If you have updated your touch/slate device to Windows 8.1 Update you will have noticed that the Search button has appeared on your start menu but not the power button. If you were wondering how to enable this button then unfortunately there is no easy way to do this as it is dictated by the type of hardware that you are…

With the release of Windows 8.1 Update Microsoft has introduced a new feature Internet Explorer Enterprise Mode. This allows admins to assign via Group Policy a way to force web site to render using specific browser modes. Internet Explorer has has a long heritage and each new version of the browser shipped has had the rendering engine of the previous…

There is a setting in Internet Explorer that is called “Always switch to new tabs when they are created” which as the name suggests controls how tabs in the browser are created. This setting can of course be controlled via Group Policy so that tabs will either appear in the background or foreground in the browser when a user opens…

Fellow Australian and Microsoft Hyper-V Program Manager Ben Armstrong (a.k.a. Virtual PC Guy) has just published a blog explaining how you can deploy group policy object to be only targeting to virtual servers (see Targeting Group Policy at Hyper-V VMs). To do this he explains that you can create a WMI query filter that means the Group Policy object will…

Have you ever applied a Group Policy and then waited the standard 90 minutes for the setting to apply only to find out that after a few hours the policy still has not been set yet. Even trying to force a GPUPDATE still does not trigger the change but then the next day the policy has applied as expected. What…

One of the new improvements in Windows 8.1 is called Group Policy Caching (see Group Policy Caching in Windows 8.1) that makes drastic performance improvements when users are operating over high latency network links. However as with everything there is always a catch…. I have discovered in my testing of this new feature that running a GPUPDATE was taking a LOT…

Work Folders is a great new server role feature with Windows Server 2012 R2 that allows your end user to sync their files over multiple device at work and at home. Think of it as SkyDrive hosted on Windows Server in your own server room rather than by a third party. While there are a lot more technically impressive features…

With the release of Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview many people are very pleased with the new option called “Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in” that allows then to boot direct the the desktop when the logon. If if follow this blog you know I have mentioned this “boot to desktop” option a few time…