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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 Uninstall and Reset Windows Subsystem for Linux Distributions

Last Update: Jun 07, 2025

Here is how to uninstall and reset Linux distributions installed in Windows 10 using the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

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How to Create a Windows Virtual Desktop Tenant with Windows Virtual Desktop

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

In the second part of this series, I show you how to create a Windows Virtual Desktop tenant.

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Microsoft April Updates Cause Issues for Some Users

Last Update: Nov 19, 2024

Microsoft’s April updates for Windows cause performance and authentication issues for some users.

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Getting Started with Azure Virtual Desktop: Understanding Azure Virtual Desktop

Last Update: Feb 22, 2023

In the first part of this series, I look at the basics of Microsoft’s new Windows Virtual Desktop service.

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Patch Tuesday April 2019

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

This month Windows is patched for two zero-day flaws, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 users report that devices with Sophos Antivirus can’t log in after installing KB4493472 and authentication failures to services configured with unconstrained delegation.

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Google Has a New Managed Active Directory Cloud Service

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

Google announces a new Managed Service for Microsoft Active Directory that should give customers more options about which cloud service fits their needs.

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Mitigating Spectre Variant 2 with Retpoline on Windows

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

The Retpoline patch for Windows 10 was originally slated to arrive in the Windows 10 May 2019 Update but the fix is now in Windows 10 version 1809, although it must be enabled manually.

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How to Secure Hybrid Office 365 Authentication

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

In today’s Ask the Admin, I discuss whether federated authentication is really the most secure way to set up hybrid authentication between Windows Server Active Directory and Office 365.

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Everything You Need to Know About Windows – March 2019

Last Update: Jun 30, 2025

This month sees Kubernetes Windows container support come out of beta, Windows Virtual Desktop enters public preview, and the next major feature update for Windows 10 nears the finish line.

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Windows 10

How to Install the RSAT Tools in Windows 10

Last Update: Jun 08, 2025

Here’s how to quickly and easily install the Remote Server Administration Tools in Windows 10.

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How to Run Code Remotely in Visual Studio Code

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

How to run code on a remote Windows Device from Visual Studio Code using PowerShell Remoting.

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Remote Management Using Puppet Bolt and Windows Subsystem for Linux

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

How to run remote commands on Windows Server using Puppet Bolt installed in Ubuntu with the help of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

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