Tag Archives: microsoft
Group Sub-Task by Parent and then by Bucket Option
I’d like to display sub-tasks under the parent task in Grid view, similar to how the old Planner in Grid view displayed checklists. Is this functionality possible?
If this feature could be added, it would allow us to discontinue using Asana.
I’d like to display sub-tasks under the parent task in Grid view, similar to how the old Planner in Grid view displayed checklists. Is this functionality possible? If this feature could be added, it would allow us to discontinue using Asana. Read More
VSTACK and SORT
I have a spreadsheet with many (27) sheets where all the columns in each sheet are the same. I have created a dashboard using VSTACK to show all the data from all the sheets on a single page.
=VSTACK(Table1, Table2, Table3….Table27). Column G on the dashboard lists dues dates, and I would like to be able to sort the entire dashboard by column G.
The end result should be a dashboard that shows all the data from all the sheets and lists the rows in chronological order according to column G. I have tried to add a SORT function in front of the VSTACK with no luck (produces a #VALUE! error).
I have a spreadsheet with many (27) sheets where all the columns in each sheet are the same. I have created a dashboard using VSTACK to show all the data from all the sheets on a single page.=VSTACK(Table1, Table2, Table3….Table27). Column G on the dashboard lists dues dates, and I would like to be able to sort the entire dashboard by column G. The end result should be a dashboard that shows all the data from all the sheets and lists the rows in chronological order according to column G. I have tried to add a SORT function in front of the VSTACK with no luck (produces a #VALUE! error). Read More
Partner Blog | Thriving together: the power of Microsoft partner communities
In the dynamic and rapidly evolving world of technology, collaboration and community are vital to driving innovation. Working together and connecting with like-minded individuals and organizations unlocks immense growth potential. Microsoft partners enjoy a unique advantage through dedicated associations and networks that offer essential support, resources, and unparalleled networking opportunities. These partner-led organizations are more than just groups—they are vital catalysts for business enhancement, technological advancement, and collective success.
This blog will highlight the Microsoft Partner Community and several organizations empowering partners to achieve their business goals. These resources are pivotal in helping partners navigate the complexities of the tech landscape, drive innovation, and achieve sustainable growth. We are excited to showcase the outstanding work within the broader Microsoft partner ecosystem, which includes various companies dedicated to supporting and enhancing partner success.
The heart of Microsoft: Partner Community
Imagine entering a vibrant, virtual space buzzing with conversations, ideas, and collaborations. This is the Microsoft Partner Community, an online platform within the Microsoft Tech Community. Here, partners from around the world connect, collaborate, and share insights with peers and Microsoft experts.
With dynamic discussion forums, informative blogs, exclusive events, and a wealth of resources, this community is designed to help partners stay ahead of the curve and be informed about the latest Microsoft technologies, partner programs, and best practices. It is where networking and knowledge sharing fuel business growth and capability enhancement.
Popular discussion boards and blogs
The Marketplace discussion board serves as a tool to optimize your marketplace potential. Utilize it for content and events geared towards marketplace enhancement, join in discussions with peers and Microsoft, and share your marketplace feedback.
Join our Training Services Partner/Learning Partner discussion board to access the most current updates on programs, instructional materials, certifications, and news related to instructor-led training for partners focused on teaching technical Microsoft solution areas. This community is an excellent source for real-time TSP updates, helping partners oversee strategic and operational facets of their Microsoft training ventures. Moreover, it is a place where partners can find answers tailored to their unique questions and engage with or assist fellow partners across the globe.
Become a part of our Partners for social impact (Non-profit) discussion board and elevate your business by serving the non-profit sector. Create significant revenue streams by aiding non-profit organizations in their quest to expedite their mission’s success and provide impactful services through innovative technology. Non-profits are keenly interested in understanding how artificial intelligence (AI) can benefit them. As a Microsoft partner, you are in the position to guide non-profits along a secure and ethical journey into AI. Your support can enable them to tailor AI according to their distinct missions and community needs, ranging from enhancing interactions with AI to incorporating Copilot on Microsoft 365 and even building their specialized AI solutions via Azure.
Do you have a question and need help finding the answer? Connect with other partners and get answers in our Partner-led questions & tech topics discussion board.
