Private Channels Just Don’t Get Any Respect
Launched Just Prior to Covid, Private Channels Lost Impetus when Teams Changed Gears
To much excitement at the time, Microsoft introduced private channels for Teams at the Ignite conference in Orlando in November 2019. Teams was a very different proposition then. The Covid pandemic was still a few months away and less than 20 million people used Teams regularly. Private channels were the first major development in Teams since its launch in early 2017. They were a response to the misgivings voiced in many customers that all members of a team enjoyed equal access to channel conversations and the team’s SharePoint Online site.
Roll forward five years and Teams is in a very different place. The pandemic generated huge demand for online collaboration in general and online meetings in particular. Microsoft had to continually strengthen the Azure-based Teams infrastructure to cope with demand as the number of users swelled continually. Growth has slowed recently, but Teams now has 320 million monthly active users, or roughly 80% of the Office 365 installed base based on the latest numbers released by Microsoft.
After their launch, the initial excitement around private channels soon began to fade. In 2021, Microsoft began to hype shared channels (eventually released in 2022). Focus shifted to the possibilities of trans-tenant collaboration rather than the inward-nature restrictions offered by private channels. You can tell where the latest craze exists by counting the number of sessions offered for a specific technology by large conferences.
ESPC in Stockholm
The agenda for technology conferences like ESCP 2024 in Stockholm (December 2-5) is currently dominated by artificial intelligence because that’s what people want to talk about, despite the fact that AI is still not widely used across the Office 365 base. I’ll still enjoy ESPC, where I speak twice about non-AI topics (Mastering the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK and Decoding the Microsoft 365 Audit Log), and I’ll happily listen to the latest propaganda telling me how to work with AI.
Private channels don’t feature on the ESPC agenda, nor did I see anything on the topic at the Microsoft 365 conference in Orlando last May. I suspect that private channels won’t receive much coverage at the upcoming Ignite conference in Chicago. That’s no reflection on the importance or usefulness of the technology. After all, Microsoft 365 conferences usually avoid allocating sessions to cover Exchange Online, despite the essential role that Exchange plays in the overall ecosystem and the massive changes Microsoft is making for hybrid organizations, like forcing tenants to upgrade servers and the introduction of Exchange Server subscription edition next year.
Odd Session Selection at Some Technology Conferences
If conference programs were selected based on the importance of a technology to Microsoft 365 sessions would be dominated by Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Entra ID (including security), and Teams, with some sessions to cover PowerShell and the Microsoft Graph.
However, that’s not what happens, perhaps because the folks who select sessions are overly influenced by Microsoft marketing (including sponsorship dollars). What else accounts for conferences giving valuable time to cover everything in the Viva Suite, Loop, and the like? Far too many conference sessions are given over to technologies that are marginally interesting in terms of overall usage within tenants. There will always be the need for sessions to cover emerging technologies (AI is firmly in this category), but some conference selections are just odd.
The Worth of Private Channels
Back to private channels. My interest was reawakened the other day when discussing a problem a university had. Like most institutions, the university has a program to allow people to file complaints that are then investigated by the relevant facility. They were advised that they’d need to set up a separate team for each facility to store details of investigations in a secure SharePoint site. No one had considered creating a single team with separate private channels for each facility. Private channels limit access to the subset of the team membership who become channel members. No one else, not even team owners, can access the content in the private channel, including its separate SharePoint Online site.
The advantage of using private channels is the avoidance of team sprawl. Creating a new private channel is as easy as creating a regular channel (Figure 1). After creating a private channel, the only other task is to add members to the channel.
In the case in question, all the people in the university who work on complaints can be members of the team with subsets becoming members of the private channels created for the facilities. Team members share common knowledge such as program announcements and guidelines without compromising the integrity of their investigations in any way.
Another advantage is that people won’t create a group chat to take a discussion to a more limited forum. In fact, people should be discouraged from using group chats for anything that involves sensitive information.
An individual team can support up to 1,000 channels, of which up to 30 can be private channels. Being able to segment confidential and sensitive work across private channels within a team is a nice way to protect information. And if you want information to remain even more private, consider creating a sensitivity label that limits access to the members of a private channel and assigning the label to every document stored in the channel. That way, even if a document “escapes” outside the channel, its content will remain inaccessible.
I use private channels daily. They’re a great host for private collaboration on a need-to-know basis. It’s just a pity that so few people seem to know about private channels.
How Microsoft Copilot Generates Compliance Records
Microsoft 365 Substrate Captures Interaction Details for Microsoft Copilot
After writing about how to use the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK to analyze the interactions between users and Microsoft 365 Copilot in various apps, I was asked if the code reports interaction records for Microsoft Copilot. This is the free version of Copilot that appears in the Microsoft 365 app when a signed-in Entra ID user account doesn’t have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
The big difference between the free and paid-for version is that Microsoft 365 Copilot can use Graph queries to find email, Teams messages, and documents to ground its queries while Microsoft Copilot is limited to Microsoft’s LLMs and Bing web searches. In addition, Microsoft 365 Copilot comes with extra features, such as custom Copilot agents for SharePoint Online.
Both versions support enterprise data protection (EDP). Microsoft added support for EDP to Microsoft Copilot in August 2024 and the announcement specifically says that information about prompts and responses is retained for eDiscovery purposes.
Asking Microsoft Copilot
My first step to gather information was to ask Microsoft Copilot if it generates interaction compliance records. Figure 1 shows the negative response.
Looking Behind the Scenes
As Microsoft Copilot couldn’t answer the question, it was time to look behind the scenes. I figured that the Microsoft 365 substrate would store anything it captured for Microsoft Copilot interactions in the same hidden TeamsMessagesData folder in the user’s mailbox.
