Posey's Tips & Tricks


It's Time for IT Pros To Reclaim Their Work-Life Balance

IT pros are working long hours right now to keep their organizations afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. But that shouldn't be the expectation once the crisis passes.

Office Windows

New Microsoft Teams Features: The Gimmicky, the Practical and the Maybe

With much of the corporate world now interacting via online chat, Microsoft is throwing a bunch of new features at its Teams platform, hoping that at least a few of them will stick. But chat bubbles?

Road Illustration

COVID-19 Opens the Door for 'Natural Machine Interaction' Technologies

The next wave of technical innovation will be driven by businesses looking to provide more touchless experiences to their coronavirus-wary customers.

Frozen Glass

Hyper-V Snapshots vs. Backups: Addressing the Confusion

Microsoft's Hyper-V snapshots feature is a convenience, not a backup replacement. But with different cloud vendors using the term "snapshots" in different ways, that's easy to forget.

Party Lights in Sky Graphic

Is Application Awareness on the Cusp of a Renaissance?

With cloud suites like Microsoft 365 scattering user data across multiple apps and services, application-aware backups and restorations are due for a surge in renewed interest.

Digital Ink Editing in Microsoft Word, Revisited

Microsoft took its time on Word's ink editing features, making them generally available only recently. Now that Brien has put them through their paces in the real world, here's his take on their usefulness.

First Look: Microsoft Cortana's Daily Briefing in Outlook

With a new Cortana feature, Microsoft brushes off one of its old ideas for helping Outlook users stick to their tasks and answer their e-mails.

What Money in Excel Means for the Future of Microsoft 365 Apps

Microsoft's new personal finance tool hints at what's in store for next-generation Office applications, from more third-party integrations to subscription requirements.

Why Windows Phone Is Dead, But Not Completely Gone

Don't call it a comeback (because that's not likely). But as Brien explains, there are three ways that today's smartphone market leaves the door open for Microsoft to bring Windows back to smartphones.

Surface and ARM: Why Microsoft Shouldn't Follow Apple's Lead and Dump Intel

Microsoft's current Surface flagship, the Surface Pro X, already runs on ARM. But as the ill-fated Surface RT showed, going all-in on ARM never did Microsoft many favors.

How To Convert VMware Virtual Machines to Hyper-V

One of the lesser-known capabilities of System Center Virtual Machine Manager is its ability to convert VMware virtual machines so they can run on Microsoft Hyper-V. The process isn't without its quirks, however.

Should You Back Up Static Data?

There's another threat to consider when it comes to developing a backup strategy for static data on an active volume: bit rot.

How To Use Microsoft Office for Asset Management, Part 3

Working with absolute and relative cell references in Excel, plus retrieving a value from a second sheet.

How To Use Microsoft Office for Asset Management, Part 2

Now that you know how to use Microsoft Word to make barcodes, the next step is to keep track of your barcoded items in Excel. Here's how.

How To Use Microsoft Office for Asset Management, Part 1

In this three-part series, Brien shows how to use Microsoft Office to organize personal resources or create a small business inventory-tracking system. Step one: Generate barcodes in Word.

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