In this week’s newsletter
Optimizing Windows 10. So-called registry cleaners. Need IPv4 addresses? Final installment of COVID Corner: five predictions concerning the future. Updated calendar of IT conferences around the world. Lotsa podcasts. Plus lots more — read it all, read it here on WServerNews!
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Editor’s Corner
This week’s observations and ruminations from Mitch Tulloch our Senior Editor…
Optimizing Windows 10
Each of us probably have at least one Windows 10 machine kicking around the office or at home somewheres that just doesn’t seem to be working as well as it should be running, so we thought we’d point our readers this week to some articles and videos that might help them clean up their PCs to get them running more smoothly. We’re targeting mostly smaller businesses and home office users with these recommendations since enterprises usually build their own decluttered Windows images for deployment and employee systems management and monitoring software to maintain the health of their PC environment.
Anyways, I hope some of the resources below are helpful to some of you. BTW if I get the links to any of them mixed up it’s because I’m watching the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour live on Chessbase as I write the editorial for this newsletter — ouch! Ding just dinged Nepomniachtchi, yikes!!
How should I clean up Windows 10 for a business environment? (SpiceWorks)
How to get rid of bloatware and clean your Windows 10 Start menu (without crapware cleanup tools) (ZDNet)
How to Clean Up Windows 10 With the Fresh Start Tool (PCMag)
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-clean-up-windows-10-with-the-refresh-windows-tool
13 ways to speed up Windows 10 (ComputerWorld)
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3029168/13-ways-to-speed-up-windows-10.html
19 tips and tricks to increase PC performance on Windows 10 (Windows Central)
https://www.windowscentral.com/tips-tricks-increase-pc-performance-windows-10
Clean Up Windows 10 — 3 Steps For A Faster Computer (Chris Titus)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWHiP9K8fQ0
Tips to improve PC performance in Windows 10 (Microsoft Support)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/4002019/windows-10-improve-pc-performance
Use Windows 10’s New “Free Up Space” Tool to Clean Up Your Hard Drive (How-To Geek)
https://www.howtogeek.com/348635/use-windows-10s-new-free-up-space-tool-to-clean-up-your-hard-drive/
PowerShell to Automate Disk Cleanup (TechNet Gallery)
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/POWERSHELL-TO-AUTOMATE-c73c11de
So-called registry cleaners
One final tip concerning optimizing Windows: never try to use any so-called registry cleaning tools! Microsoft MVP Shawn Keene explains why in his reply to someone’s question in this thread on the Microsoft Community forum:
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Tip of the Week
>> Got any IT pro tips you’d like to share with other readers of our newsletter? Email us at [email protected]
Need IPv4 addresses?
If your company needs some IPv4 addresses for public-facing workloads these recommendations from my colleagues concerning reputable IPv4 address brokers may be helpful:
And if you’ve purchased any IPv4 addresses from an IPv4 broker and have been happy with them and would like to recommend them to our readers, you can email their URL to me at [email protected]
Admin Toolbox
>> Got any admin tools or software you’d like to recommend to our readers? Email us at [email protected]
This script generates a PowerShell GUI to automate the processes of downloading, extracting and importing driver packages for Dell, Lenovo, HP and Microsoft systems:
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Driver-Tool-Automate-9ddcc010
File System Security PowerShell Module allows a much easier management of permissions on files and folders using PowerShell:
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/1abd77a5-9c0b-4a2b-acef-90dbb2b84e85
SQL Server Data Tools is a modern development tool for building SQL Server relational databases, Azure SQL databases, Analysis Services (AS) data models, Integration Services (IS) packages, and Reporting Services (RS) reports:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssdt/download-sql-server-data-tools-ssdt?view=sql-server-2017
Final installment of COVID Corner – Five predictions concerning the future
As the world slowly drags itself back towards normality we’ve decided to wrap up COVID Corner with one final installment. Next week we’re going to bring back our popular FACTOID section to help our readers amuse themselves in the midst of the ongoing work, life and social struggles many of us have been experiencing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and how governments around the world have responded to it.