Some are curious why Microsoft selected TeamsMessagesData as the storage location for these records. It doesn’t really matter what folder is used if it’s hidden and indexed for eDiscovery, but I think Microsoft chose TeamsMessagesData because the Copilot chats are very much like regular Teams one-on-one chats. The substrate captures Teams compliance records for one-on-one chats in the same folder.
MFCMAPI is the best tool to investigate mailbox contents. After using Microsoft Copilot several times, I opened the TeamsMessagesData folder with MFCMAPI and discovered that the substrate had captured compliance records for the Copilot interactions. Figure 2 shows the record captured for the prompt shown in Figure 1.
Once I located the compliance records, it was easy to update the PowerShell script to extract and report the Microsoft Copilot interactions. The updated code is available from GitHub.
No Data Shown for Responses
I noticed that compliance records captured for Microsoft Copilot responses do not include the response in the Body and BodyPreview properties. The same is true for responses generated for Microsoft 365 Chat (BizChat) responses. Looking back through records for Microsoft 365 Chat interactions, it appears that the only output is any documents located by Copilot to form its response. In Figure 3, we see a reference to a document in a Microsoft 365 Chat response followed by some base 64 encoded text.
Inputting the encoded text into an online decoder reveals the text (Figure 4). It looks like whatever routine Microsoft uses to generate the compliance record doesn’t decode the text before it’s written into the mail item used to store the record in TeamsMessagesData.
The encoded state of the information also explains why the Activity Explorer in the AI Hub in the Purview portal can’t display Copilot’s response to a prompt (Figure 5).
Summarizing Microsoft Copilot and Compliance Records
The answer to the question is that compliance records are generated for Microsoft Copilot interactions. However, the information logged in the compliance records isn’t as easy to access as it should be. The flaw shared by Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft 365 chat suggests that some buggy code is shared by the two apps. It should be easy for Microsoft to decode responses from base64 before including clear text in compliance records.
The issue is reported, but quite when a fix will appear is anyone’s guess. Hopefully, because the problem means that compliance records aren’t as useful as they should be, the fix should appear soon.
Insight like this doesn’t come easily. You’ve got to know the technology and understand how to look behind the scenes. Benefit from the knowledge and experience of the Office 365 for IT Pros team by subscribing to the best eBook covering Office 365 and the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Exchange Online Adds Delicensing Resiliency
A Truly Horrible Name for What’s a Pretty Good Way to Stop User Mailboxes Being Removed in Error
On November 5, the Exchange development group announced the new delicensing resiliency feature. Unfortunately, the blog post for the announcement went out at the same time that the Microsoft Technical Community was in the middle of a major upgrade (it was offline for most of the day), so you might not have seen the news.
Delicensing resiliency is a horrible name for a feature. What it means is that large Exchange Online tenants (with more than 10,000 paid seats) can enable an extra layer of protection for unlicensed mailboxes. Most users are licensed for Exchange Online through a service plan included in a product SKU like Office 365 E3 (Figure 1) or Microsoft 365 Business Premium. An Exchange Online license can be bought separately, but that’s usually only done to enable features like an archive for shared mailboxes.
When a product license containing the Exchange Online service plan is removed from an Entra ID user account, Exchange Online notices that the user’s mailbox is no longer licensed and starts a 30-day countdown clock. Because it is no longer licensed, the user loses access to the mailbox. However, if an administrator assigns an Exchange Online license or service plan to the account, the mailbox reverts to a licensed state and normal service is resumed. If not, Exchange Online proceeds to permanently remove the mailbox and data is no longer recoverable.
One way that organizations guard against inadvertent removal of mailboxes is to make the mailbox into an inactive mailbox by applying a retention hold to the mailbox before removing licenses (or complete account deletion). This mechanism works and supports both mailbox recovery and restore, but the affected users lose access to their mailbox because it’s in an unlicensed state.
Group Licensing Errors
What seems to have happened in the past is that some tenants have made mistakes with group-based licensing. This mechanism allows a group to hold licenses that Entra ID assigns automatically to users when they join the group. Conversely, when someone leaves the group, Entra ID removes the license held by the group.
Exchange Online has supported license stacking since January 2023. License stacking means that a user account can be assigned several licenses of the same type. For instance, they can hold Office 365 E5 and Microsoft 365 E5 licenses, both of which come with an Exchange Online Plan 2 service plan. If one license is removed, the second license remains in place and the user’s mailbox is unaffected. License stacking facilitates license swapping or switching, which happens when a tenant upgrades its licenses and needs to assign new licenses to users while removing old licenses.
It’s possible that some license swaps went wrong in the past due to errors made in group-based assignments. Perhaps users were removed from the group that controlled assignments of the old license without being added to the group that controlled assignments for the new license. It’s easy to see how such a thing could occur. The upshot is that accounts removed from the original group enter an unlicensed state for Exchange Online and lose access to their mailboxes, which is not a great situation to be in as it disrupts internal and external communications and can cause users not to receive email.
The Extra 30-Day Grace Period
Microsoft’s solution is to introduce an additional 30-day grace period during which unlicensed mailboxes remain fully functional. The extra time is intended to allow administrators to realize that a problem has occurred and take appropriate action, which might be something as simple as adding the affected users to a group.
After the 30-day grace period lapses, the normal mailbox removal process clicks into gear and the user loses access to their mailbox. Eventually, the 30-day removal retention period expires, and Exchange Online removes the mailbox permanently.
Tools to Help with Delicensing Resiliency
To back up the extra grace period, Microsoft is providing several tools, including:
- A new Get-PendingDelicenseUser cmdlet to check for mailboxes due to be delicensed.
- A new Licenses removed recently tab in the Billing section of the Microsoft 365 admin center to list mailboxes in the grace period (with an option to expedite delicensing for a mailbox, meaning that it goes straight into the normal 30-day removal cycle).
