Ed Tittel
Kari Finn
No News Is . . . GDPR’s Fault?!
August 15, 2018, 3 Comments
Nearly three months after Europe’s GDPR goes into effect, more than a thousand US new sites still block access to European users, as a way to sidestep compliance requirements.
Editorial
Happy Anniversary, PC!
August 13, 2018, 2 Comments
Yesterday, Sunday the 12th of August 2018, marked the 37th anniversary of the IBM Personal Computer 5150, the mother of those modern personal computers we still use today in the Windows ecosystem (original press release dated 12-AUG-1981). It was not the first computer intended for personal use — the Apple II had been released a few
Admin Tools
A Question of Upgrade Cadence
August 9, 2018, 0 Comments
I’ve been following the work of Susan Bradley, often known as “The Patch Lady,” for more than 10 years. I’ve been a subscriber to the Windows Secrets Newsletter for at least that long. And I believe she was already working with Brian Livingston back in the day when he still ran that particular show. Recently,
Deployment
Windows 10 – How to cope with small system disk
August 8, 2018, 3 Comments
Many devices, especially laptops, ship today with a small SSD and a bigger HDD. The device used as the example in this post is an HP ProBook 470 G5 laptop. It’s equipped with a so-called hybrid disk: a 128 GB M.2 SSD and a 1 TB spinner, with formatted capacities of 119 GB and 931
Editorial
Rumors Swirl About Microsoft Managed Desktop
August 2, 2018, 0 Comments
Rumors swirl about Microsoft Managed Desktop, an MS lease offering that may combine managed computing devices, the Windows 10 OS, Office 365, and more under a single umbrella, with a single monthly fee.
Admin Tools
Multiple Restarts After WU Completes? No Way!
July 31, 2018, 0 Comments
When Martin Brinkman of ghacks.net explains a recent Windows Update that forces three consecutive reboots, I share his pain and his dismay at that experience. Please fix this, MS! Not good.
Admin Tools
Automation Brings Scale to IT
July 27, 2018, 0 Comments
One potential secret to IT success is careful and judicious use of automation tools and technologies. But remember: automation is supposed to SAVE time and money, not spend it wildly or wastefully!
Editorial
First Windows 10 19H1 preview build 18204 released
July 26, 2018, 0 Comments
Microsoft released yesterday (July 25th) two new Insider builds, build 17723 on RS5 Fast Ring and first Skip Ahead build 18204 on 19H1 branch. I must admit the Skip Ahead build was released much earlier than I had expected (read more). At this point, both of the Fast Ring and Skip Ahead builds are identical;
Editorial
RS6 / 19H1 Insider Skip Ahead ring for Windows 10 version 1903 preview builds opened
July 23, 2018, 2 Comments
The Windows Insider team announced in a tweet today that its Skip Ahead Insider and Insider for Business rings are now open. This indicates that we can expect a first 19H1 build, a preview for Windows 10 version 1903 in the very near future. The next Insider Skip Ahead build or two will be the same
Admin Tools
MS Ups Authentication Ante with Bounty, Open Standards and Authenticator App
July 19, 2018, 0 Comments
MS ups authentication ante with Bounty, support for open Standards and an authenticator app, to help protect users’ identities from compromise, theft, and misuse.
Hyper-V
Hyper-V External Switches killing Networking in Insider builds
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I use Hyper-V a lot. All of my physical machines run the UK English x64 PRO edition of the latest Windows Insider build, along with other language versions of Windows 10 I regularly need (FIN, SWE & GER), with both of the latest official release and Insider builds also running on Hyper-V virtual machines. Until
Admin Tools
New Microsoft Edge Group Policies and MDM settings
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Windows Insider Build 17718, which will most probably be released later today (Thursday) or tomorrow (Friday) will add new Microsoft Edge group policies and MDM settings. These new policies allow IT admins to enable or disable full screen mode in Edge, in its printing and favorites bars, just to mention a few new settings. All
Announcements
Microsoft ending Windows 10 delta updates
July 16, 2018, 0 Comments
Microsoft announced today it will stop offering Windows 10 delta updates. Windows 10 versions 1607, 1703, 1709 and 1803 will still get deltas until February 12, 2019, the date on which Microsoft will stop creating delta updates. Redstone 5, the Windows 10 version 1809 expected to be released to Windows Insiders in September (GA most
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams Free challenges Slack & Co.
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Microsoft Teams is currently used by over 200,000 organizations, according to Microsoft, spread over the globe in 180+ markets. Good numbers, although not even close to those of Slack, or even Microsoft’s own Skype for Business. To challenge Slack, WebEx from Cisco and other team collaboration platforms, Microsoft released a free version of Teams earlier
Admin Tools
Impending Windows 7 EOL Boosts Windows 10
July 13, 2018, 2 Comments
Given impending end of life for Windows 7 in 2020 and a still-large installed base of Windows 7 devices, that spells opportunity. Recent assessments of PC sales, slightly up for the first time since 2012, confirm this supposition.
Editorial
Windows Server Insider Preview 17709 released
July 11, 2018, 0 Comments
Microsoft released a new build 17709 of Windows Server vNext LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel) yesterday, July 10th 2018. Regarding this server core, the changes vis-à-vis the previous preview are minor. The biggest change is that it is now possible to install both Standard and Datacenter server versions with the GUI / desktop experience Previous WS
Bitlocker
War Stories: Sysprep and BitLocker
July 8, 2018, 0 Comments
Yesterday, I decided to do a clean install of the latest Windows Insider build 17711 on my HP ProBook laptop. I do traditional installs quite seldom, usually creating deployment images in Hyper-V. This is practical because Hyper-V standard checkpoints offer an easy way to restore a VM to any point throughout the process whenever something