Tag Archives: microsoft
Conditional formatting – make a cell white based on another cell’s specific text “EXW”
Hello,
I could use some help regarding my sheet and would appreciate very much if someone could help me.
I have the need that every time in for example H3 it says EXW or FCA then I would like F3 to have no color/white.
Can any please help with this?
Thank you very much in advance.
Hello,I could use some help regarding my sheet and would appreciate very much if someone could help me.I have the need that every time in for example H3 it says EXW or FCA then I would like F3 to have no color/white.Can any please help with this?Thank you very much in advance. Read More
New Blog | Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)
Security and privacy should never be an afterthought when developing software. A formal process must become standard practice to ensure they are considered at all points of the product’s lifecycle. The rise of software supply chain attacks—including the XZ Utils, SolarWinds attack and Log4j vulnerabilities—highlights the critical need to build security into the software development process, from the ground up.
Over the last 20 years, there have been many improvements to the security development lifecycle (SDL) reflecting changes in internal tools and processes. We are excited to announce that this week, we have updated the security practices on the SDL website, and we will continue to update this site with new information on a regular basis.
Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) Timeline
In the early 2000s, personal computers (PCs) were becoming increasingly common in the home and the internet was gaining more widespread use. This led to a rise in malicious software looking to take advantage of users connecting their home PCs to the internet. It quickly became evident that protecting users from malicious software required a fundamentally different approach to security.
In January 2002, Microsoft launched its Trustworthy Computing initiative to help ensure Microsoft products and services were built to be inherently highly secure, available, reliable, and with business integrity.
Read the full post here: Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)
By Joylynn Kirui
Security and privacy should never be an afterthought when developing software. A formal process must become standard practice to ensure they are considered at all points of the product’s lifecycle. The rise of software supply chain attacks—including the XZ Utils, SolarWinds attack and Log4j vulnerabilities—highlights the critical need to build security into the software development process, from the ground up.
Over the last 20 years, there have been many improvements to the security development lifecycle (SDL) reflecting changes in internal tools and processes. We are excited to announce that this week, we have updated the security practices on the SDL website, and we will continue to update this site with new information on a regular basis.
Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) Timeline
Figure 1: Graphic of the SDL Timeline
In the early 2000s, personal computers (PCs) were becoming increasingly common in the home and the internet was gaining more widespread use. This led to a rise in malicious software looking to take advantage of users connecting their home PCs to the internet. It quickly became evident that protecting users from malicious software required a fundamentally different approach to security.
In January 2002, Microsoft launched its Trustworthy Computing initiative to help ensure Microsoft products and services were built to be inherently highly secure, available, reliable, and with business integrity.
Read the full post here: Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) Read More
New Blog | Secure and Govern Your Custom-Built AI Apps with Microsoft Purview
By Liz Willets
The rise of generative AI unlocks new opportunities for developers to create groundbreaking applications. Studies show that 75% of organizations are more likely to adopt AI apps when they come with assurance mechanisms for secure and compliant use. This underscores the importance of building apps that can handle and govern sensitive data appropriately. But despite this growing demand for secure and compliant AI applications, developers often lack security expertise and tools to build these controls into custom-built applications. What developers need are easy to use APIs that enable them to build data security and compliance controls into their applications by design.
As consumers of AI applications, enterprises are concerned about data oversharing, data leakage, and non-compliant use of AI apps. Ensuring that your application meets enterprise needs for safeguarding against data risks is critical for enterprise adoption. Once deployed, security teams want visibility into which GenAI applications are being used, how often, by whom, and what kind of sensitive data is being shared with those applications.
On top of that, end users want clear visibility into the confidentiality of data referenced by AI applications. Ensuring that end users can clearly see the sensitivity label of any files referenced by your GenAI app is imperative. This visual cue informs the user that the application is interacting with a sensitive document, which is critical to maintain data integrity and compliance with their organization’s data handling obligations.
