Newsletter Archives

• Windows file systems

  Posted on December 2, 2024 at 02:45 CST by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.49 • 2024-12-02

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Ed Tittel

  When Windows first made its debut in November 1985 — coming up on 40 years ago — it included support for a single file system named FAT.

  That’s short for File Allocation Table, a simple-minded table of on-disk (or diskette, at the time) locations where files reside, along with information about their names and attributes.

  Today, Windows supports multiple versions of FAT. Windows 10 and 11 also support two other built-in file systems.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.49.0, 2024-12-02).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Windows 11 exFAT, FAT, FAT32, HFS, HPFS, Newsletters, NTFS, ReFS

• S0 sleep in Windows 11

  Posted on October 28, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Ed Tittel

  Managing sleep and power states can be challenging on Windows PCs.

  Things can go sideways when it comes to waking up various elements of Windows — most notably, network connections. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had to disable, then re-enable, network adapters because they didn’t work after waking up from sleep.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.44.0, 2024-10-28).

  Windows 11 Hibernate, Newsletters, Sleep Mode, Windows 11

• Using USB-attached Windows media

  Posted on October 7, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.41 • 2024-10-07

  WINDOWS

  

  By Ed Tittel

  Ports, cables, and devices all matter when you hook storage to Windows via USB.

  These days, it’s undeniable that the Universal Serial Bus — better known to all as USB — is the most common way to connect external devices to desktop and mobile PCs. And USB connects much more than mouse and keyboard. It also serves all kinds of storage, printers, and scanners. Indeed, ultra-fast modern USB versions such as USB4 can even accommodate high-resolution monitors via USB-C.

  USB has come a long, long way since the first version appeared in 1996. In particular, USB lets users add storage capacity to Windows PCs, across a variety of types. In this story, we’ll take a look at options for USB-attached storage, and present some possible selection criteria for same. But first, a quick review of USB-version history.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.41.0, 2024-10-07).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Windows External Drives, Newsletters, NVMe, Performance, storage, USB, USB4

• Home-networking primer, part 2

  Posted on August 19, 2024 at 02:41 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  NETWORKING

  

  By Ed Tittel

  It’s time to revisit home-networking tools and technologies, especially on the wireless side of things.

  In this, the second of a two-part series about the basics of Windows networking at home, we progress into the boundary devices used to connect your local-area network to the provider’s network and on to the Internet. We’ll touch on device economics, mesh networks, and the enduring value and appeal of wired Ethernet in our ever-more-wireless world.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.34.0, 2024-08-19).

  Networking Boundary devices, Home Networks, ISPs, mesh networks, Newsletters, Routers

• Home-networking primer

  Posted on August 12, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  NETWORKING

  

  By Ed Tittel

  Nearly 9 out of 10 American households and businesses can access gigabit-speed Internet service. Now’s the time to up your home-networking ante and make the most of what’s available.

  According to NCTA (the former National Cable & Telecommunications Association, now known at the Internet & Television Association), “most Americans have broadband at home.” Here’s a more interesting set of follow-on statistics.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.33.0, 2024-08-12).

  Networking Cable, FIOS, Internet, Internet Speed, ISPs, Networking, Newsletters, Wi-Fi

• Control Panel and consoles in Windows 11

  Posted on June 3, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.23 • 2024-06-03

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Ed Tittel

  Control Panel element counts are shrinking, but they remain surprisingly active and entangled in Windows controls, configuration, and management.

  Although more than a decade has passed since Microsoft began migrating functionality from Control Panel into Settings, Control Panel elements remain alive and active in Windows 11. Windows consoles are also still important, and likely to remain so, as a new AI-enabled release of Windows 11 is anticipated later this year.

  But the landscape between Settings and Control Panel shifts constantly.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.23.0, 2024-06-03).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Windows 11 Control Panel, God Mode, Microsoft Consoles, Newsletters, Settings

• Settings

  Posted on May 6, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Ed Tittel

  The Settings app in Windows 11 remains endlessly under development, with the transition from Control Panel and Microsoft Management consoles far from complete.