Want to stay up to date with everything partner-related? Subscribe to the Partner news blog, where we share the latest announcements on events, releases, program updates, and case studies.
Continue reading here
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Optimize Azure Stack HCI with the Well-Architected Framework
Azure Stack HCI is a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution that provides storage, network, and compute resources in on-premises or edge locations. It supports the creation and management of Windows and Linux virtual machines (Arc VMs), AKS clusters for containerized workloads, and other Azure Arc-enabled services, such as SQL Managed Instance (MI) and Arc-enabled machine learning (ML). Azure Stack HCI is connected to Azure for streamlined deployment and management, which provides a unified and consistent management experience using Azure portal and Azure Update Manager for updates, and the Arc Resource Bridge for workload orchestration and provisioning operations.
You can use Azure Stack HCI and Azure Arc capabilities to keep business systems and application data on-premises to address data sovereignty, regulation & compliance, and latency requirements. For more information, please see What is Azure Stack HCI?
The Azure Well-Architected Framework (WAF) provides prescriptive guidance and recommendations for architects to use when creating or reviewing cloud solutions. The WAF guidance is organized into five pillars, Reliability, Security, Cost Optimization, Operational Excellence, and Performance Efficiency. Incorporating the recommendations into platform and workload designs helps to ensure reliable, scalable, and performant architecture patterns are implemented for cloud solutions.
Today I am announcing the Azure Well-Architected Framework Service Guide for Azure Stack HCI. Like other service guides, this guide for Azure Stack HCI contains design checklists, and detailed configuration recommendations that can assist cloud architects in designing and deploying Azure Stack HCI in line with the guiding tenets of the Well-Architected Framework: Reliability, Security, Cost Optimization, Operational Excellence, and Performance Efficiency.
When you’re designing a new Azure Stack HCI deployment, this guide offers advice to make sure your platform is set up effectively. Use the design checklists for tailored recommendations during planning. Each recommendation includes a rationale and a link to product documentation for more details. If you’ve already implemented Azure Stack HCI, this guide can direct you to enhance your platform or workload designs in line with the WAF pillars.
Updated Azure Architecture Center pattens
To accompany the new Azure WAF Service Guide for Azure Stack HCI, we have published new and updated Azure Architecture Center (AAC) reference architectures, as detailed below:
1. Azure Stack HCI – baseline reference architecture for guidance and recommendations for configuring Azure Stack HCI infrastructure as a reliable platform to deploy and manage highly available virtualized, and containerized workloads.
2. Azure Stack HCI – three-node storage switchless architecture for guidance and recommendations for deploying Azure Stack HCI using a three-node storage switchless network architecture.
We plan to publish more Azure Stack HCI Infrastructure and Workload design patterns in the Azure Architecture Center in the coming months, which will provide additional guidance and recommendations.
If you have any feedback or comments in relation to the Azure Stack HCI WAF content, please send an email to AzS-WAF-Feedback@microsoft.com
Author Bio
Neil Bird is a Principal Program Manager in the Azure Edge & Platform Engineering team at Microsoft. His background is in Azure and Hybrid Cloud infrastructure, operational excellence, and automation. He is passionate about helping customers deploy and manage cloud solutions effectively using Azure and Azure Edge technologies.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Formula for balance criteria
I only want to populate 5 in the calculated field if the balance is greater than 300 and less than 1000. Is it only populating if any of the fields fall below 300. Any suggestions?
=IF(OR( (D14:V14>300) * (D14:V14<1000)),5,0)
1,905.01463.08380.56367.43367.43268.21223.2223.2170.52661.12643.04584.23584.23508.32330.47310.65300.65214.75683.08
I only want to populate 5 in the calculated field if the balance is greater than 300 and less than 1000. Is it only populating if any of the fields fall below 300. Any suggestions?=IF(OR( (D14:V14>300) * (D14:V14<1000)),5,0)1,905.01463.08380.56367.43367.43268.21223.2223.2170.52661.12643.04584.23584.23508.32330.47310.65300.65214.75683.08 Read More
how do I merge the 3 accounts or delete the new email
Hello
Please i need your help on this issue.
