Category: Microsoft
Category Archives: Microsoft
Viva Connections Feed Web Part and Video News Link Retirement
The Feed for Viva Connections webpart was a feature that brought personalized content into a user feed, in a single experience. This content included news published in SharePoint, posts in Viva Engage communities, and Stream videos in SharePoint. The Video News Link allowed for Stream videos to appear in the Viva Connections feed. This content was automatically populated in a user’s feed based on the communities and sites they followed.
Our focus is to deliver the most efficient and enjoyable experience for our users, which means phasing out certain features is necessary to streamline and enhance the user experiences across our applications. In our efforts to elevate our platform-we will be retiring the Feed for Viva Connections web part and the Video News Link which we announced in our MC post on August 1st.
Video news link
Starting September 1, 2024, the Feed for Viva Connections web part and the Video news link will no longer be available for SharePoint site editors to add to their sites.
Furthermore, on November 5, 2024, existing instances of the Feed for Viva Connections web parts and Video News Link will no longer display content.
To ensure a smooth transition, site editors and SharePoint admins should update the affected sites with the recommended alternative solutions. Additionally, please update any relevant documentation to reflect these changes.
Explore new alternatives
To continue surfacing feed content on SharePoint sites, the following web parts provide an alternative to the Feed for Viva Connections web part and the Video news link. We encourage you to explore our alternatives to keep employees engaged and informed:
Alternative solution to featuring News posts in SharePoint
News web part– Allows you to display a collection of news posts from various SharePoint sources. – Use the News web part on a SharePoint page – Microsoft Support
Alternative solution for featuring Viva Engage in SharePoint
Viva Engage web parts – Allows you to display the Viva Engage conversations and highlights to SharePoint. Use a Viva Engage web part in SharePoint – Microsoft Support
Alternative solutions for featuring Stream videos in SharePoint and videos hosted on a SharePoint site:
File and media web part – Allows you to feature a single video on a SharePoint page: Featuring a video on a page – Microsoft Stream | Microsoft Learn
Highlighted content web part – Allows you to feature a list of videos on a page: Featuring a set of videos on a page – Microsoft Stream | Microsoft Learn
Video Pages – Allows you to create video centric page content with a page template: Create video pages on SharePoint – Microsoft Support
Resources
We understand the importance of a smooth transition and are dedicated to providing support throughout this change. You can learn more and follow our guide for additional help.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Frequently asked questions about the unified security operations platform
We recently announced the GA of Microsoft Sentinel in the Defender portal, as part of the unified security operations platform. In this blog we offer answers to many of the questions we’ve heard from our customers and partners, which can be used, along with our documentation , to get started with our new experience.
What is a unified security operations platform?
A unified security operations platform brings the tools a security team needs to do their job into a single experience, with a single data model and unified features to increase protection, reduce response time and improve overall efficiency of the security operation center (SOC)
While other security vendors may claim to offer a unified security operations platform, only Microsoft delivers one with a leading SIEM and leading XDR, embedded generative AI and posture management, with robust, underlying threat intelligence all in a single experience.
Why is Microsoft Security well positioned to deliver a unified security operations platform?
Microsoft has been on a mission to empower security operations teams by unifying the many tools essential for protecting a digital estate and delivering them into an effective solution driven by AI and automation.
We’ve already empowered SOC teams to build a powerful defense using the most comprehensive XDR platform on the market, Microsoft Defender XDR, by delivering unified visibility, investigation, response across endpoints, hybrid identities, emails, collaboration tools, cloud apps, and data.
We also help provide unparalleled visibility into the overall threat landscape with our cloud-native SIEM solution, Microsoft Sentinel, to extend coverage to every edge and layer of the digital environment.
These experiences were already natively integrated with bi-directional connectors, giving security operations teams an easy way to benefit from the comprehensiveness and flexibility of the SIEM and the threat driven approach of the XDR.
Now, Microsoft is continuing on this journey, by delivering a more comprehensive offering for security operations that brings SIEM, XDR, exposure management, GenAI and threat intelligence all into a single experience.
Is “unified security operation platform” a new product?
No. Our security operations platform is a single experience we are offering for users of Microsoft Sentinel, Defender XDR, and Copilot for Security in the Defender portal. This doesn’t impact the products we have today. We will continue to invest in Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR, as well as features that stretch across the two of them.
