Russell Smith

August sees Microsoft release the smallest number of security fixes for its products so far this year. In fact, it’s the smallest batch since December 2019. In addition to new bug fixes for the Windows Print Spooler service and NTLM, there are also changes in the default Point and Print driver installation behavior. Recurring PrintNightmare?…

In Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, and later versions of Windows, you can perform a full installation of the operating system without needing to manually enter a product key as was the case in versions of Windows before Vista and Windows Server 2008. This makes it much easier to install Windows if you don’t have…

Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is a feature in Windows Server 2022 that lets multiple users connect simultaneously and access applications and a desktop remotely. Windows Server 2022 Remote Desktop Services can also be used by IT for remote administration. It’s important to understand that if you want to connect to Windows Server 2022 to remotely…

Microsoft has announced that it is dropping Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) releases for Windows Server. Starting with Windows Server 2022 there will be only one release on the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC). It will get 10 years’ support (five years mainstream, and five years extended). Microsoft says that SAC releases in previous versions of Windows Server…

July and August are usually a quiet time at Microsoft. But this year, there’s a little more buzz than usual as Microsoft continues to prepare Windows 11 for a fall release. Microsoft Store in Windows 11 will not automatically update all Win32 apps In a support document for developers, Microsoft revealed that Win32 apps using…

Telnet is a client/server protocol used for accessing remote servers. As the name might suggest, Telnet was originally used on terminals that only required a keyboard because everything on the screen was displayed in text, usually from a mainframe computer. The terminal used Telnet to remotely log in to a mainframe server or other computer….

There is an updated version of this article here: How to Add a Domain Controller to an Existing Domain Windows Server 2022 doesn’t include any significant changes to Active Directory (AD). But you will want to use it going forwards for your new domain controllers because of the improved security it provides over earlier versions…

According to Microsoft, 90% of security threats start from malicious email. And while it would be nice to think that customers using Exchange Online Protection (EOP) should always receive the highest level of protection, the reality isn’t quite so simple. EOP is a complex service. It provides a lot of granular configuration options and the…

Notepad is a simple editor that has been included as an inbox application since the very early days of Windows. Notepad is still part of Windows 11, but it is updated independently of the operating system via the Microsoft Store. In Windows 11, Microsoft can deliver updates to Notepad faster than in previous versions of…

If you want to spin up an isolated Windows 10 desktop quickly, without the knowledge required to work with virtual machines (VM) or the cloud, then Windows Sandbox is the answer. How does Windows Sandbox work? Windows Sandbox is a feature in Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education SKUs, which provides users an easy way…

Microsoft patches 103 security vulnerabilities this month, including PrintNightmare, a Windows DNS Server bug, 3 elevation of privilege vulnerabilities in the Windows kernel, and much more. Windows and Windows Server Let’s start with the bug that surfaced earlier in July month called PrintNightmare. PrintNightmare Microsoft issued an out-of-band cumulative update (CU) for a remote execution…

If you are using PowerShell scripts to automate tasks in your environment, sooner or later, there’s a good chance that you will need to deal with elevating privileges to access resources that require a different set of credentials than those being used to run the script. For example, you might need to access a file…