جـلب الــحبيب “الامارات”002:0104058.1277- 💫جـلب الــحبيب السريع

​جـلب الــحبيب “الامارات”002:0104058.1277- 💫جـلب الــحبيب السريع  Read More

​

Hello,

I am trying to find out whether there is a way to suppress Defender for endpoint notification in Windows 10/11. The reason is that we run security testing regularly and I do not want to get end users disturbed by Defender notifications on their computers.

I was able to suppress alerts in “Microsoft Defender XDR > Rules > Alert tuning”, but this only affect the alerts generated in Defender portal. 

We use M365 E3 with M365 E5 Security

Thank you.

​Hello, I am trying to find out whether there is a way to suppress Defender for endpoint notification in Windows 10/11. The reason is that we run security testing regularly and I do not want to get end users disturbed by Defender notifications on their computers. I was able to suppress alerts in “Microsoft Defender XDR > Rules > Alert tuning”, but this only affect the alerts generated in Defender portal.  We use M365 E3 with M365 E5 Security Thank you.  Read More

​

Release News

Teams

Custom background and daily restart windows for Teams panels – GCC

Voice isolation in Microsoft Teams – MacOS – GCC

Exchange Online

New Outbound Message Transit Security Reports

Exchange Online Message Recall Updates

Purview

Enhanced Alert and User Investigation using Copilot for Security in Insider Risk Management

Newsworthy Highlights

Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 GCC GA Update: Empowering Public Sector Innovation

We’re thrilled to announce the upcoming Oct 2024 anticipated General Availability of Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 GCC subject to US Government authorization. This powerful tool combines large language models (LLMs) with your organization’s data to enhance productivity and innovation in the public sector.

Azure OpenAI Service is FedRAMP High and Copilot for Microsoft 365 GCC High and DOD GA update

Azure OpenAI Service is now approved as a service within the FedRAMP High Authorization for Azure Government. Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 GCC High and DOD environments have a target General Availability (GA) date of Summer 2025. This target date is contingent on US Government authorization.

Where to Start with Microsoft Teams Apps in Gov Clouds

Customers in our Office 365 government clouds, GCC, GCCH, and DoD, are continuing to evolve how they do business in the hybrid workplace. As Microsoft Teams is the primary tool for communication and collaboration, customers are looking to improve productivity by integrating their business processes directly into Microsoft Teams via third-party party (3P) applications or line-of-business (LOB)/homegrown application integrations.

Microsoft 365 Government Community Call

Watch past episodes of Jay Leask and other members of the Government Community on LinkedIn!

Microsoft 365 Government Adoption Resources

Empowering US public sector organizations to transition to Microsoft 365

What’s New in Microsoft Teams | August 2024

Intelligent meeting recap with AI-generated notes and tasks for GCC environment

References and Information Resources

Microsoft 365 Public Roadmap
This link is filtered to show GCC, GCC High and DOD specific items.  For more general information uncheck these boxes under “Cloud Instance”.

Stay on top of Microsoft 365 changes
Here are a few ways that you can stay on top of the Office 365 updates in your organization.

Microsoft Tech Community for Public Sector
Your community for discussion surrounding the public sector, local and state governments.

Microsoft 365 for US Government Service Descriptions

·     Office 365 Platform (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Office 365 U.S. Government GCC High endpoints

·     Office 365 U.S. Government DoD endpoints

·     Microsoft Purview (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Enterprise Mobility & Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Microsoft Defender for Identity Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Azure Information Protection Premium

·     Exchange Online (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     SharePoint (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     OneDrive (GCC, GCCH, DoD) 

·     Teams (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Office 365 Government (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Power Apps (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Power Automate US Government (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Power BI (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Planner (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Outlook Mobile (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

·     Viva Insights (GCC)

·     Dynamics 365 US Government

Be a Learn-it-All

Public Sector Center of Expertise

We bring together thought leadership and research relating to digital transformation and innovation in the public sector. We highlight the stories of public servants around the globe, while fostering a community of decision makers. Join us as we discover and share the learnings and achievements of public sector communities.

Microsoft Teams for US Government Adoption Guide

Message Center Highlights

Please note: This section is for informational purposes only. It is presented as is and as available with no warranty and no supportability given expressly or implied. Questions, comments, concerns and all other feedback must be presented in the comment section below the post, thank you!

SharePoint Online / OneDrive for Business

MC878504 — Microsoft OneDrive for Business: Colored folders in the OneDrive folder in Microsoft Windows File Explorer

In mid-2023, we introduced colored folders for Microsoft OneDrive on the web as a way to personalize and customize folders. With this rollout, we will bring that functionality to the OneDrive folder in the Microsoft Windows File Explorer.

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 410218.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-September 2024 and expect to complete by early October 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout, users are not able to view or apply color to folders in File Explorer.

After this rollout, users will be able to see folder colors applied from OneDrive on the web in the OneDrive folder in File Explorer and manage folder colors in File Explorer by right clicking a folder name and then selecting OneDrive > Folder color.

This feature will be on by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

You should expect the change to gradually roll out on Sync client builds newer than 24.132

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

MC875189 — Microsoft OneDrive Mobile: View PDFs with sensitivity labels

Coming soon to Microsoft OneDrive: OneDrive users will be able to open PDF files protected with sensitivity labels from Microsoft Purview Information Protection and read them using OneDrive mobile apps in read-only mode. Only authorized users will be able to access these PDF files.

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 407386.

When this will happen:

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out late August 2024 and expect to complete by late August 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early September 2024 and expect to complete by late October 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Users can open or view PDF files with sensitivity labels in Azure Information Protection mobile viewer apps (using the Open in another app command).

After the rollout, users will be able to follow these steps to view PDF files with sensitive labels in OneDrive mobile apps:

When users open the PDF file with a sensitivity label in OneDrive for iOS or Android, a banner at the top of the screen reads, “This file is protected by Microsoft Purview Information Protection. View Permissions”:

To see the permissions related to the PDF file, users can tap View permission:

This feature is on by default and all OneDrive mobile users have access to it.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

MC854657 — Legacy Microsoft SharePoint Invitation Manager settings have retired

As part of MC696169 (Updated) Legacy SharePoint Invitation Manager is being retired (originally published December 2023, updated January 2024), we have retired all related settings from the Microsoft SharePoint admin center. The only setting specific to the legacy Invitation Manager (that retired late February 2024) is the setting for Guests must sign in using the same account to which sharing invitations are sent. Please note that all link sharing today requires guests to accept link sharing invitations with the account that was invited. If your users want guests to access links with a different account, users should select the Anyone link sharing setting instead.

How this will affect your organization:

The setting Guests must sign in using the same account to which sharing invitations are sent will no longer appear in the SharePoint admin center. As the SharePoint Invitation Manager has already been retired, there is no behavior change in the product.

We recommend using the Anyone link sharing setting, which admins can enable in the SharePoint admin center as shown below. Learn how to configure external sharing to meet your organization’s needs: Plan and deploy a file collaboration environment – SharePoint – SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as

MC853235 — Microsoft SharePoint classic: Tenant trending search suggestions and APIs are retiring

We will be retiring the tenant trending search suggestions in Microsoft SharePoint classic and the SharePoint Search suggestions APIs starting September 30, 2024 and ending October 15, 2024. The original sources of search suggestions in the classic SharePoint experiences and in the SharePoint Search suggestions API were personal suggestions, tenant trending suggestions, and static suggestions uploaded by a SharePoint search administrator. In 2020, we retired the personal suggestion feature. The use of classic search has decreased significantly since 2016 and now tenant trending suggestions will be retired.

The retirement will not affect any modern search experience or Graph Search APIs and will not impact the static suggestion list feature.

How this will affect your organization:

For customers still using the classic enterprise search center user experience or classic search web parts, suggestions shown in the search box will continue to show matches from static suggestions added by a SharePoint administrator.

The SharePoint Search suggestions API offers automatic suggestions as a feature, but customers who use it should switch to using the static suggestion list feature instead. Learn more: Customize query suggestions in SharePoint search – SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn.

Note: Customers who use the SharePoint Search suggestions API should not see any difference after this retirement because of how tenant trending query suggestions are generated. The suggestion feature depends on classic search experiences for search signal propagation along with precise site URLs and result source usage, which is a rare combination in API scenarios.

What you need to do to prepare:

If you are using the SharePoint classic search experiences, start using the search experiences in SharePoint Home, microsoft365.com, or Microsoft Search in Bing.

If you are using SharePoint classic API built experiences with search suggestions, validate that you are already using a static list.

MC806523 — (Updated) Microsoft OneDrive: Change to shared folder experience

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 395378

Updated August 15, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We’re making a change to the shared folder experience in Microsoft OneDrive. Currently, when a user opens a shared folder in OneDrive, they are taken to a view of that folder within the sharer’s OneDrive. In the new experience, opening a shared folder will take the user to the shared folder within the People view of their own OneDrive. This view, organized by people, shows and allows access to all the files and folders that have been shared with the user.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out late July 2024 and expect to complete by mid-September 2024 (previously late August).

How this will affect your organization:

With this feature update, opening a shared folder will take the user to the shared folder within the People view of their own OneDrive, as follows.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC791596 — (Updated) Microsoft SharePoint Online: New Banner web part (updated title area) in Pages and News

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 386904

Updated August 21, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft SharePoint Online: Improvements to the title area at the top of Pages and News:

Users will be able to remove the title area, which is no longer mandatory on a page.
The title area will be rebranded as a Banner web part with new layouts. Users can add one or more banner(s) to any column of a page, including a full-width section.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late June 2024 (previously mid-June) and expect to complete by early July 2024 (previously early June).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High and DoD): We will begin rolling out early July 2024 (previously mid-June) and expect to complete by late August 2024 (previously late July).

How this will affect your organization:

After this rollout, users will see two new Banner layouts: Author and Fade. SharePoint Page and News authors can choose to add no banners, one banner, or multiple banners to the page. The first banner at the top of the page (in full-width section) is considered as a title, which is automatically synchronized to the page Title on the command bar at the top of the screen. Additional banners will function as headings in the page.

Note: You must enter a page title in the first banner or on the command bar before you can Save and close or Publish the page.

After the rollout, users will see an updated title area in the SharePoint page templates. When users create a new page using a SharePoint page template, they will see a new Banner at the top. In some situations, the old title area will not rename automatically to match the new Banner, but users will still be able to select new layout options:

When users edit an existing page with a title created before this rollout, users will be able to remove or keep the title area.
When users make a copy of an existing page with a title created before this rollout, users will be able to remove or keep the title area in the copied page.
When users create a new page using a custom template with title area, users will be able to remove or keep the title area.

Note: After removing a title area, users will be able to select Undo or choose a Banner to restore the title.

The pre-rollout title areas and Banners will be supported in email. When users send a Page or News as email, the layout will change slightly: the banner image will appear above the banner text.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Learn more: Create and use modern pages on a SharePoint site

MC783215 — (Updated) Microsoft OneDrive: Annotate PDFs with text boxes

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 387807

Updated August 13, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

This new Microsoft OneDrive feature allows you to annotate and save PDF files with text boxes when the files are stored in Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft SharePoint. 

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late June 2024 (previously late May) and expect to complete by late August 2024 (previously late June).

How this will affect your organization:

Users can access the annotation feature by opening the PDF in File Viewer and selecting Edit. To add text, follow these steps:

Open the desired PDF file in OneDrive.
Click Edit to enter edit mode.
Use the Add Text command on the left side of the screen to insert text.
    4. With the text box selected, you can change the color and adjust the font size using the menu above the text box.
     5. When finished, click Save changes in the top left corner to exit Edit mode and save your changes to the PDF.  

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required.

MC714186 — (Updated) Remove Custom Script setting in OneDrive and SharePoint

Updated August 28, 2024: The template “GROUP#0 = Team site” will not be excluded from enforcement. Previously this was part of exempted templates. Thank you for your patience.

PowerShell command (DelayDenyAddAndCustomizePagesEnforcement) to delay the change will be fully available by mid- April (Previously March).

The enforcement to set NoScriptSite to True for all existing SharePoint sites and OneDrive sites if DelayDenyAddAndCustomizePagesEnforcement is not set to True will start late-April and be completed by early-May (Previously March)

There are changes happening to Custom script settings between April and May 2024 (Previously March).

The Custom Script setting, which determines if users can execute custom scripts on personal sites and self-service created sites will be removed by early-May (Previously March).

This setting is currently located in the SharePoint Admin Center, under Settings -> Classic Settings.

A new PowerShell command, “DelayDenyAddAndCustomizePagesEnforcement”, has been introduced. This command is available in the SharePoint Online Management Shell version 16.0.24524.12000, or above which allows delay of the change to custom script set on the Tenant until mid-November 2024 (previously May).

Note: that while this cmdlet is available in the latest management shell, running the cmdlet will result in an error (The requested operation is part of an experimental feature that is not supported in the current environment) until Mid-April 2024 (Previously March) when the settings are shipped.

* False (default) – for site collections where administrators enabled the ability to add custom script, SharePoint will revoke that ability within 24 hours from the last time this setting was changed.

* True – All changes performed by administrators to custom script settings are preserved. When the value is set to true, a banner shows in the active sites list of the SharePoint admin center informing that changes to custom scripts are permanent.

Set-SPOTenant -DelayDenyAddAndCustomizePagesEnforcement $True

Please be aware that the new PowerShell command will only be accessible until mid-November 2024 (previously May). Post that period, on SharePoint sites if administrators wish to continue using features that are only available when unmanaged custom scripts are permitted to run, they will need to re-enable the running of custom scripts every 24 hours. This option does not impact existing custom scripts.

The NoScriptSite setting will be configured to True for all existing SharePoint sites and OneDrive sites except for below mentioned sites templates.

BLANKINTERNETCONTAINER#0 = Classic Publishing Portal site

CMSPUBLISHING#0 = Publishing Site

BLANKINTERNET#0 = Publishing Site

APPCATALOG#0 = App Catalog

CSPCONTAINER#0 = CSP Container

The execution of existing scripts in OneDrive and SharePoint sites will remain unaffected.
There will not be an option to enable custom script on OneDrive sites once the delay set using DelayDenyAddAndCustomizePagesEnforcement ends in mid-November 2024 (previously May).
Customers will retain the ability to permit the execution of custom scripts on specific SharePoint sites using the Set-SPOSite <SiteURL> -DenyAddAndCustomizePages PowerShell command or from the Active sites page in the SharePoint Admin Center.

Any modifications made to a site will be automatically reverted to False status within 24 hours, unless the new PowerShell command “DelayDenyAddAndCustomizePagesEnforcement” is used prior to mid-November 2024 (previously May). After mid-November, the 24 hour reversion will occur regardless of this setting. 

When this will happen:

The Custom Script setting from SharePoint admin center will be removed early-May (Previously March)..

The new PowerShell command will be available by mid-April (Previously March).

How this will affect your organization:

When this Custom Script setting is removed, you will no longer be able to add, modify or remove scripts within OneDrive and SharePoint sites unless administrators temporarily allow that by turning the setting on specific sites. This will not impact the ability to execute existing scripts in OneDrive and SharePoint sites. 

What you need to do to prepare:

No extensions will be granted beyond the mentioned period.

It may be beneficial to inform all site owners about this modification and make necessary updates to your training materials and documentation accordingly.

Review the following for additional information: Allow or prevent custom script

Microsoft Viva

MC869937 — Microsoft Viva: Stream Playlist card on Viva Connections Dashboard

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 402190

This feature update helps organizations add a Stream Playlist card on Viva Connections Dashboard. The card will show the videos from a playlist that the end user can quickly view from the dashboard.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We begin rolling out mid-August 2024 and expect to complete by late-August 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

The operator can now add a card to put up a playlist on Viva Connections Dashboard that will list a group of videos to be viewed by end users.

