Grafana offers enterprise-grade Microsoft SQL Server monitoring without the high licensing costs, making it ideal for comprehensive database observability, proactive database health monitoring, troubleshooting, and capacity planning. In my previous blog, I explained how to install Grafana 12 on Windows. This post will outline how to connect Grafana to SQL Server for real-time monitoring.

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Reports indicate that ChatGPT Agent Mode might be capable of solving CAPTCHAs, which are often the final line of defense against persistent bots like AI crawlers on many websites. However, these claims originate from Reddit, known for the frequent hallucinations of its users. To verify, I decided to test it myself.

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The new ChatGPT Agent Mode combines the Operator's ability to browse and interact with websites with Deep Research's ability to analyze and synthesize information from multiple sources. I tested ChatGPT's Agent Mode and was quite disappointed. Honestly, I find it surprising that OpenAI made this feature available to the public, considering that they have led the way with their chatbot so far. In my view, ChatGPT's Agent Mode is a flawed concept because it forces an AI agent to use a web browser, a relatively primitive tool designed for inferior human intelligence.

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The Network File System (NFS) is a widely used file-sharing protocol in Linux environments. However, many Windows administrators may not know you can mount an NFS share easily on Windows 11 and Windows Server. This guide shows you step-by-step instructions on activating NFS for Windows and mounting a share using PowerShell.

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Are you skeptical about AI? Do you believe that AI is overhyped? Then, the latest episode of the Big Technology podcast is for you. AI champion Alex Kantrowitz and fierce AI critic Ed Zitron tackle the gap between AI hype and reality. However, both prominent journalists overlook an essential aspect when assessing AI's economic potential.

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NFS is a practical solution for copying data between Windows and Linux systems. It is particularly useful for managing heterogeneous networks. This post will guide you through installing an NFS server on Windows Server 2025, creating an NFS share, and mounting it from Linux or Mac.

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I tested three MCP servers in Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4: Claude Gmail Search, Zapier Gmail MCP server, and GongRzhe’s Gmail MCP Server. I also submitted the same search prompt to Gemini in Gmail. The results varied greatly. Only two AI tools passed my test, one failed, and the most promising MCP server turned out to be useless.

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Migrating a Hyper-V host from Windows Server 2019 Core to Windows Server 2025 requires attention beyond just the virtual machines. The host's configuration is equally essential and includes network cards, vSwitches, and default paths, all of which need to be transferred accurately. Using Windows PowerShell, you can export key settings and restore them on a new server.

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Anthropic has introduced two new concepts for connecting AI models to resources through MCP: desktop extensions and connectors. Extensions are available only on Claude Desktop (Windows and Mac), while connectors are supported on both the desktop and the Claude.ai web app. All desktop extensions are local MCP servers, but not all local MCP servers qualify as extensions. Conversely, all remote MCP servers are considered connectors; however, not all connectors are remote MCP servers. Although some theoretical documentation about these new concepts exists, I mainly categorized them based on how Claude Desktop organizes the different types of MCP servers.

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Microsoft has released AI Shell v1.0.0‑preview.5, which provides a Windows-only security patch, while Preview 4 delivered substantial improvements—enhanced macOS side‑pane support in iTerm2, Entra ID authentication, expanded Invoke‑AIShell functionality (with new -PostCode, -CopyCode, and -Exit flags)—all based on community feedback to improve workflows across Azure OpenAI, macOS, and PowerShell. This article also explains how to install Microsoft AI Shell on macOS.

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Windows Server 2025 can run Windows and Hyper-V containers. The former share resources like the kernel with the host OS and have process-level isolation, while the latter run in virtual machines. To enable communication between containers and with physical systems, you must configure the network accordingly.

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VS Code version 1.102 introduced several useful new features in GitHub Copilot. Command allow/deny lists let you specify which commands the Copilot agent can execute without asking for permission. The resubmit feature enables you to edit a previous request and resubmit the prompt. Additionally, the new VS Code version includes various updates for managing MCP servers, including a curated catalog of MCP servers.

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Microsoft recently open sourced Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) under the MIT license, allowing anyone to freely inspect, modify, build, or distribute its source code. This article guides you through building WSL 2.6 from source, using CMake, a popular build system generator, on Windows.

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A new study by METR got a lot of attention online. It claims that developers often overestimate the productivity boost from AI tools. In a coding test, the researchers found that AI caused a 19% "slowdown" for developers. In my opinion, it's not AI coding that's overhyped, but rather the study's findings.

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The number of GitHub Copilot concepts continues to grow, and their similar names can easily confuse. This post offers an overview of all the concepts, along with a link to find more information. The main confusion stems from the Copilot tools on GitHub.com and GitHub Copilot in VS Code. Although there is some overlap, keeping these two areas separate is essential.

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Microsoft recently announced Microsoft Sovereign Cloud, which is aimed at European customers. The main goal is to provide more autonomous solutions in a politically complex climate, including options that do not require a cloud connection. Nonetheless, detailed information about the product has yet to be disclosed.

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Freeing up RAM on Windows can significantly improve system performance, especially when certain applications consume excessive memory. In this guide, you’ll learn how to free up RAM using taskkill on the command prompt, PowerShell, wmic, and the free Sysinternals RAMMap tool, with step-by-step instructions for each method.

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Microsoft Azure MCP Server allows AI agents like VS Code GitHub Copilot in Agent Mode to communicate with your Azure resources through natural language prompts. Azure MCP Server supports services such as Storage, Cosmos DB, Key Vault, and Logs.

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Grafana is an open-source platform for analytics and monitoring that allows you to visualize metrics, logs, and traces from any source. This blog post will walk you through installing the newly released Grafana 12 on Windows.

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