Get Started with Windows Update for Business (WUfB)
· ☕ 6 min read
You may have seen the option to use Windows Update for Business and wondering what it brings to the table when compared to WSUS and SCCM. Windows Update for Business (WUfB) is a good way of simplifying and automating the deployment of Windows Updates without using any on-premises infrastructure. The downside is that you do loose some control, but the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. As I always say, it does depend on your infrastructure and environment though.
App Spotlight: Directory Opus
· ☕ 3 min read
Directory Opus is a file manager – remember those? I haven’t thought about them for years. DOpus (as it’s known for short) has a long history starting on the Commodore Amiga where in later versions it was available as a Workbench (the Amiga’s operating system) replacement. I only used Directory Opus version 4 on the Amiga, but it was a great file manager and was a great tool to have back then.
The New Microsoft Edge - The Microsoft Alternative To Chrome
· ☕ 2 min read
Microsoft have been developing an all new version of their web browser Edge and will release it in early 2020. If you are familiar with the existing Edge browser, it’s the same in name only - the new Microsoft Edge is vastly improved in many ways. The new Edge is now based on Chromium, the same project that Google’s Chrome browser is based on. So, this new version of Edge will share all the compatibility that Chromium based browsers have.
Video Walkthrough: Microsoft Deployment Toolkit for the Enthusiast, Home or Small Business
· ☕ 1 min read
I have recently published a video walkthrough covering how to use Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to create customised standalone install image of Windows 10. It is directed towards enthusiasts, IT professional’s for small businesses, or anyone who wants to create custom images and doesn’t have access to volume licensing, an Active Directory domain, or a lot of server infrastructure. If you are familiar with my previous articles on MDT then this follows a similar method; except its focused on Windows 10 Home and Professional editions, using the Media Creation Tool to obtain Windows 10, customising the image and then creating an ISO to deploy Windows 10 standalone with additional software.
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit for the Enthusiast, Home or Small Business
· ☕ 10 min read
This article is directed towards enthusiasts, IT professional’s for small businesses, or anyone who wants to create custom images and doesn’t have volume licensing, an Active Directory domain, or a lot of server infrastructure. I have also recently published a video walkthrough covering this to my YouTube channel. I hope this article is useful to you, if it is please consider supporting my work by checking out my Patreon, or by donating with PayPal, or Ko-fi.
Remove Win10 Apps Utility
· ☕ 4 min read
Customisable Windows 10 app removal utility Remove Win10 Apps Utility can also be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub Please consider supporting my work: Sign up using Patreon. Support with a one-time donation using PayPal. If you’d like to contact me, please leave a comment, send me a tweet or DM, or you can join my Discord server. -Mike Features and Requirements The utility will remove specified built-in apps for the current logged on user.
The Tale of the Fail of Google Stadia
· ☕ 3 min read
Disclaimer: This isn’t my personal experience with Stadia as I’ve haven’t tried it myself, either during it’s beta phase or in its current state. xCloud and Stadia comparisons: xCloud currently only streams to phones and tablets running Android and is in a preview phase. Stadia has had a preview phase, which was available as an invite-only beta, using Google Chrome and playing Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and is now a released product and service.
Installing Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Deploying Windows 10 - From Scratch!
· ☕ 16 min read
If you’ve read my other posts you’ll know that usually I make a post focusing on building a reference image and then another post on deploying that image. This post is very similar but I’m going to streamline things by just covering the installation of MDT, and deploying Windows 10 1909. I have also recently published a video walkthrough covering this to my YouTube channel. What you’ll need: A server to host the MDT share.
First Impressions with Project xCloud Preview
· ☕ 3 min read
For the last couple of days I’ve been trying out Microsoft’s Project xCloud game streaming service which is currently in preview. You can sign up to try it out yourself here. To get straight to it, the service has worked well for me. There have been some audio glitches, and in some situations - like scrolling around a world map, compression artifacts are very visible, but none of these issues have persisted.
Video Walkthrough: Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Deploying Windows 10
· ☕ 1 min read
I’ve made a video walkthrough covering installing Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and deploying Windows 10. The video follows my previous posts on the subject, but I’ve added some additional useful information to cover silent application installation and I also touch on driver management. I intend to write a post that covers the same subjects as this video, just to bring all the information together in written form. If you find the video useful I would very much appreciate it being shared around, and don’t forget to like ect.
Resurrecting the Windows Photo Viewer
· ☕ 2 min read
I’ve avoided posting about this for a while mostly because I thought Windows Photo Viewer would get removed. But it’s still there in Windows 10 1909 and it’s still good - even though it doesn’t play animated GIFs and hasn’t been updated since the time of Windows 7. Here’s how to enable it in Windows 10. Enable Windows Photo Viewer To enable Windows Photo Viewer so it shows up as an option to open image file types with, copy and paste the text below as is into a new text file and save it with a .
In-Place Upgrade to Windows 10 1909 November 2019 Update (19H2) with MDT
· ☕ 7 min read
2019-11-12: Microsoft have confirmed on Twitter that there will be no updated ADK for Windows 10 1909, so keep using ADK 1903 with the fix as noted below. 2019-10-24: At the time of writing there is no ADK for Windows 10 1909 November 2019 Update (19H2), so I’ve tested this walkthrough using the ADK for Windows 10 1903 with the hotfix for Windows System Image Manager. I’ll keep these pages up to date when Windows 10 1909 is officially released.
Quantum Computing Primer
· ☕ 7 min read
Recently I’ve been doing some research into quantum computing; I wanted to understand its current state in 2019 along with where it could be headed in the next few decades. Let me preface this by saying that I’m not a physicist, although I do have a basic understand of quantum mechanics. I would like to take the opportunity here to thank some friends who’ve advised me during the writing of this article.

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