ITProGuru

What Windows security settings actually matter if you don't have a dedicated security hire?

2026-09-02

Five: disk encryption, disabling legacy SMBv1, switching sign-in to a device-bound PIN, turning on Controlled Folder Access, and requiring Network Level Authentication on Remote Desktop -- each with the command that proves it took effect.

How do you get productive with a coding agent fast?

2026-09-02

Three habits: write a brief before you write a prompt, scope every request to one task the agent can verify on its own, and read every diff yourself before it merges.

How I Actually Build Durable Memory for an AI Agent

2026-08-28

The hands-on version of agent memory: the index-plus-files layout I actually use, the frontmatter fields that make a memory file findable and trustworthy, the recall-then-verify discipline that keeps stale facts from becoming load-bearing, and where memory stops and other storage starts.

How I Batch My AI Prompts So I'm Not Paying to Re-Read the Same Context Six Times

2026-08-27

The hands-on version of the single-prompt batching rule: the exact prompt shapes I use, the CLI flags and system-prompt guardrails I set so an agent stops mid-batch and asks instead of guessing, and the failure I hit before I learned this the hard way.

Why My Agent's Context Window Fills Up Faster Than I Expect

2026-08-24

The practitioner version: why an agent session runs out of working memory long before you expect it to, what I actually watch to see it coming, and the habits that keep a long session useful instead of degrading into guesswork.

What I Actually Check Before I Trust an Agent's Tool Call

2026-08-22

The hands-on companion: the specific checks I run before I let an agent's tool call through, the naming discipline that keeps a permission gate honest, and the failure I hit when I trusted a tool's name instead of its actual behavior.

Free AI Voice Typing: Better Than Paying for OpenAI Whisper (Windows & Mac)

2025-12-07

Published: December 7, 2025 Author: Dan Stolts | AI Expert Reading Time: 10 minutes Updated: December 7, 2025 The $130 Mistake I Almost Made Last week, I was seriously considering spending $130/year on OpenAI’s Whisper API for voice-to-text transcription. I was tired of typing. My fingers ached from hours of documentation, emails, and code comments. I thought, “There has to be […]

A Personal Request: Help Us Scale Our AI Impact Deadline June 20, 2025

2025-06-13

Deadline: Friday, June 20, 2025 | Five $100 Amazon Gift Card Winners Over the years, I’ve shared PowerShell scripts, cybersecurity insights, Microsoft best practices, and IT solutions that have helped tens of thousands of professionals through my blogs, presentations, and jIT Solutions services. I’ve given freely of my knowledge and expertise. Now I want to […]

Understanding Modern Cybersecurity: A Story of Evolution and Resilience

2025-05-10

Introduction: The Day the Firewall Failed It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon when the alerts began—a workstation in the finance department was acting strangely. The antivirus console showed nothing. The firewall logs were silent. And yet, files were being encrypted. This was the moment our team realized: the old playbook of AV and firewalls wasn’t […]

Demystifying AI’s Inner Workings: How Tokens and Context Shape What Models Understand

2025-04-30

Tokens and context windows are the hidden engines behind every AI conversation. In this technical deep dive, you’ll learn how AI splits, processes, and remembers information—and how understanding these mechanics can help you cut costs, boost performance, and make smarter choices when using tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot.

The Ultimate AI Assistant Showdown: A Decision-Maker’s Guide to Choosing the Right Chatbot for Your Business Needs

2025-04-29

Choosing the right Chat for the right purpose As AI assistants become essential business tools, selecting the right one for your specific needs has never been more crucial. With options ranging from ChatGPT’s versatility to Claude’s emphasis on safety, from Microsoft Copilot’s deep Office integration to specialized tools like Jasper Chat for marketing, the landscape […]

Boost Productivity, Security & Compliance with Sysinternals Suite

2025-04-28

Unlock the full potential of Microsoft’s Sysinternals Suite to supercharge system monitoring, threat hunting, and compliance reporting. In this post, we’ll walk through must-know utilities like Process Explorer, Autoruns, and PSExec, plus tips on automating your troubleshooting pipeline. Whether you’re securing servers or streamlining helpdesk ops, these lightweight tools deliver enterprise-grade insights without the price tag.