Today, we are excited to announce new innovations from Microsoft Purview to help developers build enterprise-grade security and compliance controls into their custom-built AI apps:
Microsoft Purview integration in Copilot Studio (public preview) and Azure AI Studio (coming soon) offers data security and compliance features to developers using Copilot Studio and Azure AI Studio. This integration provides visibility into when an application accesses sensitive data by recognizing and honoring sensitivity labels of the data being accessed. It also protects sensitive data generated by the app through label inheritance, and honors label permissions, limiting data access to authorized users only. Additionally, it facilitates governance of app development by providing audit logging for developer activities.
Build enterprise-grade data security and compliance controls with Purview SDK (coming soon) offering a set of easy to integrate APIs for pro-code developers. These APIs enable enterprise-grade data security, compliance and governance controls with just a few lines of code.
Microsoft Purview integration in Copilot Studio (public preview) and Azure AI Studio (coming soon)
For developers looking to get started today, we are thrilled to announce the integration of Microsoft Purview capabilities in Copilot Studio (public preview) and Azure AI Studio (coming soon). With this integration, Microsoft Purview capabilities come built-in so that when you build your custom apps in Copilot Studio or Azure AI Studio, your enterprise customers and end users get best-in-class security and governance features, including:
Discover data risks in AI interactions: Enhance end user confidence by providing visibility into the sensitivity label of the data referenced from SharePoint in responses from your custom-built Copilots and GenAI apps.
Protect sensitive data with encryption: Ensure that app generated responses inherit the sensitivity label of the files referenced and are encrypted accordingly. Additionally, ensure that your AI applications respect user permissions and sensitivity labels, limiting the access to sensitive data to authorized users only. This builds trust with your customers, as they know their data is handled according to their security policies.
Capture AI activities: Log developer activities during the creation of custom-built applications to understand which data sources were enabled, whether GenAI answers were enabled on those sources, and more. This ensure comprehensive oversight and transparency for enterprises purchasing your application to maintain control over data and applications interacting with it.
Read the full post here: Secure and Govern Your Custom-Built AI Apps with Microsoft Purview
By Liz Willets
The rise of generative AI unlocks new opportunities for developers to create groundbreaking applications. Studies show that 75% of organizations are more likely to adopt AI apps when they come with assurance mechanisms for secure and compliant use. This underscores the importance of building apps that can handle and govern sensitive data appropriately. But despite this growing demand for secure and compliant AI applications, developers often lack security expertise and tools to build these controls into custom-built applications. What developers need are easy to use APIs that enable them to build data security and compliance controls into their applications by design.
As consumers of AI applications, enterprises are concerned about data oversharing, data leakage, and non-compliant use of AI apps. Ensuring that your application meets enterprise needs for safeguarding against data risks is critical for enterprise adoption. Once deployed, security teams want visibility into which GenAI applications are being used, how often, by whom, and what kind of sensitive data is being shared with those applications.
On top of that, end users want clear visibility into the confidentiality of data referenced by AI applications. Ensuring that end users can clearly see the sensitivity label of any files referenced by your GenAI app is imperative. This visual cue informs the user that the application is interacting with a sensitive document, which is critical to maintain data integrity and compliance with their organization’s data handling obligations.
Today, we are excited to announce new innovations from Microsoft Purview to help developers build enterprise-grade security and compliance controls into their custom-built AI apps:
Microsoft Purview integration in Copilot Studio (public preview) and Azure AI Studio (coming soon) offers data security and compliance features to developers using Copilot Studio and Azure AI Studio. This integration provides visibility into when an application accesses sensitive data by recognizing and honoring sensitivity labels of the data being accessed. It also protects sensitive data generated by the app through label inheritance, and honors label permissions, limiting data access to authorized users only. Additionally, it facilitates governance of app development by providing audit logging for developer activities.
Build enterprise-grade data security and compliance controls with Purview SDK (coming soon) offering a set of easy to integrate APIs for pro-code developers. These APIs enable enterprise-grade data security, compliance and governance controls with just a few lines of code.