- Service Health advisories for admins when “delicensing activity” occurs (presumably only when the delicensing resiliency feature is enabled and only covering Exchange Online licenses)
- Email notifications to users whose Exchange Online license has been removed telling them to contact their administrator if the removal was in error.
Overall, it seems like a pretty good plan. Of course, I followed the instructions in the documentation to see what happened if I enabled the feature and failed utterly:
Set-OrganizationConfig -DelayedDelicensingEnabled:$true Set-OrganizationConfig: |Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Tasks.DelayedDelicensedUserException|Your tenant does not qualify for the Exchange Online Delicensing Resiliency feature, which is only available to tenants with more than 10,000 paid licenses.
Oh well. Most mailboxes removed in my tenant are as a result of my actions. I guess I don’t need to worry so much about this kind of thing. But if I was running a tenant with more than 10,000 paid Exchange seats, this is absolutely a feature to enable.
Learn about using Exchange Online and the rest of Office 365 by subscribing to the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook. Use our experience to understand what’s important and how best to protect your tenant.
Loop App Adds More Support for Sensitivity Labels
Using the Loop App to Protect Pages with Sensitivity Labels
Message center notification MC923176 (1 November 2024, Microsoft 365 roadmap item 111225) announces that workspace owners can apply container management sensitivity labels to workspaces in the Loop app “to prevent oversharing and manage access effectively.” The Loop app entered preview in March 2023 and achieved general availability in November 2023. Microsoft initially anticipated rolling out sensitivity label support in the first half of 2024 as part of a plan to enable external sharing. As described in MC923419, that plan should come to fruition soon with support for guest account access to Loop workspaces.
Microsoft is deploying the MC923176 and MC923419 updates now and expects the deployment to be complete worldwide by early December for both the Loop browser and mobile apps. The updates haven’t yet reached my tenant so I can’t comment on how they work. To set the scene, I investigated how the Loop app supports the use of sensitivity labels to protect pages in Loop workspaces.
Loop Workspaces and Pages
A loop workspace is a container managed by SharePoint embedded. The storage occupied by a workspace is charged against the tenant’s SharePoint storage quota. Workspaces are composed of pages and components. The big thing about Loop is the speed in which it synchronizes changes made to components so that the same data appears anywhere the component is referenced, such as in Teams or Outlook messages.
Applying a sensitivity label to a Loop page is easy. A small shield icon appears at the top of each page. Click the shield to reveal the set of sensitivity labels configured for files that are published to the signed-in account (Figure 1). If a sensitivity label is already applied to the page, you’ll see a tick mark alongside the label in the list.
Oddly, all of my Loop pages had the Public label. This was strange because the label publishing policies used in my tenant don’t specify a default label for documents. However, the policies do specify a default label for email, and I assume that Loop misread the policy and selected the default email label.
The other thing I noticed is that Loop doesn’t support the color coding for sensitivity labels in the same way as the Office apps do. It’s probably because Loop doesn’t support the sensitivity bar used by the Office apps to allow users to update the name, assign a sensitivity label, and view the version history for a file. If you’ve spent time to give sensitivity labels a splash of color, such as using the traffic light system to indicate the relatative sensitivity of a file, the carefully selected colors don’t appear.
Check Label Rights
Sensitivity labels use rights management to control access to documents. If a workspace was previously shared with someone, they won’t be able to access pages in that workspace if the assigned sensitivity labels don’t grant the right to allow them to open and work with the content (Figure 2).
Some Odd Implementation Details
The Loop developers seem to have left some gaps in their implementation of sensitivity labels. For instance, a user with the sharing right to open the workspace who is blocked from accessing pages and components can still add new pages, duplicate pages, add a page to another workspace (where they can’t open the page because of the label), or even create a new subpage and edit that component because the subpage doesn’t appear to inherit the label assigned to the workspace (Figure 3).
In addition, sometimes a blocked user was able to view the content of a blocked page even while the Loop app informed them that it couldn’t open the page (Figure 4). This situation persisted until the user exited and restarted Loop.
Overall, it seems like the Loop app should do a better job of restricting access to page options when a sensitivity label blocks access to a page.
Finally, if a user who shares a workspace can access a page, they can change the sensitivity label assigned to the page (Figure 5). I don’t think this is a good idea. Only the workspace owner should be allowed to change the assigned label for a page.
It’s good that the Loop app is moving ahead to embrace sensitivity labels. The issues described above are the kind often found in first-round implementations. Hopefully, they’ll be resolved soon.
Insight like this doesn’t come easily. You’ve got to know the technology and understand how to look behind the scenes. Benefit from the knowledge and experience of the Office 365 for IT Pros team by subscribing to the best eBook covering Office 365 and the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Announcing the General Availability of Windows Server IoT 2025!
I am very excited to announce the General Availability of Windows Server IoT 2025! This release represents a pivotal achievement in our mission to deliver secure, innovative, and high-performance Windows Server IoT platform tailored to meet your needs. Windows Server IoT 2025 includes innovations in multiple areas including Advanced Multilayer Security, Hybrid Cloud Agility, and AI, Performance, & Scale. For more information, see Windows Server IoT documentation.
ADVANCED MULTILAYER SECURITY
In an era where cybersecurity is of utmost importance (see the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2024 and the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Healthcare Ransomware Report), Windows Server IoT 2025 stands out with a suite of cutting-edge security features designed to safeguard your data and infrastructure. Here are a few key capabilities:
- Active Directory (AD): The gold standard for identity and authentication only gets better with new security capabilities to help fortify your environment against evolving threats with greater scalability and improvements in protocols, encryption, hardening, and new cryptographic support.
- File Services/Server Message Block (SMB) Hardening: Windows Server IoT 2025 includes SMB over QUIC to enable secure access to file shares over the internet. SMB security also adds hardened firewall defaults, brute force attack prevention, and protections for man in the middle attacks, relay attacks, and spoofing attacks.