Debunking AI Myths: The Truth Small Businesses Need to Know

2025-03-07

As a business owner, I understand the challenge of keeping up with technology while juggling daily operations. AI is one of the most misunderstood tools out there, and many small businesses hesitate to embrace it due to common myths. Let’s set the record straight and explore how AI can help small businesses grow. Myth 1: […]

Why Your AI Isn’t Delivering the Results You Need—And How to Fix It (Series Index)

2025-03-06

The Going DEEP with AI Series: Mastering AI Through Iteration Many small business owners turn to AI expecting instant value, only to be met with generic, uninspiring, or off-target results. The problem isn’t AI—it’s how it’s being used. If you’re not refining your AI interactions, you’re leaving massive potential on the table. This two-part article […]

The AI Frustration: Why Your AI Results May Not Be What You Expected (Part 1)

2025-03-06

Going DEEP with AI: How Small Businesses Can Use Iterative AI to Unlock Better Results Many small business owners and professionals have dabbled with AI tools like ChatGPT, hoping to generate insightful reports, creative marketing content, or even automate customer interactions. However, a common frustration emerges: the AI’s responses often fall short of expectations. Maybe […]

Backstage of “Going DEEP with AI: How Small Businesses Can Use Iterative AI to Unlock Better Results” (Part 2)

2025-03-06

Backstage of Going DEEP with AI—Go behind the scenes and see exactly how we built the article “Going DEEP with AI: How Small Businesses Can Use Iterative AI to Unlock Better Results” using AI, with jIT’s AI DEEP methodology including the precise prompts, refinements, and lessons learned.

AI Event: Why Your AI Isn’t Delivering the Results You Need—And How to Fix It

2025-03-06

5 Steps to Building a Strategic Tech Plan for Your Business

2025-01-22

Introduction: As a business owner, you already know how essential technology is to staying competitive. But without a clear and strategic tech plan, it’s easy to waste resources or fall behind your competitors. jIT Solutions recently shared a step-by-step guide on how businesses can create a strategic tech plan that aligns with their goals and […]

🚨 Strengthen Your Cybersecurity Compliance With The Right Policies 🚨

2025-01-22

Cybersecurity isn’t just a tech issue—it’s a business priority! jIT Solutions has shared an insightful guide on essential policies to keep your organization secure and compliant in 2025. Did you know: 1️⃣ 91% of cyberattacks start with phishing emails? Implementing clear email security policies could save your business from costly breaches.2️⃣ The average cost of […]

📘 Mastering Business Compliance: A Key to Business Success 📘

2025-01-22

Compliance isn’t just about avoiding penalties; it’s about building trust, enhancing operational efficiency, and driving business success. jIT Solutions’ latest guide outlines actionable strategies to navigate today’s complex compliance landscape.

Staggering Numbers – War, Spanish Flu and Covid-19 – Must READ and Share

2021-03-29

Sept 11, 2001 2,997 Dead (1 day) Spanish flu 50 million dead, more than died in both WW1 and WW2 combined. Americans died from the Spanish flu =670,000 (1-year); Spanish flu infected 1/3 of the world’s population US combat deaths (Major foreign wars) – 666,441 (many decades) World War I. 53,402 dead (1 year) WW2 […]

Azure Getting Started via PowerShell

2017-12-12

I have done hundreds of events and there are always obstacles to onboarding the attendees/students. I decided to create a succinct help document. I hope this helps PowerShell Everything after a “#” pound sign is a not and can be ignored; no need to paste that into the PowerShell window. Run PowerShell as an Administrator […]

PowerShell Saving SecureCredentials and Converting to and from Text

2017-09-23

I wanted a way to save credentials to a file but I did not want it to be a plain text password. To solve this challenge, I captured the name & password at the command prompt (or parameter), converted it to a secure string then saved it out to XML. Then I needed to read […]

Scott Guthrie Comes to Boston, New York & More for Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour ’17

2017-09-19

Whether you’re new to the cloud or a seasoned expert, you’ll learn something at the Azure Red Shirt Dev Tour ‘17. The Red Shirt Tour is all about code. Join Microsoft’s cloud chief, Scott Guthrie, as he codes live and demonstrates how Azure can help you solve some of your most vexing developer problems. Register […]

DevOps and Bots, What you need to know!

