Today’s Tip… In Windows Server 2012 R2, we can now resize VHDx files without taking them offline. Not applicable to VHD files Works with Fixed, Dynamic, and Differencing VHDx files Operation can be cancelled without loss of data Shrinking depends on unallocated...

Today’s Tip… I see a number of interesting questions on the aliases that I’m subscribed to.  Some of them I will use to create a tip.  This is one of them.  Q:  How do I use Windows PowerShell to manage my dynamic disks. A: You don...

Today’s (Cloud) Tip… Did you know that if you sign up for Office 365 or Windows Intune, your tenant could be deleted after the subscription is expired? But if you sign up for a tenant directly from Windows Azure, this tenant will never be deleted. You...

Today’s Tip… SMB 2.0 was first introduced in Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008. It was considered to be tighter and removed some of the chattiness of the previous version. SMB 2.1 was introduced in Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 and...

Today’s (Cloud) Tip… Want to know what's going on in Office 365? Check out this link which filters on only showing new updates to Office 365… http://blogs.office.com/?filter=true&filter-product=office-365&filter-type=updates Here is a RSS...

Today’s (Cloud) Tip… Previously, if your using Windows Azure Multi-Factor Authentication, admins could not take advantage of App Passwords. This means admins could not use rich clients like Outlook and Lync. As of December 20th, Admins enabled for Windows...

Today’s Tip… With Windows To Go (WTG) in Windows 8.1, the Windows Store is now enabled by default. Windows To Go users may roam to any number of machines and access the Windows Store and use Windows Store apps.

Today’s Tip… In Windows 8, support for NFC (Near Field Communication) was introduced with the ability to pair with Bluetooth devices. In Windows 8.1, users are able to easily connect printers using NFC. Near Field Communication (NFC) is a set of short...

Today’s (Cloud) Tip… Did you know that Windows Azure AD includes the ability to simplify access to more than 400 hundred other cloud services? Application Access consists of the following: A gallery of pre-integrated SaaS apps including top apps like...

Today’s Tip… After upgrading to Windows 8.1 some folks have found that applications may looks blurry. This may be due to the Windows 8.1 DPI Scaling Enhancement added by Windows 8.1 In order to solve the blurry application you can do one of the following...

Today’s (Cloud) Tip… IP and Domain Restricted Supported with Windows Azure Web Sites In September we also enabled the IP and Domain Restrictions feature of IIS to be used with Windows Azure Web Sites. This provides an additional security option that can...

Today’s Tip… ReFS (Resilient File System), which first debuted with Windows Server 2012, was a server only file system. In Windows 8.1, the x64 version has ReFS as well. However, just like in Windows Server 2012, there will not be a ‘convert’ process...

Today’s Tip… A few tips back I talked about a Dynamic Memory (DM) in Hyper-v and how it was improved in Windows Server 2012 with the addition of the ‘Minimal Memory’ setting. There was another addition that was made to DM in that release, Smart Paging...

Today’s Tip… Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 saw improvements to Dynamic Memory that included support for configuring minimum memory. Minimum Memory While Windows 2008 R2 SP1 did allow you to configure ‘minimum memory’ (called Startup RAM), Windows VMs...

Today’s Tip… In Windows To Go, hibernation is disabled by default. This is done to prevent accidental corruption of the local Windows hibernation file, HIBERFIL.SYS. Hibernation can be enabled on systems which will not roam by enabling the "Allow...

Today’s Tip… Right-click on the top left to see the Smart Sizing option. It essentially “fits-to-window” the remote screen, helping you avoid the crazy vertical and horizontal scrolling you might have to do. The Fit-to-window follows as you go about changing...

Today’s Tip… One of my favorite changes in Win8/WS2012 is the new .VHDx file format, sometimes referred to as VHD 2.0 format. Overcoming the VHD limitation of 2TB, VHDx can be as large as 64TB The improved internal alignment lends itself well to being...

For companies that have low account lockout thresholds, adding an AD FS proxy to their DMZ (which is required for Exchange Online) exposes a Denial of Service method. Many companies have their email addresses set as their UPN and executive emails are...

Today’s (Cloud) Tip…Azure Podcast I got the opportunity last night to help out with some of our colleagues who are on the front lines trying to get customers to adopt Azure. Sujit D’Mello and Cale Teeter produce a weekly podcast on Windows Azure. Much...

Today’s Tip… Work Folders allows a user to sync data to their device from their user folder located in the corporation’s data center. Files created locally sync back to the file server in the corporate environment. This syncing is natively integrated...

Today’s Tip… This week, we will focus on guided walkthroughs available for Office 365. One of the highest call drivers in Office 365 is around mail flow. Either users cannot send or receive email. We've made it easy to allow Office 365 and on-premises...

Today’s (Cloud) Tip… There are a series of new Office 365 Guided Walkthroughs for some of the most common mailbox and folder sharing tasks. Here are the new GWTs: Sharing calendar and contacts in Office 365 Setting up a mailbox that multiple users can...

Today’s Tip… Using the Windows PowerShell cmdlet, Disable-DedupVolume doesn’t actually disable deduplicaiton. Well…it sort of does….but it also doesn’t. When you deduplicate a volume, the data attributes for the files are turned into ‘chunks’ and placed...

Today’s (Cloud) Tip… On 7/21, we announced further expansion of ExpressRoute. This included the addition of two more partners (Orange and Internet Initiative Japan) and seven more meet-up locations (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York, Seattle, Hong Kong...

Today’s (SQL) Tip… Windows Azure SQL Databases do not support SQL native backup formats. Thus, there are no “full,” “differential,” or “transaction log” backups or restores. Instead, there are exports. Data can be exported to Windows Azure Blob Stores...