What is GA now (August 2024)?
Microsoft Sentinel in the Defender portal for commercial cloud customers using Microsoft Sentinel and at least one Defender XDR workload is Generally Available. We will support the on-boarding of a single workspace, single tenant at this time. We will continue to expand availability and use cases to address the needs of all customers.
Is Microsoft Sentinel going away?
No, Microsoft Sentinel is not going away. We are delivering a new way to use Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR together to ensure customers get a more valuable and an easier experience. Microsoft Sentinel will continue to exist in Azure as a standalone experience for customers not yet ready to switch to the unified platform. We continue to invest in both Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR, along with features that will stretch across both of them.
Can I still use Microsoft Sentinel in the Azure portal?
Yes, Microsoft Sentinel is still available in the Azure portal.
Does Defender XDR data need to be ingested into Microsoft Sentinel to get insights across the two products in the unified security operations platform?
No. With unification, customers can query and correlate alerts to incidents without the need to ingest XDR data into Microsoft Sentinel. Customers may still ingest data into Microsoft Sentinel if they need extended retention or compliance reasons.
What will be unified between Microsoft Sentinel and Defender?
Our goal is to unify all experiences across the two products in the near future. At the time of GA some of the features unified include (but are not limited to):
Overview page: The overview dashboard will provide insights across all data.
Incident queue: The incident queue will now be unified across all data, giving you a single place to prioritize work.
Incident page: Now, customers will be able to see all information about their incident, from data sources that are brought in through Microsoft Sentinel and those monitored by my Microsoft Defender XDR in one place.
Entities: The user, device and IP entity pages will now combine information from Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR, improving entity and incident investigation.
Advanced hunting: one place will now cover data, queries and functions across your Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR data.
Data model: Now, a normalized and consistent data model across Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR.
Automatic attack disruption on SAP: Attack disruption already exists for accounts that are monitored by Microsoft Defender XDR. Now, customers who have the Microsoft Sentinel Solution for SAP can benefit from enhanced coverage with automated response to stop lateral movement of attackers by using security signals and research to detect the breach and automatically disable an account.
Global search: ability to search across all entities in SIEM and XDR
Out of the box settings: Microsoft Sentinel customers will benefit from more turnkey setting, including analytics ,rules on their log data
We continue to add additional capabilities.
Will the embedded Copilot for Security experience work on my Microsoft Sentinel data if I connect my Microsoft Sentinel workspace to Defender portal?
Yes, Copilot for Security skills that exist in the embedded Defender portal will work on Microsoft Sentinel data if a customer selects to connect their workspace to the unified security operations platform.
What do I need to have to onboard?
To onboard and use Microsoft Sentinel in the Microsoft Defender portal, you must have the following resources and access:
At least one Defender XDR workload deployed and an existing Microsoft Sentinel workspace
A Microsoft Entra tenant that’s allow-listed by Microsoft to connect a workspace through the Defender portal
A Log Analytics workspace that has Microsoft Sentinel enabled
The data connector for Microsoft Defender XDR (formerly named Microsoft 365 Defender) enabled in Microsoft Sentinel for incidents and alerts
Microsoft Defender XDR onboarded to the Microsoft Entra tenant
An Azure account with the appropriate roles to onboard and use Microsoft Sentinel in the Defender portal. The following table highlights some of the key roles needed.
We will be expanding eligibility and support for customers requiring multi-tenancy, multi-workspace, Government Cloud and Microsoft Sentinel only in the coming months.
Does anything change for the Microsoft Defender XDR experience?
No – customers using Microsoft Defender XDR will continue to use it in the Defender portal as they do today.
Just as customers can’t access features for XDR workloads that aren’t yet deployed, this will be the same for customers who do not have Microsoft Sentinel onboarded.
Can customers switch the Microsoft Sentinel experience back and forth between the Defender and Azure portal?
Yes, Microsoft Sentinel will continue to exist as a standalone experience, so customers will be able to switch back and forth between the two portals if needed.
Some experiences in the Defender portal will link back to the Azure portal when necessary.
Will any settings be changed?
Customers who use the Microsoft Defender XDR connector today will not need to make changes.
