Ali Robertson
👋🏽
I’m an Aussie technical architect, advisor and developer. I help people make sense of Microsoft tech, build useful things and learn from each other.
What I do
20+ years across Microsoft partners, enterprise, government, SMB and not-for-profits: architecture, integration, automation and governance on M365, Entra, Azure, Power Platform, Dataverse and D365, and lately a lot of AI and Copilot governance. I’m a tech lead with DevOps/SRE experience and an inveterate tinkerer: PowerShell, C#, TypeScript and React.
Building something, or wrestling with your Microsoft tech? Let’s chat. For advisory and architecture work, here’s how to work with me; for the career history, about me.
This is where I share resources, scripts and communities worth knowing about. Pick a topic or search for the problem you’re working on.
From the blog
Use AI as a classifier
Let it tag, route and extract. Don't let it rewrite or summarise for people.
Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for a small business?
Microsoft 365 for most organisations. Google, or a NAS, for a tiny firm that wants set-and-forget tools.
Reclaim Windows 10, ten years on
A personal PowerShell gist from 2016 that got a bit out of hand, and what still applies on Windows 11.
A few things I’ve worked on
- Sprocket 365: an intranet product for Microsoft 365 that I proposed and led the build of at a Microsoft 365 consultancy. 200,000+ daily active users, and ranked in the global top 30 intranet products (ClearBox, 2019).
- Windows setup scripts: my usual development and admin tools, grouped into editable install sets. A practical starting point for setting up a workstation, with a simpler option for home users too.
- Reclaim Windows 10: a PowerShell script to debloat and tidy up Windows 10, with 3000+ stars on GitHub. I no longer maintain it: these days I recommend Chris Titus Tech’s Windows Utility.
More about my work and career.
Community
I’m a founding moderator of r/microsoft365 and r/dynamics365, run the D365 + Power Platform Discord and help organise the Melbourne D365 & Power Platform user group. Find one that suits you.
I’ve worked with Aboriginal community-controlled organisations and Indigenous-owned businesses, and I’m passionate about supporting Indigenous business and learning from Indigenous culture.
Recently edited resources
- Career Learning Edited Microsoft Learn, certifications and roadmaps
- Local models Running Edited Running LLMs on your own hardware
- Ops + monitoring Running Edited Observability platforms, SRE and the sysadmin communities
- Servers + networks Running Edited Remote access, identity, VPNs and the sysadmin channels
- Development + integration tools D365 + Power Platform Edited APIs, connectors, and integration patterns
Download every link as bookmarks, an HTML file any browser can import.