I originally had a personal account with the email XXX@gmail.com. Once Teams stopped supporting Gmail addresses I added XXX@outlook.com. Now that I have upgraded to Business Basic I have added another email XXX@xxx.onmicrosoft.com.
I do not have the time or energy to monitor 3 business email accounts! I already have business cards and headed letter templates so I do not wish change my business email.
So my question is how do I merge the 3 accounts or delete the new email? I wish to retain XXX@outlook.com and require Teams etc to apply Business Basic parameters to this account not add an additional one.
Hello Please i need your help on this issue. I originally had a personal account with the email XXX@gmail.com. Once Teams stopped supporting Gmail addresses I added XXX@outlook.com. Now that I have upgraded to Business Basic I have added another email XXX@xxx.onmicrosoft.com. I do not have the time or energy to monitor 3 business email accounts! I already have business cards and headed letter templates so I do not wish change my business email. So my question is how do I merge the 3 accounts or delete the new email? I wish to retain XXX@outlook.com and require Teams etc to apply Business Basic parameters to this account not add an additional one. Read More
Department not displayed
Hi everyone,
I’m working with pnp-modern-search to add these web parts to our intranet. However, even though I’ve selected the “department” field, it doesn’t show up in the list results. Only the person’s name, title, email, and phone number are displayed.
I’ve even used the SharePoint query tool, and the Department property is filled in, but for some reason, it’s not showing up in the results.
I’ve also set up the results to be sorted by department, and the search sorts them just fine. The only issue is that the department field isn’t displayed.
Does anyone with experience using this web part have any idea where I might look to find the cause of this issue?
Thank you,
Hi everyone, I’m working with pnp-modern-search to add these web parts to our intranet. However, even though I’ve selected the “department” field, it doesn’t show up in the list results. Only the person’s name, title, email, and phone number are displayed. I’ve even used the SharePoint query tool, and the Department property is filled in, but for some reason, it’s not showing up in the results. I’ve also set up the results to be sorted by department, and the search sorts them just fine. The only issue is that the department field isn’t displayed. Does anyone with experience using this web part have any idea where I might look to find the cause of this issue? Thank you, Read More
Partner Case Study Series | Barracuda Networks
Barracuda Networks, a Microsoft security partner removing barriers to cloud adoption
Barracuda is committed to bringing cloud-engineered, enterprise-grade security solutions that are easy to buy, deploy and use. The company believes in providing innovative cloud solutions that grow and adapt with its customers. Barracuda engineering teams collaborate extensively with Microsoft development teams, leveraging the Microsoft Azure platform to deliver client solutions. More than 200,000 customers worldwide trust Barracuda to protect them from advanced and emerging risks.
“Thanks to Barracuda, we no longer have any security-related concerns about deploying in Azure. That frees us to ramp up our cloud innovation strategy considerably,” said Miguel Vidal, Production/Systems/Communications Manager, UNICRE.
Flexible billing and monthly payments through Azure Marketplace let customers quickly deploy new services. Having delivered over one million cloud-enabled products, Barracuda facilitates its customers’ cloud adoption and protects them from threats to applications, data, and networks.
Continue reading here
**Explore all case studies or submit your own**
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Archivos Excel se corrompen al guardar y abrir nuevamente desde el NAS sin posibilidad de recuperar
Hola, buenos días comunidad.
Desde hace un par de meses, hemos estado experimentando problemas con algunos archivos de Excel en nuestra empresa. La situación es la siguiente: el usuario trabaja en su archivo y lo guarda, pero al momento de volver a abrirlo, aparece un error indicando que el archivo está dañado y debe ser recuperado. Al intentar la recuperación, se pierde toda la información.
Los archivos afectados son variados; algunos contienen vínculos, macros y tablas dinámicas, mientras que otros no tienen nada de esto. Lo único en común es que todos se almacenan y comparten en un NAS. Cabe destacar que este problema no ocurre con todos los archivos y, en los que sucede, no es siempre, sino en ocasiones. Hemos probado diversas soluciones, pero el problema persiste. ¿Alguien tiene alguna idea de por qué podría estar pasando esto?
