Microsoft Support & Discussions

Millions of reactions are used every day Outlook users use a myriad of reactions on a daily basis. Thumbs up and hearts decorate congratulatory emails without causing reply-all floods. Sad faces help convey your consolation often when words fail. We see network effects take place especially for wide audience emails – enough people start reacting and everyone else just piles on. We believe we’re witnessing a shift in communication behaviors and preferences within Microsoft and in other companies worldwide. We actively learn from feedback as people use reactions. This post will go into more detail about what’s coming up for reactions and what you can do to pre…

If you’ve ever engaged with the training modules on Microsoft Learn or explored the official documentation, it's highly likely that the material you utilized was written or co-authored by dedicated contributors. These contributors, often volunteers, generously offer their time and expertise to fill knowledge gaps within our portfolio and ensure the content remains up to date. In this interview series, we aim to acquaint ourselves with some of these valuable contributors to the Microsoft Learn platform. Through these conversations, we seek to understand their motivations for continued contributions and gain insights into their experiences. Today, we’re please…

In the captivating realm of technology and entrepreneurship, "Open at Microsoft" stands as a beacon illuminating the path for students, developers with entrepreneurial aspirations, and startup leaders eager to harness AI's potential. But what makes this show truly exceptional is its spotlight on Microsoft product teams as they pioneer open-source solutions. Let's delve into how "Open at Microsoft" connects you with the vanguard of open source, empowering your journey in the world of AI-powered entrepreneurship. 1. Students with an Entrepreneurial Mindset: Crafting Futures with Microsoft's Open Source Are you a student ready to take the leap into entrepreneurship…

In July we shared with this audience that OpenAI Whisper would be coming soon to Azure AI services, and today – we are very happy to announce – is the day! Customers of Azure OpenAI service and Azure AI Speech can now use Whisper. The OpenAI Whisper model is an encoder-decoder Transformer that can transcribe audio into text in 57 languages. Additionally, it offers translation services from those languages to English, producing English-only output. Furthermore, it creates transcripts with enhanced readability. OpenAI Whisper model in Azure OpenAI service Azure OpenAI Service enables developers to run OpenAI’s Whisper model in Azure, mirroring the OpenAI W…

Don’t miss out on the latest community briefings, all free to access, on Empowering.Cloud Microsoft Teams Monthly Update August 2023 Empowering.Cloud MVP Tom Arbuthnot gives you all the August Microsoft Teams updates in under 15 minutes, including: Microsoft Teams will be integrating new root certificates into their services, specifically for direct routing. Testing on September 5th, 2023. Service may be interrupted if your Session Border Controller (SBC) doesn't trust the new root certificates. Microsoft has launched Teams Essentials and Teams Phone calling bundles Call queues on Microsoft Teams now include exception handling for when there …

The Azure Marketplace ecosystem continued to expand with the 199 new partner offers below, which met onboarding criteria and went live between September 2 and 8, 2023. Get it now in our marketplace [attachment=50171:name] MTR SIP/H.323 calling plan powered by Pexip: This product enables Microsoft Teams Room users to make and receive point-to-point video calls and share content with SIP/H.323 devices. It allows for direct calling to and from standards-based video-conferencing devices and can be used to call into any SIP/H.323-enabled video meeting. [attachment=50172:name] HEMSP - Hybrid Employment Managed Services Platform: HEMSP is a package of onboarding,…

The current Service Fabric clusters are currently equipped with the MicrosoftMonitoringAgent (MMA) as the default installation. However, it is essential to note that MMA will be deprecated in August 2024, for more details refer- We're retiring the Log Analytics agent in Azure Monitor on 31 August 2024 | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure. Therefore, if you are currently utilizing MMA, it is imperative to initiate the migration process to AzureMonitoringAgent (AMA). Installation and Linking of AzureMonitoringAgent to a Log Analytics Workspace: Create a Log Analytics Workspace (if not already established): Access the Azure portal and search for "Log Analytics Wo…

The 8th cumulative update release for SQL Server 2022 RTM is now available for download at the Microsoft Downloads site. Please note that registration is no longer required to download Cumulative updates. To learn more about the release or servicing model, please visit: CU8 KB Article: Cumulative update 8 for SQL Server 2022 (KB5029666) - SQL Server Starting with SQL Server 2017, we adopted a new modern servicing model. Please refer to our blog for more details on Modern Servicing Model for SQL Server Microsoft® SQL Server® 2022 RTM Latest Cumulative Update: Download Microsoft® SQL Server® 2022 Latest Cumulative Update from Official Microsoft Download Cente…

