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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

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Unraveling the Salesloft Drift Breach: Insights from Nudge Security’s CTO

In this episode of Petri Dish, CTO and Co-Founder of Nudge Security Jaime Blasco, provides an in-depth analysis of the recent Salesloft Drift breach, highlighting vulnerabilities in SaaS OAuth integrations and the sophisticated tactics used by threat actors. This discussion is a must-watch for IT professionals looking to understand the evolving landscape of cyberthreats and…

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Microsoft Team Copilot participating in a meeting

Microsoft Catches a Raccoon & Copilot Struggles to Show ROI

This Week in IT, a global phishing‑as‑a‑service empire goes down, the EU forces Microsoft to unbundle Teams, and even Microsoft admits Copilot might not pay for itself. Thanks to Cayosoft for sponsoring this episode of This Week in IT. Links and resources Episode overview This Week in IT, Russell covers recent developments in IT security,…

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Security Hero

Top 12 Enterprise-Grade Active Directory Security Tools: What Matters and Why

Last Update: Apr 13, 2026

Active Directory (AD) has been around a long time, but it remains the primary target for attackers. Research shows that nine out of ten breaches involve AD or Entra ID. Many environments today are hybrid, which further complicates keeping organizations secure. While free tools give you a quick snapshot of risk, enterprise grade security requires deeper…

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Windows 11 update

Patch Tuesday: 80+ Fixes & AI Upgrades – Are You Ready?

This week in IT, Microsoft fixes more than 80 bugs—eight critical and two zero‑days—while simultaneously rolling out a swath of new AI‑powered features. At the same time, IT admins will be able to block Office apps from saving files locally. And VBScript is headed for the dumpster truck. Links and resources Episode overview This Week…

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Windows Recall at Build 2024

AI PCs Are Taking Over – Gartner Predicts a 93% Market Share by 2028

Gartner says AI PCs are about to go from niche to standard—31 % of all PCs this year and virtually everything by 2029. At the same time, Microsoft and Cloudflare are quietly building a new web where pages answer your questions directly, potentially leaving Google’s search model in the dust. And just when Copilot promises…

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Network Security

Cloudflare and Microsoft Want to Reinvent the Internet for the AI Era

Cloudflare’s CEO, Matthew Prince, has been outspoken about the way artificial intelligence (AI) companies are harvesting content. His argument is simple but important: AI vendors are scraping websites, including those of small publishers like Petri, and using the content to train their models. That same content is then re-served to users in the form of…

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Datacenter networking servers

The Top 9 Active Directory Backup & Recovery Tools

Last Update: May 20, 2026

Microsoft Active Directory (AD) sits at the heart of most enterprise IT environments. When it goes down, employees can’t log in, applications stop working, and business grinds to a halt. Built‑in tools, like Windows Server Backup, offer only basic system‑state backups. And the AD Recycle Bin can recover deleted objects for a limited time but…

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MacroHard

Can AI Clone Microsoft? Inside Musk’s Macrohard

Elon Musk isn’t just tweeting—he’s launching Macrohard, a multi‑agent AI venture designed to simulate Microsoft itself. ESET researchers have spotted PromptLock, the world’s first AI‑powered ransomware proof‑of‑concept, and Microsoft quietly made Windows Backup for Organizations generally available, giving you a way to preserve user settings and app lists ahead of the Windows 10 end‑of‑life. Links…

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Phishing hero approved

Malvertising Meets Office.com: Why Microsoft Is Urging You to Watch Those Links

This Week in IT, malvertising is getting smarter. Attackers are hijacking Microsoft’s own login flow to steal your credentials via ADFS – and your end‑users might never know. Plus: Microsoft’s Project Ire promises AI‑powered malware detection without AV signatures, and a botched August update forces an OOB patch after ‘Reset this PC’ goes missing. Links…

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Microsoft 365 companion apps (Image Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft 365 Companion Apps: Productivity Boost or Just More Clutter?

At last year’s Ignite, Microsoft announced a set of Microsoft 365 companion apps for Windows 11. These apps—People, File Search, and Calendar—are designed to live in the taskbar and give business users quick access to their Microsoft 365 data. They’re rolling out this month, though IT administrators will need to enable them; they won’t simply…

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Windows 11 Office Companion Apps

GPT-5 Is Here… And It Brings New Microsoft Connectors

Last Update: Aug 19, 2025

This Week in IT, everyone’s talking about GPT-5, but the biggest winner might be Microsoft — sneaking in new AI integrations you probably missed. We’ve also got a serious Entra ID security flaw that could bypass FIDO authentication, and a new way to run Office right from your Windows taskbar. Links and resources Episode overview…

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Microsoft Security image

Microsoft Wants a More Secure Windows – But You’ll Need to Upgrade Hardware

Microsoft Vice President of Enterprise and OS Security, David Weston, imagines what Windows might look like in 2030—a year he frames as a convergence point for several transformative technologies: His vision is ambitious, but it’s also a clear signal that Microsoft wants customers to upgrade both their software and hardware more frequently. AI as a…

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