2017-08-17

Followers of the ITProGuru blog are likely interested in DevOps. Those that are advancing in their DevOps journey will undoubtedly want to apply DevOps processes to leverage Bots. One of my peers, Jamie Dalton has written an excellent blog post to pull together the best information to help you on that journey. He is eager […]

How To use PowerShell to Install and Import Modules and Connect to Azure–Step by Step

2017-07-11

<# ========= Connect-AzureRm.ps1 ======================================= Name: Connect-AzureRm.ps1 Purpose: Connect to Azure from Powershell. Includes installing modules, importing modules, authenticating (including multi-factor) and selecting the subscription Author: Dan Stolts – dstoltsµsoft.com – http://ITProGuru.com Script Home: http://ITProGuru.com/Scripts Syntax/Execution: Copy portion of script you want to use and paste into PowerShell (or ISE) Disclaimer: Use at your own Risk! […]

How To use PowerShell to Install and Import Modules and Connect to Azure–Step by Step

2017-07-11

70-534 Azure Certification Jump Start Architecting Azure Solutions Event Series Content v2017.06

2017-07-02

70-534 Architecting Azure Solutions Certification Jump Start By: Dan Stolts, Chief Technology Strategist / Technical Evangelist / Microsoft On June 13-14, 2017 Microsoft put on an invite-only event for many of our customers. This was scaled back to invite only as a trial and proof of concept. Our attempt was to give a deep technology […]

70-534 Architecting Azure Solutions Event Summary

2017-06-15

On June 13-14, 2017 Microsoft put on an invite-only event for many of our customers. This was scaled back to invite only as a trial and proof of concept. Our attempt was to hone in on the technology education that these customers need to get their Architects, Developers and IT professional the understanding they need […]

DevOps, Containers and Next Generation Microservices

2017-06-05

DevOps, Containers and Next Generation Microservices Microsoft Reactor at Grand Central Tech 335 Madison Ave, New York, NY (map) Register on Meetup https://www.meetup.com/nysoftware/events/240246817/ AGENDA · 6:30 PM – PIZZA & NETWORKING: Doors open, head to the Microsoft Reactor on the 4th floor. Food & drinks will be served, courtesy of Microsoft. Take the opportunity to mingle […]

PowerShell in Action! Event Burlington Ma June 2nd 2017

2017-05-22

PowerShell in Action – June 2, 2017 – Microsoft Burlington – 5 Wayside Road, Burlington MA Join us for a day of PowerShell. Just as it is a tool for you to do amazing things, we are going to use it as a tool to explore amazing technologies. If you are looking to learn PowerShell, […]

Techstravaganza 2017 Event

2017-04-20

ITProGuru Session: Azure & Windows Nano Server with Docker; Hybrid is possible (Track: Azure)Containers, the next wave of virtualization, are changing everything! Add it to an ultra-small and supper efficient OS like Nano and you have an incredible platform. Now with Docker running on Windows and Docker Containers built into both Azure and Windows Server, […]

Step-By-Step How to change the Date and Time of a Meetup Event

2017-03-04

I struggled a bit today trying to find out how to change the date of a meetup. I needed to postpone an event and the edit event page would not allow me to make changes to the date field. The date field is there but when you click on it you cannot change. The […]

How to Connect and Edit Configuration Files for WordPress Running on Linux in a Docker Container Includes Changing Site URL

2017-02-22

Here are the steps. 1) ssh to the linux host (using SSH or Putty, or whatever) change to Super User sudo su enter su credentials if required. If you cannot switch to su mode, then just add sudo in front of all the below commands. 2) confirm docker is running… Display a list of all […]

Connect-AzureRm from Powershell HOW TO installing & import modules, authenticate (including multi-factor) and selecting the subscription Step-By-Step

2017-02-15

Name: Connect-AzureRm.ps1 Purpose: Connect to Azure from Powershell. Includes installing modules, importing modules, authenticating (including multi-factor) and selecting the subscription Author: Dan Stolts – dstoltsµsoft.com – http://ITProGuru.com Script Home: http://ITProGuru.com/Scripts Syntax/Execution: Copy portion of script you want to use and paste into PowerShell (or ISE) Disclaimer: Use at your own Risk! See details […]

Connect-AzureRm from Powershell HOW TO installing & import modules, authenticate (including multi-factor) and selecting the subscription Step-By-Step

2017-02-15

Getting Started with VSCode and Markdown Step-By-Step Markdown-Preview-Scroll

2017-02-05

Markdown Preview VS Code supports Markdown files out of the box. You just start writing Markdown text, save the file with the .md (.html works too) extension and then you can toggle the visualization of the editor between the code and the preview of the Markdown file; obviously, you can also open an existing Markdown […]

VTUG at Gillette Stadium No Charge Technology Event, MUST ATTEND-Cloud, Containers, DevOps, Virtualization and MORE!