Thousands of Microsoft MVPs are making efforts to help technical community members all across the world. Each of them has unique expertise, career paths, and audiences, and have been giving tremendous impact along the way. While all are Microsoft MVPs, their journeys to achieve this honor vary significantly. In this blog, we feature a Chinese Microsoft Azure MVP, Edi Wang, who shared his personal story on his blog, offering valuable insights from his experience. Edi developed an interest in computers during his childhood, and this curiosity fueled his continuous pursuit of advanced technical knowledge. As he delved into .NET programming, he started a blog in…

In Storage Account, you can set diagnostic log to EventHub. However, did you ever wonder if you could have a centralized EventHub to take care of these logs? Instead of having multiple EventHubs across each Subscription within the same Management Group? In this article, it will explain to you how to centralize your EventHub. I. What is the required Permission configuration? Before reading through this article, be sure to have multiple subscriptions. As this will not explain the steps to add subscriptions to your Management Group. This article is based on the fact that you already have more than one subscription under your Management Group. However, if you st…

We are pleased to bring to you a summary of the Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server feature updates and announcements from last month and the latest roadmap of upcoming features. September 2023 Live webinar We also cover these feature updates in our monthly live webinar on YouTube (Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel!), which occurs the second Wednesday of every month, at 7:30am Pacific time. Below is a link to the webinar we delivered this week: August 2023 updates Private Link - General Availability With Private Link, you can connect to an Azure Database for MySQL flexible server using a private endpoint. You can access…

We’re honored that for the second year in a row KuppingerCole has recognized Microsoft Entra ID as an Overall Leader in the 2023 Leadership Compass for Access Management. This is the highest distinction that KuppingerCole grants to an identity and access management solution, writing that “Microsoft continues to move Microsoft Entra ID in a positive direction with innovative capabilities” while awarding us a 5/5 rating in the categories of: security, functionality, deployment, interoperability, and usability.  Additionally, Entra ID has been designated as a Product Leader, Innovation Leader, and Market Leader within the segment.     2023 Leadership Compass for Acce…

Our Microsoft Learn community, along with the rest of the world, has experienced a time of great change over the last few years—the pandemic, a sudden shift to remote work, economic volatility, and huge leaps in the capabilities and implementation of AI, to name just a few. Times of change like these cause us all to reevaluate our priorities, how we operate, and what’s most important across all areas of our lives. Careers are no small part of that equation. We must continuously adapt to these new realities, whether we're employees, employers, job seekers, educators, or leaders of organizations. Because of that impact, Microsoft Learn remains committed to leading the way w…

Hi folks – Mike Hildebrand here, coming to you live from sunny St. Louis, MO. Summer is winding down here; it’s mid-September and the dog and I once again have the house to ourselves. I guess something about the peace and quiet activates the ‘time for a blog’ part of my brain. Today, I’ll chat with you all a bit about the popular Windows 365 Enterprise (W365) service and the Cloud PC (CPC). There continues to be a great deal of interest in this service and we continue to add helpful and unique capabilities such as W365 Boot - W365 Switch – W365 Frontline and this one is SUPER neat – it lets you use certain Android devices (Motorola ThinkPhone) like a thin-client…

Enterprise business to business startups often handle files and documents as part of their value proposition. For instance, consider a work management platform startup, where files and documents are core to their business. But managing files and documents for large global enterprises is complicated and requires a sophisticated approach grounded in security, compliance, and productivity. A new offering from Microsoft, Syntex repository services is designed to make it easy for startups to address global enterprise requirements while delivering a great end-user experience. In this article, I’ll discuss common app scenarios, review enterprise requirements, and talk about…

Introduction Azure Synapse Analytics Serverless SQL is a query service mostly used over the data in your data lake, for data discovery, transformation, and exploration purposes. It is, therefore, normal to find in a Synapse Serverless SQL pool many objects referencing external locations, using disparate external data sources, authentication mechanisms, file formats, etc. In the context of CICD, where automated processes are responsible for propagating the database code across environments, one can take advantage of database oriented tools like SSDT and SqlPackage CLI , ensuring that this code is conformed with the targeted resources. In this article I wi…