Those not yet using the connector will need to turn it on to benefit from the new unified platform. Learn more about the connector here.
Analytics rules, automation rules and playbooks will continue to work exactly as they are without any changes.
What is the benefit of a unified incident queue alert correlation?
We’ve seen up to 80% (based on internal Microsoft research) reduction of Microsoft Sentinel incidents for early customers as out-of-the-box rules available in the unified platform help to ensure better correlation, reducing the noise that security teams often struggle with.
With the new unified incident experience, context-rich incidents are generated, modeling attacker behavior across all available signals available in Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender XDR and Microsoft Defender for Cloud. This will allow us to describe attacks across the entire digital estate more accurately and fully, including cloud, on-prem and custom applications.
What is the benefit of a unified hunting experience?
With the unified hunting experience customers have a single place to explore all data available, for hunting and investigation purposes, a user can:
Query all data from the Sentinel workspace and Microsoft Defender XDR
Access all Logs content of the workspace, including queries and functions.
Is pricing changing? Are the benefits changing?
Business models for Microsoft Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel are not changing.
Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR will continue to be sold as separate products.
The E5 benefit continues to be in place for customers ingesting Microsoft Defender XDR data into Microsoft Sentinel, which is useful for extended retention and compliance.
How do I extend retention of Defender XDR data past 30 days?
There are no changes to the way we charge for extended data retention for XDR – we continue to recommend customers ingest their data into Microsoft Sentinel if it needs to be retained past 90 days.
E5, A5, F5, and G5 customers may be eligible for a data ingestion benefit (See the Microsoft Sentinel benefit offer page for details.)
Customers not eligible for the Microsoft Sentinel benefit (those without E5, A5, F5 or G5 licenses), but who choose to extend Microsoft Defender XDR data retention with Microsoft Sentinel beyond the default 30 days will incur standard Microsoft Sentinel ingestion and retention charges.
See the Microsoft Sentinel pricing page for details.
Will Microsoft Sentinel APIs continue to work?
Yes- all Microsoft Sentinel APIs will continue to work. There are no changes needed.
Will customers need to rearchitect their Microsoft Sentinel workspace in the unified portal?
No – we have made it easy to connect your Microsoft Sentinel workspace into the defender portal with minimal impact to your existing set up.
Can I still access Microsoft Sentinel instance in the Azure portal?
Yes, you can still use your Microsoft Sentinel experience in the Azure portal.
Are there any capabilities that customers will need the Microsoft Sentinel in Azure portal for today?
Customers will be able to manage their operations on the unified security operations platform. In certain instances, Microsoft Sentinel scenarios within the Defender portal may necessitate the execution of actions in Azure. Actions would be initiated in the Defender portal, but may open a new browser tab, directing them to the Azure portal to complete the required tasks.
Will I be forced to move to the unified security operations platform?
We understand not all customers are ready to use the new experience at this time. You will still be able to access your Microsoft Sentinel in the Azure portal, even if you have connected the two products.
We do recommend that customers product try out the new experience, which has been built to optimize the way they protect their organizations with streamlined workflows and additional features.
What is the process for onboarding a Microsoft Sentinel workspace into the Defender portal?
Customers shouldn’t hold off on setting up their Microsoft Sentinel workspace until they have access. They will still need to architect their workspace in the Azure portal, and it will be very easy for them to move it into the Defender portal.
As an eligible customer entering the Defender portal, there will be a prompt in the top banner to start the onboarding journey by bringing in a Microsoft Sentinel workspace.
This will bring customers through a wizard to start the onboarding process:
Customers will select their primary Microsoft Sentinel workspace to onboard.
Initiating the connection will trigger a series of actions.
The wizard will provide a description of all changes that will take place after unifying the portal.
In Microsoft Sentinel today, incidents are created through rules or integrations defined by the customer. This changes in the unified platform, which automatically creates context-rich incidents across MS and non-MS products. To exclude certain incidents or alerts from your queue, you will need to filter out what you want using Alert Tuning, which has been enhanced to support more granularity.
Learn more:
Unified platform documentation: https://aka.ms/onboard-microsoft-sentinel, https://aka.ms/microsoft-sentinel-defender-portal
Mechanics video: Microsoft Defender XDR, Copilot for Security & Microsoft Sentinel now in one portal – YouTube
Set up the Defender XDR connector: Aka.ms/onboard-microsoft-sentinel
SIEM and XDR Solutions | Microsoft Security
Microsoft Sentinel pricing Microsoft Sentinel Pricing | Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Best practice when UPN and email address are different but both routable?