Microsoft Purview integration in Copilot Studio (public preview) and Azure AI Studio (coming soon)
For developers looking to get started today, we are thrilled to announce the integration of Microsoft Purview capabilities in Copilot Studio (public preview) and Azure AI Studio (coming soon). With this integration, Microsoft Purview capabilities come built-in so that when you build your custom apps in Copilot Studio or Azure AI Studio, your enterprise customers and end users get best-in-class security and governance features, including:
Discover data risks in AI interactions: Enhance end user confidence by providing visibility into the sensitivity label of the data referenced from SharePoint in responses from your custom-built Copilots and GenAI apps.
Protect sensitive data with encryption: Ensure that app generated responses inherit the sensitivity label of the files referenced and are encrypted accordingly. Additionally, ensure that your AI applications respect user permissions and sensitivity labels, limiting the access to sensitive data to authorized users only. This builds trust with your customers, as they know their data is handled according to their security policies.
Capture AI activities: Log developer activities during the creation of custom-built applications to understand which data sources were enabled, whether GenAI answers were enabled on those sources, and more. This ensure comprehensive oversight and transparency for enterprises purchasing your application to maintain control over data and applications interacting with it.
Figure 1: Copilot Studio can inherit labels from the referenced files, honor permission controls associated with the label, and enhance users’ awareness on the sensitivity of the content.
Read the full post here: Secure and Govern Your Custom-Built AI Apps with Microsoft Purview
New Blog | Azure Firewall integration in Copilot for Security: protect networks with Gen AI
Azure Firewall is a cloud-native and intelligent network firewall security service that provides best of breed threat protection for your cloud workloads running in Azure. It’s a fully stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability. In this blog we will be focusing on the newly announced Azure Firewall integration in Copilot for Security.
The Azure Firewall integration in Copilot for Security helps analysts perform detailed investigations of the malicious traffic intercepted by the IDPS feature of their firewalls across their entire fleet using natural language questions in the Copilot for Security standalone experience.
Read the full post here: Azure Firewall integration in Copilot for Security: protect networks at machine speed with Gen AI
By Abhinav Sriram
Azure Firewall is a cloud-native and intelligent network firewall security service that provides best of breed threat protection for your cloud workloads running in Azure. It’s a fully stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability. In this blog we will be focusing on the newly announced Azure Firewall integration in Copilot for Security.
How Copilot for Security works with the Azure Firewall plugin
The Azure Firewall integration in Copilot for Security helps analysts perform detailed investigations of the malicious traffic intercepted by the IDPS feature of their firewalls across their entire fleet using natural language questions in the Copilot for Security standalone experience.
The Azure Firewall plugin enabled in the Copilot for Security standalone experience
Read the full post here: Azure Firewall integration in Copilot for Security: protect networks at machine speed with Gen AI
New Blog | Leverage Generative AI to expedite attack surface investigations in Defender EASM
By Soham Patel
A prerequisite to securing an organization on the internet is first knowing what digital assets in the organization are internet-facing. With the constantly changing internet, the migration to multi-cloud environments, the evolution of organizations with mergers and acquisitions, and the emergence of shadow IT, it is often difficult to maintain an updated external view of an organization’s attack surface, leading to security gaps emerging for attackers to exploit.
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management (EASM) solves this challenge by discovering externally facing assets and identifying their risk. Their vulnerabilities can be identified, which helps with prioritizing them, so you know where to start with remediation efforts.
While Defender EASM equips organizations with an updated external attack surface view and the risks associated with it, these vast, multifaceted attack surfaces require many resources to analyze each asset and its associated metadata. This often increases the time to remediation and the likelihood of an attacker exploiting a security gap. However, generative AI can expedite this analysis process, enabling security professionals to defend organizations at machine speed.
At Microsoft Ignite in November 2023, we announced Defender EASM’s prompting capabilities in Copilot for Security. Today, we are thrilled to share that the same capabilities – and more – are available in public preview the Copilot chat pane in the Azure portal and can be used alongside Copilot for Security customers’ Defender EASM resources. This allows organizations to stay secure, with ease.