Hola, buenos días comunidad.Desde hace un par de meses, hemos estado experimentando problemas con algunos archivos de Excel en nuestra empresa. La situación es la siguiente: el usuario trabaja en su archivo y lo guarda, pero al momento de volver a abrirlo, aparece un error indicando que el archivo está dañado y debe ser recuperado. Al intentar la recuperación, se pierde toda la información.Los archivos afectados son variados; algunos contienen vínculos, macros y tablas dinámicas, mientras que otros no tienen nada de esto. Lo único en común es que todos se almacenan y comparten en un NAS. Cabe destacar que este problema no ocurre con todos los archivos y, en los que sucede, no es siempre, sino en ocasiones. Hemos probado diversas soluciones, pero el problema persiste. ¿Alguien tiene alguna idea de por qué podría estar pasando esto? Read More
Making spreadsheet searchable w/o macros?
I’m looking to create a search box and possibly dynamic buttons like “filter” and “clear” as well within my spreadsheet. However, the problem is that this document will ultimately be shared widely and having people keep track of a macro file is really not realistic. So, I’m wondering what options there are to creation enhanced searchability within a spreadsheet without the use of macros. Is the sort/filter function the only option?
Thanks in advance!
I’m looking to create a search box and possibly dynamic buttons like “filter” and “clear” as well within my spreadsheet. However, the problem is that this document will ultimately be shared widely and having people keep track of a macro file is really not realistic. So, I’m wondering what options there are to creation enhanced searchability within a spreadsheet without the use of macros. Is the sort/filter function the only option? Thanks in advance! Read More
Color category preview for Calendar Items unavailable in the latest release of Outlook for Windows
Greetings,
There appears to be a problem with the color category (tags) preview for calendar items are unavailable in the latest release of Outlook for Windows.
In the example below, on the right is the
On the left is the latest version of Outlook for Windows (Version 2406 (Build 17726.20160 Click-to-Run)), where the color category preview does not works.
On the right is a slightly older version of Outlook for Windows (Version 2402 (Build 17328.20282 Click-to-Run)), where the color category preview does works.
Has Microsoft acknowledged this bug, and will a fix be issued soon?
Thank you,
Denis
Greetings, There appears to be a problem with the color category (tags) preview for calendar items are unavailable in the latest release of Outlook for Windows.In the example below, on the right is the On the left is the latest version of Outlook for Windows (Version 2406 (Build 17726.20160 Click-to-Run)), where the color category preview does not works. On the right is a slightly older version of Outlook for Windows (Version 2402 (Build 17328.20282 Click-to-Run)), where the color category preview does works.Has Microsoft acknowledged this bug, and will a fix be issued soon?Thank you,Denis Read More
Content is getting cached
Hello All,
I’m troubleshooting a situation where content/state is getting cached somewhere and I’m trying to figure out where.
We’re a county agency on the government cloud. Over the last week, our users are encountering these scenarios:
1. User A edits a Word doc.
2. They check their changes in.
3. The system continues to show them that they have the document checked out.
4. User B sees that the document was checked in recently.
1. User A (Full Privileges) deletes a Subsite.
2. Subsite is still visible in Navigation
3. Clicking on the subsite link gives a 404 error
4. User B does NOT see the subsite in the navigation
I had both of these situations yesterday.
Question: Does Sharepoint (in the government cloud) do any caching? Can that be disabled?
Or is the problem elsewhere?
Any insights are appreciated.
-tomas vera
Hello All, I’m troubleshooting a situation where content/state is getting cached somewhere and I’m trying to figure out where. We’re a county agency on the government cloud. Over the last week, our users are encountering these scenarios:1. User A edits a Word doc.2. They check their changes in.3. The system continues to show them that they have the document checked out. 4. User B sees that the document was checked in recently. 1. User A (Full Privileges) deletes a Subsite.2. Subsite is still visible in Navigation3. Clicking on the subsite link gives a 404 error4. User B does NOT see the subsite in the navigation I had both of these situations yesterday. Question: Does Sharepoint (in the government cloud) do any caching? Can that be disabled?Or is the problem elsewhere? Any insights are appreciated. -tomas vera Read More
Help and learning for small and medium businesses
Looking to improve your small and medium business operations? Visit the Microsoft Small Business Learning site for a range of useful resources.