So with my thinking cap screwed tight on my head and my tongue firmly planted in my cheek as I stand way out on a limb, below are 5 predictions I’m going to make about how things are going to play out in the future as a result of the COVID-19 situation. If you’d like to make comments on any of these predictions or offer your own prognostications concerning what’s going to happen over the next few years, email me at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to include your feedback in the Mailbag of our next issue.
Here goes:
Prediction #1: Inflation will stay in moderate range 1-3% over the next few years because of a balance between (a) inflationary pressure driving up prices due to goods shortages and (b) deflationary pressure resulting in less shopping due to rising unemployment. In other words, as far as the general economy goes from a financial perspective, we’ll see more of the same-old same-old because the world is already way too deep in debt and getting deeper isn’t going to change much of anything.
Prediction #2: The oil industry will see a moderate resurgence as more people turn from taking public transport to driving their own cars again. Here in Winnipeg, Canada for example no one wants to ride the bus anymore, and I expect this attitude to stay the same for the next couple of years. And BTW riding your bicycle to work in the dark in the morning when it’s 20C below with wind N 20 km/hr just isn’t fun!
Prediction #3: Sweden’s approach will eventually be seen by many countries as the best approach to follow when future pandemics like this arise. Perhaps not in much of Asia though since generally speaking citizens in those countries are more used to wearing masks and having their lives more tightly regulated by government.
Prediction #4: Just like with the flu, there will be a second wave of COVID-19 when winter arrives, but it won’t be nearly as damaging as the initial COVID-19 wave in terms of how many people die or become seriously ill. The scientific reasons behind why this happens each year are not well understood as this Scientific American article explains. And to my mind our lack of understanding of this mechanism (why flu returns each winter) suggests to me that the so-called experts (epidemiologists) whom governments have been looking to for advice on how to respond to COVID-19 really aren’t as knowledgeable as the media and governments like to paint them. That’s not to fault them as epidemiologists — they’re mostly smart, capable and well-meaning individuals. It’s just that the real world is much more complex than most of our scientific models concerning it. Anyways, be this as it may, most governments have also been trying their best to contain the crisis and as citizens of different countries we should try our best to follow the rules they lay down, if not for reasons of personal safety and health then at least in order to maintain good social order which benefits everyone. What will be damaging in the winter though will be if governments overreact to the second wave by reinstituting complete lockdowns as they did in many countries during the first wave. Just my two cents of course as I’m not an epidemiologist (thank goodness!)
Prediction #5: Trump will be re-elected because of the subconscious belief that the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. Not that it’ll make much difference either way, speaking as a cynical Canadian because of our national inferiority complex.
😛
Got feedback on any of my predictions? Have your own predictions you want to share concerning our post-COVID future? Email me at [email protected]
And in the meantime, stay healthy and safe 🙂
And back to our FACTOID section next week!
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Conference Calendar (updated!)
>> Got an IT conference or event happening that you’d like to promote in our newsletter? Email us at [email protected]
Microsoft Inspire – July 21-22, 2020 (Virtual)
https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire
Midwest Management Summit – July 26-27 in Bloomington, Minnesota
https://mmsmoa.com/registration/mms-2020-at-moa.html
Black Hat – Aug 1-6 (Virtual)
https://www.blackhat.com/us-20/
Connect IT – Aug 24-27 in Las Vegas, Nevada
Data Center World – Aug 24-27 in San Antonio, Texas
https://tmt.knect365.com/data-center-world/
SharePoint Fest – Aug 24-28 in Seattle, Washington
https://www.sharepointfest.com/Seattle/
Infosecurity Belgium – Sept 9-10 in Brussels, Belgium
SPTechCon – Sept 14-17 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Microsoft Ignite – Sept 21-25 (Virtual)
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ignite
VMworld – Sept 28 (Virtual)
https://www.vmworld.com/en/us/index.html
Black Hat – Sept 29 – Oct 2 in Singapore
