Monthly Archives: January 2025

winget – like apt-get for Linux and brew for Mac?

I was today years old when I learned that winget is a thing for windows.

I powered up my ancient Lenovo ideapad FLEX 4 (so old, it cannot run Windows 11) today, and looked to see what updates where waiting. There were plenty in the Microsoft Store plus some in Windows Update. I only use this machine for running my vinyl cutter and laser engraver, so there is not much on it.

Due to the tiny SSD hard drive, I do have WinDirStat installed. It is a nice tool that will show you what is using up all your hard drive space.

I went to the WinDirStat website to look for updates:

WinDirStat – Downloads

My version was quite behind, so I was abouty to download the installer then I noticed this:

You may also install it with:

📦 winget install -e –id WinDirStat.WinDirStat (or use winget upgrade subsequently)

📦 scoop install extras/windirstat (requires scoop bucket add extras)

WinDirStat – Downloads

I am pretty sure I have used winget before to install some developer thing, but was unaware that it was used by other apps.

Typing “winget upgrade” showed me that it recognized several things on my PC:

C:\Users\alspl>winget upgrade
Name                                         Id                                    Version        Available      Source
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WinMerge 2.16.18.0 x64                       WinMerge.WinMerge                     2.16.18.0      2.16.44.0      winget
Windows PC Health Check                      Microsoft.WindowsPCHealthCheck        3.6.2204.08001 3.7.2204.15001 winget
Microsoft ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server      Microsoft.msodbcsql.17                17.7.2.1       17.10.6.1      winget
Microsoft Visual Studio Code                 Microsoft.VisualStudioCode            1.91.1         1.96.4         winget
Visual Studio Community 2022                 Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.Community 17.4.1         17.12.3        winget
Dropbox                                      Dropbox.Dropbox                       216.4.4420     217.3.4243     winget
Google Chrome                                Google.Chrome.EXE                     131.0.6778.267 132.0.6834.111 winget
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributa… Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x86          14.31.31103.0  14.42.34433.0  winget
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributa… Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64          14.40.33810.0  14.42.34433.0  winget
Slack                                        SlackTechnologies.Slack               4.39.93        4.42.115       winget
Lenovo Service Bridge                        Lenovo.ServiceBridge                  5.0.2.9        5.0.2.17       winget
App Installer                                Microsoft.AppInstaller                1.23.1911.0    1.24.25200.0   winget
Dev Home                                     Microsoft.DevHome                     0.1900.687.0   0.1901.687.0   winget
13 upgrades available.

I tried “winget upgrade WinMerge.WinMerge” and saw it kick off and download the installer, then launch it. Very cool! It even has a spinning cursor while downloading :)

There is a “winget upgrade – all” option that should do all of them. The installers may pop up an authorization box you have to click on, so they are not fully automated, but still neat.

Did I do something on this computer years ago to install winget, or is it on any Windows 10/11 system just waiting to be used? Give “winget upgrade” a try on your PC and let me know if it works…

I have some upgrading to do.

Until next time…

Early 1980s BBSes and spinning cursors.

4 Replies

There is a whole generation that has no idea how much cool stuff folks did with text and backspace.

One of my favorites was the “spinning cursor.” Thanks to slow speeds of 300 baud modems, you could get some interesting effects by printing a letter, then printing a character like a slash (“/”), then a backspace, then a dash (“-“), then a backspace, then a backslash (“\”), then a backspace, then a vertical bar (“|”) or exclamation mark (“!”) if your system did not have the vertical bar. Then a backspace and the next letter of the message.

Apparently I got nostalgic about this effect some time ago. I just found this “Spinning Cursor” C project I wrote on the Online GDB compiler:

https://onlinegdb.com/56zozL_gRp

Go there and you can RUN the project and see it in all its glory…

Copy files to/from Insta360 app on iPhone/iPad

2 Replies

Updates:

2025-05-06 – Files must be in a folder called “IMPORT” then you drag that in. BUT, this is no longer documented in the X5 manual, and in testing today, it does not appear to work with the current V2 App and X5. Instead, you can create “DCIM\X5” and put files there, then drag that in (it will erase all current files on the X5). I then had to disconnect from the computer and restart the app to see them. I tested this with 10 photos today and it worked, so I will be updating this article with the new steps as soon as get a moment.

Today, I asked Microsoft Copilot if it knew how to get Insta360 files into the phone app. TO my surprise, it referenced the official Insta360 support page, and this blog post.

I decided to take a look at what I wrote, and found an issue to correct. This is the fixed version.

This topic seems to come up often, which is maybe it shouldn’t since Insta360 even documents these steps. Here is the background…

If you have an Insta360 360 camera such as the ONE X, ONE X2, X3, X4 or X5, you can run the Insta360 App and download photos/videos from the camera for editing on your phone or tablet. You can then export them out and share them as normal photos, reframed videos or even 360 photos/videos.

If you want to backup the original files your phone/tablet downloaded, you can do that too by plugging the phone/tablet up to your computer via the USB sync cable.

On macOS, when you plug in the device and allow it to connect, it will show up under the Finder. You can select it and get a series of “tabs” in the Finder on what you want to look at. By selecting Files you have access to the file system of the device:

Look for the “Insta360” app and expand it:

If you want to copy .insv/.insp files TO the phone app, you must first copy them into a folder named IMPORT. Once there, you can drag that IMPORT folder into the Insta360 app.

They will be copied via USB and placed into the location where the app will recognize them and you can edit them on your device. You will see a new status line in the bottom of the iPhone file browser:

If you want to copy files OUT of the phone, you cannot pick and choose, but you can drag the entire DCIM folder out from this window to wherever you want it copied and all the raw .insv/.insp/etc. files that have been imported into the Insta360 app will be copied there, likely much faster over USB than they would over WiFi from the camera in the first place. You will then be able to backup these files, or drag them into the desktop Insat360 app for editing.

It would be nice to have some kinda of automated script to do this (perhaps one that monitors for the phone/tablet to be connected then runs, backing up all the DCIM files automatically). If there is interest, I can look into trying to create one.

And if you want to read these instructions direct from Insat360, they are found in the manual. Here is the entry from the online X3 manual:

https://onlinemanual.insta360.com/x3/en-us/camera/filetransfer

We could do better…

That said… What would really be nice would be for Insta360 just to support the built-in Files system on iOS/iPadOS. Most of the apps I use allow me to export a file to anything mounted in my Files app. If you have installed Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, etc., they show up and apps can just save a file there. If it is a cloud service, they will automatically sync to the cloud via that app. There are also FTP clients that look like drives, so you can export to a location and have it FTP to your own server. Likewise, most apps I use allow me to open from the Files app, so I can import files I have saved on Dropbox or whatever.

This also allows access to external USB hard disks or memory cards attached to the Lightning or USB-C port of the device using the appropriate adapter.

Insta360 may not be doing this because they knew they were planning to bring out their own cloud service they charge for. If they had allowed support for the native Files system, you’d be able to do all of this “for free” with any cloud service you were already using and there would be very little reason to subscribe to their subscription cloud service

But who knows… Maybe if enough of us ask them for it, we might see it. You can contact Insta360 and ask them here:

https://www.insta360.com/support