Dig into your external attack surface
The Copilot chat pane in Azure gives customers AI-driven insights on risky assets within their external attack surface. Instead of manually drilling down to investigate asset details, simply ask Copilot about recently expired SSL certificates and domains, and you’ll get automated answers for each in seconds. To understand which assets may have Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE), you can quickly find out by asking Copilot “which assets have critical severity CVEs?” or “Does this ‘CVE ID’ impact me?” Knowing where CVEs lie, and how they are classified, will help you in focusing resources and remediation efforts on those that matter most.
Our Copilot capabilities also enable customers to quickly identify assets impacted by specific risks and vulnerabilities, such as assets that have Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) scores, that are still using SHA-1 certificates, or are expiring soon – empowering them to determine what assets must be remediated first.
For example, we can investigate which assets are impacted by medium priority CVSS Scores and what vulnerabilities must be remediated to secure the targeted assets. In this scenario in the image below, we can see that because of the jQuery version, https://portal.fabrikam.com/ is at risk.
Read the full post here: Leverage Generative AI to expedite attack surface investigations in Defender EASM
By Soham Patel
A prerequisite to securing an organization on the internet is first knowing what digital assets in the organization are internet-facing. With the constantly changing internet, the migration to multi-cloud environments, the evolution of organizations with mergers and acquisitions, and the emergence of shadow IT, it is often difficult to maintain an updated external view of an organization’s attack surface, leading to security gaps emerging for attackers to exploit.
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management (EASM) solves this challenge by discovering externally facing assets and identifying their risk. Their vulnerabilities can be identified, which helps with prioritizing them, so you know where to start with remediation efforts.
While Defender EASM equips organizations with an updated external attack surface view and the risks associated with it, these vast, multifaceted attack surfaces require many resources to analyze each asset and its associated metadata. This often increases the time to remediation and the likelihood of an attacker exploiting a security gap. However, generative AI can expedite this analysis process, enabling security professionals to defend organizations at machine speed.
At Microsoft Ignite in November 2023, we announced Defender EASM’s prompting capabilities in Copilot for Security. Today, we are thrilled to share that the same capabilities – and more – are available in public preview the Copilot chat pane in the Azure portal and can be used alongside Copilot for Security customers’ Defender EASM resources. This allows organizations to stay secure, with ease.
Dig into your external attack surface
The Copilot chat pane in Azure gives customers AI-driven insights on risky assets within their external attack surface. Instead of manually drilling down to investigate asset details, simply ask Copilot about recently expired SSL certificates and domains, and you’ll get automated answers for each in seconds. To understand which assets may have Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE), you can quickly find out by asking Copilot “which assets have critical severity CVEs?” or “Does this ‘CVE ID’ impact me?” Knowing where CVEs lie, and how they are classified, will help you in focusing resources and remediation efforts on those that matter most.
Our Copilot capabilities also enable customers to quickly identify assets impacted by specific risks and vulnerabilities, such as assets that have Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) scores, that are still using SHA-1 certificates, or are expiring soon – empowering them to determine what assets must be remediated first.
For example, we can investigate which assets are impacted by medium priority CVSS Scores and what vulnerabilities must be remediated to secure the targeted assets. In this scenario in the image below, we can see that because of the jQuery version, https://portal.fabrikam.com/ is at risk.
Read the full post here: Leverage Generative AI to expedite attack surface investigations in Defender EASM
New Blog | Accelerate cloud security risk remediation with Microsoft Copilot for Security
By Asaf Nakash
As cloud environments experience rapid expansion, evolution, and increasing complexity, security teams face a significant and growing challenge in identifying, assessing, and remediating cloud security risks across multicloud environments and developer pipelines.
With Copilot in Defender for Cloud, security teams can efficiently identify critical risks across their multicloud environments and developer pipelines and streamline remediation efforts to make the most impact on their security posture.
The embedded Copilot capabilities in Defender for Cloud help you accelerate time to remediation, including:
Assisted risk exploration skills provides contextual summaries of your cloud risks, including the most impactful risks to your cloud resources.