This Microsoft learning site shares opportunities about getting started with new apps along with tutorial videos and how-to articles. You can also find guidance for your specific business goals including how to create branded emails, how to better manage team tasks, and how to choose the right templates for your projects.
Let us know what other resources you would find helpful for growing your business!
Looking to improve your small and medium business operations? Visit the Microsoft Small Business Learning site for a range of useful resources.
This Microsoft learning site shares opportunities about getting started with new apps along with tutorial videos and how-to articles. You can also find guidance for your specific business goals including how to create branded emails, how to better manage team tasks, and how to choose the right templates for your projects.
Let us know what other resources you would find helpful for growing your business! Read More
Bar graph stacked
How would I create a graph that shows how many 1s, 2s, and 3s, per column with the following data?
2332222122123231113222
and the bar to look like this, like the green = 3, blue = 2, and 1 = yellow. Each bar = column
Left bar has 4 counts of 3, 5 counts of 2, and 2 counts of 1.
How would I create a graph that shows how many 1s, 2s, and 3s, per column with the following data?2332222122123231113222 and the bar to look like this, like the green = 3, blue = 2, and 1 = yellow. Each bar = column Left bar has 4 counts of 3, 5 counts of 2, and 2 counts of 1. Read More
Empower your teams with comprehensive Azure skill-building tools
Keeping pace with technology can sometimes feel like an uphill marathon with a shifting finish line. From AI breakthroughs to cloud optimization strategies, data analytics advancements, and beyond, IT skills require continuous renewal.
To that end, we’re pleased to share this quarterly recap of the latest Azure learning resources—your curated guide to upskilling on Azure. Read on to find current training opportunities to help elevate your cloud skills and open career doors.
Become an AI trailblazer with Azure Cosmos DB
Azure AI capabilities offer a unique opportunity to make the most of cloud-based intelligent solutions. Learn to create innovative experiences and push boundaries in the evolving landscape of AI-powered interactions.
The Microsoft Developers AI Learning Hackathon, held in June 2024, was an exciting opportunity for developers to explore the world of AI and build innovative applications by using Azure Cosmos DB. The hackathon demonstrated how Azure Cosmos DB provides the speed, scalability, and reliability needed to power the next generation of intelligent applications.
Don’t worry if you missed the hackathon—we have plenty of other Azure Cosmos DB skill-building resources:
As part of the newly launched Plans on Microsoft Learn, Data for the era of AI: Build intelligent apps with Azure Cosmos DB guides you through selecting the right database for your AI needs, integrating AI into technical or non-technical solutions, and even building your own AI copilot by using Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB.
Azure Cosmos DB AI Developer Guide, a recent episode of the Azure Enablement Show, reviews the new Azure Cosmos DB + Azure OpenAI Node.js Developer Guide and Azure Cosmos DB + Azure OpenAI Python Developer Guide.
The new learning path Build an AI copilot with vCore-based Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB and Azure OpenAI teaches you how to build a copilot by using Azure Cosmos DB and Azure OpenAI Service.
A Microsoft Reactor session from May 2024, Learn to Build Your Own AI Apps with Azure Cosmos DB, part 2, explores core AI concepts, like Vector Search LangChain and UI development, to build your own custom copilot. Watch the video and gain practical insights on effectively using Azure for your AI projects, regardless of your technical experience.
In the Azure Enablement Show episode Build a copilot with Azure AI Studio, Microsoft experts demonstrate how to build a copilot with prompt flow connected to a searchable index. They also discuss documentation and training resources.
If you’re looking for other ways to build amazing AI-powered apps, check out Build AI Apps with Azure Database for PostgreSQL. This new Official Plan is designed to help you better understand how to build and manage AI apps with PostgreSQL, a popular, powerful open-source database system. Plus, we have many new learning paths and modules that cover Azure Database for PostgreSQL, including:
Configure and migrate to Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Migrate open-source databases to Azure
Explore PostgreSQL architecture
Secure Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Uncover data-driven insights with Microsoft Fabric
Microsoft Fabric analytics unveil hidden insights in data-rich environments, enabling smarter decision-making and empowering businesses to drive growth and mitigate risks.
