Russell Smith

“I ate lunch five times this week for the first time in two years.” This unlikely customer quote captures what makes Reclaim AI feel revolutionary. It isn’t that it adds something new to your calendar — it’s that it makes your existing one finally work the way it should. Reclaim, founded by Henry Shapiro and…

This Week in IT, Microsoft 365 services are coming to local datacenters, Windows 365 Reserve promises continuity in the event of physical device issues, and Amazon CEO warns on AI adoption. Episode overview This Week in IT:

Microsoft’s June 2025 Patch Tuesday update introduced a bug that can break the DHCP service on Windows Server versions 2016, 2019, 2022, and 2025. On the support page for KB5060842 (OS Build 26100.4349), Microsoft notes as a known issue: The DHCP Server service might intermittently stop responding after installing this security update. This issue affects…

This Week in IT, Insiders can now test Microsoft’s updated Start menu for Windows 11 but will the changes be enough to convince Windows 10 users to migrate? Plus, Microsoft stalls on Patch Tuesday updates and releases a fix for Windows Server 2025 domain controller network connectivity issues. Links and resources Episode overview This week…

This Week in IT, a new report says UK government employees only saved 26 minutes a day with Copilot, AI could mean you get a pay rise while others lose their jobs, and organizations are looking to repatriate certain cloud workloads. Links and resources Episode overview This episode focuses on AI’s impact on productivity and…

In this episode of Petri Dish, Russell interviews Henry Shapiro, co-founder of ‪Reclaim AI. Reclaim AI helps users manage their schedules in Google Calendar and Outlook by synchronizing multiple calendars and automating tasks like scheduling, rescheduling, and prioritizing events to improve productivity and work-life balance. Henry also discusses the challenges faced developing features for Outlook…

Microsoft wants organizations to migrate to Windows 11 before October 2025. And to help things along, they have released a new backup tool, called Windows Backup for Organizations, that aims to smoothly migrate user settings for devices not connected to a corporate intranet. What is Windows Backup for Organizations (WBfO)? Microsoft announced this week that…

This Week in IT, Microsoft is releasing a new backup tool for Windows ahead of Windows 10 end of life later this year, updating apps could be set to become a whole lot easier, and there’s some important updates for orgs using Microsoft Intune. Links and resources Episode overview This Week in IT, Russell discusses…

Microsoft announced Administrator Protection for Windows 11 at its Build 2025 conference. Administrator Protection will affect how developers create applications for Windows 11. What is Windows Administrator Protection? Windows 11 Administrator Protection provides local administrators with more protection without putting limitations on functionality they might need to get their jobs done. Microsoft revealed in its…

This Week in IT, I look at the most important Build announcements for sysadmins, including a big update to Windows 11 security, updates to the Windows Subsystem for Linux, and Microsoft 365 Copilot announcements. Links and resources Episode overview This week in IT, Russell looks at key announcements from Build 2025, focusing on security updates…

PowerTree is a free tool that is now available to download for PowerShell 7+ on GitHub. It’s similar to the Windows tree command but provides advanced filtering, sorting, and display options that make exploring and documenting file systems more efficient. For example, unlike the tree command in Windows, with PowerTree you can: Install PowerTree PowerTree…

Despite Microsoft’s ambitions for Windows 11, users are not impressed and organizations are reluctantly migrating from Windows 10 as it reaches end of life. Stardock’s Brad Sams thinks users can be productive with Windows 11 — if you give organizations better control over the desktop experience. It’s no secret that Windows 11 got off to…