Assisted risk remediation skills that provide guidance and streamline remediation with contextual summary of security best practices, step-by-step instructions, and necessary remediation scripts.
Enhanced Risk Exploration with Copilot in Defender for Cloud
Many security admins face the burden of complex multicloud environments without the proper resources to prioritize and manage an overwhelming number of identified security risks across their environments. With Copilot in Defender for Cloud, security admins can leverage AI and natural language processing to provide a more focused and efficient approach to risk management.
With assisted risk exploration, security admins can use natural language queries to explore cloud risks in a more targeted manner. A security admin can use natural language to ask Copilot about their risks, including:
Show critical risks to publicly exposed resources
Show critical risks to sensitive data
Show resources with high severity vulnerabilities
Let’s take critical risks to publicly exposed resources, for example. Copilot will use the data within the cloud map to generate a response, providing a breakdown of the resources at risk. It guides the exploration process by suggesting the next prompts to continue narrowing down risks and prioritizing the most relevant recommendations, such as those with high severity vulnerabilities.
Read the full post here: Accelerate cloud security risk remediation with Microsoft Copilot for Security
By Asaf Nakash
As cloud environments experience rapid expansion, evolution, and increasing complexity, security teams face a significant and growing challenge in identifying, assessing, and remediating cloud security risks across multicloud environments and developer pipelines.
With Copilot in Defender for Cloud, security teams can efficiently identify critical risks across their multicloud environments and developer pipelines and streamline remediation efforts to make the most impact on their security posture.
The embedded Copilot capabilities in Defender for Cloud help you accelerate time to remediation, including:
Assisted risk exploration skills provides contextual summaries of your cloud risks, including the most impactful risks to your cloud resources.
Assisted risk remediation skills that provide guidance and streamline remediation with contextual summary of security best practices, step-by-step instructions, and necessary remediation scripts.
Enhanced Risk Exploration with Copilot in Defender for Cloud
Many security admins face the burden of complex multicloud environments without the proper resources to prioritize and manage an overwhelming number of identified security risks across their environments. With Copilot in Defender for Cloud, security admins can leverage AI and natural language processing to provide a more focused and efficient approach to risk management.
With assisted risk exploration, security admins can use natural language queries to explore cloud risks in a more targeted manner. A security admin can use natural language to ask Copilot about their risks, including:
Show critical risks to publicly exposed resources
Show critical risks to sensitive data
Show resources with high severity vulnerabilities
Let’s take critical risks to publicly exposed resources, for example. Copilot will use the data within the cloud map to generate a response, providing a breakdown of the resources at risk. It guides the exploration process by suggesting the next prompts to continue narrowing down risks and prioritizing the most relevant recommendations, such as those with high severity vulnerabilities.
Read the full post here: Accelerate cloud security risk remediation with Microsoft Copilot for Security
Mac Yahoo mail not receiving Microsoft Outlook emails
emails sent by someone using Outlook for Mac are not being received in my Mac Yahoo account. We are using a Microsoft 365 version of Outlook
emails sent by someone using Outlook for Mac are not being received in my Mac Yahoo account. We are using a Microsoft 365 version of Outlook Read More
Public Preview of Split Experimentation in Azure App Configuration
We are excited to announce the public preview of Split Experimentation in Azure App Configuration. In today’s software development, delivering high-quality features rapidly while minimizing risk is a top priority. Our new experimentation capability extends feature flags in App Configuration, helping you balance speed, accuracy, and safety to effectively de-risk application development.
This new capability leverages the existing services you use to host your applications in Azure, integrating with App Configuration and Application Insights. The experimentation engine is powered by the robust analysis capabilities of Split Software, Inc., running on Azure.
Why Experimentation?
Feature flags in App Configuration already offer substantial benefits, including risk reduction, enhanced operational control, and targeted user segmentation. Experimentation takes these benefits to the next level, unlocking major value in the form of:
Data-Driven Decisions: Optimize features based on actual user data, improving performance and satisfaction.
Risk Mitigation: Identify potential issues early by exposing features to a controlled group, reducing widespread problems and improving MTTD and MTTR.