- Delegate Managed Service Accounts (dMSA): Unlike traditional service accounts, dMSAs don’t require manual password management since AD automatically takes care of it. With dMSAs, specific permissions can be delegated to access resources in the domain, which reduces security risks and provides better visibility and logs of service account activity.
These advanced security features make Windows Server IoT 2025 a robust and secure platform for your IT infrastructure that you should begin evaluation immediately.
AI, PERFORMANCE, AND SCALE
Windows Server IoT 2025 is designed to handle the most demanding workloads, including AI and machine learning. Here are some key capabilities:
- Hyper-V, AI, and Machine Learning: With built-in support for GPU partitioning and the ability to process large data sets across distributed environments, Windows Server IoT 2025 offers a high-performance platform for both traditional applications and advanced AI workloads with Live Migration and High Availability.
- NVMe Storage Performance: Windows Server IoT 2025 delivers up to 70% more storage IOPs performance compared to Windows Server IoT 2022 on identical systems.
- Storage Spaces Direct and Storage Flexibility: Windows Server IoT supports a wide range of storage solutions such as local, NAS, and SAN for decades and continues to this day. Windows Server IoT 2025 delivers more storage innovation with Native ReFS deduplication and compression, Thinly Provisioned Storage Spaces, and Storage Replica Compression now available in all editions of Windows Server IoT 2025.
- Hyper-V Performance and Scale: Windows Server IoT 2025 introduces massive performance and scalability improvements that come from Azure. Windows Server IoT 2025 Hyper-V virtual machine maximums:
- Maximum memory per VM: 240 Terabytes* (10x previous)
- Maximum virtual processors per VM: 2048 VPs* (~8.5x previous)
*Requires Generation 2 VMs
Windows Server IoT 2025 delivers major advancements across the board for Hyper-V, GPU integration, Storage Spaces Direct (software defined storage), software-defined networking, and clustering. These improvements make Windows Server IoT 2025 an excellent option for organizations looking for a virtualization solution and for organizations looking to leverage AI and machine learning while maintaining high performance and scalability.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Power Automate to update columns for content stored in a document library
Hi everyone,
Wondering if this group could help answer whether it was possible to use power automate to update contents stored in a SharePoint Online Document Library. Basically update the different columns they have (eg. Description, custom columns etc) with data stored on something like a csv file?
Is that doable at all with Power Automate?
Ex.
Doc Library:
ID Name Test Field
1 Test File <Blank>
CSV File:
ID Name Test Field
1 Test File Hello World
Post Power Automate state of Doc Library Content:
ID Name Test Field
1 Test File Hello World
Hi everyone, Wondering if this group could help answer whether it was possible to use power automate to update contents stored in a SharePoint Online Document Library. Basically update the different columns they have (eg. Description, custom columns etc) with data stored on something like a csv file? Is that doable at all with Power Automate? Ex. Doc Library:ID Name Test Field1 Test File <Blank> CSV File:ID Name Test Field1 Test File Hello World Post Power Automate state of Doc Library Content:ID Name Test Field1 Test File Hello World Read More
America’s Partner Blog | Partners Make More Possible: Education
AI is revolutionizing education worldwide, and our Microsoft partners egroup, Anthology, and Territorium are leading the charge. 71% of education professionals are now harnessing AI to tailor learning experiences, enhance efficiency, and alleviate burnout. Don’t miss the latest episode of Microsoft + Partners Make More Possible with Nina Harding and Carl Hooker to discover how we’re making a remarkable impact together!
Watch the video here!
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
फ्लिपकार्ट की शिकायत कैसे करें?
फ़्लिपकार्ट ग्राहक सेवा अधिकारी से बात करने के लिए 9831×224×914 या O983~1224~914 ▪︎डायल करें । आपको अपनी समस्या को स्पष्ट और संक्षिप्त तरीके से बताना होगा। आधिकारिक शिकायत दर्ज करने के लिए अधिकारी आपसे आपकी ऑर्डर आईडी, पंजीकृत मोबाइल नंबर..
फ़्लिपकार्ट ग्राहक सेवा अधिकारी से बात करने के लिए 9831×224×914 या O983~1224~914 ▪︎डायल करें । आपको अपनी समस्या को स्पष्ट और संक्षिप्त तरीके से बताना होगा। आधिकारिक शिकायत दर्ज करने के लिए अधिकारी आपसे आपकी ऑर्डर आईडी, पंजीकृत मोबाइल नंबर.. Read More
Microsoft GenAI Accelerator: developing the UK’s best and brightest AI-focused startups
Microsoft launches GenAI Accelerator with NVIDIA and GitHub to boost UK AI start-ups
Important news for all UK startups! Microsoft has launched the GenAI Accelerator initiative in partnership with NVIDIA and GitHub to develop the UK’s brightest and best AI-focused start-ups and springboard them to future success. This initiative will provide exclusive resources and opportunities to companies looking to build, market, and scale up their generative AI products and services.
The Accelerator will run from January 2025 to early March 2025 and is specifically tailored for UK AI start-ups that have secured seed funding and are looking to take their products to the next level. Microsoft is seeking companies whose innovative AI-powered products have the potential to change people’s lives for the better, create jobs, and have significant economic impact.
The Accelerator will culminate in a Demo Day, during which participants will have the opportunity to showcase their products to top venture capitalists and private equity firms.
Participants will receive one-to-one support from Microsoft’s AI ‘Black Belt’ team – specialists in AI and machine learning – as well as access to workshops and help provided by partners NVIDIA and GitHub.
Learn more about the benefits of this initiative and how to apply: Microsoft launches GenAI Accelerator with NVIDIA and GitHub to boost UK AI start-ups.