For more information, see Create a Viva Connections dashboard and add cards.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC867656 — Microsoft Viva Connections news notifications in GCC, GCC High, and DoD

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 410198

With this feature update, existing news notifications in Microsoft Viva Connections will now be available in GCC, GCC High, and DoD. 

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late August 2024 and expect to complete by early September 2024.

General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early September 2024 and expect to complete by mid-September 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

News notifications are delivered via Microsoft Teams in the desktop, mobile, and web environments in the following scenarios:

News is published to a SharePoint team or communication site that a user follows or by someone that a user works closely with.
News is boosted.
Someone comments on a new News post.
Someone “Likes” a News post.
Someone is @mentioned in a comment on a news post.

End users can control which notifications they want to see in the following ways:

On Teams desktop and web, specific notification types can be selectively enabled or disabled under Settings > Notifications and activity > Viva Connections. These settings are respected on Teams mobile as well.
On Teams mobile, notifications can’t be selectively enabled or disabled, but users can toggle all push notifications (including Viva Connections) in the Teams mobile app under Settings > Notifications > General Activity > Apps on Teams. Notifications will still be visible under the Microsoft Teams activity feed.
There is no tenant level setting to turn off Viva Connections News notifications.

For more information, see Viva Connections News notifications.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC863971 — Microsoft Viva: Quick Links Card on Viva Connections Dashboard

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 402189

This feature update helps organizations add a Quick Links Card on Viva Connections Dashboard. With this card, the operators can add a list of important links for quick access by the end users.  

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We began rolling out in August 2024 and expect to complete by mid August 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Operators can now add a new card to their Viva Connections Dashboard. This card will help them set up a list of curated links for quick access for end users.

Card view:

Quick view:

Property pane:

For more information, see Create a Viva Connections dashboard and add cards.

This update is available by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC855689 — Microsoft Viva: Updates to Connections on the web

Microsoft Viva Connections is already available in any browser, giving your employees easy access to Viva Connections outside of Teams.

We are working on an additional entry point to access Viva Connections on web. This entry point will allow your employees to access Connections on web from your organization’s Microsoft SharePoint home site.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early August 2024 and expect to complete by mid-August 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCCH, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-August 2024 and expect to complete by late September 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

After this release, the Go to Connections link will display in the upper right of your company’s SharePoint home site menu. This feature will be on by default and accessible to all users in your tenant unless you turn it off.

What you need to do to prepare:

Inform your company and corporate communicators about the upcoming changes.

If your company is not ready to roll out Viva Connections to your employees, you can use a Navigation site setting to turn off the link to Connections on your SharePoint home site. This setting will be available to customers a few weeks before the rollout dates.

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to update any relevant documentation.

Microsoft Teams

MC884018 — Microsoft Teams: Set sensitivity labels for town halls and webinar

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 409226

Coming soon for Microsoft Team Premium customers: Event organizers will be able to set sensitivity labels for town halls and webinars. Sensitivity labels allow organizations to protect and regulate access to sensitive content created through collaboration in Teams. Sensitivity labels are available only for Teams Premium users on Mac and Windows desktops.

When this will happen:

Targeted release: We will begin rolling out in early October 2024 and expect to complete by mid-October 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out in mid-October 2024 and expect to complete by late October 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this release: Sensitivity labels were not available for town halls and webinars.

After this rollout, events created or updated by an organizer with a Teams Premium license can apply a sensitivity label to their event. Organizers will be notified if their configured settings are not valid for the selected sensitivity. Specific options under Event access may be enabled or disabled based on the sensitivity label set for the event:

For upcoming events that have already been scheduled prior to rollout, the sensitivity of the event will be set to None. If an event organizer chooses to modify the sensitivity for a scheduled event after the rollout, this action may affect event settings that were previously configured.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

MC884009 — Microsoft Teams: Start/stop recording on Teams Rooms on Windows

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 412072

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows: Users can start or stop recording meetings directly from a Teams Rooms on Windows device. This feature requires a Teams Rooms Pro license and Teams Rooms on Windows app version 5.2.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 and expect to complete by end of October 2024.

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by end of November 2024.

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out early December 2024 and expect to complete by mid-December 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before the rollout: When attending a meeting using a Teams Rooms on Windows device, if users want to record the meeting, they need to also join the meeting on a companion device to initiate the meeting recording.

After the rollout

Start/stop recording is supported in any meeting where a participant belongs to the same tenant as the organizer, including scheduled meetings, ad-hoc meetings, channel meetings (only for channel members), and Teams Cast sessions. Users can select Start recording or Stop recording from the More menu, shown here at the bottom of the screen:

When users start recording a Meet now or Whiteboard session initiated from a Teams Rooms on Windows device, users must ensure that they invite themselves to the meeting so they can access the meeting chat on their Teams desktop or mobile app where the recording file will be available after the meeting.

This feature will be on by default and available for admins to configure.

As an admin, you can allow or prevent users (including room accounts) from recording meetings with the Teams meeting recording policy:

Using the Teams admin center: Learn more at Manage Teams recording policies for meetings and events – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn.
Using Microsoft PowerShell: Learn more at Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy (MicrosoftTeamsPowerShell) | Microsoft Learn.

NOTE: Both the meeting organizer and the recording initiator (room account) need to have recording permissions to record the meeting, or the start/stop recording button will not be available. Also, if the meeting organizer uses Meeting options to remove permissions from the room account to record the meeting, the start/stop recording button will not be available as well.

Start/stop recording is not supported in these scenarios:

Teams calls including P2P, group, and PSTN calls
External/cross-tenant Teams meetings and calls
Third-party meetings and calls including Direct Guest Join and SIP

NOTE: Avoid assigning Microsoft OneDrive for Business licenses to your room accounts to ensure that IT-managed room accounts do not become owners of the recording files.

What you need to do to prepare:

After your Teams Rooms devices are updated to the 5.2 app, configure the desired meeting recording policy, notify your users about this change, and update your training and documentation as appropriate. This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout.

MC866454 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: VDI users can upload custom backgrounds

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 410366

If Microsoft Teams users want to change what appears behind them in a video meeting, they can either blur their background, use Teams virtual background templates, or with a Teams Premium license, they can change their Teams meeting background to a branded logo or image specific to their company.

After this rollout, users on the new VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) solution for Teams can replace their background with any desired image. This message applies to the New VDI solution for Teams only.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early October 2024 (previously early September) and expect to complete by mid-October 2024 (mid-September).

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously mid-October).

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously early October) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously mid-October).

How this will affect your organization:

Users on the new VDI optimization for Teams will be able to upload their own background image as their background through the Video effects and settings option:

This feature is on by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

Make sure you meet the minimum system requirements for the new VDI solution as described in New VDI solution for Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

MC866447 — CAPTCHA Verification for Anonymous Meeting Participants

Microsoft Teams tenants will soon be able to enable verification for anonymous meeting participants via CAPTCHA. This release of CAPTCHA Verification for Anonymous Meeting Participants will be rolling out across Microsoft Teams Desktop, Mobile and Web and will provide additional security against malicious bot and third-party app joins. 

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out early October 2024 and expect to complete by mid-October 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Tenants can enable anonymous meeting attendee verification via CAPTCHA in the Teams Admin Center. When enabled, any users that join the meeting as an anonymous user will be required to pass a CAPTCHA verification before landing in the meeting (including the meeting lobby, if enabled).

What you need to do to prepare:

This feature is off by default and Tenant Admins will need to enable CAPTCHA verification for their tenants through Meeting policies in the Teams Admin Center.

MC863970 — Microsoft Teams: Priority Account Chat controls generally available for GCC

As part of the Microsoft Teams Premium package, we are introducing a new management capability: Priority account chat controls that empower users with decision-making controls for unwanted internal communications using Policy settings enabled by admins. Users are notified about chats from new contacts, giving them a choice to accept or block the conversations.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out early August 2024 and expect to complete by mid-August 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Users are not able to block incoming chats from senders in their organization.

After this rollout: For admins

The Priority account chat control feature is off by default. To enable it, turn on the feature and set up a policy in the Teams admin center. You can add this feature to existing user policies or create new ones and assign them to individuals or groups.

In the Teams admin center, enable Priority account chat control on the Messaging settings page:

Navigate to the Messaging policies page and create a new policy or update an existing policy. Set the value of Priority account chat control to On:

Assign users to the policy:

Search for the users you would like to assign the policy to and select Apply:

Select Apply.

After this rollout: For users

Users with Priority account chat controls set up in their user policy will be able to accept or block new incoming chat messages from internal senders. If the user accepts the conversation, the user can chat as usual. If the user blocks the conversation, no further communication will happen for that chat. A user with Priority account chat controls enabled can block and unblock any user in their organization at any time.

What you need to do to prepare:

Learn more

Allow users to block Microsoft Teams chat messages – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn 
Accept or block chat requests from people inside your organization in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support 

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

MC863159 — Classic Teams – End of Support in GCC and GCC High

This MC post is to inform that the classic Teams has reached end of support in GCC and GCC High on August 15, 2024, as communicated previously on May 9, 2024 (via MC791446). This message applies to classic Teams for Windows, Mac, and Web.

How this will affect your organization:

Classic Teams has reached the end of support starting August 15, 2024

Users still running classic Teams will experience in-app pop-up messages starting the week of August 26, 2024, informing them that the client is no longer supported. These messages are dismissible but will reappear periodically.

Classic Teams end of availability (blocked from using classic Teams)

Starting October 23, 2024, classic Teams desktop app on Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and macOS Sierra (10.12), High Sierra (10.13), Mojave (10.14) will reach end of availability. After this date, users will not be able to access the classic Teams desktop clients from these operating systems. Users will experience non-dismissible in-app pop-up messages informing them about end of availability.
Starting July 1, 2025, classic Teams desktop app will reach end of availability for all users. The new Teams web app will be available on supported browsers as an alternative.
End of availability details: End of availability for classic Teams client.

What you need to do to prepare:

For users running the classic Teams on Windows 10 version that is less than 10.0.19041 or on macOS Big Sur (11) or lower, admins should work on updating the OS as soon as possible. Review Prerequisites for new Teams.
For users in your organization with IT policies blocking app installation or who do not have local install permissions, are missing WebView2, or have other firewall issues that are preventing app installation, we strongly recommend mitigating these issues or leveraging deployment options such as bulk deployment to prevent any work stoppage for your users.
Review the Deployment checklist for new Teams client – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn.

MC863151 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Panels: Update to avoid disruption

As communicated in Message center post MC798318 about retirement of CNS Service API support for older Android clients, this change impacts Teams Devices including Teams panels. To avoid disruption, an update to Teams panels version 1449/1.0.97.2024071105 or greater is required for Teams panels devices. 

Microsoft Teams devices are governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy and require users to stay on the most up-to-date version of the Teams panels application. Automatic updates ensure that users have the latest capabilities, performance and security enhancements, and service reliability.

Learn more about the Modern Lifecycle Policy under the Servicing agreement for Microsoft Teams.

How this will affect your organization:

The retirement of the CNS service API impacts automatic check-in through Teams Rooms devices. Team panels application version 1449/1.0.97.2024071105 and later versions are not impacted as they use the new and improved notification service APIs. 

What you need to do to prepare:

Update your Teams panels device to latest Teams panels application version or app version greater than 1449/1.0.97.2024071105 as soon as possible.

Manual update process:

In Teams Admin Center, select the device category under Teams Devices group. Select all respective devices from the list and select “Update”.
Under “Manual Updates”, select “Teams” application and press Update button to update to the latest application. If all your devices are eligible to receive Automatic Updates, use that option to get to the latest Teams app version.

Automatic update process:

To help bring the devices to the latest versions, automatic updates will continue at an accelerated pace to ensure adherence to the retirement timeline. Updates can include both firmware and Teams app updates, as applicable to bring the device to the latest versions. These updates will be scheduled outside of normal business hours in the local time of the device, to help minimize any impact to your organization. Since it is important that the devices get updated as soon as possible, the configured maintenance window for the devices will not be adhered to.

For organizations with users around the globe, we recognize that “outside of normal business hours” might affect you differently. We apologize for the impact this may have on your users. 

MC862237 — Microsoft Teams Premium: Updates to external domain activity (Advanced Collaboration Analytics)

We are announcing updates to our existing external domain activity report as part of Advanced Collaboration Analytics in Teams admin center for users with Teams Premium licenses. Before this rollout, the external domain activity allows you to see which domains you communicate with and how many users in your org are part of that communication. With the new updates, you’ll be able to see the following information as well:

Total messages sent between each external domain and your org.
Number of messages sent by the external domain to your org.
Number of messages sent by your org to external domain.
The list of users from your org that communicate with the external domain. This list is exportable to a CSV file. For each user, you’ll be able to see the total messages sent between the external domain and the user, and the number of messages sent by your user to the external domain.

This is a Teams Premium feature, so you will need to purchase and assign a Teams Premium license for each user whom you wish to see insights about.

This report can be found on the Collaboration activity dashboard or in Usage reports.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early September 2024 and expect to complete by mid-September 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

This Microsoft Teams usage report is rolling out to Teams admin center.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC862236 — Microsoft Teams: External presenters can join on mobile

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 409228

In Microsoft Teams, town halls and webinars currently support the ability for an external user outside the organization to present in an event only through the Teams desktop. With this update, external presenters will have the option to join the event through the Teams mobile app on their Android or iOS devices.  

Note: It is currently not supported for external presenters to join a town hall or webinar through web platforms.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out in early September 2024 and expect to complete by mid-September 2024.

General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out in mid-October 2024 and expect to complete by early November 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Presenters external to the organization will now be able to join events through their mobile devices.

For more information on external presenters, see Schedule a town hall in Microsoft Teams.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC862235 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Digital signage on Teams Rooms on Windows

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 400700

Updated August 22, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows: Inform, connect, and engage your employees with digital signage on Teams Rooms on Windows. Users can view dynamic content and relevant information on front-of-room displays when devices are not in use. Admins can configure tenant-wide and room-specific settings from the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. Integrations with selected third-party digital signage providers (Appspace, XOGO) are available, along with the use of web URLs as signage sources. This feature requires the Teams Rooms Pro license and the Teams Rooms on Windows app version 5.2. 

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously late September).

How this will affect your organization:

Before the rollout: When Teams Rooms on Windows devices are idle, the front-of-room display remains static, showing the Teams Rooms home screen with the room information, calendar, and background image.  

After the rollout

You can configure digital signage on your Teams Rooms on Windows devices to show dynamic content and relevant information (such as how to guides, important announcements, company news, upcoming events, and more) on the front-of-room displays when the device is not in use for meetings or presentations. Tapping the touch console during signage mode brings users back to the home screen. 

When the device is in signage mode, you have the option to show the Teams Rooms banner so that users can see the room information and calendar alongside the signage. You can also adjust the display period of signage mode – the activation and deactivation timers as well as whether signage mode will adhere or bypass the operating system’s screen timeout setting.  

Supported signage sources include selected third-party digital signage providers (Appspace, XOGO) and web URLs. To integrate with supported third-party content management systems, a separate subscription to the provider is needed. If you don’t use any of the supported providers, you can use the custom URL option and enter a web application URL. To ensure URLs load successfully, the URL must start with https, be publicly available on the internet (no authentication required), and can be viewed in an iframe.  

NOTE: Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft OneDrive URLs are not supported for the custom URL option.  

To enable digital signage for your tenant, go to Teams Rooms Pro Management portal > Settings > Digital signage > turn ON the setting as desired.  