A/B Testing: Determine which feature version performs better through controlled user group testing.
Faster Feedback Loop: Quickly iterate and improve features based on real user input.
In this era of intelligent applications and AI-driven technologies, experimentation plays a pivotal role in harnessing the full potential of AI models. It enables developers to effectively integrate AI models, optimize user experiences, and significantly enhance the success of Gen AI based features in their intelligent applications.
How to run experimentation in Azure?
Azure App Configuration now offers Variant Feature Flags, enabling more granular control and flexibility beyond traditional Boolean flags. Here’s how to run experiments on these variants in three simple steps:
Define your Feature: Specify your feature and its variants in Azure App Configuration to provide tailored experiences for different scenarios.
Send Telemetry Data: Send telemetry data on variant evaluations and events to Application Insights to monitor performance and impact.
Experiment and Define Metrics: Create experiments on variant feature flags and define metrics to track the new features.
Split Experimentation processes telemetry data from Application Insights to help identify the top-performing variant based on your defined metrics. Experiment results can be viewed directly in the App Configuration store.
Getting Started
Explore our sample application to see how experimentation can enhance your development process. Start with the .NET azd sample, Quote of the Day, featuring a variant feature flag “Greeting” with two variants: “Off” and “On.” Users with the “On” variant see a greeting before the quote; users with the “Off” variant see only the quote.
Success is measured by tracking the “Like” metric for the click event on the heart button, showing user preference. Results show that “On” variant is the desired variant, that is, users tend to click on heart button more if they see the greeting with the quote.
Learn more
For more details, check the documentation. Join the community of developers transforming their feature management strategies with Azure and Split.io. Happy experimenting!
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
How to update a system field, which was from SharePoint On-Premise
Hello all,
Could you do me a favor?
I have a library that was moved from SharePoint on-premise. In SharePoint on-premise, there was a feature to track workflows, which SharePoint online doesn’t have.
The problem is, we want to update the Approval Status using Power Automate, but the field is from SharePoint on-premise and it’s a system field.
I’m not sure how to update these values.
Hello all, Could you do me a favor? I have a library that was moved from SharePoint on-premise. In SharePoint on-premise, there was a feature to track workflows, which SharePoint online doesn’t have. The problem is, we want to update the Approval Status using Power Automate, but the field is from SharePoint on-premise and it’s a system field. I’m not sure how to update these values. Read More
Do Beta Channel users still have access to “preview data types” like Zip Code?
This video led me to believe that Beta channel users have access to “Preview data types” which includes zip code, among others. I’m a beta channel user and see none of these preview data types. How can I fix?
This video led me to believe that Beta channel users have access to “Preview data types” which includes zip code, among others. I’m a beta channel user and see none of these preview data types. How can I fix? Read More
Working Hours Change Mid Project
How do I account for working hours changing after a project has started? If I create a project with a custom calendar and have 6 days a week 10 hours each day and then this changes to 5 days and 8 hours a week….or the reverse of this.
How do I account for working hours changing after a project has started? If I create a project with a custom calendar and have 6 days a week 10 hours each day and then this changes to 5 days and 8 hours a week….or the reverse of this. Read More
Schema Drift with Managed Virtual Network runtime
Hi,
I have followed this article to develop a dataflow which will move data between two tables on different Azure SQL databases:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/concepts-data-flow-schema-drift
I also enable schema drift in the data flow on both source and sink, and made sure auto mapping is enabled, and both source and destination data sets have no schema definitions.
When I run the flow, it works and move data but it doesn’t detect schema changes. If I add a new column in the source table it won’t come through to a destination table.
The only reason I can think of is that schema drift is not supported by Managed Virtual Network runtime, which I have used to create linked services for source and destination.
Can someone confirm wheter that would be the case?
