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I think you’ll find that there are quite a few announcements this month. The summer quiet period is over, and we’re into a whole new development/release semester in Microsoft, not to mention the countdown to the usual peak release season for Microsoft Ignite has started – most releases announced at Ignite happen well before Ignite….

Microsoft announces Windows 11 release date, tweaks the Windows 11 minimum hardware requirements (but not much), and Windows 365 goes live but free trials are on hold due to demand. Windows 11 release date Top of the list this month is that Microsoft announced Windows 11 will start rolling out to eligible Windows 10 PCs…

WireGuard is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) protocol that was first developed in 2016 by security researcher Jason A. Donenfeld. It was originally conceived for Linux. And as of kernel version 5.6, which was released in March 2020, WireGuard is integrated into Linux. Designed to be a lightweight alternative to VPN protocols like IKEv2, OpenVPN,…

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced Windows 11 with a refreshed interface, new widgets, and an updated store. But to run the new software, Microsoft moved the baseline specs up significantly from what is required to run Windows 10, and today, the company is sharing the launch plans for the OS. Microsoft has announced that Windows…

Deploying Windows 11 to hundreds or even thousands of devices can be automated if you have a system image that you can clone. To create an image for cloning, you first install Windows 11 on a device or virtual machine (VM), and then configure the operating system to your requirements. For example, you might decide to…

Welcome to Part 3 of my Windows Server 2022 Series. This series of posts has chronicled the upgrade of my Microsoft Hyper-V lab. I have a number of servers running various roles, including Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS), fileservers, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, etc. I’m upgrading all of them to Microsoft’s latest Long Term Servicing…

Contact Center Provider NICE Joins Microsoft’s Business Apps ISV Connect Program NICE, among the leading contact center platform providers, this week said it has joined Microsoft’s Business Applications ISV Connect. The program is designed to let partners build and bring line of business applications to market on Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Microsoft’s Business…

Back in June, when Microsoft announced Windows 11, the company received praise for the interface and scorn for the lack of clarity about the hardware that could run the OS. Generally speaking, to run Windows 11, you need a device with an 8th gen Intel chipset or newer or from AMD, a Zen 2 chip…

It has been revealed that Microsoft pulled a component of its Azure Cosmos DB service earlier this month because of a serious security issue uncovered by researchers at Wiz.io. Dubbed #ChaosDB, the flaw was disclosed to Microsoft on August 12, 2021. It gives any Azure user full access to other customers’ Cosmos DB instances, without…

If you’ve been waiting to test out Window 11, now might be the time! After initially making the first preview version of Windows 11 available in July for users in the Windows Insider Program, Insiders now have access to Windows 11 ISOs. Prior to the release of yesterday’s new Windows 11 build, Insider Preview build…

Welcome to Part 2 of my Windows Server 2022 Series. I am progressing through my Hyper-V lab, upgrading all the Windows Server 2016 and 2019 servers, running various roles, to Windows Server 2022. In my first post, I upgraded my first domain controller (DC), WS16-DC1, running Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2022. Yes, taboo…

Along with the Windows 10 quality updates in August, Microsoft added a new feature to Group Policy which will allow IT to better control which devices can be installed on corporate-owned devices. A release is also planned for Windows Server in the future. Restricting device installation in Windows can be complicated. The new Apply layered…