You can securely connect to your App Service from the internet using the Application Gateway when you integrate your Application Gateway with App Service behind Private Endpoint. This article will illustrate and provide detailed steps about how to setup an Application Gateway with an App Service behind a Private Endpoint. We will use a test domain and self-signed certificate for the Application Gateway to simulate a live environment. In the diagram below, your client will connect to the application gateway through the public Ip address. The application gateway will connect privately and securely to your App Service application using a private endpoint which …

In the realm of cybersecurity, the terrain of threats is in a constant state of evolution, demanding unwavering dedication from professionals to shield their organizations. However, the complexity of staying updated, adopting a zero-trust approach, and proactively identifying emerging threats often surpasses the capabilities of even the most skilled security teams. This is where managed extended detection and response (MXDR) services come into play, with Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR taking the charge to help our customers augment their SOC with human expertise and AI-powered threat intelligence. A cornerstone of this service is the service delivery manager (…

To support Apple’s upcoming release of iOS/iPadOS 17, apps should be updated with the latest Intune App SDK and Intune App Wrapping Tool for iOS to ensure applications stay secure and run smoothly. Conditional Access and identifying users SDK version If your organization’s using the Conditional Access grant “Require App Protection Policy (APP)", you’ll need your users to update their iOS apps to the latest version prior to upgrading to iOS/iPadOS 17. This ensures applications continue to stay secure, maintain access to Conditional Access protected services, and are using Intune iOS SDK version 17.6.1 or higher to support the latest OS update. Intune will soon …

Stay informed with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse Microsoft 365 Lighthouse provides insights across your SMB customers on where you will want to act with urgency to keep your SMB customers secure and productive. For example, when risky behaviors are detected for a user account, you will want to quickly triage if the risks are real and block sign-in. Or when an admin at the customer site disables MFA and you want to be informed of this configuration change to get it re-enabled. Or when Defender detects a security incident to act on it quickly. We are making it easier to stay informed of these insights through alerts and notifications. Lighthouse can now alert and notify …

Heya folks, Ned here again. Beginning in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25951 (Canary), the SMB server now supports controlling which SMB 2 and 3 dialects it will negotiate. This changes legacy behavior, where Windows SMB server always negotiated the highest matched server dialect from SMB 2.0.2 to 3.1.1 clients. Beginning in Windows 10, support was added for controlling SMB client dialects, but not server dialects. With this new option, an administrator can remove specific SMB protocols from usage in the organization, blocking older, less secure, and less capable Windows devices and third parties from connecting. For example, they can specify only the use of SMB…

Heya folks, Ned here again. Beginning in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25951 (Canary), the SMB client now supports blocking NTLM for remote outbound connections. This changes legacy behavior, where Windows SPNEGO would negotiate Kerberos, NTLM, and other mechanisms with the destination server to decide on a supported security package. NTLM in this case refers to all versions of the LAN Manager security package: LM, NTLM, and NTLMv2. With this new option, an administrator can intentionally block Windows from offering NTLM via SMB. An attacker who tricks a user or application into sending NTLM challenge responses to a malicious server will no longer receive any NT…

In today's fast-paced sales landscape, staying ahead of the game is more crucial than ever. Sales teams aiming to close deals swiftly understand the importance of real-time opportunity information. But let's be honest, obtaining a straightforward opportunity summary can be quite the challenge. Vital details are often scattered across various applications and documents, making it a time-consuming endeavor to compile a concise and up-to-date opportunity snapshot. However, there's a game-changer now available within Microsoft Sales Copilot, and it comes in the form of AI-powered Opportunity summaries. In this blog, we'll dive into how deal teams can revolutionize collaborati…

In a previous blog, we introduced Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) - a product that brings Zero Trust principles to session management. Today we would like to discuss securing cross-tenant access with a focus on preventing data exfiltration. It’s impossible to imagine a successful modern organization that doesn’t collaborate with partners across organizational boundaries. While cross-company collaboration empowers employees and enables partnerships, it also lowers barriers for both accidental and malicious data exfiltration. Microsoft Cross-Tenant Access Settings is designed to address security of cross-company exchange. Outbound and Inbound Cross-Tenan…