Many Thanks,
WJ
Hi, I have followed this article to develop a dataflow which will move data between two tables on different Azure SQL databases: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/concepts-data-flow-schema-drift I also enable schema drift in the data flow on both source and sink, and made sure auto mapping is enabled, and both source and destination data sets have no schema definitions. When I run the flow, it works and move data but it doesn’t detect schema changes. If I add a new column in the source table it won’t come through to a destination table. The only reason I can think of is that schema drift is not supported by Managed Virtual Network runtime, which I have used to create linked services for source and destination. Can someone confirm wheter that would be the case? Many Thanks, WJ Read More
More flexible Windows feature updates
Are you an IT administrator looking for a way to get more out of Windows Update for Business deployment service? If so, we’re pleased to announce greater flexibility in Windows feature updates. This new capability allows you to streamline Windows 11 upgrades across your organization, keeping everyone’s devices up to date while minimizing disruption to their workflow.
What’s changing?
In the past, Windows Update for Business deployment service would seek out updates relevant to your system, then download and install them on a device without a user’s participation. That’s because feature updates are offered to your organization as required updates. As an IT admin, you can create a gradual rollout schedule or set deferrals for the devices. This gives your users a few days before the update is force-installed and their devices restart.
Starting today, it’s even easier for the users at your organization to upgrade early if you offer them feature updates as optional. This gives you the following benefits:
Early feedback: You can gather valuable feedback and insights early by letting some users opt in as early testers of a new feature update. Then proceed with confidence.
Risk prevention: Testing prevents risks. You can test new feature updates, realize benefits, and evaluate risks before organization-wide deployment.
Greater productivity: If users choose when to install an update, you don’t have to worry much about disruption to organizational workflow and productivity.
And the best part: you’re always in control of which devices get this option and when. Your other rollout options, like the start date and gradual rollout, will dictate when the optional update becomes available on user devices. Let us show you what your and your users’ experience will be like.
Note: This feature is being rolled out gradually and should be available broadly by May 24, 2024.
How to deploy and monitor feature updates as optional using Microsoft Intune
If you use Microsoft Intune, follow these simple steps to deploy feature updates as optional:
Navigate to the Microsoft Intune admin center.
Go to Devices > Windows 10 and later updates > Feature Updates and select Create new Profile.
Select the new deployment setting to set deployment as either optional or required.
Select Make available to users as an optional update to enable users to choose their update timing.
Once the deployment is created and the update is available for the device, your users can go to Start > Windows Settings > Windows Update to download and install the update.
Once the policy is submitted, the optional update will be available to users within 1-2 days. They can use the Check for updates action, then Download and install the update when ready.
Ready to mandate the deployment of the feature update to the remaining devices? Just switch the feature deployment settings in Step 3 to “required.”
Don’t forget that you can also configure a gradual rollout or other rollout options for devices that still require the update. That would simplify the transition to mandatory deployment mode.
Check for Windows feature updates today
With this new update, organizations can ensure a seamless and user-centric approach to Windows 11 upgrades. Empower your users today with this innovative capability.
If you need more help getting started with feature updates in Microsoft Graph or Microsoft Intune, see our documentation:
Deploy a feature update using the Windows Update for Business deployment service – Microsoft Graph
Configure feature updates policy for Windows 10 Windows 11 devices in Intune
Overview of the deployment service – Windows Update for Business deployment service
Continue the conversation. Find best practices. Bookmark the Windows Tech Community, then follow us @MSWindowsITPro on X/Twitter. Looking for support? Visit Windows on Microsoft Q&A.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Zappify 2.0 Best Bug Zapper-{Does Zappify Work}-[SCAM EXPOSED] You Need To Know Before Buying !!
Say goodbye to annoying buzzing sounds and itchy bites with this innovative solution. The Zappify Mosquito Zapper is designed to target mosquitoes specifically, ensuring that your living space remains free from these bothersome pests. With easy-to-use features and a sleek design, this device is a must-have for any home looking to combat mosquito troubles. Don’t let mosquitoes disrupt your peace any longer – invest in the Zappify Mosquito Zapper and enjoy uninterrupted sleep every night.