Our on-premise AD is a multi-domain forest with different business units in separate child domains. Each child domain uses a UPN of the form username[at]unitX.onpremad.com and we’ve validated all these in the cloud. However, all users have email addresses like fullname[at]emaildomain.com, that domain is also validated with Entra AD. Users frequently join teams in a different business unit so their AD account is migrated across domains and their UPN changes at that time, but their email address stays the same.
I’ve read through a lot of documentation on how the best practice is for the UPN and email to be the same for O365, but that you could have them be different using alternate ID support. But when they are different, apparently there are a number of little “gotchas” in terms of application support. So, before we sync our on-prem AD, I’m trying to understand which scenario will be the best supported over the long term with the least headaches to both users and IT.
Changing the on-prem UPN to match the email address isn’t possible due to a critical LOB app that expects the UPN suffix to break down into username and business unit domain name. So, would it best to:
Sync users with their on-prem UPN as their cloud UPN. This seems easiest to configure, but the documentation seems to imply there’s a lot of manual fixing up when the UPN changes and possibly application compatibility issues since the UPN and email are different.Sync the primary email address as the cloud UPN. Looks to require custom configuration. Has the advantage that UPN and email match and the email address rarely changes. However, I’m unclear if this is supported since we’d still have some accounts (primarily administrators) without a mailbox and so no mail or proxyAddresses fields filed in. Unclear if there are any other “gotchas” to watch out for since this is a non-standard configuration.
Thanks for any advice you can provide.
Our on-premise AD is a multi-domain forest with different business units in separate child domains. Each child domain uses a UPN of the form username[at]unitX.onpremad.com and we’ve validated all these in the cloud. However, all users have email addresses like fullname[at]emaildomain.com, that domain is also validated with Entra AD. Users frequently join teams in a different business unit so their AD account is migrated across domains and their UPN changes at that time, but their email address stays the same. I’ve read through a lot of documentation on how the best practice is for the UPN and email to be the same for O365, but that you could have them be different using alternate ID support. But when they are different, apparently there are a number of little “gotchas” in terms of application support. So, before we sync our on-prem AD, I’m trying to understand which scenario will be the best supported over the long term with the least headaches to both users and IT. Changing the on-prem UPN to match the email address isn’t possible due to a critical LOB app that expects the UPN suffix to break down into username and business unit domain name. So, would it best to:Sync users with their on-prem UPN as their cloud UPN. This seems easiest to configure, but the documentation seems to imply there’s a lot of manual fixing up when the UPN changes and possibly application compatibility issues since the UPN and email are different.Sync the primary email address as the cloud UPN. Looks to require custom configuration. Has the advantage that UPN and email match and the email address rarely changes. However, I’m unclear if this is supported since we’d still have some accounts (primarily administrators) without a mailbox and so no mail or proxyAddresses fields filed in. Unclear if there are any other “gotchas” to watch out for since this is a non-standard configuration.Thanks for any advice you can provide. Read More
Create neat lines and shapes with ink in Word for Windows
Hi, Microsoft 365 Insiders,
Exciting update for Word for Windows users! :party_popper: We’ve brought the Draw & Hold gesture over from OneNote, and now it’s available in Word! With this feature you can easily use ink to create straight lines and neat shapes, including (new!) hearts and stars, anywhere in your document. Perfect for adding a touch of creativity to your work.
Learn how to use this feature in our latest blog by Victoria Chen, PM on the Office AI team.
Thanks!
Perry Sjogren
Microsoft 365 Insider Community Manager
Become a Microsoft 365 Insider and gain exclusive access to new features and help shape the future of Microsoft 365. Join Now: Windows | Mac | iOS | Android
Hi, Microsoft 365 Insiders,
Exciting update for Word for Windows users! :party_popper: We’ve brought the Draw & Hold gesture over from OneNote, and now it’s available in Word! With this feature you can easily use ink to create straight lines and neat shapes, including (new!) hearts and stars, anywhere in your document. Perfect for adding a touch of creativity to your work.