By default, the Global Admin and Teams Rooms Pro Manager role have permissions to configure tenant-wide digital signage settings, including turning the feature on and off, adding and deleting signage sources, and assigning signage settings to any room in the tenant. The Global Admin and/or Teams Rooms Pro Manager role can use the Role-based Access Controls (RBAC) to grant additional users permissions to manage digital signage settings for the tenant or for specific rooms/room groups. 

This feature is off by default and available for admins to configure. 

What you need to do to prepare:

Start planning your digital signage deployment strategy and governance model, deciding between centralized, localized, or blended approach to content creation, distribution, and management. You may also begin preparing content on the supported signage sources. This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. After your devices are updated to the 5.2 app, configure digital signage for your tenant as desired, notify your users about this change, and update any relevant documentation.

MC859864 — Classic Teams timeline updates for end of availability for macOS High Sierra (10.13) and macOS Mojave (10.14)

This post provides updates on our end of availability plans for classic Teams, previously shared in MC783985. End of availability for classic Teams clients on Win 7, 8, 8.1 and Mac OS 10.12 is October 23, 2024. This applies to all environments and customers with Mac devices.

How this will affect your organization:

Starting October 23, 2024, in addition to macOS Sierra (10.12), classic Teams desktop app running on devices with macOS High Sierra (10.13) and macOS Mojave (10.14) will also reach the end of availability. This measure is necessary to ensure the successful application of future security updates to maintain the safety of classic Teams users.

After October 23, 2024, users will not be able to access the classic Teams desktop clients from these operating systems. Users will experience non-dismissible in-app pop-up messages informing them about end of availability. The new Teams web app will be available on supported browsers as an alternative.

What you need to do to prepare:

For users running the classic Teams desktop application on macOS versions on Big Sur (11) or lower, admins should work on updating the OS as soon as possible to enable users transition to new Teams. Review Prerequisites for new Teams.

Review the Deployment checklist for new Teams client – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn.

MC859841 — Classic Teams timeline updates for end of availability for macOS High Sierra (10.13) and macOS Mojave (10.14)

Note: This information only applies if you have Microsoft Teams on MacOS Sierra 10.13 or MacOS Mojave 10.14.

This post provides updates on our end of availability plans for classic Teams. End of availability for classic Teams clients on Win 7, 8, 8.1 and Mac OS 10.12 is Oct 23, 2024. This applies to all environments and customers with Mac devices.

How this will affect your organization:

Starting October 23, 2024, in addition to macOS Sierra (10.12), classic Teams desktop app running on devices with macOS High Sierra (10.13) and macOS Mojave (10.14) will also reach the end of availability. This measure is necessary to ensure the successful application of future security updates to maintain the safety of classic Teams users.

After October 23, 2024, users will not be able to access the classic Teams desktop clients from these operating systems. Users will experience non-dismissible in-app pop-up messages informing them about end of availability. The new Teams web app will be available on supported browsers as an alternative.

What you need to do to prepare:

For users running the classic Teams desktop application on macOS versions on Big Sur (11) or lower, admins should work on updating the OS as soon as possible to enable users transition to new Teams. Review Prerequisites for new Teams.

Review the Deployment checklist for new Teams client – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn.

MC856756 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows: Native PTZ controls

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 409534

Updated August 21, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows will soon support native PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) controls for cameras capable of supporting PTZ controls. The PTZ controls will appear in the Camera settings pop-up menu when the Enhanced Framing toggle is set to off.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early December 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete by mid-December 2024 (previously late September).

General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-January 2024 (previously early October) and expect to complete by late January 2024 (previously early November).

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Native PTZ controls are not displayed in Camera settings pop-up menus for PTZ-capable cameras.

After this rollout: Admins will be able to toggle this feature for each Teams Rooms on Windows in the device’s Admin Settings for Peripherals. This setting will be on by default.

Local PTZ controls in the Camera settings pop-up menu for supported cameras when Enhanced Framing is disabled:

Users in a Teams Rooms on Windows with a PTZ-capable camera connected will see PTZ controls in the Camera settings pop-up menu.

Admin toggle for the local PTZ control in Settings > Peripherals:

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this new capability and update any supporting documentation for your users.

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

MC856755 — Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows: New native Microsoft-defined camera controls in camera settings

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 409537

Coming soon in Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows: Cameras that have implemented Microsoft-defined camera controls for Active Speaker Framing, Group Framing, and Edge Composed IntelliFrame will see controls for these features in the Camera settings pop-up menu.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-September 2024 and expect to complete by late September 2024.

General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early October 2024 and expect to complete by early November 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Controls for Active Speaker Framing, Group Framing, and Edge Composed IntelliFrame do not appear in the Camera settings pop-up menu for cameras that have implemented Microsoft-defined camera controls.

After this rollout: Users in a Teams Rooms on Windows with a camera connected that has implemented the controls as defined by Microsoft will see in-meeting controls for Active Speaker Framing, Group Framing, and Edge Composed IntelliFrame. Setting the default behavior for cameras with these controls will not be supported as part of this initial release, but we expect to support default setting controls at a later date. There are no related admin controls for this feature as part of this release.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this new capability and update any supporting documentation for your users.

MC854652 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Meeting participants can choose a breakout room from a list

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 121269

Updated August 13, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: Microsoft Teams meeting organizers can make the list of breakout rooms visible to all meeting participants and allow them to choose which room to join. Enabling this setting in breakout rooms allows participants to move freely from one room to another, simplifying breakout room coordination for meeting organizers and participants. This message applies to Teams for Windows, Mac, and the web.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early October 2024 (previously late September) and expect to complete by mid-October 2024 (previously late October).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously late September) and expect to complete by late October 2024.

General Availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early November 2024 (previously late November) and expect to complete by late November 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Only the meeting organizer can assign meeting participants to breakout rooms. Participants cannot move between rooms.

After this rollout: Meeting participants can select their breakout rooms of choice if the meeting organizer selects this option during setup.

Organizers can look for the new feature under the breakout rooms panel when setting up breakout rooms:

This feature is on by default and accessible to all meeting participants on the affected platforms if enabled by meeting organizers.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

MC818885 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Multiple camera view for Teams Rooms on Windows

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 402517

Updated August 9, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows will be soon able to send up to four single-stream USB camera feeds to render on the receiver side, so remote meeting participants can view all cameras simultaneously. This opt-in feature requires admins to first enable the multiple camera view and map cameras to the desired order that will be displayed on the receiver side. With multiple camera view enabled, remote meeting participants will be able to follow all the action in the room and manually switch to the desired room. This message applies to Teams for Desktop (Windows, Mac).

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early October 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete by mid-October 2024 (previously late September).

General Availability (GCC, GCCH, DoD): We will begin rolling out in mid-October 2024 and expect to complete by late October 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before the rollout

Multiple camera views are not available in Teams Rooms on Windows.

After the rollout

A multiple camera view can create more visibility and coverage for large and complex spaces, such as multipurpose rooms, classrooms, and executive boardrooms. Admins can set up multiple camera views in two ways:

Admins can configure settings on a local device by turning on the Multiple camera view toggle and using the dropdown menu to map the cameras.
Admins can configure multiple camera view in the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal.

After the feature is enabled, in-room participants can disable multiple camera view with the Camera chevron button on the meeting console. This action will return the device to a single camera view, and all receiver-side participants will see a single camera view. This in-room setting will only affect that meeting and the device will revert to the admin settings for the next meeting.

Remote participants will see the multiple camera view by default. On the top right corner of the room’s video tile, a remote participant can use the arrows to switch to the desired camera view. This toggle will only affect the remote participant’s own view and will not affect other meeting participants.

What you need to do to prepare:

To prepare for the change, create a plan for the rooms that may require multiple cameras in consideration of the space, meeting scenario, and the desired experience for in-room and remote participants. Then, configure the multiple camera view on the local device or in the Teams Pro Management portal and notify your users about this new experience. You may want to update relevant training documentation.

Before rollout, we will update this post with revised documentation.

MC814583 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Ability to rename General channel

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 395931

Updated August 30, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Based on customer feedback, we are introducing the ability to provide a meaningful name to the General channel in a new or existing team. The General channel can be renamed by the team owners to show up in the teams’ and channels’ list of all members in alphabetical order. 

In addition, Microsoft Teams users must also set a name for the first channel during team creation within the Microsoft Teams client. Instead of “General” as the default name, the first channel of a new team must be given another name, providing the flexibility to provide a specific and more meaningful channel name.

“General” cannot be used for the first channel name for new teams, and for an existing General channel that has been renamed, it cannot be changed back to the “General” name.

To create a new team from the Microsoft Teams client, navigate to the + button in the header and select New team from the context menu. Users can name the first-created channel in this team during this step (it will no longer be named General by default). This channel cannot be archived or deleted, and it will appear in alphabetical order with the other channels in that team.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late August 2024 (previously early August) and expect to complete by early September 2024 (previously mid-August).

General Availability

Worldwide: We will begin rolling out late August 2024 and expect to complete by early September 2024. 
GCC: We will begin rolling out early September 2024 and expect to complete by mid-September 2024.
GCC High: We will begin rolling out mid-September 2024 and expect to complete by late September 2024.
DoD: We will begin rolling out mid-September 2024 and expect to complete by late September 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

You can encourage your users to provide a meaningful name to General channels in their teams.

What you need to do to prepare:

You may consider updating your internal documentation to inform your users that this feature is now available. 

MC814579 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: The new Queues app for customer call management in Teams

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 379980

Updated August 28, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience

Microsoft is pleased to announce the general availability of Queues app, a new Teams-native app designed to improve the management of customer calls. Integrated with Teams Phone, Queues app will allow team members to manage call queues more efficiently without leaving Teams. Queues app is available by default to all Teams Premium licensed users. This message applies to Teams for desktop.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide and GCC): We will begin rolling out early-October 2024 (previously mid-August) and expect to complete by mid-October 2024 (previously late August).

Existing Teams Premium customers are eligible for Teams Premium Early Access for Queues app starting mid-September 2024 (previously late August).

How this will affect your organization

Before the rollout: Teams users can receive and answer calls from Call queues directly from their Teams client, just like any other incoming call.

After the rollout: Teams Premium licensed users will be able to select View more apps in the left side of Teams and then select Queues app. Key features of Queues app includes:

Real-time statistics: Provides an overview of metrics for Call queues, Auto attendants, and agents 
Historical reporting: Track past performance of Call queues, Auto attendants, and agents 
Agent opt-in and opt-out: Allows team members to opt-in and out of the queue based on availability. Authorized users can opt in or opt out on the behalf of agents. 
Collaborative call handling: Facilitates teamwork with call transfers and team communication through the People list. 
Outbound calls: Enables calls on behalf of call queues or auto attendants. 
Enhanced management: Authorized users now have delegated admin capabilities that allow for adding and removing queue members, changing call handing flows, configuring auto attendant greetings, and more.

What you need to do to prepare

We recommend that you:

Review your existing app setup policies and consider pre-pinning this app for your call queue agents. Learn more: Manage app setup policies in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn 
Configure Authorized users for Call queues and Auto attendants if you have not already done so. Plan for Auto attendant and Call queue authorized users 
You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more

Admins: Set up Auto attendant and Call queue authorized users – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn 
Admins: Introducing the Queues app: Enabling customer engagement in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Community Hub 
Users: Use the Queues app for Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support

MC810411 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Rooms: Enhanced cross-platform meetings via SIP join

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 400703

Updated August 26, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows will be enabled to join meetings like Google Meet, Zoom, Cisco Webex, Amazon Chime, RingCentral, and others from conferencing services that support SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) join.

You’ll experience the look and feel of a Teams Rooms meeting with access to some third-party platform in-meeting controls (depending on the platform being used). Features include up to 1080p video quality, dual screen support, different meeting layouts, and HDMI ingest. This capability requires a SIP calling plan from a Cloud Video Interop (CVI) partner; this plan is currently available through Pexip in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.

This message applies to Teams Rooms customers with a Pro license.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously early September) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously September 2024).

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 (previously late September) and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously mid-October).

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Teams Rooms does not support third-party SIP conferencing services to join meetings. Teams Room does support dialing into SIP endpoints.

After the rollout: The default state of this feature is off.

What you need to do to prepare:

If you do not want to use this feature, no action is needed. This rollout will not impact you.

To enable SIP dialing from the Teams Rooms on Windows:

Ensure the Teams Room has a Pro license assigned
Ensure the Teams Room has a license to dial SIP from one of our certified CVI providers
Run the PowerShell commands to assign the right policy to the Teams Room
Change the settings in the device to enable one or more conferencing services to dial from the Teams Room

Learn more

What’s new from Teams Rooms and Devices at InfoComm 2024 – Microsoft Community Hub 
Enable Teams Rooms devices to join third-party meetings – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated just before rollout begins) 

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. If you enable the feature, you may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC810172 — Planned Maintenance: Automatic updates for Teams Rooms on Android and Teams Phones impacted by retirement of CNS Service

Updated August 21, 2024: We have updated the timing of this Planned Maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Planned Maintenance: Automatic updates for Teams Rooms on Android and Teams Phones impacted by retirement of CNS Service API support

To help address the upcoming retirement of CNS Service API support, impacted devices will receive the automatic firmware and Teams app updates. These automatic updates will happen at a faster rate to ensure adherence to the retirement deadline.

When this will happen:

Starting: July 10, 2024

Ending: September 30, 2024

How this will affect you organization:

As communicated in MC798318 and MC804766 about retirement of CNS Service API support for older Android clients, the changes impact Teams Devices including Teams Rooms and Teams Phone devices. To avoid disruption:

An update to Teams Rooms application version 1449/1.0.96.2024020802 or greater is required for Teams Rooms on Android devices.
An update to Teams Phone application version 1449/1.0.94.2024011003 or greater is required for Teams Phone devices.

The retirement of the CNS service API impacts incoming call (including one-on-one calls, group calls) notifications as well as proximity-based meeting join scenarios from the Teams Rooms on Android and impacts incoming calls, voicemail and missed call notifications scenarios on Teams Phone devices.

Thus, automatic updates will be done for devices which are on versions older than the above to prevent any disruption for the devices due to this deprecation. During this period, devices will continue to be updated to the latest applicable version.

Updates can include both firmware and Teams app updates, as required to bring the device to the required versions.

These updates will be scheduled outside of normal business hours in the local time of the device, to help minimize any impact to your organization. Since it is important that the devices get updated as soon as possible, the configured maintenance window for the devices will not be adhered to.

For organizations with users around the globe, we recognize that “outside of normal business hours” might affect you differently. We apologize for the impact this may have on your users.

What you need to do to prepare:

Administrators don’t need to do anything to prepare. The updates will happen automatically.

In case of any issues, feel free to reach out to Microsoft Support.

MC809602 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New skin tone settings and reactions

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 323766

Updated August 21, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

With skin tone settings and reactions in Microsoft Teams, users will be able to set a preferred skin tone for relevant emojis and reactions. Each user can change their own skin tone setting in the Teams app Settings > Appearance and accessibility menu or in the emoji/reaction menu on Desktop or web. The skin tone rollout will apply to emojis and reactions in chats, channels, and meetings on all Teams platforms (Teams for Desktop, Teams for web, Teams for Mac, and Teams Mobile).

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early October 2024 (previously early September) and expect to complete by mid-October 2024 (mid-September2024).

General availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously mid-September and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously late September).

General availability (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early November 2024 (previously early October) and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously late October). 

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

We will update this post before rollout with revised documentation.

MC808160 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Office 365 Connectors feature retires starting August 15, 2024

Updated August14, 2024: Updated timing related to Office 365 connector retirement.

We will extend the deadline to add new connector apps to Teams/Channels to December 31st, 2024 (from previously announced timeline of August 15, 2024). After this date, users will no longer see the “Add” new app button within the Connectors dialog from the channel settings page. Connector only apps such as Incoming Webhook and RSS will not be listed within the Teams app store.

