Updated PDF and EPUB Files Available for Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell eBook

The Office 365 for IT Pros team is happy to announce the availability of version 17 of the Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell eBook. Updated PDF and EPUB files are available for download from Gumroad.com by subscribers of the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook and by those who bought the PowerShell book separately. Remember, when you subcribe to these books, you’re entitled to receive any updates we release for the edition.

We’re still working on the November 2025 update of the main Office 365 and anticipate that it will be ready for subscribers to download on November 1, 2025.

Final Retirement of AzureAD and AzureADPreview Modules

This month marks the final retirement of the AzureAD and AzureAD Preview modules. Microsoft made the original announcement about the retirement of these and the MSOL module on August 26, 2021. Fifty months and multiple postponements later, Microsoft has eventually managed to cajole, persuade, and force customers to dump the old modules to embrace the Graph. At least, Microsoft wants customers to replace old code with cmdlets from the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK or the Microsoft Entra module. Naturally, Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell is absolutely the best text to consult for anyone who needs to upgrade old scripts. The worked-out code examples are of great help when figuring out cmdlet syntax.

The Entra module is based on the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. It features cmdlets to work with Entra objects like users, groups, and devices with aliases to make the cmdlets work like their AzureAD equivalents, if one exists. I don’t recommend using the Entra module because I think it’s better that administrators and developers understand how to use the full Graph.

Paperbacks at TEC

The TEC 2025 conference was at the start of October. During the event (enjoyable as always), I ordered some copies of the paperback version of Automating Microsoft 365 for PowerShell for delivery to the hotel (Figure 1).

After looking at the Word and PDF versions of the book for months, I wanted to see how the content looked after going through Amazon’s print-on-demand process to verify that people who buy the paperback will be happy. I think they will because the quality surpassed my expectation. It’s definitely not in the same class as the production quality seen in books like the Microsoft Press Inside Out series, but the book is perfectly acceptable.

Point Updates

Those who pay close attention (or who have time to spare) might notice that point releases appear for Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell. For instance, the current release is version 17.2, two point releases from version 17.0. Last month, we issued 16.0 through 16.4.

We issue point releases when we correct minor errors or add some material that’s important and we want readers to benefit from without waiting for a monthly update. Minor errors include grammatical and spelling errors, like an annoying “Get-MgServicePrincipall” discovered in V17.0. Code errors like an incorrect parameter also justify a point release, as does the inclusion of a new example. There’s no point in using electronic publishing if you can’t take advantage of the mechanism to improve the quality and content of the book on an ongoing basis.

Our release cadence poses problems for the paperback version because we obviously can’t update printed books. The books I had delivered to TEC 2025 were version 16.0 and the text printed on those pages will always remain the same. Such is the downside of committing words to print instead of an electronic medium.

Sharing Knowledge

We continue to add content to Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell. It’s become my go-to notebook to capture experiences, hints, and insights acquired by working with different Graph APIs and SDK cmdlets. It’s been quite a journey so far and I anticipate that there’s much more to come. Stay tuned.