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Russell Smith

Editorial Director

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.

LATEST

How to Block Adobe Flash Player Using Active Directory Group Policy

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

Flash Player is a plug-in for browsers that is installed and maintained separately. Although it came bundled with some browsers. Not only that, but it was responsible for some scary security vulnerabilities over the years. So, developers and IT admins alike were glad to see the back of it.

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Microsoft Improves Security for Windows Server Update Services

Last Update: Nov 19, 2024

There haven’t been any significant changes to Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) for years. But recently, Microsoft released two updates that aim to make it easier to secure WSUS. In this article, I’ll look at how the two changes, introduced in September 2020 and January 2021, can help improve WSUS security. By default, Windows clients…

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Automate Azure VM Best Practices Configuration Using Azure Automanage

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

Azure Automanage helps you to make sure your virtual machines (VM) are consistently configured with Microsoft’s best practice recommendations. And that’s a valuable service because Azure is constantly growing and changing, making it hard for IT professionals to keep up with best practice recommendations. Automanage is currently in preview. It is designed to configure and…

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What’s New in PowerShell 7.1

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

The latest versions of PowerShell are not included out-of-the-box with Windows 10. So, you might not know that PowerShell is already on version 7.1

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How to Enable PowerShell Remoting in Windows 10

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

Unlike Windows Server, PowerShell Remoting isn’t enabled by default in Windows 10. PowerShell Remoting is a secure management protocol (WSMan) for connecting to and managing remote devices. In its default configuration, PowerShell Remoting secures traffic over HTTP. It’s primarily designed to be used in an Active Directory (AD) environment, which protects the authentication phase using…

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Patch Tuesday – February 2021

Microsoft has released a relatively small number of fixes this month, in total just 56. But they include patches for a zero-day flaw in the Win32k component and some serious TCP/IP networking stack vulnerabilities. Windows and Windows Server February’s cumulative update (CU) for Windows 10 comes with a patch for a zero-day Elevation of Privilege…

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Protecting Hybrid Active Directory Environments from Attack

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is an open standard that facilitates user logon to on-premises and cloud services.

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How to Install Windows Software Remotely Using PowerShell and Chocolatey

Last Update: Jun 04, 2025

2020 saw more people work from home than ever due to the worldwide health pandemic. But organizations were caught off guard and needed to quickly find ways to let employees work remotely and securely. Even organizations that had virtual private network (VPN) solutions already in place scrambled to scale them to handle a significantly higher…

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Change Windows 10 Graphics Settings to Solve Display Problems on Devices with Dual GPUs

Last Update: Jun 05, 2025

Change graphics performance preferences to solve problems with display issues on devices with dual GPUs.

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What is Windows 10 Cloud Configuration

February 2nd, 2021, Microsoft announced ‘Windows 10 in cloud configuration’. ‘Cloud configuration’ is a new recommended device configuration that can be applied to Windows 10 computers using Intune, Microsoft’s Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution, which is part of Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM). Organizations can use MEM to apply a standard configuration to devices running Windows…

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Use Update Compliance to View Blocked Windows 10 Feature Updates

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

New queries in Update Compliance provide greater insight for IT when safeguard holds are placed on Windows endpoints.

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Everything You Need to Know About Windows – January 2021

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

A near-final build of Windows 10X leaks to the Internet, Microsoft released Edge version 88, and Microsoft is hoping to make Win32 APIs available to more languages. So, let’s get started. Windows 10X leaked build Early in the month, a leaked build of Windows 10X surfaced that allowed us to get hands on with Microsoft’s…

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