As part of a comprehensive skill-building plan, Make your data AI ready with Microsoft Fabric offers instruction on data ingestion through shortcuts, pipelines, and dataflows, followed by transformation techniques using procedures, notebooks, and more. With this Official Plan, discover how to store data in lakehouses and data warehouses, along with how to create reusable semantic models in Power BI.
If you’re looking to take your data analytics skills to the next level, don’t miss these Microsoft Virtual Training Days—two four-hour sessions, packed with practical knowledge and interactive exercises:
Microsoft Azure Virtual Training Day: Data Fundamentals
Microsoft Azure Virtual Training Day: Implementing a Data Lakehouse with Microsoft Fabric
Ignite developer efficiency
In the era of complex intelligent applications, empowering developer productivity is crucial. We have the resources and opportunities to help you learn strategies to streamline workflows, work smarter, and unlock your coding potential in this rapidly evolving digital landscape.
AI tools are helping developers to build custom solutions more quickly and efficiently, increasing their overall productivity. During the April–May 2024 Microsoft Generative AI Hackathon, participants learned how to how to use Azure AI and GitHub Copilot to build multimodal apps that combine text, image, video, and voice inputs and outputs.
For Python developers who want to incorporate AI into their cutting-edge applications, a new episode of the Azure Enablement Show, Build intelligent apps with Python, demonstrates the comprehensive tools and resources from Microsoft for Python development on Azure, covering AI, data analysis, and app deployment.
Microsoft Learn offers interactive modules to guide you through the entire development process, from deploying web apps to building machine learning models. The Accelerate app development by using GitHub Copilot learning path focuses on how GitHub Copilot (available for organizations or individuals) offers intelligent code suggestions in many programming languages.
The DevOps foundations: The core principles and practices learning path explores DevOps practices using GitHub and the challenges associated with traditional application lifecycles. Learn about DevOps culture, which emphasizes collaboration, shared responsibility, and continuous learning. Plus, find out how DevOps benefits organizations by accelerating delivery, enhancing adaptability, helping to ensure reliability, and improving the entire application lifecycle management.
The Automate Azure Load Testing by Using GitHub learning path reviews GitHub Actions, a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) platform for automating software development workflows, offering features like automated processes and custom applications. This learning path covers core components, workflow implementation, and effective use of GitHub Actions in projects.
Migrate to the cloud for boundless innovation
Cloud migration offers agility, scalability, and reduced IT overhead. Explore these Azure resources to guide your journey in migrating and modernizing your technology stack, unlocking new possibilities for your organization.
Official Plans on Microsoft Learn can help you to build your migration knowledge and experience:
Migrate and modernize with Azure cloud-scale databases to enable AI highlights how to build and manage cloud-native and hybrid data platforms by using SQL Server and Azure SQL Database services. Learn to migrate SQL Server workloads to Azure SQL, optimize operational resources in Azure SQL, and work with MySQL databases on Azure.
Migrate Linux and PostgreSQL workloads to Azure guides you through the migration and management of your Linux workloads on Azure, exploring cloud computing concepts, Linux solutions, and Azure services. Learn about PostgreSQL features, implementation options, and configuration for your needs in Azure Database for PostgreSQL.
Continue your SQL migration journey with the Official Collection Refreshed SQL DMA Microsoft Learn Modules, which includes guidance on migrating SQL Server workloads to Azure SQL, Azure SQL Managed Instance, SQL Database, and more.
Don’t miss upcoming Microsoft Virtual Training Days sessions for Migrate and Secure Windows Server and SQL Server Workloads. And check out the recent Azure Enablement Show, Learn How to Migrate Windows Servers to Azure, which discusses how doing so can provide a flexible, secure, and scalable infrastructure that enables agility, cost efficiency, and innovation.
Unlock business value
Building Azure skills with Azure Essentials can help you make the most of your cloud and AI investments and maximize the reliability, security, and ongoing performance of your Azure environments and workloads. Azure Essentials offers a resource kit, use cases for enhancing new and existing Azure projects, customer success stories, and much more.