The following timelines are unaffected and remain as previously announced in our last update:

Developers will no longer be able to create new Office 365 Connectors from the Developer Portal starting August 15th, 2024.
Connector owners will be required to update the respective URL to post by December 31st, 2024. At least 90 days prior to the December 31, 2024, deadline, we will send further guidance about making this URL update. If the URL is not updated by December 31, 2024, the connector will stop working. This is due to further service hardening updates being implemented for Office 365 connectors in alignment with Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative
Users will be able to configure connectors wherever the relevant apps have already been added to a Team/Channel from now until December 2025. 
Office 365 Connectors will be retired in December 2025 

How this will affect your organization:

We will gradually roll out this change in two phases:

Effective August 15, 2024: All new connector creation will be blocked in all clouds (See latest date within the update above).
Effective October 1, 2024: All existing connectors in all clouds will stop working (See latest date within the update above).

What you need to do to prepare:

This change will happen automatically on the specified dates listed above. No admin action is required. Please notify your users about this change, update relevant documentation as appropriate, and share the Browse and add workflows in Microsoft Teams support article.

Learn more about the retirement of Microsoft Office 365 connectors and migrating to Workflows

MC805197 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Phone: Improved license handling (GCC)

Updated August 13, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline for Teams Admin center, below. Thank you for your patience.

We are making it easier to migrate between phone number types by updating Microsoft Teams Phone license handling. With the new changes, Direct Routing and Operator Connect Numbers will no longer be unassigned when a Calling Plan license is added to a user. The user can also get any type of numbers (Direct Routing, Operator Connect, Microsoft Calling Plan) if the required license is present on the user account.

When this will happen:

For Teams PowerShell

General Availability (Worldwide and GCC): We will begin rolling out late July 2024 and expect to complete by late July 2024.

For Teams admin center

General Availability (Worldwide and GCC): We will begin rolling out late July 2024 and expect to complete by mid-August 2024 (previously early August).

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Any existing Direct Routing and Operator Connect numbers assigned to a user account may become unassigned when a Calling Plan license is added.

After this rollout

The existing Direct Routing and Operator Connect number on a user account will not be unassigned when a Calling Plan license is added.

This new behavior is on by default and accessible to all Teams Phone admins with appropriate permissions.

What you need to do to prepare:

Detailed instructions on licensing can be found in Manage user access to Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

Detailed instructions on Microsoft Teams Voice Solution can be found in Plan your voice solution in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC798316 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Simplifying the personal app design at the top of the screen

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 396166

Updated August 15, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: Microsoft Teams personal apps will have a new simplified design at the top of the screen in Teams desktop and web clients. With this change, the About tab and other utility actions like Refresh for each app will be moved to the three-dot menu at the top of the screen.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-July 2024 and expect to complete by late August 2024 (previously late July).

How this will affect your organization:

This rollout is for new Teams for Desktop, Web, and Mac. This rollout is not for Teams iOS or Android.

Before the rollout, the top of the screen for personal apps in Teams was cluttered with the About tab and other utility actions.

After the rollout, some applications will no longer have any tabs in the header bar, reducing overall complexity and visual clutter.

This new design is enabled by default for users of new Teams for Desktop, Web, and Mac.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC797474 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Channel cards

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 397883

Updated August 15, 2024: We have updated the content below with additional information. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Teams users will soon be able to get a quick overview about a channel using Channel cards. Channel cards will rollout across Microsoft Teams for desktop and web. Channel cards can be found by hovering over the channel name in the header or wherever a channel is mentioned. 

Channel cards will provide information about a channel, including the description, last activity time, team name, and membership information. The card also provides a quick entry to notification settings, owner channel management, and the channel roster.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling early July 2024 and expect to complete by late August 2024 (previously late July).

How this will affect your organization:

Users will have a simpler way to get important information about channels. This new feature provides key contextual information as well as quick actions. 

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC795750 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Custom emojis and reactions

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 80659

Updated August 15, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

In Microsoft Teams, users will be able to add their own custom emojis and reactions by uploading an image or GIF file, and their emojis and reactions will be accessible to all users in the tenant alongside the standard Teams emojis and reactions. Up to 5,000 custom emojis can be added per tenant.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early July 2024 (previously late June) and expect to complete by mid-July 2024 (previously early July).

Worldwide: We will begin rolling out early August 2024 (previously mid-July) and expect to complete by early September 2024 (previously late July).

GCC: We will begin rolling out late September 2024 (previously mid-July) and expect to complete by early October 2024 (previously late July).

GCC High: We will begin rolling out early October 2024 (previously early August) and expect to complete by mid-October 2024 (previously late August).

DoD: We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously early August) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously late August).

How this will affect your organization:

This new custom emojis and reactions feature will be turned on by default. Users in the tenant will be able to upload emojis that are visible to the whole tenant. You can pre-emptively turn this feature off or restrict users who can create new emojis via the Teams Admin Center controls described below.

How do I use this feature?

Custom emojis and reactions will be found in the emoji and reaction menus in the Custom category. Users with upload abilities can add new content through the plus (+) button. Users with delete abilities can right-click any custom emoji to delete. Please note that deleted emojis may take up to 24 hours to reflect for all users in the tenant. Deleted emojis may take up to 24 hours to reflect for other users.

How do I manage this feature?

This feature can be managed through the Teams Admin Center. Admins will have access to the following controls:

Turn the feature on/off for the whole tenant via the Messaging Settings page (on by default).
Set which users can create new emojis via the Messaging Policy groups (on for all users by default).
Set which users can delete emojis via the Messaging Policy groups (off for all users except admins by default).

The Teams Admin Center controls will be made available in early June. We recommend adjusting your settings as needed prior to the Targeted and Worldwide Releases in late June 2024 to ensure that they are in place when the feature rolls out.

What you need to do to prepare:

This feature is on by default. If you would like to turn the feature off, please use the provided setting in the Messaging Settings page

This feature allows all users to create new emojis by default and only allows admins to delete emojis by default. If you would like to adjust emoji creation and deletion permissions, please make the appropriate changes through the Messaging Policy groups.

MC793966 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Attach files from Microsoft SharePoint sites in the mobile app

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 395375

Updated August 15, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

In Microsoft Teams, users will be able to browse, multiselect and attach files from SharePoint Sites to a chat or channel conversation in the Teams mobile application.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCCHigh, DoD): We will begin rolling out early June 2024 and expect to complete by late August 2024 (previously late June).

How this will affect your organization:

No change or configuration is required by admins. Users will automatically see the option to attach files from their SharePoint sites when composing a message in any chat or channel. They simply need to tap on the ‘+’ to open the compose tray and then tap on the paperclip icon to attach files.

What you need to do to prepare:

There is no preparation required.

MC790792 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: New file image previews in messages

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 395936

Updated August 20, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon in Microsoft Teams: An enhanced content consumption experience in Teams chats and channels. We are about to release a series of features that will help you to identify, consume, and act on content such as files, lists, and SharePoint pages/posts. In this first release in the series, we will roll out file image previews in chats and channels, to help users better identify a file in the conversation stream. When a file (such as a JPG or PNG image file, a Microsoft PowerPoint file, or a PDF) is attached to a message in chat or a channel, users will see a small image of the file without opening the file.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early June 2024 and expect to complete by early June 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early October 2024 (previously mid-June) and expect to complete by mid-November 2024 (previously late June).

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 (previously late June) and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously early July).

General Availability (GCC High): We will begin rolling out early December 2024 (previously early July) and expect to complete by late December 2024 (previously late July).

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out early January 2025 (previously late July) and expect to complete by late January 2025 (previously late July early August).

How this will affect your organization:

Image preview benefits

Quickly scan for and find the file you need
Preview part of the file content before opening it
Save time and bandwidth by avoiding unnecessary file downloads and file opens

To use the new file image previews, users will upload or share a file in a chat or a channel, and then see an image preview of the file content (and its metadata) in the message. Users can also select the image preview to open the file.

When a message has multiple images attached, users will be able to select one image, and then click the right arrow to page between the other attached images.

If the recipient does not have the access to the file or if the file is marked Confidential, image previews will not be shown.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

We will update this comm before rollout with revised documentation.

MC783217 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Disable attendee emails for town halls and webinars

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 392826

Updated August 30, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: In Microsoft Teams, we are releasing a toggle to disable attendee email notifications for town halls and webinars.

When will this happen:

Targeted Release: We will rollout early October 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete mid-October 2024 (previously late September).

General Availability (Worldwide): We will rollout mid-October 2024 (previously early August) and expect to complete late October 2024 (previously mid-August).

General Availability (GCC): We will rollout late October 2024 (previously early September) and expect to complete early November 2024 (previously late September).

How this will affect your organization:

This is useful for organizers who want to send email notifications from third-party platforms. When this toggle is turned on, attendee emails will be enabled and will be sent through the Teams Events email platform. When this toggle is turned off, all attendee emails from the Teams Event Email platform will be disabled. The toggle button will be enabled upon rollout.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC779850 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams Webinar template is available in GCC High

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 387790

Updated August 9, 2024: We have updated content below to provide additional information about the change.

The Microsoft Teams Webinar template that allows organizers to set up webinars and have attendees internal or external to the organization register and join is finally available to GCC High customers.

Description 

Webinar, a building block to virtual events, is ideal for large audiences internal and/or external to your tenant and require registration. In webinars the focus is on the presenter(s) and audience will join without audio or video by default but can be enabled by the organizer via meeting options. Common webinar scenarios include but not limited to trainings, classes, marketing events, orientations, public meetings, and more. Below are key webinar template experience highlights:

adding co-organizers to the webinar 
adding presenter bios to event page 
adding event promo image, theme color, and company logo for event page, and registration page 
advanced registration configurability of

registration capacity 
registration start and end date&time* [Covered under Teams Premium license] 
manual approvals* [Covered under Teams Premium license] 
Waitlist* [Covered under Teams Premium license] 
Customize automated attendee emails* [Covered under Teams Premium license] 
viewing attendee status to gain overview of registration state
Share event recording to attendees to consume event content at will
Events Portal – out of the box event page and registration page which reflects event theming with speaker details 
 

Known limitation: Q&A app is not yet available in GCC-High. 

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC High): Rollout will begin in early September 2024 (previously early June) and is expected to complete late September 2024 (previously late June).

How this will affect your organization:

Users in your tenant should now be able to use the webinar template on Teams to host internal or external webinars.

For more information, see Get started with Microsoft Teams webinars – Microsoft Support.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC750668 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Access Workflows from the three-dot menu on shared file

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 381643

Updated August 20, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: Microsoft Teams will be bringing Workflows powered by Microsoft Power Automate to the three-dot menu for files shared in Teams chat or channels.

When this will happen:

Worldwide: We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously late September).

GCC: We will begin rolling out late October 2024 (previously early October) and expect to complete by early November 2024 (previously mid-October).

How this will affect your organization:

To make sure Microsoft Teams provides the best workflow experience for our users, we are making it easier to configure and run workflows for files. A user will be able to select the three-dot menu on files shared in Teams chat or channels, and then choose Workflows. From Workflows, the user will choose an instant workflow to run on a file. The user must set up the workflows in advance. A user can set up a new workflow for files by selecting See more workflows at the bottom of the three-dot menu. This launches the Workflows task module, where a user can choose a template to start setting up a new workflow. Examples of file workflows include Request approval for selected file, Get notified in Teams when a file is updated, Create a PDF copy of the file, and Add a task for this file.

If the Power Automate app is disabled in the Teams admin center, users will not see this option in the three-dot menu.

This feature will only be available in the New Teams client on the desktop and on the web.

What you need to do to prepare:

No action is needed from you to prepare for this rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change so they can find the new entry point for Workflows.

MC727452 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Organizers can configure who can record and transcribe

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 116819

Updated August 22, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We are changing Who can record to Who can record and transcribe for organizers with a Microsoft Teams Premium license for desktop or mobile.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-June 2024 (previously early June) and expect to complete by late June 2024 (previously mid-June).

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late June 2024 (previously mid-June) and expect to complete by late September 2024 (previously late July).

How this will affect your organization:

If an admin turned on Transcription in the Teams admin center, Teams meeting organizers reviewing Meeting options will see Who can record and transcribe, with two options:

Organizers and co-organizers
Organizers, co-organizers, and presenters

With this rollout, organizers can manage the roles that can start recording and transcription for a meeting. 

What you need to do to prepare:

No action is needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Learn more

Admins: The Recording & transcription section of Teams settings and policies reference – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

Users: View live transcription in Microsoft Teams meetings – Microsoft Support

MC717969 — (Updated) New Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solution for Microsoft Teams

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 375418

Updated August 27, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

The new Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution for Microsoft Teams is a redesigned version of the existing VDI optimization (WebRTC based) that provides enhanced performance, reliability, security, and streamlined support.

By leveraging the same media engine used in the native Microsoft Teams desktop clients, it offers the following:

Advanced meeting capabilities:

Gallery View 3×3 and 7×7
Background images from My Organization
1080p
Include Computer sound while screensharing
Hardware acceleration on the endpoint

Telephony and voice capabilities

Location Based Routing and Media Bypass
QoS
Human Interface Device (HID)
Noise suppression

Better supportability via Teams Admin Center / Call Quality Dashboard

It also provides a simpler media engine update experience for users, without requiring frequent upgrades of the VDI infrastructure or VDI clients.

This release applies to Microsoft Windows endpoints connecting to Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktops, Microsoft Windows 365, and Citrix VDI environments only.

The Remote Desktop client for Windows (1.2.5112) or an upcoming version of the Windows App from the Microsoft Store bundle a new small component (known as Microsoft Teams Plugin) capable of establishing a dynamic virtual channel with Microsoft Teams running on the virtual desktop, subsequently silently downloading the new media engine on the user’s device which keeps it up to date without user or admin intervention.

For Citrix Workspace app for Windows (2203 Long Term Service Release [LTSR], or 2302 Current Release [CR] or higher), admins can get the Microsoft Teams plugin installed using tools like Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (MECM) without requiring an upgrade. The future 2402 LTSR version of the Workspace app will also present a UI to users to install the plugin or a new command line argument for scripted rollouts.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out late June 2024 (previously mid-June) and expect to complete by early August 2024 (previously late June).

General Availability: We will begin rolling out in early August 2024 (previously late July) and expect to complete by mid-September 2024 (previously mid-August).

How this will affect your organization:

The new VDI solution for Microsoft Teams is enabled by default on the new Teams app and becomes the default optimization mode if the endpoint meets the minimum requirements. It can be disabled via TAC policy.

What you need to do to prepare:

The new VDI solution requires the new Microsoft Teams client to be deployed. It also requires the client-side plugin component, as described above.

MC714167 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Wiki Notes Retirement in GCC High

Updated August 13, 2024: We have updated the timing of this change. Thank you for your patience.

We previously announced in MC675282 (September ’23) Wiki retirement and the future of note taking in Teams Channels, that we will be retiring Wiki-based Meeting notes in meetings in GCC High as planned by mid-August 2024 (previously July). While we understand Wiki notes has been a valuable collaboration tool for many of our users, we are still working to introduce a richer alternative for Microsoft Teams. There is no planned date at this time. Users in GCC High will need to keep using an alternative product such as OneNote to continue taking notes until then. 

When this will happen:

Beginning late July 2024 and complete by late August 2024 (previously mid-August)

How this affects your organization:

Once Wiki notes have been retired, users will need to utilize an alternative product such as OneNote to continue taking notes.

What you need to do to prepare:

When Wiki retires in private meetings, users can select Download from the banner at the top of their meeting chat to download the notes as a file. Learn more: Access wiki meeting notes in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support.
Before and after Wiki retires in channel meetings, users can still download their existing Wiki notes in Word doc format from the SharePoint site of the channel > Teams Wiki Data folder.
Those who didn’t create Wiki notes, who joined the meeting after the Wiki notes were created, or who are using the new Teams client can retrieve and download the notes of the meeting.