Microsoft launches GenAI Accelerator with NVIDIA and GitHub to boost UK AI start-ups
Important news for all UK startups! Microsoft has launched the GenAI Accelerator initiative in partnership with NVIDIA and GitHub to develop the UK’s brightest and best AI-focused start-ups and springboard them to future success. This initiative will provide exclusive resources and opportunities to companies looking to build, market, and scale up their generative AI products and services.
The Accelerator will run from January 2025 to early March 2025 and is specifically tailored for UK AI start-ups that have secured seed funding and are looking to take their products to the next level. Microsoft is seeking companies whose innovative AI-powered products have the potential to change people’s lives for the better, create jobs, and have significant economic impact.
The Accelerator will culminate in a Demo Day, during which participants will have the opportunity to showcase their products to top venture capitalists and private equity firms.
Participants will receive one-to-one support from Microsoft’s AI ‘Black Belt’ team – specialists in AI and machine learning – as well as access to workshops and help provided by partners NVIDIA and GitHub.
Learn more about the benefits of this initiative and how to apply: Microsoft launches GenAI Accelerator with NVIDIA and GitHub to boost UK AI start-ups. Read More
Shame on Microsoft
So it seems like removing forum posts works, but removing a certificate from the Microsoft Database OR fixing this idoti.c Microsoft Partner Portal does not work within 2 MONTHS (whereas I see problems with this Partner Portal for almost a year now)?
Maybe the Forum admins should be levelled up to become backend administrators?
If Microsoft is not competent enough to fix the Microsoft Partner Portal problems, how about hiring skilled people rather than keep going with the current incompetent people who cannot and who are not willing to fix any problems?
Don’t be shocked but Microsoft AI is not up to it and will not fix it.
Why does Microsoft want to rely on cross signed Windows drivers if Microsoft is not competent enough to implement that in their eco-system?
Digicert is able to verify a company within 1 day while Microsoft is not able to fix their B2B issues within 2 month. Microsoft is not even able to verify the developer identification properly even though the developer is set as company owner which also shows up in the DUNS database.
What’s the goal of all that? Keep/make other people angry?
It’s so easy to fix those issues, why don’t you guys just fix them?
And reading .. the other department doesn’t share information, yes well then they should be laid off or getting taught to share information. The way Microsoft is going is absolute incompetent at the moment.
I really wonder how Microsoft can run a cloud service with such unreliable staff, customers joining this madness is nothing but an economical sui.cide mission.
So it seems like removing forum posts works, but removing a certificate from the Microsoft Database OR fixing this idoti.c Microsoft Partner Portal does not work within 2 MONTHS (whereas I see problems with this Partner Portal for almost a year now)?Maybe the Forum admins should be levelled up to become backend administrators? If Microsoft is not competent enough to fix the Microsoft Partner Portal problems, how about hiring skilled people rather than keep going with the current incompetent people who cannot and who are not willing to fix any problems?Don’t be shocked but Microsoft AI is not up to it and will not fix it. Why does Microsoft want to rely on cross signed Windows drivers if Microsoft is not competent enough to implement that in their eco-system? Digicert is able to verify a company within 1 day while Microsoft is not able to fix their B2B issues within 2 month. Microsoft is not even able to verify the developer identification properly even though the developer is set as company owner which also shows up in the DUNS database. What’s the goal of all that? Keep/make other people angry?It’s so easy to fix those issues, why don’t you guys just fix them? And reading .. the other department doesn’t share information, yes well then they should be laid off or getting taught to share information. The way Microsoft is going is absolute incompetent at the moment. I really wonder how Microsoft can run a cloud service with such unreliable staff, customers joining this madness is nothing but an economical sui.cide mission. Read More
एयरटेल में शिकायत कैसे करें?
एयरटेल ग्राहक सेवा अधिकारी से बात करने के लिए 9831×224×914 या O983~1224~914 ▪︎डायल करें । आपको अपनी समस्या को स्पष्ट और संक्षिप्त तरीके से बताना होगा। आधिकारिक शिकायत दर्ज करने के लिए अधिकारी आपसे आपकी ऑर्डर आईडी, पंजीकृत मोबाइल नंबर..
एयरटेल ग्राहक सेवा अधिकारी से बात करने के लिए 9831×224×914 या O983~1224~914 ▪︎डायल करें । आपको अपनी समस्या को स्पष्ट और संक्षिप्त तरीके से बताना होगा। आधिकारिक शिकायत दर्ज करने के लिए अधिकारी आपसे आपकी ऑर्डर आईडी, पंजीकृत मोबाइल नंबर.. Read More
Best way to share with External Users?
Hey all, just after the best way to share files with External users in SharePoint. Our users are increasingly having issues with external users not being able to access our files.
Sometimes its user issue like sending a sharing link only for employees with external users. Sometimes its external users tenant conflicting with ours. However, we’ve been having issues with many external users having dropped access or no access at all even though they were added to permissions.
We haven’t changed any setting in our tenant, and this was a lot smoother couple of months ago. Whats the process in your tenant for external sharing? It would be helpful if you could give me a step by step on how you do it at your org.
Right now, this is us:
- User fille out a form with necessary info.
- Security looks at the domain and make sure it’s safe.
- We whitelist the domain if it’s not already and if full name is specified, we add the guest through Azure and add the person to SharePoint permissions. If full name not specified, go to the SharePoint link and add the user straight to the folder permissions.