Learn how to use this feature in our latest blog by Victoria Chen, PM on the Office AI team.
Thanks!
Perry Sjogren
Microsoft 365 Insider Community Manager
Become a Microsoft 365 Insider and gain exclusive access to new features and help shape the future of Microsoft 365. Join Now: Windows | Mac | iOS | Android Read More
SharePoint links stop working for external Users
SharePoint Shared Document or Directory links stop working for external Users. Happens with several internal team members sharing links with external users. There are no expirations on the links and all settings appears to be set correctly. The links will initially work fine for users, but they seem to stop within 24 hrs. Sometimes they will start working a day later. And it doesn’t matter what folder or file is shared.
No one seems to be able to figure out what could be going on with this. This has been consistently happening over the last few months. Microsoft Support has not found an answer either.
Has anyone seen this before? Any suggestions? We are pulling out hair out on this one.
SharePoint Shared Document or Directory links stop working for external Users. Happens with several internal team members sharing links with external users. There are no expirations on the links and all settings appears to be set correctly. The links will initially work fine for users, but they seem to stop within 24 hrs. Sometimes they will start working a day later. And it doesn’t matter what folder or file is shared. No one seems to be able to figure out what could be going on with this. This has been consistently happening over the last few months. Microsoft Support has not found an answer either. Has anyone seen this before? Any suggestions? We are pulling out hair out on this one. Read More
Getting firstrow value from Lookup in ADF
I have a lookup that returns the following in ADF:
{
“firstRow”: {
“”: 1044624
},
“effectiveIntegrationRuntime”: “AutoResolveIntegrationRuntime (East US)”,
“durationInQueue”: {
“integrationRuntimeQueue”: 0
}
}
In my pipeline, I’m trying to do a Set Variable and return the value of 1044624 but I can’t seem to retrieve it. I’m getting the string value of “@activity(‘Lookup1’).output.firstRow[”]”
Using the output above, what do I put in for the value of the Set Variable in the pipeline that occurs directly after the Lookup?
I have a lookup that returns the following in ADF:{“firstRow”: {“”: 1044624},”effectiveIntegrationRuntime”: “AutoResolveIntegrationRuntime (East US)”,”durationInQueue”: {“integrationRuntimeQueue”: 0}} In my pipeline, I’m trying to do a Set Variable and return the value of 1044624 but I can’t seem to retrieve it. I’m getting the string value of “@activity(‘Lookup1’).output.firstRow[”]” Using the output above, what do I put in for the value of the Set Variable in the pipeline that occurs directly after the Lookup? Read More
Example of a business using Copilot for Microsoft 365
Discover how PKSHA benefits from using Copilot for Microsoft 365 across their teams, including customer success. This team manages dozens of weekly client calls and uses Copilot for call preparation, note-taking, and meeting recaps. One employee reported spending 3-4 hours analyzing data to prepare for a single customer call, and now can do that same work in under an hour. With the time she saves, she’s now able to be more proactive with her customers and deliver a higher quality of service.
Is anyone else using Copilot to save time and provide faster customer service? Share your use cases in the comments, we are always looking for small and medium businesses to highlight through these stories!
Discover how PKSHA benefits from using Copilot for Microsoft 365 across their teams, including customer success. This team manages dozens of weekly client calls and uses Copilot for call preparation, note-taking, and meeting recaps. One employee reported spending 3-4 hours analyzing data to prepare for a single customer call, and now can do that same work in under an hour. With the time she saves, she’s now able to be more proactive with her customers and deliver a higher quality of service.
Is anyone else using Copilot to save time and provide faster customer service? Share your use cases in the comments, we are always looking for small and medium businesses to highlight through these stories! Read More
Top Stories: August 6, 2024
Check out these stories and stay up to date.
French, Spanish, and Portuguese available from the “Language” drop down on the main menu bar.
Check out these stories and stay up to date.
French, Spanish, and Portuguese available from the “Language” drop down on the main menu bar. Read More
Get Device Inventory list using graph/powershell/cli
Hello,
I am currently in the process of onboarding a set of Windows and Linux servers into Defender for Servers.
I am trying to figure out how I can pull the Device Inventory list located under Microsoft Defender -> Assets -> Device Inventory programmatically.