No action is needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC704955 — (Updated) Now get Real Time Calendar Notifications in Teams

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 314355

Updated August 15, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

You can now get the Calendar Notifications in Teams from the Activity Feed. 

You will get calendar notifications in the Activity Feed for the below scenarios:

Meeting invite (including channel meetings you are explicitly invited to)
Meeting updates
Meeting cancellations
Meeting forwards (as an organizer)

When you get a calendar notification, you will see an unread notification in the Activity Feed pane or at the bell icon.
When you click on a notification, you will see the details of the meeting/event in the right pane.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-March 2024 and expect to complete by early April 2024 (previously late March).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High & DoD): We will begin rolling out early April 2024 (previously late March) and expect to complete by late August 2024 (previously late July).

How this will affect your organization:

Users will get Calendar notifications in the Activity Feed within Teams. These notification settings for Calendar can be modified from “Notifications and activity” in the Settings menu in Teams. 

What you need to do to prepare:

There is no action needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC704035 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Integrate Chat notification with Meeting RSVP status

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 161739

Updated August 21, 2024: We have updated the rollout timelines below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Teams users will soon be able to control how they get notified in meeting chats through RSVP to their meetings. When they decline a meeting, they will not receive notifications or see the chats in chat list; when they accept a meeting, they will receive notification for all new messages. This release of Microsoft Teams Meeting ID will be rolling out across Microsoft Teams Desktop, Mobile and Web and will provide an additional way for users to control their chat list by selecting which meetings they want to receive message updates from.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously early September) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously mid-September). 

Worldwide will begin rolling out late October 2024 (previously mid-September) and expect to complete by early November 2024 (previously late September). 

GCC will begin rolling out early November 2024 (previously late September) and expect to complete by mid-November2024 (previously early October). 

GCC High will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 (previously early October) and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously mid-October). 

DoD will begin rolling out late November 2024 (previously early October) and expect to complete by early December 2024 (previously mid-October). 

How this will affect your organization:

You will not receive notifications or see chats from meetings you declined. You will be able to set how you want to be notified for meetings you RSVP with Accept or Tentative from Microsoft Teams settings.

What you need to do to prepare:

You might want to notify your users about this new capability to control meeting chat notifications by RSVP to meetings. 

MC683928 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: In-meeting Error Messaging

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 167211

Updated August 15, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below for DoD organizations. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Teams Meeting users will be notified directly through the error message on meeting right pane for why they cannot access meeting chats when their chat access is limited by policy or due to system limitations and unexpected errors.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-November and expect to complete by late November.

Worldwide: We will begin rolling out early December and expect to complete by mid-December.

GCC: We will begin rolling out early January and expect to complete by mid-January.

GCC High: We will begin rolling out mid-January and expect to complete by late January.

DoD: We will begin rolling out early February and expect to complete by late August 2024 (previously early August).

How this will affect your organization:

Once available, users will begin to understand why they cannot access certain chats during meetings.

What you need to do to prepare:

There is no action needed to prepare for this change.

MC674737 — (Updated) Microsoft Teams: Emojis, GIFs and Stickers Unified in One Picker

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 84023

Updated August 15, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Users can soon find all of their emojis, GIFs, and stickers in a combined picker in Microsoft Teams.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out in early December 2023 (previously late November) and expect to complete rollout by late January 2024 (previously mid-December).

Worldwide: We will begin rolling out in early April 2024 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete rollout by late July 2024.

GCC, GCC High, DoD: We will begin rolling out in late July 2024 (previously early June) and expect to complete rollout by late August 2024 (previously early August).

How this will affect your organization:

Users can find emojis, GIFs, and stickers combined in one menu under the smiley face icon. All the fun content will remain as normal for users to add in their messages.

What you need to do to prepare:

There is nothing you need to do to prepare.

Purview

MC882266 — Microsoft Purview | Information Protection: Message Recall for encrypted emails in Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 413431

Coming soon to Microsoft Purview: Information Protection’s Advanced Message Encryption will provide email encryption capability in Microsoft Exchange Online and will be integrated with Message Recall for email stored in a cloud mailbox and sent within an organization. Users with a license for Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft Office 365 E5 will be able to use the new Microsoft Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web to recall encrypted email from their Sent folder. The same behaviors for unencrypted email apply to encrypted email, as described in Exchange Online Message Recall Updates – Microsoft Community Hub.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early October 2024 and expect to complete by late October 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Users with one of the specified licenses are not able to recall encrypted email from their Sent folder. The Message recall control is greyed out.

After this rollout: Users with one of the specified licenses will be able to select an encrypted email in the Sent folder to recall the message.

This feature will be on by default for users with one of the specified licenses.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more

Exchange Online Message Recall Updates – Microsoft Community Hub 
Work with Cloud-based Message Recall | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)

MC869936 — Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: Enhancements to potential high-impact user detections

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 156016 and Roadmap ID 171720

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management will be rolling out minor changes for when it detects a potential high impact user whose activities may lead to potential data security incidents. These changes will include improving accessibility and more prominently highlighting the reasons for the detection on the Alert page. Also, we will provide additional descriptors for how the risk score booster is applied to the user. 

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late August 2024 and expect to complete the rollout by early September 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout, the Alerts page had fewer details about why the user was detected as potential high impact user.

After this rollout, The Alert page will have improved accessibility, it will be easier to see the reasons for the detection of a potential high impact user, and admins will have additional descriptors for how the score booster is applied to the user.

This feature is on by default and accessible to all Purview admins with appropriate permissions. 

What you need to do to prepare:

No action is needed to enable these features. You will see the potential high impact user experience enhancements on the alert/case detail pages.

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

You can access the Insider Risk Management solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

Learn more

Create and manage insider risk management policies – Microsoft Purview (compliance) | Microsoft Learn
Investigate insider risk management activities – Microsoft Purview (compliance) | Microsoft Learn

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

MC867662 — Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) trainable classifiers

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 167221

Coming soon: Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management will be rolling out support for Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) trainable classifiers.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late August 2024 and expect to complete by late September 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Admins are not able to use trainable classifiers in MIP.

After this rollout: Use trainable classifiers from MIP to recognize various content types specific to your organization. Any content matching the trainable classifiers will be automatically highlighted in the alerts. If you are not interested in specific classifiers, you can exclude them in IRM settings > Global exclusions > Trainable classifiers.

This feature is on by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

Learn more

Set up global exclusions for insider risk management policies | Microsoft Learn 
Fine-tune exclusions in insider risk management by creating detection groups and modifying built-in indicator variants (preview) | Microsoft Learn

MC866451 — Microsoft Purview compliance portal: Insider Risk Management cumulative exfiltration tuning

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 402195

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management will be rolling out cumulative exfiltration tuning. With this new feature, Cumulative Exfiltration Activities will not be detected and scored if the events have already been detected in a previous Cumulative Exfiltration Activities risk. This change will reduce noise for alerts generated from Cumulative Exfiltration Activities.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-August 2024 and complete by late August 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

With this update, Cumulative Exfiltration Activities will no longer be detected and scored if they have already been identified in a previous cumulative exfiltration alert. This change will reduce unnecessary alerts generated from Cumulative Exfiltration Activities.  

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

This feature is enabled by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

You can access the Insider Risk Management solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

Learn more: Create and manage insider risk management policies.

MC843111 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: General availability of granular exclusion (GCC, GCC High, DoD)

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 389842

Updated August 29, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management will roll out granular exclusion for general availability.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-October 2024 (previously late August) and expect to complete by late October 2024 (previously early September). 

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Granular exclusion was only available in Public Preview. Before Public Preview, admins were not able to fine-tune Insider risk settings according to organizational preferences.

After this rollout: Granular exclusion allows admins with appropriate permissions to adjust and fine-tune indicators according to organizational preferences and to help tailor risk detection that may lead to a potential security incident. For example, admins can configure the indicator Sending email with attachments to recipients outside the organization to only detect emails sent to personal domains (such as outlook.com). In this way, admins can reduce the number of false positives. This feature is on by default and accessible to admins with appropriate permissions.

What you need to do to prepare:

No admin action is needed to prepare for this rollout. To use granular exclusions, admins can configure the exclusion conditions in the Purview compliance portal at Insider risk settings > Policy indicators and select Indicators to create variants of detections. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

You can access the Insider Risk Management solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

Learn more in the Create a variant of a built-in indicator section of Configure policy indicators in insider risk management | Microsoft Learn.

MC841233 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview compliance portal: The new Microsoft Purview Portal will be GA (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 397889

Updated August 15, 2024: We have updated the content below with additional information. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for the new Microsoft Purview portal: A streamlined design and unified experience that helps you discover and access data security, risk and compliance solutions for all your data. You will be able to access all Purview solutions in one portal, as well as experiences such as settings, global search, recommendations, and roles and permissions management.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late August 2024 and expect to complete by early October 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: You access Purview solutions on the classic Compliance portal.

After this rollout: You will be able to access all Purview solutions with new experiences such as centralized settings experience, global search, a new home page with tailored recommendations, and more. You will have access to all existing features and new features in the new Purview portal. We will update this message before rollout to add screenshots.

You can continue to use the Purview compliance portal if desired. In the future, we will shift all admins from the Purview Compliance portal to the new Purview portal in the future. More information will follow.

What you need to do to prepare:

If your organization is secured with a firewall or proxy server, you must add the new Purview portal’s internet protocol (IP) addresses and domain uniform resource locators (URLs) to the allowlist. Please familiarize yourself with the new Microsoft Purview portal since this will be the future home for all Microsoft Purview solutions. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation.

For latest GCC/WW Purview endpoints, please visit: Microsoft 365 URLs and IP address ranges 
For latest GCC-H Purview endpoints, please visit: Microsoft 365 U.S. Government GCC High endpoints 
For latest DoD Purview endpoints, please visit: Microsoft 365 U.S. Government DoD endpoints 
Learn about the Microsoft Purview portal (preview) | Microsoft Learn

MC809599 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview: Information Barriers v2 support for all new onboarding customers (GCC, GCCH, DoD)

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 402516

Updated August 21, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Purview Information Barriers v2 (IB v2) will soon be available for all new onboarding customers. IB v2 has enhanced architecture with these new features:

Large-scale segment support: The segment limit in organizations has increased to 5,000.
Multi-segment support: Users can be assigned to up to 10 segments.
Flexible user discoverability: Organizations can now choose to allow IB-protected users to discover each other while adhering to IB communication and collaboration policies.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late September 2024 (previously late July) and expect to complete by mid-October 2024 (previously late September).

How this will affect your organization:

What is Information Barriers?

Microsoft Purview Information Barriers (IB) is a comprehensive compliance platform that allows regulated customers in finance (FSI), legal, consulting verticals to meet compliance requirements to protect communication and collaboration across internal regulated users. IB was first released for Microsoft Teams in 2019. Since the initial release, IB has expanded from Microsoft Teams to also support Microsoft OneDrive for Business and Microsoft SharePoint Online.

New capabilities with IB v2

Large-scale segment support: A big improvement with IB v2 is large scale segment support per tenant. For IB v1, the maximum number of defined segments in a tenant was 250. With IB v2, this limit is increased to 5,000 segments per tenant. No extra IB configuration changes are needed to use IB v2 at this new scale.
Multi-segment support: The new multi-segment organization mode enables admins to assign users in your organization to up to 10 segments in IB, instead of being limited to just one segment. This allows support for more diverse communication rules between users and groups and supports more complex organizational and operational scenarios. Learn more: Use multi-segment support in information barriers | Microsoft Learn.
Flexible user discoverability: IB v2 now allows administrators to enable or disable user discoverability restrictions in IB. After user discoverability restricted by IB is turned off, users can discover each other in the people picker, independent of their IB policies.

By default, the people picker restriction is enabled for all IB policies. For example, IB policies that block two users from communicating with each other also restrict these users from seeing each other when using the people picker. Administrators can now choose to disable the user discoverability restriction using the Security & Compliance PowerShell cmdlet Set-PolicyConfig. For more information, review the Enable or disable user discoverability section of Manage information barriers policies | Microsoft Learn.

IB v2 is on by default. Admins can update the state with the PowerShell parameter -InformationBarrierMode.

What you need to do to prepare:

Organizations using IB v1 will be eligible to upgrade to IB v2 in the future. Currently, this is only for new customers.

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC805721 — (Updated) Purview | Insider Risk Management: Adaptive Protection is generally available in GCC, GCCH, and DoD

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 335856

Updated August 13, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: Adaptive Protection integrates the breadth of intelligence in Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management with the depth of protection in Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention, to continuously and automatically fine-tune policies and protect data where and when it matters the most. The capability is built into the Microsoft platform with no endpoint agents required so organizations can get started using this as soon as it rolls out.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late August (previously late July) 2024 and expect to complete by late September 2024 (previously late August).

How this will affect your organization:

Before the rollout: Admin are not able to configure custom definitions for insider risk levels in Insider risk managements or use insider risk levels as conditions in Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies to apply dynamic controls to risky users.

After the rollout: Adaptive Protection is a capability of Microsoft Purview that enables organizations to dynamically optimize the balance between data protection and productivity. By leveraging the machine learning-driven analysis in Insider Risk Management, Adaptive Protection detects potentially risky user actions that may result in a data security incident and automatically adds the user to a stricter Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy. The protection policies are adaptive based on user context, ensuring low-risk users can maintain productivity and high-risk users have appropriate protection in place.

What you need to do to prepare:

To begin using this capability, configure risk levels for Adaptive Protection in Insider Risk Management and add a new condition for risk levels for Adaptive Protection in new or existing DLP policies for Exchange, Teams, or Devices.

You can also set up Adaptive Protection using the one-click activation option from the home page of Microsoft Purview compliance portal. With one click, Adaptive Protection will create an Insider Risk Management policy based on aggregated risk insights of anonymized user activities in your organization, set your risk levels for Adaptive Protection, and create a DLP policy in test mode.

The default state of this feature is off.

Get started with Adaptive Protection in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal > Insider risk management > Adaptive Protection:

References

Learn about adaptive protection 
Learn about insider risk management 
Learn about data loss prevention 

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies to manage security and compliance. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC788980 — (Updated) Microsoft Purview | Insider Risk Management: Granular trigger throttling

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 382130

Updated September 5, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon, Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management will be rolling out public preview of granular trigger throttling limits.

When this will happen:

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out late October 2024 (previously late May) and expect to complete by late January 2024 (previously late October).

General Availability: We will begin rolling out late January 2024 (previously late December) and expect to complete by late January 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

With this update, we are introducing more granular trigger throttling limits to isolate the impact of a surge in noisy trigger volumes and prevent other policies from being affected. This ensures that organizations can receive critical alerts without being throttled by these limits. By default, these throttling limits will be applied:

All sensitive triggers, including HR signals, Azure AD leavers, and custom triggers, will be limited to 15,000 per day per trigger.
All other triggers will be limited to 5,000 per day per trigger.

Additionally, the policy health warning messages will be enhanced to assist admins with appropriate permissions in effectively identifying and addressing noisy triggers.

What you need to do to prepare:

No action is needed from you to prepare for this rollout. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management correlates various signals to identify potential malicious or inadvertent insider risks, such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations. Insider Risk Management enables customers to create policies based on their own internal policies, governance, and organizational requirements. Built with privacy by design, users are pseudonymized by default, and role-based access controls and audit logs are in place to help ensure user-level privacy.

