Microsoft Surface Diagnostic Toolkit
Microsoft Surface Diagnostic Toolkit is included in Surface Tools for IT, a package of tools designed for IT professionals to deploy, manage and secure Surface devices in organizations.
The toolkit is compatible with devices running Windows 10 and 8.1, and compatible with all Surface Pro devices, Surface 3, and Surface Book.
The download page on Microsoft's website reveals little information about each of the utilities included in the tools collection.
You can download each tool individually, some or even all of them.
- Cisco EAP Supplicant Installer
- Surface Data Eraser Installer
- Surface Deployment Accelerator
- Surface Diagnostic Toolkit
- Surface Dock Updater
Microsoft Surface Diagnostic Toolkit
The Surface Diagnostic Toolkit has a size of less than one Megabyte. You run it from any location on your Surface device after you have downloaded and extracted it to.
The first thing it will do is check for updates, and if it finds some, suggests that those are installed before the tests are run.
Once that is out of the way, you may select to run all 30 tests or run a selection of tests only. The latter is useful if you want to diagnose specific areas only such as the device's battery, the screen, or touch capabilities.
Some tests run without user interaction while others require you to do something to test a specific feature.
The pinch test requires you to test the pinch functionality for instance, the microphone test that you speak into the microphone, and the AC adapter test that you connect the Surface device to it.
This is different from most Fix It solutions that Microsoft released in the past which require no user interaction during tests.
You need the following items to run a full test
- A Bluetooth device
- A MicroSD or SD card
- A Surface Pen
- External speakers or headphones
- External display
What's being tested
- Type Cover
- Battery
- Pixel Detection
- Digitizer Edge, Pinch, Touch, Multi Touch and Pen.
- Volume Rocker
- Micro SD Card
- Microphone
- Video Out
- Bluetooth
- Camera
- Speaker
- Network
- Power
- Mobile Broadband
- Accelerometer
- Gyrometer Sensor
- Digital Compass
- Ambient Light Sensor
- Device Orientation
- Brightness
- System Assessment
- Performance
- Crash Dump
- Modern Standby
Microsoft Surface Diagnostic Toolkit results
The Microsoft Surface Diagnostic Toolkit recognizes if tests are passed for some tests automatically but not for all. For others it is you who has to select passed or failed to mark the test.
You may skip some tests on top of that but those are shown as inconclusive on the test results page then.
Tests show as passed, failed or inconclusive, and a short description may provide you with information on why a test failed.
The Battery test fails for instance if you decide not to connect the AC adapter, and that is what is highlighted in the results.
You may add a comment to the test run, and save it to a file or the clipboard. Additionally, you may re-run the test right away.
Run from the command line
You may start diagnostic tests from the command line.
The base command is Surface_Diagnostic_Toolkit_1.0.60.0.exe which will open the interface directly as if you have double-clicked on the diagnostic toolkit.
The parameter exclude enables you to start a series of tests without tests you specify, e.g.Surface_Diagnostic_Toolkit_1.0.60.0.exe “exclude=ChargingTest,CameraTest".
The parameter include does the opposite of exclude. Tests are run even if the toolkit detects that the tested functionality is not supported on the device.
The parameter forceplatformsupport enables you to run the Microsoft Surface Diagnostic Toolkit on the device even if the toolkit detects that make and model are not supported.
The fourth and final parameter logpath let's you specify a different path for the log file.
This Microsoft MSDN page lists all test names that you require when you run the program from the command line, and provides you with details about each test supported by the toolkit.
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277