I tried Get-MgDeviceManagementManagedDevice but this only returns the devices in Intune which does not include the servers.
Thanks
Hello,I am currently in the process of onboarding a set of Windows and Linux servers into Defender for Servers. I am trying to figure out how I can pull the Device Inventory list located under Microsoft Defender -> Assets -> Device Inventory programmatically.I tried Get-MgDeviceManagementManagedDevice but this only returns the devices in Intune which does not include the servers.Thanks Read More
if formula from another sheet?
i need to pull information from a cell on another sheet (sheet 2) onto sheet 1 based on criteria from another range of cells on sheet 2. i tried to do an if formula but i couldn’t quite figure it out.
i need to pull information from a cell on another sheet (sheet 2) onto sheet 1 based on criteria from another range of cells on sheet 2. i tried to do an if formula but i couldn’t quite figure it out. Read More
New Outlook – Moving a Folder between other folders
Hi all. I am new and apologize if this has been asked (I looked but could not find this issue exactly). I just switched to New Outlook and it appears that I can’t manually rearrange subfolders within a parent folder. When I click-drag, I only see the visual feedback for moving it INTO another folder. In Old Outlook, I could see visual feedback of a line BETWEEN other folders as well, and I could drop it on the line to effectively change the sort order manually. Am I missing something?
Hi all. I am new and apologize if this has been asked (I looked but could not find this issue exactly). I just switched to New Outlook and it appears that I can’t manually rearrange subfolders within a parent folder. When I click-drag, I only see the visual feedback for moving it INTO another folder. In Old Outlook, I could see visual feedback of a line BETWEEN other folders as well, and I could drop it on the line to effectively change the sort order manually. Am I missing something? Read More
New Blog | Microsoft Defender for Cloud – Monthly News – August 2024
By Yura Lee
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Monthly news
August 2024 Edition
This is our monthly “What’s new” blog post, summarizing product updates and various new assets we released over the past month. In this edition, we are looking at all the goodness from July 2024.
Read the full post here: Microsoft Defender for Cloud – Monthly News – August 2024
By Yura Lee
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Monthly news
August 2024 Edition
This is our monthly “What’s new” blog post, summarizing product updates and various new assets we released over the past month. In this edition, we are looking at all the goodness from July 2024.
Read the full post here: Microsoft Defender for Cloud – Monthly News – August 2024 Read More
Scheduled news page showing in Teams before being published in SharePoint
We are finding that our scheduled news posts in SharePoint online are appearing in Viva Connections before the publish date/time in SharePoint. Is there a way to prevent this early posting?
We are finding that our scheduled news posts in SharePoint online are appearing in Viva Connections before the publish date/time in SharePoint. Is there a way to prevent this early posting? Read More
Help with sorting data!
I have customer last name in column A, first name in column b. But then I have all the accounts numbers associated with each name going horizontally across all the way to some column BG. How can bring the account numbers under each associated name?
Example
Smith John 12344 12355 12556 12666 12777
Doe Jane. 12345 12345 12345
What I want –
Smith John
12344
12355
12556
12666
12777
Doe Jane
12345
12345
12345
I have customer last name in column A, first name in column b. But then I have all the accounts numbers associated with each name going horizontally across all the way to some column BG. How can bring the account numbers under each associated name? ExampleSmith John 12344 12355 12556 12666 12777Doe Jane. 12345 12345 12345 What I want -Smith John 1234412355125561266612777Doe Jane123451234512345 Read More
Unlocking the Power of AI: The Art and Science of Prompt Engineering
As we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), one skill has emerged as a critical component in harnessing the true potential of AI systems: Prompt Engineering. Generative AI, powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) series, has revolutionized the way we create content—be it text, images, audio, or even code. At the heart of this transformation lies the art of crafting and optimizing prompts to elicit consistent and high-quality responses from these models.
What is Prompt Engineering?
Prompt Engineering is the process of designing and refining text inputs (prompts) to achieve specific application objectives with AI models. Think of it as a two-step journey:
Designing the Initial Prompt: Creating the initial input for the model to achieve the desired result.
Refining the Prompt: Continuously adjusting the prompt to enhance the quality of the responses.
Why is Prompt Engineering Important?