And Microsoft Learn training resources can help both new and seasoned Azure pros improve performance, boost return on investment (ROI), and achieve success through intelligent resource management strategies:
The Improve Cloud Reliability, Security, and Performance on Azure Official Plan includes a set of milestones to help you across your cloud journey. Prepare to adopt and build optimized workloads and environments, and then manage and help ensure reliability and continuous improvement.
Another recent episode of the Azure Enablement Show, Learn Optimization Skills on Learn Live, explores the path to cloud optimization and confident cloud operations, along with an understanding of how to manage reliability, security, sustainability, and cost efficiency. It also discusses how to optimize your architecture and workloads effectively to take full advantage of the cloud.
As you and your teams explore Azure training opportunities, make the most of this quarterly recap of the latest Azure learning resources—your curated guide to upskilling on Azure. From trailblazing with Azure Cosmos DB, uncovering data-driven insights with Fabric, and empowering developer efficiency with AI, find what you need in this curated guide. Plus, get all the details on training, like Azure Essentials, to help you migrate to the cloud and unlock business value with Azure skills. We have the offerings you need to skill up, drive success, and make the most of your organization’s Azure and AI investments.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Windows Server 2025 Secured-core Server
The server threat landscape is constantly evolving with cybercriminals becoming more ambitious and sophisticated in their attacks, and the damage is becoming more costly to those targeted. In April 2022, the ransomware group Conti carried out two massive ransomware attacks that breached the Costa Rican government and affected nearly 30 different ministries and different essential services within the country. This attack was so disruptive that the President of Costa Rica had to declare a state of National Emergency, the first ever such instance in response to a cyberattack. In different incidents, Shields Health Care Group had a data breach where nearly 2 million patient records were stolen by attackers, and Medibank Private Ltd., one of the largest health insurance providers in Australia had data pertaining to 9.7 million customers stolen. In the latter case, the attackers threatened to release the customer data on the dark web unless a ransom was paid.
Servers are the backbone of modern businesses, and they store and process vast amounts of sensitive data. As a result, server security is critical to protect against cyberattacks that can cause financial losses, reputational damage, and legal liabilities. In 2021, Microsoft announced the launch of Secured-core servers in partnership with our silicon partners and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). These servers offer some of the most advanced hardware-based security capabilities that make it harder for adversaries to carry out cyberattacks. In this post, we will provide an example of how the upcoming Windows Server 2025 Secured-core servers seamlessly integrate with the broader suite of Microsoft’s security offerings to not just identify but also help block real world attacks.
Bring Your Own Vulnerable Drivers (BYOVD) attack technique
There is an entire class of attacks that rely on an attack technique known as “Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver” (BYOVD). In these attacks, a malicious adversary with administrative privileges installs a legitimately signed driver with a vulnerability in it on the target system. These drivers have direct access to the internals of the operating system. This vulnerability is then exploited to provide the attacker with the highest level of privileges on the system, which is then used to disable security processes running on the system. We’ll now take a couple of vulnerable drivers that have been used in attacks in the past.
kprocesshacker.sys
Process Hacker is a free and open-source malware analysis tool that is used for debugging, malware detection and system monitoring. Process Hacker was used by a ransomware known as DoppelPaymer, which had several high-profile targets such as Foxconn, Kia and Boyce Technologies. DoppelPaymer hijacks ProcessHacker to terminate a list of processes such as those responsible for security, e-mail server, backup and database software to impair defenses. It drops the ProcessHacker executable, its driver and a malicious stager DLL into a subdirectory of %APPDATA%. The driver, known as kprocesshacker.sys, allows it to communicate with the kernel and is used to load the stager DLL via DLL Search Order Hijacking and subsequently, upon receiving a trigger, terminate processes running in the kernel.
asWarPot.sys
AvosLocker is a ransomware group that has targeted victims across multiple critical infrastructure sectors in the United States such as financial services and government facilities sectors. Certain samples of the AvosLocker Ransomware used a legitimate but vulnerable Avast Anti-Rootkit driver known as asWarPot.sys to disable endpoint protection agents and security features on the targeted systems.