  With the introduction of Windows 8, Microsoft began a slow and deliberate changeover in how setup, configuration, and related settings are handled. In this first of a series of stories about the Settings app and Control Panel, we’ll take a long, hard look at Settings and describe where Control Panel still appears under the Settings umbrella.

  Surprisingly, I must give Microsoft due credit. In a close examination of Control Panel holdovers that appear occasionally under the Settings umbrella, the number of such occurrences is substantially lower than I believed when I began this investigation.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.19.0, 2024-05-06).

  Windows 11 Control Panel, Microsoft Consoles, Newsletters, Settings, Windows 11

• The state of OneDrive

  Posted on February 5, 2024 at 02:43 CST by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  ONEDRIVE

  

  By Ed Tittel

  Microsoft OneDrive is a cloud-based file storage service that dates all the way back to 2007.

  It has become more tightly integrated into Windows since the Vista days, through Windows 7, 8.x, 10, and now 11. OneDrive is also available for MacOS, iOS, Android, and Xbox.

  And, of course, Microsoft 365 apps also work directly and automatically with OneDrive.

  This article seeks to describe OneDrive’s status as of early 2024 and to illuminate some specific issues or potential gotchas that OneDrive can present — at least, for some users.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.06.0, 2024-02-05).

  OneDrive Documents, Excel, Microsoft Office, Newsletters, OneDrive, Pictures, PowerPoint, Videos, Word

• Microsoft Photos, Photos Legacy, and Windows 10

  Posted on December 4, 2023 at 02:42 CST by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Ed Tittel

  An investigation into the backport of the new Microsoft Photos app into Windows 10 raises some interesting questions. Not all have answers.

  A funny thing happened to Windows 10 late this summer. Microsoft proclaimed in April that no new feature upgrades would happen for this older but still vigorous Windows OS, an unexpected feature release for Windows 10 silently upgraded the Photos app. This “new” version turns out to be the same as the Photos app in Windows 11. At the end of October, yet another Photos app, called Photos Legacy, appeared in the Microsoft Store; it supposedly matches the original version bundled with Windows 10.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.49.0, 2023-12-04).

  Windows 11 Newsletters, Photos App, Photos Legacy, Windows 10, Windows 11

• Introducing Microsoft PC Manager

  Posted on October 23, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS

  

  By Ed Tittel

  Not many people know about the Microsoft PC Manager application, despite its being available in English since October 2022.

  One reason you might not be aware of PC Manager is because it is still in beta. It also began as a Chinese-language app in early 2022, which in all likelihood would not have caught the immediate attention of English speakers.

  However, it’s clear just from the URL of PCM’s microsite, https://pcmanager.microsoft.com/, that Microsoft has plans for the program. (It even has its own logo.) You can download the program from that location.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.43.0, 2023-10-23).

  Windows Beta, Newsletters, PC Manager, Settings, Utilities

• Apps vs. applications

  Posted on October 16, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS

  

  By Ed Tittel

  In Windows 10 and 11, there are two parallel architectures for building executables.

  Let’s call the older and more familiar architecture “applications.” It uses traditional, more conventional development tools and frameworks and results in programs that typically run as .exe files.

  The newer alternative was introduced with the debut of Windows 8 in 2012 as “Metro-style apps,” using tiles in the Windows Start menu with a variety of executable formats based on what is called .appx technology.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.42.0, 2023-10-16).

  Windows Development, Newsletters, UWP, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Store

• Thunderbolt

  Posted on October 2, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ed Tittel

  Not many people know this, but Thunderbolt originated as an optical networking technology. Apple and Intel worked on its initial design.

  Known as Light Peak, it was based upon optical components and fiber-optic cables at Intel’s Silicon Photonics lab. When it turned out that copper cables could deliver the same 10 Gbps bandwidth as the more expensive and finicky optical elements, the cheaper, less demanding technology won.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.40.0, 2023-10-02).

  Hardware Docking stations, Newsletters, NVMe, Performance, Thunderbolt, USB, USB Implementers Forum
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