You can access the Insider Risk Management solution in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

Learn more: Insider risk management | Microsoft Learn

MC750666 — (Updated) Purview | Data Loss Prevention: Attachment details in Activity Explorer and Alerts for DLP rules in Exchange

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 379673

Updated August 26, 2024: To ensure the optimal experience for our customers, we have decided not to proceed with the rollout at this time. We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your patience.

We are rolling out new fields in Microsoft Exchange to help prevent data loss. With these updates, admins can see more details about attachments in emails that violate Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rules in Exchange, including name, size, and labels.

When this will happen:

We will communicate via Message center when we are ready to proceed.

How this will affect your organization:

These new details will be displayed in Activity Explorer, DLP Alerts, and Microsoft Theft Protection (MTP) Alerts. With these updates, you can get better insights into the violation before you start investigating the finer details of the issue.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC690178 — (Updated) Information Protection – Keyword highlight support for document trainable classifiers

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 170738

Updated August 15, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

The keyword highlighting feature for Trainable Classifiers emphasizes the top 10 distinct keywords/phrases that influence the classification, showcasing up to 10 occurrences of each keyword.

The feature is being enabled through:

Content Explorer:

Viewing the classified document through Content explorer will highlight the keywords that match the Trainable classifiers detected.

Test Trainable classifier:

Uploading a document and testing it for a specific classifier OR selecting the document in the classifier’s matched item will highlight the keywords that match the Trainable classifier detected.

Note:

This feature will only work on the new/edited documents after the date “keyword highlight” has been enabled.

When this will happen:

Rollout will begin in early June 2024 (previously late March) and will complete by late October 2024 (previously late July).

How this will affect your organization:

The keyword highlight feature enables you to:

Quickly locate text that caused the positive outcome in the classifier.
Establish trust in the effectiveness of trainable classifiers.
Reduce the time to decide and take further actions.

What you need to do to prepare:

This feature will only work on new/edited documents after the date “keyword highlight” has been enabled.

Release of Keyword Highlighting for Train & new Business Context Classifier (microsoft.com)
Trainable classifiers definitions
Increase Classifier Accuracy | Microsoft Learn 

Defender XDR

MC802702 — (Updated) Microsoft Defender XDR services: False positive email release from quarantine through post breach scenarios

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 184915

Updated August 28, 2024: We have updated the content below with links to additional information. Thank you for your patience.

Microsoft Defender XDR will soon let Security Operations (SecOps) restore quarantined emails to an inbox from Threat Explorer, Email Entity, Summary Panel, Advanced Hunting, and Microsoft Graph API.

Note that this new feature is only available for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 and Microsoft 365 E5 customers. 

When this will happen:

General Availability: We will begin rolling out mid-July (previously late June) 2024 and expect to complete by mid-September 2024 (previously late mid-August).

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout, admins did not have a way to release or move false positive emails (emails that are not breaches) to an inbox directly from post breach scenarios. They needed to go back to the Quarantine page to complete these actions. Also, previously, admins could only bulk release 100 emails.

With this new feature, the following steps explain how to move false positive emails to inbox or release after investigating them in Threat Explorer, Email Entity, or Advanced Hunting and have selected entities to act.

Create remediation: Click on the Take action button on the top-right corner of the Email Entity page to open the Action wizard. Follow the steps to trigger the “move to inbox“ action. This action can be tracked in Action center. 

Note that Email Entity Take action allows admins to take release action for either specific users or a release to all.

Quarantine release from Threat Explorer (bulk scenarios): Go to Threat explorer and select the messages that you want to move, then click move to inbox.

Track the action status in Action center: Go to Actions & Submissions, click on Action center, and then go to the History page. You will be able to see who has taken the action, action status, and so on.

Track the status on the Quarantine page: You will be able to see the email status on the Quarantine page as well as who released it.  

Quarantine release from Advanced Hunting (bulk scenarios): Go to Advanced Hunting and select the messages that you want to move by selecting Move to mailbox folder. then proceed to click on the Inbox option.

Custom detection: SecOps can create a custom detection rule and take action. Please see Create and manage custom detections rules to read more about custom detection.

Graph API: You can take move to inbox action through Graph API.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your admins about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Additional references:

Announcing quarantine release integration in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 hunting experience!! – Microsoft Community Hub

Exchange Online / Outlook

MC882252 — New Microsoft Outlook for Windows: Sharing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint local files through email

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 397094

Coming soon to new Microsoft Outlook: Users will be able to share Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint files stored on their device (not stored in a cloud like Microsoft OneDrive) from new Outlook for Windows.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out mid-September 2024 and expect to complete by mid-November 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout, users are only able to see old Outlook for Windows when they try to share a Word, Excel or PowerPoint fie.

After this rollout, when users want to share a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file that is saved to their device (not stored in a cloud like Microsoft OneDrive), the user can right-click the file name in File Explorer, select Share, and select new Outlook for Windows to email the file.

This option is on by default.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

MC859862 — New Microsoft Outlook for Windows and the web: Use the Ctrl Y shortcut to jump to a folder

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 403108

Coming soon for new Microsoft Outlook for Windows and the web: When focused on the folder pane, users will be able to press Ctrl+Y and the first letter of the folder name to quickly navigate to a folder.

If a user enters the same letter multiple times, the selection will jump to the next matching folder.
Users can enter all or part of specific folder names. For example: Press Ctrl+Y and enter “dele” to jump to the “Deleted Items” folder.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide): We began rolling out late July 2024 and expect to complete by late August 2024.

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late August 2024 and expect to complete by mid-September 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout, users scroll to find the desired folders.

This feature is on by default and available to all users of Outlook for Windows and the web.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more: Keyboard shortcuts for Outlook – Microsoft Support

MC856760 — Reminder: Two Admin Audit Log cmdlets retire in September 2024

We will be retiring the two Admin Audit Log cmdlets Search-AdminAuditLog and New-AdminAuditLog from the Microsoft Exchange Online version 3 module on September 15, 2024. Instead, we recommend using the Search-UnifiedAuditLog cmdlet for auditing, where we will continue to invest our development resources.

Please refer to Update on the Deprecation of Admin Audit Log Cmdlets – Microsoft Community Hub for details on the retirement and migration of the two cmdlets.

MC854648 — Admin policy to migrate users from classic Outlook to new Outlook for Windows

Microsoft is releasing a new Admin-Controlled Migration to New Outlook policy that will allow IT admins to migrate users from classic Outlook for Windows to new Outlook for Windows.

User experience

Enabling this policy (see instructions below) switches users from classic Outlook to new Outlook in three steps. Each step runs on a new app session (app launch). 

Step 1: Users see a teaching callout encouraging them to try the new Outlook in the first session after the migration policy is enabled.

Step 2: If users don’t switch to new Outlook in step 1, they’ll see this Business bar message in the next session: “Your organization recommends using the new Outlook for Windows. If you skip this now, you’ll be taken to the new experience the next time you start Outlook.”

Step 3: Users see a blocking prompt encouraging them to switch to new Outlook. Users will be able to toggle back to classic Outlook for Windows any time.

Pre-requisite to enabling the policy

The new Outlook toggle should be available to users; users will not see the migration experience if the new Outlook toggle is hidden via group policy (GPO) or Windows Registry key. If you previously disabled access to the toggle, you can enable it by following the instructions here: Enable or disable access to the new Outlook for Windows.

Setting the policy

Policy name: Admin-Controlled Migration to New Outlook
Possible values (Boolean): 1 (enabled) / 0 (disabled)

This is a GPO and can be managed via Cloud Policy. It can also be deployed as a Registry key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice16.0OutlookOptionsGeneral] “DoNewOutlookAutoMigration”: dword:00000001

The migration will run only once until users switch to new Outlook. You can set the interval policy (see below) to re-initiate migration in the scenario that users toggle back to classic Outlook. The policy functionality can be used in Current Channel Version 2406 (Build 16.0.17830.20138).

Policy to define the interval between migration attempts

A new Interval between new Outlook migration attempts policy can be used to re-initiate the migration to new Outlook for Windows if users switch back to classic Outlook, based on the defined interval.

Pre-requisite: The admin-controlled migration policy must be enabled for this policy to be respected.

Policy name: Interval between new Outlook migration attempts 
Possible values:

0/Not set: New Outlook for Windows migration will not be re-initiated.

1: Migration will be attempted each time and users will see the blocking prompt (as in step 3) on every launch of classic Outlook for Windows.

2-99000 (N): Migration will be re-initiated from step 1 N days after user switches back.

This is GPO and can be managed via Cloud Policy. It can also be deployed as a Registry key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice16.0OutlookOptionsGeneral] “NewOutlookAutoMigrationRetryIntervals”: dword:00000001

Important note: new Outlook is not supported in on-premises environments and in sovereign clouds.

When will this happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC): We will begin rolling out early August 2024 and expect to complete by mid-August 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

No changes will be made unless you enable this policy for a set of or for all of your users. Users who have this policy enabled will go through the migration flow as described above.

What you need to do to prepare:

No action is required to prepare for the rollout. Organizations ready to migrate users to the new Outlook for Windows can use this policy.

MC806104 — (Update) Microsoft Outlook: Scheduling Assistant updates

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 397769

Updated August 22, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

In the new Microsoft Outlook for Windows and web, we are updating the Scheduling Assistant view to help users have better readability. This feature update provides improved grid lines, an Availability view, and a combined Availability bar. We are also updating the time zone behavior when scheduling across multiple time zones, and we are adding the ability to send an event from the Scheduling Assistant view. 

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late August 2024 (early August) and expect to complete by mid-September 2024 (late August).

General Availability (GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late August 2024 and expect to complete by late September 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

This feature update aims to improve the Scheduling Assistant view readability while scheduling new events. 

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC805216 — (Updated) Updating conversation actions on Microsoft Outlook for iOS

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 398983

Updated August 16, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience

Note: If your organization does not support iOS, you can safely ignore this message.

Currently, when viewing a Microsoft Outlook email, users can access the available actions in the top-right corner of the screen. We are updating these actions to be in a bar at the bottom of the screen, and users will now have the ability to customize the order and placement of the actions.

Additionally, users will now be able to access these actions from their Inbox view by long-pressing a message.

When this will happen:

General Availability: We will begin rolling out in early July 2024 and will finish rolling out by late August 2024 (previously late July).

How this will affect your organization:

The functionality of conversation actions will remain the same. With this update, we are specifically changing the position of the actions, adding the ability to customize, and making actions available in the Inbox view on long-press.

Because these actions will now be at the bottom of the screen when viewing a message, the tab bar to switch between mail, calendar, and so on will no longer be available when reading a message. To get to the tab bar, a user simply has to go back to the Inbox view.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC803006 — (Update) Outlook for Windows display name change

Updated August 27, 2024: The following update is available. Thank you for your patience.

Update: Some users of classic Outlook may not see the app name change due to a known issue: Outlook icon on the Start menu is not updated to Outlook (Classic) – Microsoft Support. As a related change, the new Outlook icon has been updated as of August 1st to remove the “New” badge, and this update will be automatically applied when users launch the app.

Starting in July 2024, Microsoft will change the app name of the current Outlook for Windows for all customers as it appears in the Start menu now from “Outlook” to “Outlook (classic)”. This is not a change in status or support for the classic Outlook app. Please continue to refer to our blog post timeline for product support and availability. New Outlook for Windows: A Guide to Product Availability. This change is intended to differentiate it from the new Outlook for Windows. Users will see this update in classic Outlook version 2407 and higher.

This naming convention now also aligns with how it is referred to in support documentation. For instance, at the top of articles like this one on using favorites, there are tabs for different instructions in new Outlook and classic Outlook so users can find the instructions appropriate for the version they are on.

When this will happen:

Users will see the new app name in the Start menu after they install version 2407 or later.

Current Channel: We will begin rolling out late July 2024 and expect to complete by early August 2024.
Monthly Enterprise Channel will get this update September 2024
Semi-annual channel will get this update January 2025

How this will affect your organization:

This change will only affect the app name as it appears in the Start menu installed apps list and Start pinned apps. The app icon and the executable file name will remain the same.

What you need to do to prepare:

There is no action required for administrators to prepare for this change. This change also cannot be configured differently per organization.

MC801582 — (Updated) Microsoft Outlook: Adding Search to settings in the Outlook for iOS app

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 398982

Updated August 9, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

If your organization does not support iOS devices, you can ignore this message.

Coming soon for Microsoft Outlook for iOS: We will add the ability for users to search Settings to quickly find the desired setting.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early August 2024 (previously early July) and expect to complete by late August 2024 (previously late July). 

How this will affect your organization:

Before the rollout: Users are unable to search Settings.

After the rollout: This change is additive. All other Settings will remain the same. This feature is on by default and accessible to all Outlook iOS users.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC799631 — (Updated) Microsoft Outlook: RSVP improvements in event context menu

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 394680

Updated August 9, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We are introducing small changes to the calendar event’s right-click context menu in new Outlook for Windows and web, making it easier for users to respond to meeting invitations from the Calendar surface. All RSVP options (Yes/No/Maybe) will now be on the first level of the menu instead of hidden under an RSVP menu option. Also, users will now also be able to choose between responding to all events in the series or just the current instance. 

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early June 2024 and expect to complete by mid-June 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out early July 2024 and expect to complete by early August 2024 (previously mid-July).

How this will affect your organization:

All users will be affected. There is no user or tenant setting to control this change. These changes will also make the context menu more accessible.

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC666613 — (Updated) Local Contacts Search

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 135281

Updated August 22, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Users will now have access to a quicker and easier method to search their Outlook Mobile contact list within the app. We are adding a search bar at the top of a user’s in app contact list that will allow users to type the name of a contact to easily find a contact. This search is limited only to the contacts within the Outlook Mobile app, and this feature does not search any device contacts that have not been synced with Outlook. 

When this will happen:

Preview: We will begin rolling out mid-September 2023.

Worldwide: We will begin rolling out mid-October 2023 and expect to complete by late November 2024 (previously late August).

How this will affect your organization:

There are no added settings or training needed for you as an admin. This feature will work for all users who have access to and/or use contacts in Outlook Mobile. 

What you need to do to prepare:

There is nothing required to prepare.

Microsoft 365

MC884011 — ActiveX will be disabled by default in Microsoft Office 2024

We’re making some changes to the handling of ActiveX objects in the Microsoft Office client apps.

Starting in new Office 2024, the default configuration setting for ActiveX objects will change from Prompt me before enabling all controls with minimal restrictions to Disable all controls without notification. This change applies to the Win32 desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio.

When this will happen:

For new Office 2024, this change will happen immediately when it’s released in October 2024.

For Microsoft 365 apps, this change will rollout in stages beginning in April 2025.

How this will affect your organization:

Users will no longer be able to create or interact with ActiveX objects in Office documents when this change is implemented. Some existing ActiveX objects will still be visible as a static image, but it will not be possible to interact with them. In non-commercial SKUs of Office, users will see this notification when an ActiveX object is blocked by the new default behavior:

The new default setting is equivalent to the existing DisableAllActiveX group policy setting.

What you need to do to prepare:

When this change takes effect, if you need to use ActiveX controls in Office documents, you can change back to the previous default behavior using any one of the following methods:

In the Trust Center Settings dialog, under ActiveX Settings, select the Prompt me before enabling all controls with minimal restrictions option.
In the registry, set HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOfficeCommonSecurityDisableAllActiveX to 0 (REG_DWORD).
Set the Disable All ActiveX group policy setting to 0.

MC865187 — Backfilling Microsoft Graph Connector Entitlement to 50M items

We want to inform you that certain Microsoft 365 and Office 365 subscriptions will soon feature a new service plan called Graph Connectors Search with Index. This plan provides an index limit of 50 million items per tenant without any extra cost. The following subscriptions will be automatically configured for this service plan.