https://www.blackhat.com/asia-20/
Infosecurity Denmark – Sept 30 – Oct 1 in Copenhagen, Denmark
Midwest Management Summit – Oct 11-15 in San Diego, California
https://mmsmoa.com/registration/mms-2020-midway-edition.html
European Cloud Summit – Oct 20-22 in Frankfurt, Germany
https://www.cloudsummit.eu/en/
European Azure Conference – Oct 27-29 in Nice, France
https://www.europeanazureconference.com/
Infosecurity Netherlands – Oct 28-29 in Utrecht, Netherlands
European SharePoint, Office 365 & Azure Conference – Nov 9-12 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
https://www.sharepointeurope.com/
DevOpsCon – Nov 30 – Dec 3 in Munich, Germany
Podcast Corner
Show 700! (RunAsRadio)
Network Modeling With Open Source pyNTM (Heavy Networking)
https://packetpushers.net/series/weekly-show/
Dynamic Memory Management (Virtually Speaking)
https://www.vspeakingpodcast.com/
Pod-a-Thon fundraising for COVID-19 relief (Clear To Send)
When is Free Advisory Free? – Selecting a Data Center Provider (The CTO Advisor)
https://www.thectoadvisor.com/podcast
Inside BellTrox’s hacker-for-hire operation (Risky Business)
https://risky.biz/netcasts/risky-business/
Hands-On Kubernetes on Azure with Nills Franssens (Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast)
https://www.msclouditpropodcast.com/
Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework With Wayne Meyer (Microsoft Cloud Show)
http://www.microsoftcloudshow.com/podcast
New on Techgenix.com
Microsoft Search in Microsoft 365: A valuable enterprise search engine
Searching for something specific to your own organization? Google may not find it. The solution? The Microsoft search engine within Microsoft 365.
https://techgenix.com/microsoft-search-in-microsoft-365/
Review: Distributed files and storage systems manager DataCore vFilO
vFilO provides a unified view of an organization’s distributed files and provides visibility and control over your widely scattered data. Here’s our review.
https://techgenix.com/review-datacore-vfilo/
Azure Portal Managed View: Finally, a site for sore eyes
This Quick Tip introduces you to the new Azure Portal Managed View, a simple but powerful feature that addresses an annoying problem with Azure.
https://techgenix.com/azure-portal-managed-view/
Reading text files the easy way with PowerShell and Linux bash shell
This PowerShell/Linux Quick Tip shows you an easy way for reading text files. Why put this in your toolbox? It makes reading log files a snap.
https://techgenix.com/reading-text-files-powershell-linux-shell/
Review: Using Site24x7 for Microsoft Azure monitoring
Site24x7 can monitor more than 100 Azure resources in near real-time, giving users actionable alerts and information in one view. Here’s our review.
https://techgenix.com/azure-monitoring-solution-site24x7/
Fun videos from Flixxy
Cat With Goal Keeper Skills
After watching ‘Indy’ the goalkeeper cat, how could we ever be impressed by a human athlete again?
https://www.flixxy.com/cat-with-goal-keeper-skills.htm
Magician Winston Fuenmayor at America’s Got Talent 2020
This most dramatic magic performance by Winston Fuenmayor truly amazed the judges and audience of America’s Got Talent 2020.
https://www.flixxy.com/magician-winston-fuenmayor-at-americas-got-talent-2020.htm
People are Awesome-Best Of The Week #85 Home Daily Popular
This week’s best video clips of ordinary people doing extraordinary things from the editors of the YouTube channel ‘People Are Awesome.’
https://www.flixxy.com/people-are-awesome-best-of-the-week-85.htm
‘Let’s Twist Again’ – Chubby Checker
‘Let’s Twist Again’ (1961) by the great Chubby Checker – including dance clips from the early 60’s along with movie and television scenes.
https://www.flixxy.com/lets-twist-again-chubby-checker.htm
More articles of interest
The definitive guide to enterprise IT monitoring
This comprehensive IT monitoring guide examines strategies to track systems, from servers to software UIs, and how to choose tools for every monitoring need.
WANdisco, Azure do data migration dance
WANdisco deepens its Microsoft partnership, integrating LiveData as a native service in Azure. Customers can access LiveData through Azure Portal for backup and other uses.
What is a roaming profile and how does it work?
Although several newer tools are available, Microsoft roaming profiles is a simple and time-tested way to manage a user’s profile across physical and virtual desktop environments.
How to take advantage of Teams-Exchange integration
The apps in Office 365 sometimes need a few tweaks to interact in a more seamless fashion. Learn how to combine the functionality of Exchange and Microsoft Teams.
Send us your feedback!
Got feedback about anything in this issue of WServerNews? Email us at [email protected]