On Friday, Microsoft announced new Windows Apportals. Apportals might be the missing link between Windows 8 being a detriment to enterprise organizations to actually turn it into an asset. Very gradually, people are coming to figure out how to live with Windows 8. The operating system has been a big over-correction to make Windows for the consumer. Windows 8.1 and 8.1 Update … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2014
Avoiding another ‘Eternal September’ with the next innovation
In some circles, September 1993 is known as 'Eternal September' or 'the September that never ended'. It's an expression that came about over 20 years ago from Usenet and new service providers like America Online. I was still a kid myself at the time so I can only relate what I have read. Usenet had been established for quite some time as a new trend emerged. Every September … [Read more...]
A software toolbox for your solid state drive hardware
Enjoying the benefits of your solid state drive? The faster read/write times, better battery life, and improved durability can certainly justify the upgrade to an SSD but are you getting the most out of it? Many of the top manufacturers of solid state drives have a software "toolbox" to go along with the hardware to configure the best performance. Sometimes a manufacturer only … [Read more...]
Using PowerShell to manage Group Policy
If you utilize Group Policy in your environment and take advantage of its capabilities, it can create a bit of an administrative overhead in exchange for the gained efficiency and consistency. Some of this comes from the limited tools available to interact with Group Policy such as the Group Policy Management Console. GPMC certainly gets the job done but it can require a lot of … [Read more...]
Intel NIC driver bug floods the network
Some coworkers came across an interesting problem with Dell OptiPlex 7010 desktops and there wasn't much out there on the issue beyond a thread on Dell's support forums. Apparently, one of the original drivers that shipped with the OptiPlex 790/7010/9010 and Latitude E6520/E6530 for the Intel network card can error out in quite an interesting way. Version 11.15.12.0 of the … [Read more...]