Applicable to subscriptions: Office 365 E1, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 F1, Microsoft 365 F3, Office 365 F3, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Office 365 G1, Office 365 G3, Office 365 G5, Microsoft 365 G3, Microsoft 365 G5, Office 365 A3, Office 365 A5, Microsoft 365 A3, Microsoft 365 A5

If you use Microsoft Graph connectors for Copilot for Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Search and have the subscriptions mentioned above, your limit will change to a 50 million item tenant index. Subscribers with ‘Extra Graph Connector capacity’ will be contacted about their active plans.

Microsoft Graph connectors allow your organization to index third-party data into Microsoft Graph. Microsoft Graph connectors enable Microsoft 365 Copilot better as it has more information relevant to your organization to answer prompts.

When this will happen:

We will begin rolling out service plan in mid-September 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Previously, to index third-party data into Microsoft Graph through Microsoft Graph connectors, you either needed to have a built-in entitlement through specific licenses (e.g., 500 items of index quota per Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 license) or purchase add-on quota. With this change, the index quota per license entitlement is removed, as is add-on cost for additional quota. You now receive an entitlement of 50 million items for each tenant.

 As a reminder: Each entity (or record) from the source data system that you add to Microsoft Graph can be considered an item which then shows up as a unique citation in Copilot’s responses, as a unique search result in Microsoft Search, etc. Depending on the type of data source, 1 item is –

1 document (word, excel, ppt, pdf, etc.) in file share
1 wiki page in Confluence
1 webpage in a website
1 ticket/issue in Jira

Total quota utilized is calculated in terms of total items stored in the index. Updates/changes to an item are not counted in any manner. There are no cost implications of updating an item multiple times. It still counts as 1 item only.

What you need to do to prepare:

Review resources about Microsoft Graph connectors and consider data sources you’d want to connect to Microsoft 365.

Build Microsoft Graph connectors for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

MC823294 — (Updated) Microsoft Lists app: New drag and drop feature

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 380183

Updated August 9, 2024: We have updated the content below with links to additional resources. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for the Microsoft Lists app: Users will be able to reorder List items using drag and drop.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early August 2024 and expect to complete by mid-August 2024.

Standard Release: We will begin rolling out late August 2024 and expect to complete by early October 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Users are not able to drag and drop list items to reorder them.

After this rollout, Users will be able to drag and drop list items.

This feature is on by default and accessible to all Microsoft List app users.

Drag and drop items to reorder your items in Microsoft Lists!

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more:

Microsoft Lists App | Microsoft 365
Drag and drop to reorder list items – Microsoft Support

MC822726 — (Updated) Microsoft Excel: Extending support for Insights Services to GCC

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 396171

Updated August 20, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

GCC customers will be able to use features in Microsoft Excel run by Insights Services, including Analyze Data, found on the Home tab.

When this will happen:

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late August 2024 (previously late July) and expect to complete by late September 2024 (previously mid-August).

How this will affect your organization:

Customers on GCC will now have the Analyze Data button in the Home tab on web, Microsoft Windows, and Mac. They can use this feature to get insights about their data and will also be able to receive Recommended Charts and Recommended Pivot Tables on web.

For more information, visit:

Analyze Data in Excel – Microsoft Support 
Recommended Charts

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically. You can turn off Analyze Data by going to Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings > Turn off all connected experiences.

You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC805212 — (Updated) Microsoft 365 apps: Improved resharing experience

Updated August 20, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Currently, when you share a link with view-only permissions in Microsoft 365 apps, clicking on Copy link defaults to an “Only people with existing access” link that does not always target your intended people.

With this new feature, when you share a link with view-only permissions with other people, those people will now be able to copy that same link directly from the Share dialog when they attempt to share. If your only option to share with others is Only people with existing access, you will be able to send a request to the owner to share this file with specific people directly in the sharing control. The owner of the file will then receive a request and will be able to approve or reject the request.

When this will happen:

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-August 2024 (previously early August) and expect to complete by late August 2024 (previously mid-August).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, and DoD): We will begin rolling out early-September 2024 (previously mid-August) and expect to complete by mid-September 2024 (previously late August) 

How this will affect your organization:

With this new feature, anyone who accesses a Microsoft 365 apps file with view-only permissions will see this new experience. 

Learn more: Sharing files, folders, and list items – Microsoft Support (content within will be updated before rollout begins).

What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

MC779851 — (Updated) To Do app opens in new Outlook for Windows – GCCH, DoD

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 375602

Updated August 21, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Use the Microsoft To Do app without leaving new Outlook for Windows. Clicking the To Do icon in the navigation bar will open the app inline and will no longer open it in a separate browser. 

When this will happen:

Standard Release (GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-September 2024 (previously late August) and expect to complete by mid-October 2024 (previously early October).

How this will affect your organization:

Users will notice a new entry point in classic Outlook for Windows if their active commercial Microsoft account has been granted access by their tenant administrator. No additional steps are required from the admin if the To Do app has already been enabled for the appropriate users in the existing To Do web or desktop applications. 

What you need to do to prepare:

Ensure that the To Do app workload is enabled for your tenant. For details about ensuring access, see Set up Microsoft To Do.

For more information about the To Do app, see Use To Do app to manage Tasks in Outlook.

MC714520 — (Updated) Apps for the web: Grid view for tasks in Microsoft To Do web version and To Do inside Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 381749

Updated August 20, 2024: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

In Microsoft 365 apps for the web, users can see their tasks in a grid view and can update details inline in To Do on web and To Do app inside Microsoft Outlook.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, and DoD): We will begin rolling out late April 2024 (previously early April) and expect to complete by late September 2024 (previously late July).

How this will affect your organization:

When users open To Do on web within Microsoft Outlook, they will see their tasks in a tabular format or grid. They can continue to have the list view if preferred.

What you need to do to prepare:

There is no action needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Microsoft 365 IP and URL Endpoint Updates

Documentation – Office 365 IP Address and URL web service

September 02, 2024 – GCC

September 02, 2024 – GCC High

September 02, 2024 – DOD

​Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More 

Multimodal Public Preview Blog 

We are thrilled to announce the Public Preview release of our Multimodal model in Azure AI Content Safety. The Multimodal API analyzes materials containing both image content and text content to help make applications and services safer from harmful user-generated or AI-generated content. 

The key objectives of the “Multimodal” feature is: 

 Detect Harmful Content Across Multiple Modalities: The primary objective is to detect harmful, inappropriate, or unsafe content by analyzing both text and images (including emojis). This includes identifying explicit content, hate speech, violence, self-harm and sexual within text-image combinations. 
Contextual Analysis Across Text and Visuals: The multimodal is able to understand the context behind both textual and visual elements together, detecting subtle or implicit harmful content that might not be evident when looking at the text or image in isolation. 
Real-Time Moderation: Provide real-time detection and moderation to prevent the generation, sharing, or dissemination of harmful content across multimodal platforms. This ensures that potentially harmful content is stopped before reaching users. 

By addressing these objectives, the multimodal detection feature ensures a safer and more respectful user environment where content generation is creative yet responsible. 

User Scenarios 

Multimodal harmful content detection involves analyzing and moderating content across multiple modes, including text, images, and videos, to identify harmful, unsafe, or inappropriate materials. It becomes particularly crucial in scenarios where tools like DALL·E 3 are used for generating visual content based on textual prompts. The primary challenge lies in the variety and complexity of how harmful content might manifest, sometimes subtly across both the text and the generated images. 

Harmful Imagery 

User Scenario: A user prompts DALL·E 3 with text that seems innocent but leads to the generation of subtly harmful imagery (e.g., glorifying violence, hate symbols, or discriminatory representations). 

Detection Mechanism: The multimodal detection evaluates the image content after it is generated, using models that can recognize visual cues related to hate speech, violence, and other harmful material.  

Mitigation: The multimodal detection flags the generated image, prevents sharing, and asks the user to revise their prompt. 

Text Embedded in Images 

User Scenario: A user asks for an image containing text that promotes hate speech or false information (e.g., a sign or banner in an image with offensive language). 

Detection Mechanism: Text within generated images is analyzed for harmful content using optical character recognition (OCR) alongside NLP techniques to understand the meaning and intent behind the text. 

Mitigation: Once detected, the multimodal detection can refuse to display the image. 

Multimodal Detection API 

The multimodal API accepts both text and image inputs. It is designed to perform multi-class and multi-severity detection, meaning it can classify content across multiple categories and assign a severity score to each one. For each category, the system returns a severity level on a scale of 0, 2, 4, or 6. The higher the number, the more severe the content.  

Reference Links 

Get started in Azure AI Content Safety studio: https://aka.ms/contentsafetystudio    
Get started in Azure AI Studio 
Learn more about our new multimodal model, read our documentation  
For API input limits, see the Input requirements section of the Overview. 

​Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More 

As AI advances, we all have a role to play to unlock AI’s positive impact for organizations and communities around the world. That’s why we’re focused on helping customers use and build AI that is trustworthy, meaning AI that is secure, safe and private.

At Microsoft, we have commitments to ensure Trustworthy AI and are building industry-leading supporting technology. Our commitments and capabilities go hand in hand to make sure our customers and developers are protected at every layer.

Building on our commitments, today we are announcing new product capabilities to strengthen the security, safety and privacy of AI systems.

Security. Security is our top priority at Microsoft, and our expanded Secure Future Initiative (SFI) underscores the company-wide commitments and the responsibility we feel to make our customers more secure. This week we announced our first SFI Progress Report, highlighting updates spanning culture, governance, technology and operations. This delivers on our pledge to prioritize security above all else and is guided by three principles: secure by design, secure by default and secure operations. In addition to our first party offerings, Microsoft Defender and Purview, our AI services come with foundational security controls, such as built-in functions to help prevent prompt injections and copyright violations. Building on those, today we’re announcing two new capabilities:

Evaluations in Azure AI Studio to support proactive risk assessments.
Microsoft 365 Copilot will provide transparency into web queries to help admins and users better understand how web search enhances the Copilot response. Coming soon.

Our security capabilities are already being used by customers. Cummins, a 105-year-old company known for its engine manufacturing and development of clean energy technologies, turned to Microsoft Purview to strengthen their data security and governance by automating the classification, tagging and labeling of data. EPAM Systems, a software engineering and business consulting company, deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot for 300 users because of the data protection they get from Microsoft. J.T. Sodano, Senior Director of IT, shared that “we were a lot more confident with Copilot for Microsoft 365, compared to other large language models (LLMs), because we know that the same information and data protection policies that we’ve configured in Microsoft Purview apply to Copilot.”

Safety. Inclusive of both security and privacy, Microsoft’s broader Responsible AI principles, established in 2018, continue to guide how we build and deploy AI safely across the company. In practice this means properly building, testing and monitoring systems to avoid undesirable behaviors, such as harmful content, bias, misuse and other unintended risks. Over the years, we have made significant investments in building out the necessary governance structure, policies, tools and processes to uphold these principles and build and deploy AI safely. At Microsoft, we are committed to sharing our learnings on this journey of upholding our Responsible AI principles with our customers. We use our own best practices and learnings to provide people and organizations with capabilities and tools to build AI applications that share the same high standards we strive for.

Today, we are sharing new capabilities to help customers pursue the benefits of AI while mitigating the risks:

A Correction capability in Microsoft Azure AI Content Safety’s Groundedness detection feature that helps fix hallucination issues in real time before users see them.
Embedded Content Safety, which allows customers to embed Azure AI Content Safety on devices. This is important for on-device scenarios where cloud connectivity might be intermittent or unavailable.
New evaluations in Azure AI Studio to help customers assess the quality and relevancy of outputs and how often their AI application outputs protected material.
Protected Material Detection for Code is now in preview in Azure AI Content Safety to help detect pre-existing content and code. This feature helps developers explore public source code in GitHub repositories, fostering collaboration and transparency, while enabling more informed coding decisions.

It’s amazing to see how customers across industries are already using Microsoft solutions to build more secure and trustworthy AI applications. For example, Unity, a platform for 3D games, used Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to build Muse Chat, an AI assistant that makes game development easier. Muse Chat uses content-filtering models in Azure AI Content Safety to ensure responsible use of the software. Additionally, ASOS, a UK-based fashion retailer with nearly 900 brand partners, used the same built-in content filters in Azure AI Content Safety to support top-quality interactions through an AI app that helps customers find new looks.

We’re seeing the impact in the education space too. New York City Public Schools partnered with Microsoft to develop a chat system that is safe and appropriate for the education context, which they are now piloting in schools. The South Australia Department for Education similarly brought generative AI into the classroom with EdChat, relying on the same infrastructure to ensure safe use for students and teachers.

Privacy. Data is at the foundation of AI, and Microsoft’s priority is to help ensure customer data is protected and compliant through our long-standing privacy principles, which include user control, transparency and legal and regulatory protections. To build on this, today we’re announcing:

Confidential inferencing in preview in our Azure OpenAI Service Whisper model, so customers can develop generative AI applications that support verifiable end-to-end privacy. Confidential inferencing ensures that sensitive customer data remains secure and private during the inferencing process, which is when a trained AI model makes predictions or decisions based on new data. This is especially important for highly regulated industries, such as health care, financial services, retail, manufacturing and energy.
The general availability of Azure Confidential VMs with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs, which allow customers to secure data directly on the GPU. This builds on our confidential computing solutions, which ensure customer data stays encrypted and protected in a secure environment so that no one gains access to the information or system without permission.
Azure OpenAI Data Zones for the EU and U.S. are coming soon and build on the existing data residency provided by Azure OpenAI Service by making it easier to manage the data processing and storage of generative AI applications. This new functionality offers customers the flexibility of scaling generative AI applications across all Azure regions within a geography, while giving them the control of data processing and storage within the EU or U.S.

We’ve seen increasing customer interest in confidential computing and excitement for confidential GPUs, including from application security provider F5, which is using Azure Confidential VMs with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs to build advanced AI-powered security solutions, while ensuring confidentiality of the data its models are analyzing. And multinational banking corporation Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has integrated Azure confidential computing into their own platform to analyze encrypted data while preserving customer privacy. With the general availability of Azure Confidential VMs with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs, RBC can now use these advanced AI tools to work more efficiently and develop more powerful AI models.

Achieve more with Trustworthy AI 

We all need and expect AI we can trust. We’ve seen what’s possible when people are empowered to use AI in a trusted way, from enriching employee experiences and reshaping business processes to reinventing customer engagement and reimagining our everyday lives. With new capabilities that improve security, safety and privacy, we continue to enable customers to use and build trustworthy AI solutions that help every person and organization on the planet achieve more. Ultimately, Trustworthy AI encompasses all that we do at Microsoft and it’s essential to our mission as we work to expand opportunity, earn trust, protect fundamental rights and advance sustainability across everything we do.

Related:

Commitments

Security: Secure Future Initiative  
Privacy: Trust Center 
Safety: Responsible AI Principles

Capabilities

Security: Security for AI
Privacy: Azure Confidential Computing
Safety: Azure AI Content Safety

The post Microsoft Trustworthy AI: Unlocking human potential starts with trust appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog.

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The post Microsoft Trustworthy AI: Unlocking human potential starts with trust appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog.Read More

I have very large list of hyperlinks in a column to call up music or video files. Is there formula that will let me know which of the links cannot find the file for whatever reason. I don’t need the reason why, I just want to know which ones do not work. 

I have enclosed an image below to help demonstrate. 

The names of the files are in col. A

The directory in B

The Hyperlinks are in col D. =HYPERLINK(B1,A1)

​I have very large list of hyperlinks in a column to call up music or video files. Is there formula that will let me know which of the links cannot find the file for whatever reason. I don’t need the reason why, I just want to know which ones do not work.  I have enclosed an image below to help demonstrate. The names of the files are in col. AThe directory in BThe Hyperlinks are in col D. =HYPERLINK(B1,A1)   Read More

​

Everyone should be aware and watch out for these very believable spoofs coming from email address removed for privacy reasons.