(EXCLUSIVE OFFER) Buy Zappify Mosquito For A Limited Time Discounted Price Here
Say goodbye to annoying buzzing sounds and itchy bites with this innovative solution. The Zappify Mosquito Zapper is designed to target mosquitoes specifically, ensuring that your living space remains free from these bothersome pests. With easy-to-use features and a sleek design, this device is a must-have for any home looking to combat mosquito troubles. Don’t let mosquitoes disrupt your peace any longer – invest in the Zappify Mosquito Zapper and enjoy uninterrupted sleep every night. (EXCLUSIVE OFFER) Buy Zappify Mosquito For A Limited Time Discounted Price Here Read More
Object Controllable not showing in the Control Panel in Mesh app
I have noticed that if I set an Object Controllable’s ‘Default is Visible’ property to false in the Unity IDE then the object doesn’t show but also doesn’t give me an option to turn it back on in the control panel.
I have noticed that if I set an Object Controllable’s ‘Default is Visible’ property to false in the Unity IDE then the object doesn’t show but also doesn’t give me an option to turn it back on in the control panel. Read More
Unclear which way to go about data analysis
Hi I have a list of companies where there are up to 3 founders in each with their own demographics all in the same row. I am looking for a way to analyze the demographics of each company by person. So for instance I want to know if the company has a female founder or a female black founder etc. There are 1000s of companies so Im looking for a way to do this at scale. Do you have any ideas? I was thinking I could do If statements but due to the endless possibilities I need to analyze this could take a while? (Because I’d have to create an if statement for each possibility – example, if f4=female and g4=black or if h4=female and , if i4=black, etc)
Hi I have a list of companies where there are up to 3 founders in each with their own demographics all in the same row. I am looking for a way to analyze the demographics of each company by person. So for instance I want to know if the company has a female founder or a female black founder etc. There are 1000s of companies so Im looking for a way to do this at scale. Do you have any ideas? I was thinking I could do If statements but due to the endless possibilities I need to analyze this could take a while? (Because I’d have to create an if statement for each possibility – example, if f4=female and g4=black or if h4=female and , if i4=black, etc) Read More
I can’t export my emails in Microsoft Outlook 365!
I took Microsoft Outlook 365 subscription from GoDaddy. I downloaded the app in MAC (MacBook Pro M1 Max). After following the support guidelines from GoDaddy I couldn’t find the options to export emails (even in legacy mode the options didn’t show up). Please assist me to take backup of my current emails.
I took Microsoft Outlook 365 subscription from GoDaddy. I downloaded the app in MAC (MacBook Pro M1 Max). After following the support guidelines from GoDaddy I couldn’t find the options to export emails (even in legacy mode the options didn’t show up). Please assist me to take backup of my current emails. Read More
Only Getting Five Queries per Thread
Hello, I am using copilot (https://copilot.microsoft.com/?wlexpsignin=1) and recently (last week or so) I have been limited to only five queries per thread. Is there some reason for why this has occurred? Is there any way to go back to the old limit of 30 queries? I am noticing that on the iPhone I am getting thirty queries.
Hello, I am using copilot (https://copilot.microsoft.com/?wlexpsignin=1) and recently (last week or so) I have been limited to only five queries per thread. Is there some reason for why this has occurred? Is there any way to go back to the old limit of 30 queries? I am noticing that on the iPhone I am getting thirty queries. Read More
Vlookup array formula in a table
Hi, is there any possibility to use VLOOKUP and match array functions to auto-populate the table by entering a formula in H2?
Hi, is there any possibility to use VLOOKUP and match array functions to auto-populate the table by entering a formula in H2? Read More
Forms Admin Center Feature Request
Please create a MS Forms admin center. Users often request access to Forms of employees who have left and there is no direct way to grant this access. We end up having to reactivate the deactivated account, sign in as the user, search for the form and grant permissions. This is not ideal and it’s onerous.
Thank you
Please create a MS Forms admin center. Users often request access to Forms of employees who have left and there is no direct way to grant this access. We end up having to reactivate the deactivated account, sign in as the user, search for the form and grant permissions. This is not ideal and it’s onerous. Thank you Read More