Thanks in advance all
Hey all, just after the best way to share files with External users in SharePoint. Our users are increasingly having issues with external users not being able to access our files. Sometimes its user issue like sending a sharing link only for employees with external users. Sometimes its external users tenant conflicting with ours. However, we’ve been having issues with many external users having dropped access or no access at all even though they were added to permissions. We haven’t changed any setting in our tenant, and this was a lot smoother couple of months ago. Whats the process in your tenant for external sharing? It would be helpful if you could give me a step by step on how you do it at your org. Right now, this is us: User fille out a form with necessary info.Security looks at the domain and make sure it’s safe.We whitelist the domain if it’s not already and if full name is specified, we add the guest through Azure and add the person to SharePoint permissions. If full name not specified, go to the SharePoint link and add the user straight to the folder permissions. Thanks in advance all Read More
Content Type Document Template Limits
I have a power user that has created a Content Type in their site with an Excel File Template. This has been working for a long time. The template was last updated in January 2024, but now suddenly the users that are using the New Menu on a List Webpart cannot create new documents using the template. I’ve reviewed the template, and the document is 95MB. Are there any known limits to how large a document template can be for a content type?
I have a power user that has created a Content Type in their site with an Excel File Template. This has been working for a long time. The template was last updated in January 2024, but now suddenly the users that are using the New Menu on a List Webpart cannot create new documents using the template. I’ve reviewed the template, and the document is 95MB. Are there any known limits to how large a document template can be for a content type? Read More
Filter results into 2 columns
Hi all,
I think this should be relatively straight forward, but can’t find a simple solution…My data has 2 columns, a week of the year and a ‘score’
I need to create a spill result (so I can generate a dynamic chart), which separates the result of a filter into 3 columns:
Column1: Week
Column2: Scores >50
Column 3: Scores <50
getting the three separate columns is not an issue, but it’s combing them into a spill result that I can’t fathom – using HSTACK with three FILTE functions means the scores/weeks do not align.
Any help much appreciated
Hi all, I think this should be relatively straight forward, but can’t find a simple solution…My data has 2 columns, a week of the year and a ‘score’ I need to create a spill result (so I can generate a dynamic chart), which separates the result of a filter into 3 columns: Column1: Week Column2: Scores >50Column 3: Scores <50 getting the three separate columns is not an issue, but it’s combing them into a spill result that I can’t fathom – using HSTACK with three FILTE functions means the scores/weeks do not align. Any help much appreciated Read More
फोनपे में गलत ट्रांजेक्शन कैसे रिफंड करें?
फ़ोनपे से पैसे कट जाने पर, ये कदम उठाए जा सकते ग्राहक सहायता से संपर्क(9831^224√914) है फ़ोनपे ऐप में जाकर, “ट्रांज़ैक्शन” या “इतिहास” सेक्शन में जाएं. असफल लेन-देन चुनें. “वापस लें” या “वापस लेने के लिए अनुरोध करें” विकल्प चुनें.
फ़ोनपे से पैसे कट जाने पर, ये कदम उठाए जा सकते ग्राहक सहायता से संपर्क(9831^224√914) है फ़ोनपे ऐप में जाकर, “ट्रांज़ैक्शन” या “इतिहास” सेक्शन में जाएं. असफल लेन-देन चुनें. “वापस लें” या “वापस लेने के लिए अनुरोध करें” विकल्प चुनें. Read More
AZ-700 Step by Step Guide for Azure Private DNS
This article is part of our AZ-700 series, offering a step-by-step guide on configuring Azure Private DNS, based on the tutorial available on YouTube. I highly recommend watching the video to gain a solid understanding of the concepts covered in this article. Through this guide, you’ll gain hands-on experience in setting up and managing Azure Private DNS, enabling efficient DNS resolution, network segmentation, and seamless automation within Microsoft Azure.
In today’s cloud environment, managing network resources and ensuring secure connectivity across virtual networks (vNets) can be complex, particularly when DNS management comes into play. This article provides a comprehensive, hands-on guide to setting up and configuring Azure Private DNS for efficient DNS resolution, network segmentation, and seamless automation in Microsoft Azure. Follow along as we explore the essential elements, from linking vNets and subnets to DNS automation.
Why Azure Private DNS?
Azure Private DNS allows you to manage and resolve DNS names within a virtual network without exposing them to the public internet. It simplifies domain name resolution, enhances security, and enables automation for dynamic environments.
Key benefits of using Azure Private DNS:
- Dynamic DNS Management: Automatically updates DNS records for new or deleted resources, eliminating stale or “dangling” DNS entries.
- Domain Delegation: Allows centralized DNS management by delegating your corporate domain to Azure Private DNS.
- Enhanced Security: DNS records are automatically removed when resources are deleted, ensuring up-to-date and secure network configuration.
Quick Recap: Azure Networking Fundamentals
Before diving into Azure Private DNS, let’s revisit some foundational concepts from our previous discussions:
- vNet (Virtual Network): Similar to a traditional VLAN but without broadcast support, a vNet enables secure and scalable resource management.
- Subnet: Subdivision within a vNet, allowing more granular control over resource segmentation.
Azure allows you to set up a single vNet with multiple subnets, maximizing network organization and security without the broadcast overhead typical in traditional networks.
Step 1: Understanding Azure Private DNS
Azure Private DNS enables the automatic registration of DNS names for resources within your vNet. For example, when you create a virtual machine (VM) in a vNet linked to a private DNS zone, the VM’s name and IP address automatically register within the zone. This streamlines DNS management, especially for dynamic environments where resources are created and deleted frequently.
Key Features
- Automatic DNS Registration: Automatically updates the DNS zone with new or removed resources.
- Domain Delegation: You can delegate your corporate domain to the private DNS zone, managing DNS records centrally within Azure.
- Support for All DNS Record Types: Azure DNS supports a full range of DNS records, including A, AAAA, CNAME, and MX records.
Step 2: Setting Up the Private DNS Zone
1. Create a Private DNS Zone
- In the Azure Portal, navigate to Private DNS Zones and create a new zone.
- Define a name for the DNS zone, such as yourdomain.private.
- Deploy the DNS zone and navigate to the resource.
2. Link vNets for Automatic DNS Registration
- Within the Private DNS Zone resource, select Virtual Network Links to connect vNets to the DNS zone.
