Category: 1488

As you might know, I’ve been actively engaged with the Dutch Networking User Group (NGN) in the past years. In recent events, this user group has announced its intent to merger with the Dutch Platform for ICT Professionals (NGI). I’m happy to announce that heir first event together, Mobiel Werken 2013, is one of my … Continue reading "I will be speaking at NGNs and NGIs shared BYO Event"

As an admin, you’ll want to centrally manage the devices of your organizations. This reduces urgent helpdesk incidents and gains trust from your colleagues. On the other hand, much of the security you put in, slows down their devices. Anti-malware has been accepted as a necessary evil by most of your colleagues, but long logon … Continue reading "Is your organization ready for Windows 8.1? Part 10, Group Policy Caching"

My time with Windows 8 was fun. I found numerous hacks to make the most of my experience. The most fun I had was with pressing Alt + F4 during Windows 8‘s psychedelic color-flipping welcome screen to skip it altogether. Now, In Windows 8.1, pressing Alt + F4 during the initial setup won’t do you … Continue reading "Is your organization ready for Windows 8.1? Part 9, Disable Help Tips in The New Interface"

At the same time Microsoft released the Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 bits to TechNet and MSDN subscribers, they also released the Release Notes for Windows 8.1 on a page on the Microsoft Download Center. On this page you can a document (*.docx format) with the critical issues, that have currently been identified, … Continue reading "KnowledgeBase: Important Issues in Windows 8.1 (Release Notes)"

As we discover more and more of Windows 8.1, it becomes clear this Windows Operating System has some tweaks to facilitate the adoption of it by end-users of Windows Operating Systems prior to Windows 8. In this series, I’ve already shown you how to force a specific Start Screen Layout. I’ve also shown you how … Continue reading "Is your organization ready for Windows 8.1? Part 8, Start Screen App Pinning"

While I’ve covered the fixed Start Screen Layout feature in Windows 8.1 in the previous blogpost in this series, there’s even more control for administrators to make the Start Screen on Windows 8.1 devices uniform throughout the organization. Today, we’ll look at two more settings. We’ll look at forcing a specific Start Screen background and … Continue reading "Is your organization ready for Windows 8.1? Part 7, Managing Start Screen Theming Centrally"

As part of the new Windows 8 Interface in large networking environments, Microsoft allowed for some customization of the Lock Screen, the Start Screen background and the Logon background. I’ve described these settings as part of my five must-have Group Policy settings to create an uniform look for your Windows 8 clients. Windows 8.1 allows … Continue reading "Is your organization ready for Windows 8.1? Part 6, Start Screen Layout Management"

You can really tell Windows 8.1 was designed with tablet users in mind, since it offers a lot of new features specifically for people using Windows on these types of devices. One of the more intrusive features is the SkyDrive integration. SkyDrive allows users to store their files and settings in the Microsoft cloud and … Continue reading "Is your organization ready for Windows 8.1? Part 5, Managing SkyDrive"

While Microsoft announced TechNet and MSDN Subscribers would not receive access to Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 before October, the Release to Manufacturers (RTM) bits of these two Operating Systems can be downloaded by them today.

In this series, I’m asking the questions to determine as an admin if your organization is ready to go to Windows 8.1. Today, I’m looking at the ability to automatically download and install updates for Windows 8 interface apps. One of the more prominent new features of Windows 8.1 for organizations. Automatic App Updates are … Continue reading "Is your organization ready for Windows 8.1? Part 4, Automatic App Updates"