2017-01-10

This is an AWESOME Event. I have been attending all VTUG events for years. They provide a wealth of knowledge on many topics. This is a not your typical user group event. It is more like a small scale national event but it is put on by the community for the Technology Community. Any other […]

Microsoft and Linux… Better Together

2016-12-21

Wednesday, December 21, 2016 from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm Location MIT Building E-51, Room 315 Presenters Dan Stolts , Chief Technology Strategist and Technical Evangelist , Microsoft – dstolts microsoft com Summary A deep dive into Linux capabilities and integrations with the Microsoft Azure Cloud Abstract Join us for this very special look […]

Lab Guide Working with Containers on Windows 10–Includes Docker and Nano Step-By-Step

2016-12-16

Hands on Lab Guide for Free Online Labs at: https://labondemand.com/Launch/40A59076 Working with Containers on Windows 10 Access machines from: https://labondemand.com/Launch/40A59076 Objective In this lab, you will gain fundamental knowledge for managing Windows Server containers on Windows 10 by using Docker commands. You will learn how to: Install the pre-requisites for Docker on Windows 10. […]

Lab Guide Working with Containers on Windows 10–Includes Docker and Nano Step-By-Step

2016-12-16

How to exit (quit) Linux vi editor with or without saving changes Step-by-Step

2016-11-28

Incredibly simple; if you know how…. First how to launch vim From the command prompt: change to path where file is located with “cd” vi filename This will edit filename starting at line 1. ========================= To exit without saving changes made: Press . (You must be in insert or append mode if not, just start […]

Step-By-Step Hands on Lab Managing Docker on Windows with Hyper-V Virtual Lab now available

2016-11-21

Managing Docker on Windows with Hyper-V Virtual lab Microsoft recently launched a free, virtual hands on lab Managing Docker on Windows in partnership with Learn on Demand Systems, a training partner within the Microsoft family. This virtual lab was created as an educational offering to engage, inspire and inform the US Modern […]

DevOps, Containers, Windows Server 2016 and Azure Event Burlington MA Nov 18

2016-11-10

Hands On Lab Event coming to Burlington MA Friday, November 18, 2016 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM Microsoft Corporation 5 Wayside Road, Burlington, MA (edit map) The Boston Area Windows Server User Group (www.WindowsBoston.com) is sponsoring a training class “DevOps, Containers, Windows Server 2016 and Azure” for their members and to the local technology community. […]

How To Docker Create Container, Change Container, Save as new image, and Connect to Container Step-By-Step PLUS much more

2016-10-18

Docker Cheat Sheet For those just getting started with Docker and for me to have an easy place to go back and get this basic information…I wanted to create a cheat sheet. The electronic version of this document can be found at https://wp.me/p6B4pe-oP5 A couple URGENT basic notes… the $ and the # in the […]

Setup Azure Pass for user who belongs to an Organization Account (AAD) Step-By-Step

2016-09-06

Organizational accounts (Azure Active Directory or Office 365 Accounts) are handled differently than standard Microsoft Accounts (LiveID). Also, they often have multi-factor authentication. Adding an Azure Pass to these types of an account is often not intuitive so here are the step-by-step instructions… Step-By-Step… Image / FYI Information Description / Step breakdown Purpose: Login […]

How PowerShell and DSC Empowers DevOps and the Cloud–PSUG October Event in Cambridge

2016-08-18

Dan Stolts from Microsoft and ITProGuru.com comes to Boston PowerShell User group with a full session on Desired State Configuration! DSC is a new management platform in Windows PowerShell that enables deploying and managing configuration data for software services and managing the environment in which these services run. DSC provides a set of Windows PowerShell […]

How PowerShell and DSC Empowers DevOps and the Cloud–PSUG October Event in Cambridge

2016-08-18

PowerShell User Group July Meeting in Boston

2016-07-15

PowerShell User Group July Meeting – OneGet, PS Gallery, and Community Projects Monday, July 18, 2016 6:00 PM Where: Microsoft 255 Main Street, Cambridge, MA (map) 42.362682 -71.085350 Topic: Warren Frame will lead a discussion on how to simplify finding, installing, and publishing PowerShell modules and other packages using the down-level-compatible PowerShellGet and OneGet modules. […]

What are Containers and Why Containerization an In-Depth Look at the Future of the Cloud and Virtualization Landscape

2016-07-08

In this article, we will look at servers, containers and why containerization has become so popular. On this journey we will also see where this technology is going and how long it will likely take to gain mainstream adoption. Virtualization Technologies and How They Differ In order to understand containers, we need to first understand […]