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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
Windows Server 2016: Short-Lived Active Directory Group Membership
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Oct 04, 2017
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Russell Smith
In today’s Ask the Admin, Russell Smith shows you how to temporarily add users to Active Directory groups.
Configure DNS to Enable a Trust Between Two Active Directory Forests
Last Update: Jun 05, 2025
- Oct 02, 2017
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Russell Smith
In today’s Ask the Admin, Russell Smith shows you how to set up DNS in Windows Server so that you can establish a cross-forest trust.
Windows Server 2016: Set Up Privileged Access Management
Last Update: Oct 28, 2025
- Oct 02, 2017
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Russell Smith
In today’s Ask the Admin, Russell Smith shows you how to implement Privileged Access Management (PAM) in Windows Server 2016.
Windows 10 Protected Event Logging
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Sep 29, 2017
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Russell Smith
In this Ask the Admin, Russell Smith looks at how Protected Event Logging is implemented in Windows 10.
Code Signing Microsoft Office Macros and Visual Basic for Applications
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Sep 18, 2017
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Russell Smith
In today’s Ask the Admin, Russell Smith shows you how to sign Microsoft Office VBA code and macros so that it can be distributed securely to business partners.
Making the Small Business Case for Chromebooks
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Sep 06, 2017
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Russell Smith
In this Ask the Admin, Russell Smith looks at Chromebooks and why they have become a popular choice for small businesses.
Role-Based Access Control Comes to Intune
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Sep 05, 2017
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Russell Smith
In this Ask the Admin, Russell Smith looks at how Microsoft’s Role-Based Access Control can help you manage administrator access to its Mobile Device Management service.
Choosing Between Cloud or On-Premises Storage for Small Business
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Aug 31, 2017
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Russell Smith
In this Ask the Admin, Russell Smith looks at the benefits of cloud storage and why a combination of cloud and on-premises solutions is sometimes a happy medium.
Microsoft Launches the Security Compliance Toolkit 1.0
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Aug 29, 2017
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Russell Smith
In this Ask the Admin, Russell Smith explains why SCM was killed off and how the Security Compliance Toolkit stacks up in comparison.
Managing Macro Security in Office 2016
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Aug 21, 2017
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Russell Smith
In this Ask the Admin, Russell Smith looks at how you can secure Office 2016 macros and VBA code to prevent attacks.
Managing Azure Resources with Cloud Shell
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Aug 18, 2017
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Russell Smith
In this Ask the Admin, Russell Smith looks at the different ways Azure can be managed from the command line, including Cloud Shell, which is currently in preview.
Microsoft Quietly Moved Font Parsing to AppContainer in the Anniversary Update
Last Update: Sep 04, 2024
- Aug 16, 2017
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Russell Smith
In this Ask the Admin, Russell Smith explains why you probably should not enable Untrusted Font Blocking in Group Policy.