Practical IT advice. With the day job in mind.
Practical IT guidance for people responsible for making technology work.
The archive
Briefings, with the job still in view.
Practical notes, independent views and the occasional complaint about a problem that should have been fixed years ago.
46 briefings
When did you last restore a backup?
A completed backup job is only part of the evidence.
Your AI pilot needs a boring success measure.
A polished demo is a poor substitute for a useful result.
When the temporary fix becomes part of the service
How to document, review and retire a workaround before it becomes an unsupported dependency.
MFA is worth having. The method matters.
Some methods resist phishing better than others.
Before you buy it, try leaving it.
Make the exit test part of the SaaS trial.
Who owns it after the launch meeting?
Agree who makes the decisions, who operates the service and what happens when its owner is unavailable.
Could someone else run it on Monday?
Use a handover test to find the missing instructions.
Handling the quick question that needs a change
Turn an informal request into a clear next step without hiding the impact of the work.
What keeps landing in your IT queue?
Tell us about the recurring problem that deserves a closer look.
Write the change record for the person who reads it at 2am.
A change record earns its keep during the rollback, not at the approval meeting.
Your ticket queue is a design document.
The same request arriving forty times is telling you something about the service, not about the users.
Last Week in AI: 7–13 September 2026
On-device tools, AI-assisted network investigation and new releases for teams building with AI. Four developments worth examining in the context of your own work.
A password export needs its own handover plan
Before moving saved passwords, agree who can access the export and how you will close the migration.
Give the battery complaint a useful support ticket
Use a Windows battery report alongside the person’s working day before choosing the next action.
Would your team know who to call after a suspicious payment?
Run a short response exercise with finance and IT before someone has to find the right number under pressure.
Last Week in AI: 14–20 September 2026
CodeMender’s preview update, new agent connections for cloud security, and Anthropic’s embedded-evaluation announcement: the practical implications for IT teams.
Check the captions before the meeting starts
A short Teams rehearsal can establish what participants can use and how decisions will be recorded.
Will the files open when you arrive?
Prepare the working files for a site visit before relying on a folder visible in File Explorer.
What did Clear all leave behind?
A Windows clipboard rehearsal can reveal a gap in your support instructions without using real customer data.
Before erasing a work Mac, agree the handover
Put business records and device ownership ahead of the reset button when preparing a Mac to leave the organisation.
Firefox changed. Does your support guide still match?
Use Mozilla’s September redesign as a prompt to check the browser instructions your colleagues actually follow.
What does your website reveal unnecessarily?
Review public business information with its owner, keeping useful customer content and removing detail that no longer has a purpose.
Can the room join your customer’s meeting?
Use Google’s October interoperability update to plan a focused room test before changing the instructions beside the screen.
Last Week in AI: 28 September–4 October 2026
A Claude release, a Google Cloud data toolkit and a workplace-prompt transition, with practical checks for the teams responsible for them.
Who will look after that Microsoft Form?
Give a business form an agreed home and test the response workflow before its creator moves on.
You can see the shortcut. Can you open the file?
Check the intended reader’s access before calling a Google Drive project folder ready.
Why did that browser tab reload?
Investigate the interrupted task before changing Chrome performance settings across the business.
The checker is clear. Is the presentation usable?
Add a practical human review before sending the next business presentation.
Last Week in AI: 5–11 October 2026
Haiku 5.5, local GitHub Copilot and Google’s Gemini agent: what UK IT teams can evaluate, and what still needs checking.
Can the next colleague see your reply?
Check the sent-message trail in a shared mailbox before the next handover.
Before you let someone onto your screen
Make the support contact clear before accepting a Quick Assist session on a work PC.
A migration announcement is the start of your test plan
Use Google’s October announcement to write a practical acceptance test before committing to a Microsoft 365 migration.
Which copy are you sending to the customer?
Make a deliberate release copy of a Word document, with a review of the material that should leave your organisation.
Practise recovering one harmless file
For teams already using Time Machine, a small restore exercise can make the support procedure more useful.
Check Monday’s scheduled work after the clock change
Use the return to GMT to check that a business schedule still matches the time its owner expects.
Make reporting a suspicious email an easy decision
Give colleagues a clear route to help without asking them to prove that a message is malicious first.
Last Week in AI: 12–18 October 2026
Copilot Studio’s Frontier rollout, a changed Google skills timetable and Anthropic’s evaluator access: practical implications for UK IT teams.
Agree what a laptop cleanup may remove
Before automating disk cleanup, review the affected files with the person who uses the device.
Which app is asking to use the camera?
A focused permission check for Mac support teams, without granting access to every app just to get a call working.
What does your supplier need to do in Teams?
Turn a vague request for Teams access into a specific collaboration decision.
What will change after your cyber exercise?
Plan a useful discussion with named follow-up work, rather than a meeting that ends with everyone agreeing it was interesting.
A new spreadsheet rule does not check the old records
Review existing entries deliberately when adding validation to a working Excel workbook.
Last Week in AI: 19–25 October 2026
Claude integration upgrades, Gemini connection management and shared stewardship for agent tools: practical checks for UK IT teams.
Which printer will receive this document?
Agree a predictable print destination and confirm it in the actual application before sending work.
A file in the bin can still be accessible
Separate a Google Drive cleanup request from a decision about who should retain access.