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Russell Smith, the Editorial Director at Petri IT Knowledgebase, has over two decades of hands-on experience in IT, in both small business settings and government IT infrastructure projects.
Russell started writing for Windows IT Pro Magazine in the early 2000s. Since then, he has contributed insights to various IT publications, including Petri and CDW. His authoritative voice has resonated across industry blogs, where he dissects complex topics into an ‘easy read’.
Russell has authored over a thousand articles, each a testament to his depth of knowledge. His expertise doesn’t stop there: he wrote a book on Privilege Management and co-authored another for Microsoft’s MOAC series. Moreover, Russell’s commitment to education shines through in the courses he crafted for Pluralsight.
He is also presenter on his own YouTube channel, This Week in IT, and the current presenter of Petri Dish.

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
Windows 11 is now generally available, there are already fixes for a long list of bugs and performance issues with AMD processors, and Android apps come to users in the Windows 11 Beta Channel. Plus, there’s much more of what’s new with Windows in October 2021, so let’s get started! Windows 11 is now generally…
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
In this quick guide, I’m going to show you how to download the Windows 11 ISO image file, which you can use to install Windows 11 in a virtual machine (VM), perform a Windows 11 upgrade from Windows 10, or use to create your own installation media. If you want to install Windows 11 in…

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
At an event on Oct 18th, 2021, Apple announced new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro notebooks, sporting updated M1 processors, the M1 Pro and M1 Max respectively. Released earlier in 2021, the 3-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pros use the first generation of Apple’s M1 chip. At the time of launch, the original M1…

As part of Windows 11 Insider Preview build 22478 in the Dev Channel, Microsoft is starting to test a new way to update the servicing stack in Windows. What are Update Stack Packages? Update Stack Packages deliver changes to the Windows 11 update experience before a monthly cumulative update (CU), or yearly feature update, is…

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
The Microsoft Teams desktop client is getting a long-awaited feature update that lets you send quoted replies to messages in chat. And it is rolling out now. It might sound like a first world problem, but when chats get long, it can be difficult to keep track of conversations without the ability to quote messages…

This month’s Patch Tuesday for includes a cumulative update (CU) for Windows 11, which was made generally available October 4th. In total Microsoft released patches addressing 71 CVEs in Windows, Edge, Exchange Server, .NET Core, SharePoint Server, and many other products. Two of the CVEs patched this month are rated Critical, and 68 Important. And…

Sharing content with users external to your organization and managing guest user access in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams can be confusing to understand and difficult to manage. If you would like to know more about this important aspect of cloud security, download this free eBook. AvePoint dives into policy considerations you need to make…

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
Petri’s Endpoint Management 1-day virtual conference is now available to view on demand. At the end of last month, Petri hosted a full free day of learning, covering topics like how to manage devices using Microsoft Intune, how to deploy new hardware with Windows Autopilot, and managing security updates with Windows Update. The management of…

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
Microsoft announced yesterday that it is updating the search experience in its desktop client for Teams. While we wait for Teams 2.0, a complete revamp of the desktop app announced earlier this year, Microsoft is bringing a much-needed update to the way search results are displayed. Starting in November, Microsoft will roll out the changes…

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
Windows 11 is generally available this week on October 5th. But while some have dismissed it as just Windows 10 with a fresh coat of paint, there are changes that Microsoft says lead to improved performance, reliability, and security. In this article, I’m going to look at Windows 11’s new features and how Microsoft’s new…

Microsoft announced September 22nd that Azure Virtual Desktop now supports Azure Active Directory (AD) joined virtual machines (VM). With this update you can now: Join Azure Virtual Desktop VMs directly to Azure AD Connect to VMs from any device with a username and password And automatically enroll VMs with Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM) Before the…

It’s been a relatively quiet month for Windows as Microsoft gets down to finalizing Windows 11 for an October 5th release. What you need to know Windows 11 is faster than Windows 10 New Surface hardware is announced Passwordless sign-in comes to Microsoft consumer accounts Windows Server 2022 reaches general availability Windows 11 is faster…