Welcome back to IT Pro Tuesday!

In the latest Security Swarm Podcast: “A Breakdown of CSRB’s Findings on Microsoft Storm-0558 Breach (PART 1),” we discuss the Cyber Safety Review Board’s findings of the Microsoft Storm-0558 breach. We explore the implications of the breach and Microsoft’s security culture, stressing the need to prioritize robust security measures over rapid feature developments.

We’re looking for your favorite tips and tools we can share with the community… those that help you do your job better and more easily. Please share your suggestions on the IT Pro Tuesday subreddit, and we’ll be featuring them in the coming weeks.

Now on to this week’s list

A Free Tool

Capture2Text is a simple, multi-platform OCR solution that creates a keyboard shortcut to grab text from your screen and save it to the clipboard. Includes support for a large array of languages, including a translation feature. A favorite tool of fids74gf.

A Podcast

Let’s Talk Azure is a show that features a couple of expert tech consultants chatting about Azure and whatever related news items have caught their attention. Each episode focuses at length on a different Azure topic. More_Psychology_4835  explains, “[I] met one of the hosts at MSignite, and they genuinely love teaching people about all things azure.”

Another Free Tool

Rufus is a utility for formatting and creating bootable USB flash drives that works with MRB/GPT and BIOS/UEFI—and is noticeably faster than other tools. Kindly suggested by DonPepino.

A Tip

TheTurboFD shares some favorite shortcuts:

• appwiz.cpl to open installed apps
• fsmgmt.msc to open file share management
• devmgmt.msc for device manager
• lusrmgr.msc for local user and groups
• on a new server, type sconfig in cmd and you can do name change, addresses, domain join etc all through command line.

One More Free Tool

Password Safe is a highly secure, open-source password manager for maintaining an encrypted user name/password list. Works on Windows 7 and later. Our thanks for this recommendation go to Taco Tech.

P.S. Bonus Free Tools

XVI32 is a Windows hex editor that comes in a relatively small ZIP file you can run directly from the folder you extracted it from, which means you can carry it on a flash drive for maximum portability. Allows you to edit hexadecimals as well as copy, replace, and search words directly from the interface. Also includes a handy bookmark feature. Appreciation for the suggestion goes to deanmoncaster.

AutoHotkey is an open-source scripting language for Windows that helps you easily create small to complex scripts for all sorts of tasks (form fillers, auto-clicking, macros, etc.) Automate any desktop task with this small, fast tool that runs out-of-the-box. jbatubara considers it a favorite “old standby.”