- For each vNet (e.g., Core Services, West Europe, Asia), specify the vNet link and enable Auto Registration.
- This enables seamless DNS name resolution across linked vNets and allows automatic DNS record updates when resources are created or deleted.
Step 3: Verifying DNS Resolution and Connectivity
- Verify DNS Records in the Private DNS Zone: Go to DNS Management under the Private DNS zone and check that the A records for the VMs appear.
- Connect to VMs via DNS:
- Use Remote Desktop to access one VM, then attempt to connect to the other VM by its DNS name (rather than IP address). This confirms that the Private DNS setup allows for name-based connectivity.
- If issues arise (e.g., timeouts), ensure that firewall settings permit connectivity between the VMs.
Step 4: DNS Zone Peering Across Regions
With Azure Private DNS, you can link vNets across different regions, allowing resources in different geographic locations to resolve names and connect seamlessly.
- Link vNets Across Regions: Connect the vNets in regions like West Europe, East US, and Asia to the Private DNS zone.
- Verify Regional Connectivity: From a VM in one region (e.g., Asia), test connectivity to a VM in another region (e.g., East US) using DNS names. Azure Private DNS allows DNS name resolution across regions, ensuring consistent and reliable network connectivity.
Summary
Setting up Azure Private DNS is a powerful way to automate and centralize DNS management within a virtual network environment. This guide provides a practical framework for deploying Private DNS zones, linking vNets, and verifying connectivity. By configuring Azure Private DNS, organizations can streamline DNS management, secure network configurations, and enhance connectivity across geographically dispersed resources.
Next Steps
In future tutorials, we’ll explore VNet peering for advanced network configurations, allowing secure communication between isolated virtual networks. Be sure to subscribe and stay tuned for more Azure networking tips and tricks!
Let’s enhance your Azure network management with practical, hands-on solutions.
This article is part of our AZ-700 series, offering a step-by-step guide on configuring Azure Private DNS, based on the tutorial available on YouTube. I highly recommend watching the video to gain a solid understanding of the concepts covered in this article. Through this guide, you’ll gain hands-on experience in setting up and managing Azure Private DNS, enabling efficient DNS resolution, network segmentation, and seamless automation within Microsoft Azure. In today’s cloud environment, managing network resources and ensuring secure connectivity across virtual networks (vNets) can be complex, particularly when DNS management comes into play. This article provides a comprehensive, hands-on guide to setting up and configuring Azure Private DNS for efficient DNS resolution, network segmentation, and seamless automation in Microsoft Azure. Follow along as we explore the essential elements, from linking vNets and subnets to DNS automation.Why Azure Private DNS?Azure Private DNS allows you to manage and resolve DNS names within a virtual network without exposing them to the public internet. It simplifies domain name resolution, enhances security, and enables automation for dynamic environments.Key benefits of using Azure Private DNS:Dynamic DNS Management: Automatically updates DNS records for new or deleted resources, eliminating stale or “dangling” DNS entries.Domain Delegation: Allows centralized DNS management by delegating your corporate domain to Azure Private DNS.Enhanced Security: DNS records are automatically removed when resources are deleted, ensuring up-to-date and secure network configuration.Quick Recap: Azure Networking FundamentalsBefore diving into Azure Private DNS, let’s revisit some foundational concepts from our previous discussions:vNet (Virtual Network): Similar to a traditional VLAN but without broadcast support, a vNet enables secure and scalable resource management.Subnet: Subdivision within a vNet, allowing more granular control over resource segmentation.Azure allows you to set up a single vNet with multiple subnets, maximizing network organization and security without the broadcast overhead typical in traditional networks.Step 1: Understanding Azure Private DNSAzure Private DNS enables the automatic registration of DNS names for resources within your vNet. For example, when you create a virtual machine (VM) in a vNet linked to a private DNS zone, the VM’s name and IP address automatically register within the zone. This streamlines DNS management, especially for dynamic environments where resources are created and deleted frequently.Key FeaturesAutomatic DNS Registration: Automatically updates the DNS zone with new or removed resources.Domain Delegation: You can delegate your corporate domain to the private DNS zone, managing DNS records centrally within Azure.Support for All DNS Record Types: Azure DNS supports a full range of DNS records, including A, AAAA, CNAME, and MX records.Step 2: Setting Up the Private DNS Zone1. Create a Private DNS ZoneIn the Azure Portal, navigate to Private DNS Zones and create a new zone.Define a name for the DNS zone, such as yourdomain.private.Deploy the DNS zone and navigate to the resource.2. Link vNets for Automatic DNS RegistrationWithin the Private DNS Zone resource, select Virtual Network Links to connect vNets to the DNS zone.For each vNet (e.g., Core Services, West Europe, Asia), specify the vNet link and enable Auto Registration.This enables seamless DNS name resolution across linked vNets and allows automatic DNS record updates when resources are created or deleted.Step 3: Verifying DNS Resolution and ConnectivityVerify DNS Records in the Private DNS Zone: Go to DNS Management under the Private DNS zone and check that the A records for the VMs appear.Connect to VMs via DNS:Use Remote Desktop to access one VM, then attempt to connect to the other VM by its DNS name (rather than IP address). This confirms that the Private DNS setup allows for name-based connectivity.If issues arise (e.g., timeouts), ensure that firewall settings permit connectivity between the VMs.Step 4: DNS Zone Peering Across RegionsWith Azure Private DNS, you can link vNets across different regions, allowing resources in different geographic locations to resolve names and connect seamlessly.Link vNets Across Regions: Connect the vNets in regions like West Europe, East US, and Asia to the Private DNS zone.Verify Regional Connectivity: From a VM in one region (e.g., Asia), test connectivity to a VM in another region (e.g., East US) using DNS names. Azure Private DNS allows DNS name resolution across regions, ensuring consistent and reliable network connectivity.SummarySetting up Azure Private DNS is a powerful way to automate and centralize DNS management within a virtual network environment. This guide provides a practical framework for deploying Private DNS zones, linking vNets, and verifying connectivity. By configuring Azure Private DNS, organizations can streamline DNS management, secure network configurations, and enhance connectivity across geographically dispersed resources.Next StepsIn future tutorials, we’ll explore VNet peering for advanced network configurations, allowing secure communication between isolated virtual networks. Be sure to subscribe and stay tuned for more Azure networking tips and tricks!Let’s enhance your Azure network management with practical, hands-on solutions. Read More
How to add connection point with Visio online
Is there a way to add connection points to objects using the online version of Visio?
