I have no personal experience.

Oh, I know it's outdated, has been for almost 20 years! But I just knew it really well, and now the prospect of learning something completely new just has me thinking: ain't nobody got time for that.

 

[estricklin]

Oh, I know it's outdated, has been for almost 20 years! But I just knew it really well, and now the prospect of learning something completely new just has me thinking: ain't nobody got time for that.

I completely understand, I work in tech and I've had the rug jerked out from under me before too. If your looking for something to get up and going fast with, TKinter (Python) is as easy as it gets for building GUI Applications with, and Linux friendly to boot.