AskWoody

And the Win10 version 2004 upgrade blocks just keep comin’

Microsoft keeps throwing up (phrase intended) blocks to upgrading Win10 to version 2004.

Mary Jo Foley posted a report yesterday about Microsoft clawing back its promise to upgrade its own Surface machines:

it’s not just Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro 7 that are being blocked. I’ve heard from users of everything from Surface Go 2, Surface Book 2 and 3, Surface Pro X, to other older Surface models that they cannot get Windows 10 2004 without forcing the upgrade. And I’ve heard doing so has created some issues for users who’ve gone this route.

Now comes word from Mayank Parmar at Windows Latest about yet another block. We all knew that some Win10 version 2004 pioneers ran into a bug that broke OneDrive Files-on-demand. “OneDrive cannot connect to Windows.” Now there’s an additional deluge of reports that the Win10 version 2004 installer balks at installing 2004 on some machines running OneDrive:

I was able to successfully download and install Windows 10 May 2020 Update after uninstalling Microsoft’s cloud storage app. It turns out that it’s not just me as others have also managed to remove the upgrade block by temporarily uninstalling OneDrive.

“Uninstalling OneDrive allowed me to get further and avoid the block. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong and wasted so much time trying to figure out what Lenovo update/patch/hardware update I don’t have,” one user noted in a thread on Reddit.

Of course, there’s been no official acknowledgment, and no description of who’s getting held back and why.

Consider it a blessing, folks. You really, really don’t want Win10 version 2004 until Microsoft’s worked out the major bugs.

Patch lady – pet peeves about icons

For my business needs I have to have Adobe acrobat.  It’s demanded by some of our business applications.

So when I notice tonight that the icon in my system tray of Adobe’s creative cloud (part of the software subscription suite) changed to a very annoying color, needless to say it’s another time that I ask… so whom did they get feedback from?

So what annoys you about icons?

Scheduled down time early Sunday morning, US time

We’re going to be running maintenance very early Sunday morning, July 12, from 2 am to 4 am Pacific Daylight Time. Hopefully we’ll just have intermittent, short periods of downtime.

Gotta start getting the ducks lined up….

Patch lady – don’t forget I need your feedback!

Consumer Patching Survey

Business Patching Survey

Don’t forget – I need your feedback on windows and office updating.  I’ll be closing it down after next week and tallying up the survey responses but it’s not too late to tell me (and Microsoft) what you think!

Are your iPhone apps crashing this morning?

Looks like there’s a(nother) bug in the Facebook logon sequence.

Spotify, Pinterest, Tinder and others may freeze – even if you don’t have the Facebook app installed. Why? Because those apps, and many others, use the Facebook logon code.

There’s a solution – install a VPN, specifically Lockdown Apps.

Details from Tom Warren at The Verge.

The Facebook status report is here.

Nvidia is now worth more than Intel

I saw that headline and couldn’t believe it.

As of this writing, very early Friday morning, Nvidia lists at $420.36, for a total market capitalization (number of outstanding shares * share price) of $258.52 billion.

Intel lists at $58.42, for a market cap of $247.35 billion.

Absolutely phenomenal result of Nvidia’s branching into more-than-graphics.

PC sales rose significantly in the second quarter. Chromebooks, too.

From IDC (which includes Chromebooks in its “PC” numbers):

The second quarter of 2020 (2Q20) ended well for the Traditional PC market, comprised of desktops, notebooks, and workstations, with global shipments growing 11.2% year over year reaching a total of 72.3 million units… Early indicators suggest strong PC shipments for education, enterprise, and consumer, muted somewhat by frozen SMBs,

You small and medium businesses (he says, looking in the mirror) haven’t been keeping up the pace. Maybe it has something to do with available capital. Or maybe it’s just “Meh, what I have is good enough.”

United States Traditional PC shipments posted double-digit growth in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the same period a year ago. While the first quarter was record breaking for the lowest PC shipments seen in over a decade, the second quarter was record breaking for the opposite reason. With volumes expected to surpass 21 million units, the US has not seen such volume since the end of 2009.

From Gartner (which doesn’t count Chromebooks in the “PC” category, for some bizarre historical reason):

Worldwide PC Shipments Grew 2.8% (year-over-year) in Second Quarter of 2020… After a significant decline in the first quarter of the year due to COVID-19-related supply chain disruptions, the PC market returned to growth as vendors restocked their channels and mobile PC demand increased.

I’d be hard-pressed to say that the dip in 1st quarter demand was primarily due to “supply chain disruptions,” but I don’t have a team of high-priced clairvoyants at hand.

The big PC manufacturers: Lenovo (25%), HP (24.9%), Dell (16.4%), Apple (6.7% – doesn’t include iPads), Acer (6.2%), ASUS (5.5%).

New AskWoody Knowledge Base article: How to rip audio CDs, reliably and at highest quality

@NetDef has come up with a tour de force – the most thorough guide I’ve seen to ripping audio CDs. He takes you through every step, in meticulous detail, to go from an ephemeral CD (don’t touch it on the shiny part, bucko!) to a battle-hardened, full-fidelity file.

If you’ve ever wondered how to go from analog sound to digital, this is the ultimate guide.

AKB 4000010: A Guide to Archiving RedBook Standard Audio CD’s