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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

Managing Windows Server with Puppet Part 7: Installing Active Directory

Last Update: Jul 29, 2025

In this Ask the Admin, I’ll show you how to install and configure Active Directory using Puppet.

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OpenSSH Comes Out of Beta in Windows April 2018 Update

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

In this Ask the Admin, I’ll show you how to get started with the OpenSSH client in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update.

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Everything You Need to Know About Windows — June 2018

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

This month sees Microsoft hold its first virtual Windows Server Summit with lots of news about upcoming features. Plus, Sets disappear from the latest RS5 Insider build and Microsoft is using AI to drive the Windows 10 April 2018 Update rollout.

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Patch Tuesday — June 2018

Last Update: Nov 19, 2024

In this month’s Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released a disabled-by-default patch for Spectre 4, Adobe plugs a zero-day Flash vulnerability that can be exploited via Excel, and there are fixes for DNS, black screens, and Cortana.

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Intel’s Spectre Variant 4 Microcode Update Off by Default

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

In this Ask the Admin, I look at Spectre Variant 4 and whether it will affect performance as its distributed over the coming weeks.

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Solve RDP Error ‘CredSSP Encryption Oracle Remediation’

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

In this Ask the Admin, I’ll explain how to resolve an RDP error that might appear after the May 2018 cumulative updates.

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Microsoft Breathes Life into Win32 Apps with .NET Core 3.0 and UWP XAML Islands

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

At the beginning of March and at its developer conference in May, Microsoft made several announcements about the future of Win32 apps. In this Ask the Admin, I’ll look at how those developments will affect the application landscape in Windows.

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Reset Expired Domain Admin Password in Azure VM

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

If you only have one domain admin account set up in a Windows Server domain running in an Azure VM, you might be left struggling to enter a new password when the current one expires. In this Ask the Admin, I’ll show you how to reset a domain account password using an Azure VM extension.

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MSIX Installer to Bring More Win32 Apps to Microsoft Store

Last Update: Nov 19, 2024

Microsoft’s new MSIX unified packaging format promises to make it easier to bring legacy apps to the Store, even if you don’t have access to the app’s source code. In this Ask the Admin, I’ll explore how MSIX differs from existing tech, like the Desktop Bridge.

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Everything You Need to Know About Windows — May 2018

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

This month I look at Windows 10 April 2018 Update woes, Progressive Web Apps in the Microsoft Store, new productivity features, and new security features in the next version of Windows.

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What Is Microsoft’s Intelligent Edge?

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

There’s been a lot of talk again this year at Build about Azure, IoT, and cloud computing in general but one term that keeps cropping up is the ‘Intelligent Edge’. In this Ask the Admin, I’ll explain Microsoft’s cloud vision in more detail.

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Managing Linux, Windows, AWS, and Azure Using PowerShell Core Part 2: PowerShell Remoting Over SSH

Last Update: Sep 04, 2024

In this second part, I’ll look at how to manage Linux and Windows systems remotely using PowerShell Core.

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