To understand the significance of Prompt Engineering, we need to delve into three key concepts:
Tokenization: The method by which the model perceives the prompt.
Base LLMs: The process through which the foundational model handles the prompt.
Instruction-Tuned LLMs: The way the model understands and executes tasks.
Key Reasons for the Importance of Prompt Engineering
Stochastic Nature of Model Responses: AI responses are inherently variable. The same prompt can produce different outcomes depending on the model or even at different times with the same model. Effective prompt engineering can reduce these variations by establishing more precise guidelines.
Mitigating Fabrications: Since models are trained on large yet finite datasets, they can sometimes generate inaccurate or fictitious responses. Prompt engineering techniques can help detect and address these fabrications by, for instance, requesting citations or reasoning from the AI.
Adapting to Model Capabilities: Newer models offer enhanced capabilities but also come with unique quirks and trade-offs in terms of cost and complexity. Prompt engineering helps create best practices that accommodate these model-specific characteristics, ensuring a scalable and efficient workflow.
Elements of a Prompt
A well-crafted prompt comprises several elements:
Context: Background information that sets the stage for the task.
Instructions: Clear directives guiding the AI on what to do.
Exemplary Input: Examples that illustrate the task.
Primary Content: The main input data for which a response is sought.
Output Indicator: Signals indicating the desired output format.
Each element plays a vital role in guiding the AI system to perform specific tasks, such as providing a sentiment analysis for an input sentence.
Techniques in Prompt Engineering
Prompt Engineering employs a variety of techniques, each suited to different scenarios:
Zero-Shot Learning: The model generates responses without specific examples, relying solely on pre-training data. This is useful when labeled data is impractical or unavailable.
Few-Shot Learning: Providing the model with a few examples to help it understand and perform a specific task. This is beneficial when limited data is available or quick adaptation to new tasks is needed.
System Messages and Roles: Pre-set instructions that guide the AI’s responses, ensuring consistency and alignment with user goals. Assigning specific roles to the AI allows it to simulate different personas and provide contextually relevant responses.
Conclusion
Prompt Engineering is a rapidly evolving field within AI that offers innovative ways to interact with AI systems. It represents a significant advancement in our ability to harness the power of AI, providing us with tools to achieve more accurate, reliable, and contextually appropriate responses. As we continue to explore and refine the techniques of Prompt Engineering, we are not only enhancing the capabilities of AI systems but also paving the way for more seamless human-AI collaboration.
The importance of Prompt Engineering cannot be overstated. It helps mitigate the inherent variability and potential inaccuracies in AI responses, ensures adaptability across different model capabilities, and unlocks new applications and use cases. By mastering this skill, we move closer to realizing the full potential of AI, making it an indispensable part of our technological future.
So, whether you’re an AI researcher, a developer, or simply an enthusiast, delving into the intricacies of Prompt Engineering is a worthwhile endeavor. It’s a testament to the incredible progress we’ve made in AI research and a glimpse into the exciting future that lies ahead. As we continue to refine our understanding and techniques, the possibilities are boundless, and the journey is just beginning.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Partner Blog | Access the latest Microsoft Cloud and AI innovation with evolved partner benefits
Staying at the forefront of technology innovation is essential for our partners, and we’re here to ensure you have the tools and support to do just that. As part of this ongoing commitment, we are evolving the benefits packages offered through the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program.
Last January, we launched three new distinct benefits packages: Partner Launch Benefits, Partner Success Core Benefits, and Partner Success Expanded Benefits. These packages are purpose-built to meet the varied needs of our partners at different stages of growth and are designed to help take your business to the next level. They complement Solutions Partner and ISV Success core and expanded benefits already available for partners. More details on what is included in these benefits packages is available on the partner website, including total retail value of the packages: Partner Launch Benefits (USD13,000+), Partner Success Core Benefits (USD62,000+), and Partner Success Expanded Benefits (USD390,000+).
Now, I’m thrilled to announce that starting January 22, 2025, we are adding over 20 in-demand product licenses to our benefits packages. This includes game-changing Microsoft Copilot products, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and Microsoft GitHub.
Don’t miss out—access select partner benefits packages, Solutions Partner designations, or specializations today to be among the first to enjoy these new benefits as soon as they launch in January 2025.
