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Russell Smith
Editorial DirectorRussell 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
Patch Tuesday September 2018
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Sep 14, 2018
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Russell Smith
Microsoft patches 62 vulnerabilities, 17 of which are rated Critical. Including a patch for the zero-day ALPC vulnerability that was publicly disclosed on Twitter at the end of August.
Azure Update Management Part 2: Schedule Updates, Check Update Compliance, and Enroll Non-Azure VMs
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Sep 13, 2018
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Russell Smith
In the first part of this series, Russell showed you how to enroll Azure virtual machines to Azure Update Management. In the final part, Russell demonstrates scheduling updates, checking update compliance, and how to enable Update Management on non-Azure VMs.
How to Use Azure Update Manager
Last Update: Nov 19, 2024
- Sep 12, 2018
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Russell Smith
In today’s Ask the Admin, Russell shows you how to enroll Azure virtual machines to Azure Update Management and provide a general overview of how the solution works.
How To Stop Windows 10 Updating Device Drivers
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Sep 10, 2018
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Russell Smith
In today’s Ask the Admin, Russell shows you how to stop Windows 10 updating device drivers automatically via Windows Update regardless of which edition of the OS you are running.
What is Windows Defender Application Control?
Last Update: Nov 19, 2024
- Sep 07, 2018
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Russell Smith
In this blog post, Russell looks at the story behind Windows Defender Application Control in Windows 10.
How To Defer Windows 10 Feature Updates
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Sep 04, 2018
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Russell Smith
In this Ask the Admin, Russell explains how you can defer Windows 10 Feature Updates by up to 18 months.
Microsoft Edge – Performance vs. Battery Life
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Sep 04, 2018
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Russell Smith
Despite Microsoft’s claim that its Edge browser in Windows 10 is faster than Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, putting Edge through its paces in several different benchmark tests shows that it is slower in those that simulate real-world usage.
Everything You Need to Know About Windows – August 2018
Last Update: Jul 04, 2025
- Aug 31, 2018
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Russell Smith
This month sees lots of changes in Windows Server 2019 Insider builds, Microsoft announced more efficient Windows 10 updates, and a last minute zero-day drama.
Microsoft Unifies Quality Updates in Windows 10 Version 1809
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Aug 30, 2018
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Russell Smith
In this Ask the Admin, Russell explains the changes that Microsoft is making to full, delta, and express updates in Windows Server 2019 and Windows 10 version 1809.
Install and Configure Puppet 5 Part 2: Set Up Puppet
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Aug 23, 2018
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Russell Smith
In the final part of this two-part article, Russell shows you how to install Puppet 5 on Red Hat Linux.
What’s New in Windows Server 2019
Last Update: Nov 19, 2024
- Aug 22, 2018
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Russell Smith
Windows Server 2019 is all about improved support for hybrid cloud scenarios, hyper-converged infrastructure, and security. In this Ask the Admin, Russell looks more closely at these features in Windows Server 2019.
Enable OneDrive for Business Known Folder Migration
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Aug 22, 2018
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Russell Smith
In this Ask the Admin, Russell explains what Known Folder Migration (KFM) is in OneDrive for Business and show you how to configure it using Group Policy.