If you have Threat Explorer (Defender Portal > Email & Collaboration > Explorer) or Advanced Hunting (EmailEvents table) available, you can find these messages by looking for these criteria:

– Sender From Address: email address removed for privacy reasons

– Sender MailFrom Domain: Not equal to Microsoft.com

If you’re getting these, you’ll notice the MailFrom domain is any ever-changing long list of rogue tenants (e.g., <rogueTenant123>.onmicrosoft.com).  The MailFrom address will be starting with bounces, like this “bounces+srs=<12345567890abcxyz>@<rogueTenant123>.onmicrosoft.com”, letting us see that these bad actors are using an on-premises Exchange server, SMTP receive Connector and then a Send Connector up and out via EXO/EOP.

These things pass SPF, DKIM, and DMARC and so only get detected via General/Advanced filter and/or Fingerprint Matching (which only means loose match, there’s no specific fingerprint/ID involved).

The subject seems to always be “Your Microsoft order on September 23, 2024”, and will be for the current date.

Some people have raised this on Reddit, for example: email address removed for privacy reasons – Suspicious email : r/DefenderATP (reddit.com)

I’ve been working with MS Support to try and get this addressed.  We’re seeing a lot of these, and so far it’s be many many different rogue tenants, so it seems like the bad actors are working overtime and successfully standing up tenant after tenant to get these things out successfully.

​Everyone should be aware and watch out for these very believable spoofs coming from email address removed for privacy reasons.If you have Threat Explorer (Defender Portal > Email & Collaboration > Explorer) or Advanced Hunting (EmailEvents table) available, you can find these messages by looking for these criteria:- Sender From Address: email address removed for privacy reasons- Sender MailFrom Domain: Not equal to Microsoft.com If you’re getting these, you’ll notice the MailFrom domain is any ever-changing long list of rogue tenants (e.g., <rogueTenant123>.onmicrosoft.com).  The MailFrom address will be starting with bounces, like this “bounces+srs=<12345567890abcxyz>@<rogueTenant123>.onmicrosoft.com”, letting us see that these bad actors are using an on-premises Exchange server, SMTP receive Connector and then a Send Connector up and out via EXO/EOP. These things pass SPF, DKIM, and DMARC and so only get detected via General/Advanced filter and/or Fingerprint Matching (which only means loose match, there’s no specific fingerprint/ID involved). The subject seems to always be “Your Microsoft order on September 23, 2024”, and will be for the current date. Some people have raised this on Reddit, for example: email address removed for privacy reasons – Suspicious email : r/DefenderATP (reddit.com) I’ve been working with MS Support to try and get this addressed.  We’re seeing a lot of these, and so far it’s be many many different rogue tenants, so it seems like the bad actors are working overtime and successfully standing up tenant after tenant to get these things out successfully.  Read More

​

Microsoft DART Incident Response (IR) Internships

Blog Series – Part 4 – Patro’s Intern Experience

Facing an active threat

‘Becoming an DART intern is like reaching into a mysterious grab bag. You have no idea what you’re going to get—until you get it.’

The Microsoft Intern Experience occurs during the summer at Microsoft. Interns at Microsoft’s Incident Response (IR) customer-facing business, the Detection and Response Team (DART), gain insight into what’s needed to be a cyber incident response investigator – and experience it first-hand with our team of IR threat hunters.

This blog is based on an interview with an intern about their internship experience and written from a first-person perspective.

Patro’s experience as an intern

Microsoft is a global organization and a good place for people who like to be on the move. Patro started his journey in Southern Europe, ended up on the east coast of the US, and studied math and philosophy at a large university. That combination of rigorous proofs and abstract thinking led him to pursue a degree where both have value, a Master of Science in Cybersecurity.

Intern Patro

What did I get myself into? It wasn’t until after the interview process that I understood what the program was all about. I stayed in touch with one of the interviewers, and we talked about the internship and some real-world cyber cases. Then, at the beginning of the program, we met experienced DART investigators and were bombarded with even more real-world cases. Before, named bad actors seemed like urban legends to me – not something I would ever encounter. As part of the program, I’ll confront them in real life.

Real people – Not robots. One big takeaway was that DART investigators are real people. I know that sounds a little strange, but we think of Microsoft as a company with technology, products, services, and lots of AI and ML. It’s easy to forget about the people. We were motivated by their passion for finding and ejecting bad actors.  They take their jobs personally and never lose because they keep working until the incident is resolved. As they say, “A human-guided attack requires a human-guided response.”

Watch and learn. We had opportunities to shadow threat engagements – past and present. DART stepped us through their process if it’s a routine post-incident engagement. But if it’s an active threat, we had a front row seat to the action.

I was surprised that two or three DART investigators could secure a good-sized business very quickly. When it is an active threat, they fly through steps like robots on autopilot. I was amazed by how quickly they can halt threats once engaged. I was intimidated by their knowledge compared to mine. But they reassured me that I’ll be better than they are if I focus on learning all I could about threat hunting and infrastructure. Although there are many tools such as AI that help, experience matters most.

Adrenaline rush. The mock engagements for active threats were intense. There are too many moving parts for one person. The clock is ticking, and multiple activities need to occur simultaneously. Having a team really helps. You can also feel your adrenaline flow when dealing with an active threat inside your customer’s environment. Mock or not, you only have so much time before the threat mutates or moves, and halting it becomes more difficult.

It felt very real. During the mock engagements, we had to find, gather, and examine the artifacts. Microsoft’s AI really helped do that quickly. We needed to find the bad actors, contain them, remove them, and uncover all their activities, including making sure that no other security was compromised. Moreover, we communicated with the mock customer throughout the process and presented our findings to them during a formal meeting. It seemed that the only thing missing was a genuine bad actor.

Hunting the worst of the worst. One day, we were suddenly called in to shadow an engagement. TTPs pointed to a very professional and well-known threat actor. Our team has encountered them before. The group is well known for its social engineering expertise and had recently joined forces with an English-speaking group to help with ransomware – proper use of the English language would allow for better victim targeting and social engineering success. Gaining access to their targeted victim is something the group does very well, and once inside, they act quickly. They are nearly always hand-guided and will exfiltrate data for as long as possible. They’ll add extortion to data theft by encrypting what they can and requesting a ransom.

Traps and triggers. Most people don’t know or forget that Microsoft has extensive threat intelligence and sets traps to help uncover subtle early indicators. The bad actor was discovered by combining the power of Microsoft threat intelligence, traps and high-fidelity detections, and Microsoft AI/ML. As I expected, DART moved quickly and precisely and contained the threat. I was feeling the adrenaline from encountering a well-known cybercriminal group. But it was just another day in the ‘virtual’ office for the IR team.

Attackers hit walls. The interns were able to assist during post-incident threat hunting and forensics. That notorious bad actor made multiple attempts to execute its attack but hit walls. We could see where they tried and were stopped. I learned that if a customer follows simple best practices, which this one did, they have a much better chance of halting a serious bad actor even if they gain access to the network. We also learned that most network breaches start because an unwitting employee surrendered their credentials without knowing it. The first line of defense includes having security-savvy employees.

The internship program gave me an amazing amount of insight into Microsoft and dART. What stood out was the teamwork, the high degree of security built into the Microsoft security stack, and the knowledge, professionalism, and personal commitment of DART. I hope to return to Microsoft after I complete my master’s program.

Return to DART internship blog

​Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More 

Microsoft DART Incident Response (IR) Internships

Blog Series – Part 2- Ataliya’s Intern Experience

Keeping it real-world

‘College isn’t always about starting your career path; sometimes, it’s about exploring what’s possible and finding your passion.’

The Microsoft Intern Experience occurs during the summer at Microsoft. Interns at Microsoft’s Incident Response (IR) customer-facing business, the Detection and Response Team (DART), gain insight into what’s needed to be a cyber incident response investigator – and experience it first-hand with our team of IR threat hunters.

This blog is based on an interview with an intern about their internship experience and written from a first-person perspective.

Ataliya’s experience as an intern

Ataliya didn’t start her journey in Redmond, WA; she began thousands of miles away in Asia. She was awarded an opportunity to study business administration with a focus on IT at a major US university. Ataliya was already a little different, few people explore business and IT at the same time. But not just IT. Ataliya wanted to dive into where all the innovation was happening. As she discovered more about the DART investigator internship, she dove in.

Intern Ataliya

DART surprised me. People look at me and expect I’m a curtain way. I like to surprise them. Before joining the internship, I did my homework, expecting DART to be very corporate. I was surprised. All the people and ex-interns I spoke with were ‘un-corporate.’ Everyone was very human, extremely helpful, and passionate. You could tell they cared about their customers. I wanted to be part of that culture.

Three things struck me about the DART threat hunting and forensics internship experience.

-One was the structure and organization. Nearly everything we did had a purpose. We absorbed a great deal of knowledge quickly because learning and experiences were connected and built on top of each other.

-Two was diversity; we learned different things, worked in various environments, and touched nearly every aspect of the DART threat hunting and forensics process.

-Three was the real-life aspect of the internship. We shadowed real threat hunts and helped resolve mock attacks that were very realistic. We put together presentations about past cyber incidents and had to answer questions from DART investigators posing as frustrated customers. Even our projects would eventually be used in production.

It takes a village. What I like about cybersecurity is that good people are stopping bad actors. It is also constantly changing. Bad actors are innovative, business-minded, organized, and work in teams. The intern experience emphasizes teamwork from day one. It’s the first thing you learn: it takes a team to stop a team of bad actors. You can be in cybersecurity, IR, and digital forensics for your entire life but never learn it all; environments are different, everything constantly changes, and bad actors are continually innovating. It sounds cliche, but it takes a village to stop attacks.

Everyone has a place. You learn a great deal on your own, but you learn even more when you ask an expert. They not only know the answer but know why you’re asking it. Few answers are ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ – there is nearly always a ‘it depends.’ You also learn that you can’t be good at everything. For example, as a team member, my focus was strategies and tactics, which I could hypothesize by looking at the evidence. I enjoyed studying strategies in business school and find them even more fascinating when dissecting a threat or incident – during or after. By experiencing every aspect of a service, like IR, you discover which tasks you like the most.

It is real detective work. Some incident inspection exercises pointed to well-known TTPs (threats, tactics, and procedures), but others were novel. You need to explore many diverse details and artifacts while you build a visual timeline. What makes it more intense is that you are using tools you’re still learning. It is very satisfying when everything starts to come together, but you can’t become discouraged when some new evidence breaks everything and sends you in another direction.

There is time to innovate. DART fosters innovation. Some of my previous internships say they did but didn’t. College students can be very idealistic, that includes me. We think we can do things better, and sometimes we can. But as an intern or new employee, you’re not ready to innovate on day one. That takes time and experience. Having said that, our three projects were real-world projects that required creativity. For example, we built a new dashboard for hunters to use for Microsoft Defender XDR. We decided on the best design and then created the dashboard. The experts evaluated it and provided feedback, and after some iteration by us, it went into production. That was very gratifying.

Finding evidence of a failed attack. A real-life ransomware attempt taught us two important lessons. We were shadowing a threat hunt triggered by our customer. They suspected an attack in progress.

The first lesson demonstrated how much we learned. We assisted our experts in moving through the entire environment, looking for associated actions. We managed to uncover failed attempts to deploy the attack.

The second lesson was to help build a presentation that would put our customers at ease. This incident started with phishing and social engineering as most do. Knowing that would help the customer look at bolstering anti-phishing defenses and perform more employee training.

It’s more than bedside manners. When there is an incident, it is the customer’s worst day. Our first job is to help halt any threat and attack. The second is to communicate with the customer. We learn to be transparent and honest and always have a plan. We learn to put ourselves in the customer’s position. Customers not only need to know the status and our plan, but they also need to know that we will not stop until their worst day – becomes much better.

In the end, the field of incident response threat investigation is challenging. But it is also extremely rewarding because we help stop and investigate bad actors. Now that my internship is ending, I will miss the people I have met and plan to explore more aspects of cybersecurity.

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Microsoft Intern Experience

Blog Series

Microsoft DART Incident Response (IR) Internships

The Microsoft Intern Experience occurs during the summer at Microsoft. Interns at Microsoft’s Incident Response (IR) customer-facing business, the Detection and Response Team (DART), gain insight into what’s needed to be a cyber incident response investigator – and experience it first-hand with our team of IR threat hunters.

We all agree – the threat landscape is not getting better

There are countless statistics about cybercrime. The most alarming is that it continues to be very profitable, rising from $9.22 trillion in 2024 to $13.82 trillion by 2028, which makes it the third-largest global economy. That alone tells us a great deal about the importance of cybersecurity.

Moreover, bad actors are getting better. Once inside, they will multiply, mutate, and move. They also know where to look for an organization’s most valuable assets and act quickly when they find them. Sophisticated threats are often manually operated by an expert. They know how to remain undetected, even during an attack.

Microsoft – We have experts in IR

Microsoft security products, with inherent AI and automation, can detect and disrupt threats before they start and do that with little or no human assistance. But if more support is needed before, during, or after an incident, your first call is to DART. Our team will help remove a bad actor from your environment, build resilience to help halt future threats, and help mend defenses.

Tracing the steps of a bad actor

Bad actors like to hide their tracks so they can come back again and again. An important role on DART is investigating cyberattacks, and making recommendations on how customers can improve their security posture. Once we understand the where, what, and how – we can close the door and keep it closed so bad actors can’t return. We can also compare what we learn to threat intelligence and known TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures). That may lead us to ‘who’ and make it easier to spot them next time.

Becoming an incident investigator on DART

Unraveling cybercrimes is not something that is typically taught in school. You can certainly acquire the basics, but becoming proficient at analyzing logs, security telemetry, and honing investigative skills requires specialized training and real-world experience.

Through the eyes of a DART investigator

In this blog series, we interviewed Microsoft DART interns and based the blogs on their experience. The blogs will provide insight into what each intern encountered, what surprised them, and why they felt that the DART internship was unique.  With this blog series, we hope to convey;

Why become a Microsoft threat hunting investigator
How committed are DART investigators to the success of our interns
What interns gained from all the real-life experiences
How important are interns to the team and Microsoft Incident Response to our customers

(The names of the interns are altered for anonymity.)

Blog Series Part 1

Not What I Expected — By Zena

It started with an attack on a hospital where people I know worked. Being able to help understand, shorten, or stop a cyber incident felt like something I wanted to do. I didn’t expect that investigating past and present threats would be both interesting and intense. (Read the complete blog)

Blog Series Part 2

Keeping It Real — By Ataliya

The DART intern experience is designed to be as real-world as possible. We shadowed actual threat hunts and helped resolve mock attacks that were very realistic. We put together presentations about past cyber incidents and had to answer questions from DART investigators posing as frustrated customers. Our projects will even be used in the actual production environment.  (Read the complete blog)

Blog Series Part 3

Learn – Teach – Lead — By Vadin

The only way to complete everything required was to help one another. Each one of us had things we did well. We were students, teachers, and leaders to each other. Without teamwork, finishing everything, including all the projects, would have been much more difficult. (Read the complete blog)

Blog Series Part 4

Facing an Active Threat — By Patro

Named bad actors seemed like urban legends to me – not something I would ever encounter. Now, I confront them in real life. I was surprised and impressed that two or three DART members could secure a good-sized business very quickly. (Read the complete blog)

Blog Series Part 5

If You Care – This is for You — Bahula

I had an important forensics discovery during one engagement that created a pivotal ‘ah-ha’ moment. I was acknowledged for my work, but more importantly, I learned that a customer’s relief and satisfaction are the most rewarding parts of the job. (Read the complete blog)

Learn more about Microsoft Incident Response

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