Continue reading here
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Outlook synchronazation problem
I have a synchronazationproblem in classic outlook. In the conflicsfolder i get al lot of messages concerning one and the same problem over and over again.
The email is as follows in Dutch:
Deleting this email doesn’t solve the problem. As mentioned it keeps coming back. Any suggestions how to solve this problem are very welcome.
Regards,
Johan van den Born
I have a synchronazationproblem in classic outlook. In the conflicsfolder i get al lot of messages concerning one and the same problem over and over again.The email is as follows in Dutch: Deleting this email doesn’t solve the problem. As mentioned it keeps coming back. Any suggestions how to solve this problem are very welcome.Regards,Johan van den Born Read More
Deprecation of SQL Trace and SQL Server Profiler?
I saw this on LinkedIn. Is it true and where can we get more info? Gracias
SQL Trace and SQL Server Profiler are deprecated. The Trace namespace that contains the Microsoft SQL Server Trace and Replay objects are also deprecated.”
We’ve all seen the warning above. Use Extended Events instead.
Profiler and SQL Server Trace are hard tools to replace. Especially when you’ve been using them for years. And learned how to use them well enough to not bring down a production server in the middle of the day.
I saw this on LinkedIn. Is it true and where can we get more info? Gracias SQL Trace and SQL Server Profiler are deprecated. The Trace namespace that contains the Microsoft SQL Server Trace and Replay objects are also deprecated.”We’ve all seen the warning above. Use Extended Events instead.Profiler and SQL Server Trace are hard tools to replace. Especially when you’ve been using them for years. And learned how to use them well enough to not bring down a production server in the middle of the day. Read More
CloudCasa for Azure Arc
Azure Arc is a platform that helps users build and develop their applications by extending Azure to their datacenters, edge, or even to multicloud environments. It helps simplify the governance and management experience by delivering the consistency of Azure platform. For the Azure Arc platform, we decided to launch a new ISV program that will enable our partners to validate their applications. We are currently in the process of engaging with more partners to validate their solutions so that we can publish this on the marketplace for Arc enabled Kubernetes. Catalogic has released their first marketplace item for Azure Arc that is available today!
CloudCasa is a Kubernetes backup, recovery, disaster recovery, and migration service for development and production environments whether on-premise, in the cloud or at the edge. CloudCasa is a strong and simple Kubernetes backup-as-a-service solution that integrates with Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure Blob Storage. This has been validated and published to . The latest version adds new migration and replication workflows to simplify key Kubernetes use cases such as migrating on-premises clusters to cloud. This includes all Kubernetes distributions and managed services including EKS, GKE, and Red Hat OpenShift. The premium service plans allow you to back up your persistent volumes to your own object storage, including Azure Blob Storage.
To try out CloudCasa, please follow the instructions posted here: Microsoft Azure Marketplace. This instruction set will share how to create your extension on Azure Arc to perform the backup of your cluster. As we look to continue to expand our ISV validation program, be on the lookout for more blogs on the new ISVs that are being published to the Azure Arc marketplace.
Thank you!
Siddique Juman
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Partner Case Study Series | Spotii
Payment platform and Microsoft services bolster retail in the Middle East
Azure services enable sentiment analysis, monitoring insights, and more
Based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Spotii empowers the GCC retail community with its focus on technology, trust, and inclusion. Spotii joined the Microsoft ecosystem through the Microsoft for Startups program in February, and since going live to the public in April, more than 100 merchants, ranging from small and medium-sized businesses to enterprises, have committed to Spotii’s service. Spotii’s plugin, available on Microsoft AppSource, easily integrates into Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, and other e-commerce platforms.
Additionally, Spotii’s development team can support custom integrations as well as in-store functionality.
Spotii uses Azure Kubernetes Service to host its web and data apps. Its web app depends on Azure Database for PostgreSQL to store its data. Azure Monitor Log Analytics allows Spotii to monitor its apps. Helpful insights, such as tracing error messages in the log, are provided by Azure Kubernetes Service. Spotii uses the optical character recognition capabilities of Azure Cognitive Services to extract user information from a submitted ID image. Text analytics and sentiment analysis are Azure Cognitive Services tools that Spotii uses to evaluate customer feedback when scraping Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, or other social media sites.
Continue reading here
**Explore all case studies or submit your own**
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