Secured-core servers and Microsoft Defender for Cloud in action to help protect against modern threats
Configuring your on-premises servers for hybrid cloud security is made simple with Windows Server 2025. Using the Azure Arc installer wizard included in Windows Server 2025, then onboarding with Microsoft Defender for Cloud will add cloud-based protections to Secured-core servers such as continuous assessment, built-in benchmarks, security recommendations, threat protection capabilities and remediation guidance in case threats have been detected. Here we will discuss how each layer of security works to help protect against threats.
Defense against kprocesshacker.sys using Secured-core servers
Secured-core servers offer a hardware-based security feature known as Hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI). HVCI uses Virtualization-based Security (VBS) to run kernel mode code integrity inside a secure, isolated environment instead of the main Windows kernel. HVCI contains a code integrity security policy that contains a list of vulnerable drivers that are not allowed to load on the system. As a result, when kprocesshacker.sys tries to load on the system, it is blocked from loading by HVCI, and an analysis of the event logs in the Windows Admin Center shows that the code integrity policy prevented the driver from loading, as this driver was present in the blocklist. This demonstrates how properly configured Secured-core servers can proactively help detect and block threats present on the system.
This can also be viewed in the “Advanced hunting” tab within the Microsoft Defender portal, which allows users to explore up to 30 days of events to locate potential threats.
Defense against asWarPot.sys using Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Cloud constantly keeps monitoring your workloads and clusters for active threats on your servers. When the asWarPot.sys on the system, Defender for Cloud blocks the action from taking place. At the same time, based on the communication preferences set forth by the IT admins, an alert is fired indicating that some suspicious activity was taking place in their environments, and that a threat was detected and blocked.
IT admins can log into the Azure Portal and view the security alerts that fired in their server environment, and drill deeper into the specifics of the malware that tried to execute on their systems.
Security response teams within enterprises might be interested in understanding the exact attack chain associated with the malware to set guardrails to prevent similar attacks in the future. When your servers have been onboarded with Defender for Cloud, a Microsoft Defender for Endpoint agent is also installed. The presence of the Defender for Endpoint agents on these machines allows security response teams to dig deeper into the sequence of events that took place leading up to when the malicious event occurred.
Admins can go the Microsoft Defender portal to view the details associated with the attack, and drill down into exactly what events led to the malicious asWarPot.sys driver attempting to load on the system.
Protect your on-premises workload with Secured-core servers
At the end of the day, your workload is only as secure as the foundation it is built on, and Secured-core servers provide a strong and secure foundation to help protect your on-prem infrastructure. It seamlessly integrates with the broader suite of security offerings such as Defender for Cloud to offer even more powerful capabilities such as threat detection, alerting and remediation capabilities.
Since its launch in 2021, we have observed a consistent rise in the adoption of Secured-core servers. In 2022, we have established Secured-core as a prerequisite for all new Azure Stack HCI, version 22H2 solutions built on Gen 3 or newer server-grade silicon platforms. We are also excited to announce that leading manufacturers such as Dell Technologies, HPE, and Lenovo have committed to supporting Secured-core server across all their products based on Gen 3 or newer server-grade silicon platforms for Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server 2025.
Visit the Windows Server catalog or Azure Stack HCI catalog to find out the latest servers and solutions from the breadth of industry leading partners supporting Secured-core server.
Additional resources
What is Secured-core server for Windows Server
Protect your infrastructure with Secured-core server
Microsoft brings advanced hardware security to Server and Edge with Secured-core
Try Windows Server 2025 now in preview
Learn about the upcoming Windows Server 2025
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I have three accounts configured in Outlook, each with its own calendar. I had to format my computer, and upon reconfiguring the accounts, the Gmail calendar does not create or alter events on the web, only locally on the machine. All meeting acceptances need to be done on the web to be updated in Outlook. I have already uninstalled and reinstalled Office 365, reconfigured the accounts, and nothing has changed. Read More
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I’m a newbie on MS Project so sorry if this question is trivial!
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Hi, I’m a newbie on MS Project so sorry if this question is trivial!I’d like to color code my tasks based on the resources. I’ve found multiple ways to do that with on the web but it only applies when you have a single resource per task.For my application I’d like to color code the task based on the machine used but I also have to add an operator as a second resource. I’m pretty sure there should be a way to code this in the custome fields but I have not mangaed to find it so far.Anyone could help me out? THX! Read More