I’ve managed to add a few but somewhat randomly, without a clear process or function I can reproduce!
Thanks!
Is there a way to add connection points to objects using the online version of Visio?I’ve managed to add a few but somewhat randomly, without a clear process or function I can reproduce!Thanks! Read More
Check Boxes
I have been patiently waiting for the checkbox tab to appear on my excel application. As of today, 11/4/2024, it is still not showing up. I have Office 365, and my Version 2404 (Build 17531.20140 Click-to-Run) is what I am showing. When I click on Update Now, nothing happens. When I click View Updates, it takes me to the current changes page informing me “We fixed an issue where some users couldn’t see checkboxes getting rendered after inserting them.”, but it isn’t even populating on my ribbon to view.
I pay for Office 365 on two different accounts and I am not showing it on either account. If someone could walk me through getting this to populate on my ribbon, I would greatly appreciate it.
I have been patiently waiting for the checkbox tab to appear on my excel application. As of today, 11/4/2024, it is still not showing up. I have Office 365, and my Version 2404 (Build 17531.20140 Click-to-Run) is what I am showing. When I click on Update Now, nothing happens. When I click View Updates, it takes me to the current changes page informing me “We fixed an issue where some users couldn’t see checkboxes getting rendered after inserting them.”, but it isn’t even populating on my ribbon to view.I pay for Office 365 on two different accounts and I am not showing it on either account. If someone could walk me through getting this to populate on my ribbon, I would greatly appreciate it. Read More
Register for the upcoming live webinar covering the Metrics Layer in Microsoft Fabric!
Health and Life Sciences Fabric User Group present:
Mastering Fabric’s Metrics Layer
Live webinar
Tuesday, November 12
1:00-2:00 PM ET
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
5 Key Takeaways from the Marketplace Summit UK: Maximizing Marketplace Success
The Marketplace Summit UK, #MarketplaceSummitUK, recently brought together over 300+ Microsoft partners, including ISVs, systems integrators, and channel partners, to explore and capitalize on the rapidly growing opportunities within the Microsoft commercial marketplace. Here are 5 takeaways from the keynote which shared marketplace opportunities and insights from Jason Rook– Senior Director, Lead for channels sales for the marketplace, Andy Whyte– CEO, MEDDIC, Nick Ross– UK&I Channel leader, Wiz, and Amit Sinha– President and Co-Founder, WorkSpan.
Marketplace Growth:
- Microsoft commercial marketplace is experiencing substantial growth, with nearly 100% year-over-year sales increases from ISVs and Fortune 500 customers, particularly in the UK. This reflects a significant momentum and opportunity for partners to expand their reach and impact.
- By 2028, cloud marketplaces are projected to generate $85 billion in revenue*, underscoring the importance of joint selling and collaboration between ISVs, channel partners, and enterprise customers to capture this growth potential.
- *Hyperscale cloud marketplace sales to hit US$85 billion by 2028. Canalys, August 15, 2024.
MEDDPICC Framework:
- MEDDPICC stands for Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Paper process, Identify pain, Champion, and Competition.
- The MEDDPICC framework is used as a common language for co-selling across the entire customer lifecycle streamlining communication, improving collaboration, and enhancing the effectiveness of sales strategies. It emphasizes the understanding of customer pain points, decision criteria, and stakeholder engagement
Multiparty Private Offers:
- Multiparty private offers enable customers to purchase software through trusted channel partners, and ISVs to sell through channel partners, streamlining the buying experience and boosting sales opportunities. They are currently available in the US, Canada, and the UK. These offers are set to expand to Western Europe and Japan.
- Over 90% of multiparty private offer deals originate from channel partners interacting with customers.
Insights from Nick Ross of Wiz:
- Commitment to Channel Partners for Growth: Wiz has adopted a global strategy to always work with a channel partner on customer engagements, viewing it as essential for scaling, customer retention, and market expansion.
- Marketplace as a Key Growth Driver: With over 90% of revenue going through cloud marketplaces, Wiz emphasizes that adopting a marketplace-centric approach accelerates deal cycles, enhances customer reach, and is critical for sustained growth.
- Wiz’s marketplace-first, channel-first strategy accelerates scaling, shortens time-to-value for customers, and boosts deal efficiency by closely partnering with Microsoft and providing CSPs early pipeline insights. This integrated approach strengthens customer relationships and drives market expansion, providing a roadmap to becoming a leader in marketplace-driven growth.
Ecosystem Integration and Insights- Discussion with Amit Sinha from WorkSpan
- End-to-End Ecosystem Orchestration: WorkSpan serves as a platform connecting ISVs, channel partners, and service partners with Microsoft and other marketplaces, enabling seamless co-selling, co-building, and integration into existing CRM systems for a unified experience
- Enhanced Deal Velocity and Data Insight: By automating partner integrations and embedding marketplace processes into CRM systems, WorkSpan increases deal registration rates and enables data collection on sales performance, providing actionable insights in real-time.
To learn more, you can view the full Keynote session here: Marketplace Summit learnings: Maximizing marketplace success.
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Additional Resources:
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
