Grant Users RDP Access to Your Azure Virtual Machine (classic)

After several hours of trial and error with outdated posts on Microsoft's Azure blog and other sites I finally was able to setup a virtual machine that other users could turn on / off and connect to using Remote Desktop. Here is a brief summary of the steps.

Access to Azure Portal

Locate the cloud service (classic) under http://portal.azure.com that hosts the virtual machine(s)

Expand the Settings of the service and locate the Users section

Add a user to to the service using their Microsoft account. For the role select "Classic Virtual Machine Contributor"

RDP Access to Virtual Machine

Start the virtual machine and add a local user to Windows.  

Add the user to the list of approved users for RDP (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/remote-desktop-connection-faq#1TC=windows-7).

Follow the steps here to give the user access to the virtual machine via Azure: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-machines-windows-reset-rdp/

Google reader (almost) dead. Here is what I'm thinking...

As the title suggests this blog will be updated periodically based on my findings / thoughts on an "alternative" to Google Reader which service will end July 1, 2013. Basically I need something on my desktop during the work day and a nice App when I'm on the go.

To find the best option for both my desktop and portable devices I looked into NewsBlur only to discover that nothing really works as it's intended. Here's a list

• Import from Google Reader breaks
• The annoying wizard dialog that's supposed to setup my account constantly freezes
• I can't seem to link both my Twitter and Facebook accounts with NewsBlur
• ...

Right now I'm considering separating mobile from desktop as the best option.  Here's what I'm considering for both:

Laptop

Since I already have my Google Chrome browser open all the time I'm looking into a plugin that lets me quickly browse my RSS feed subscriptions.

Mobile

By far Flipboard is my #1 pick as a "news reader" App for both Apple and Google portable devices that syncs right up with Google Reader and won't die when Google Reader does. 

Feel free to add your suggestions as a comment below and I'll do my best to make updates as the journey continues...

Other Resources

User's voting on the best alternative

Google Chrome Desktop Update (25.0.1364.97 m) for Windows 8 Crashes

The Issue

Just updated Google Chrome this morning to version, 25.0.1364.97 m, and restarted my laptop. After the reboot I tried to open the desktop version of Chrome (not the App version) and all the tabs failed to load. I clicked on the Chrome settings and a blank page came up.

The Fix

I then proceeded to switch Chrome to "Windows 8 mode" by clicking the menu button and selecting "Relaunch Chrome in Windows 8 mode". 

After Chrome restarted in Windows 8 mode i then switched back to Desktop mode and all the tabs loaded properly. Even though this fixed the problem feel free to comment if you found a better way. Thanks.