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Take advantage of the newest certification for Microsoft Fabric In today's rapidly evolving data landscape, the role of data engineers is more critical than ever. As organizations increasingly rely on data-driven decision-making and AI-powered solutions, the demand for professionals with solid data engineering skills continues to grow. Data engineers must have expertise in a diverse set of tools and technologies to build resilient, scalable, and intelligent data systems. To support these professionals, we’re glad to announce the general availability of the Microsoft Certified: Fabric Data Engineer Associate Certification and its related Exam DP-700: Implementing Data Engineering Solutions Using Microsoft Fabric. This new certification validates the skills needed to implement and manage analytics solutions using Microsoft Fabric, a unified, AI-powered solution that integrates Power BI, Azure Data Factory, and Azure Synapse Analytics to help you turn raw data into actionable insights. By earning this certification, data engineers can demonstrate their expertise in: Implementing and managing an analytics solution. Ingesting and transforming data. Monitoring and optimizing an analytics solution. Get ready to take Exam DP-700 and earn the new certification: Check out the Exam DP-700 study guide and explore potential exam topics. Work through the available Exam DP-700 self-paced training. From January 14, 2025, through March 31, 2025, take advantage of a limited-time offer to get a 50% discount on Exam DP-700. For details, go to the Fabric Community. Register for the Get Certified: DP-700 live learning series, presented by Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) and experts. Sessions begin January 28, 2025. Explore the instructor-led Course DP-700: Microsoft Fabric Data Engineer. For more information about the course, contact one of our Training Services Partners, which are located around the world. We’re retiring the Azure Data Engineer Associate Certification In addition to introducing the new certification, we’re announcing the upcoming retirement of the Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate Certification and its related Exam DP-203: Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure. The certification, related exam, and renewal assessments will all be retired on March 31, 2025. The following questions and answers can help you determine how these retirements could impact your learning journey: Q: If Microsoft is retiring this certification, does it mean that Azure Synapse Analytics will also be retired? A: Microsoft has no current plans to retire Azure Synapse Analytics. You can continue to deploy, operate, and expand the PaaS offering of Azure Synapse Analytics. For more details, read the blog post Microsoft Fabric, explained for existing Synapse users Q: What if I’m studying for Exam DP-203? A: If you’re currently preparing for Exam DP-203, you should take and pass the exam before March 31, 2025. If you’re just starting your preparation process, we recommend that you explore the new Fabric Data Engineer Associate Certification and its related Exam DP-700: Implementing Data Engineering Solutions Using Microsoft Fabric. Q: I’ve already earned the Azure Data Engineer Associate Certification. What happens now? A: If you’ve already earned the Azure Data Engineer Associate Certification, it will stay on the transcript in your profile on Microsoft Learn. If you’re eligible to renew your certification before March 31, 2025, we recommend that you consider doing so. Renewal of this certification won’t be possible after this date. Q: Will this change impact Microsoft Partners? A: Microsoft Partners who earn the Azure Data Engineer Associate Certification before it retires will continue to earn points or credit toward offering requirements as long as this certification remains on their transcript, until a year after the Certification is retired. New credentials may be eligible for inclusion in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program requirements. These changes will be shared with partners when additional details are available. Validate your data skills with Microsoft Credentials Microsoft Certifications verify technical proficiency for broad role-based competencies, and Microsoft Applied Skills help you demonstrate your capabilities in specific scenarios or workloads, complementing the broader certification skills. Together, these two types of Microsoft Credentials can validate your comprehensive data and AI skill set. To prove your skills for data engineering, data science, and data analysis projects with Microsoft Fabric, such as implementing data science and machine learning solutions, Real-Time Intelligence solutions, or data lakehouses or warehouses, consider the relevant Applied Skills, logical complements for the new Fabric Data Engineer Associate Certification. Discover complementary Microsoft Credentials to prove your skills in data engineering, data science, and data analysis Get ready for a bright future The future of data engineering is bright, and with the right skills and credentials—including the new Fabric Data Engineer Associate Certification—you can be at the forefront of this exciting transformation. Embrace the power of Microsoft Fabric and join us in shaping the future of data and AI. View the full article

Resistance to adopting AI in the workplace is real. For many, it’s not due to an unwillingness to change but rather from a genuine sense of “FUD”—that is, fear, uncertainty, and doubt—around AI. Constructively addressing FUD is essential to fostering a supportive learning culture that empowers people to thrive in the era of AI transformation so that you and your entire organization can thrive, too. At Microsoft, we’re the first to use and test our own AI technologies internally before releasing them to customers, so we recognize the need to understand the underlying causes of FUD, find positive ways to address them, and provide helpful solutions. We’ve also found that skilling up on AI and learning how it can streamline our workloads, improve our decision-making, and increase our productivity can reduce concerns and boost enthusiasm around this cutting-edge technology. Transforming fear into opportunity Probably the biggest fear in the workplace is that AI adoption might lead to job loss, but the reality is that a number of experts are optimistic. In Generative AI likely to augment rather than destroy jobs, the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) predicts that AI “is more likely to augment than destroy jobs by automating some tasks rather than taking over a role entirely.” Many job roles will likely evolve to become hybrid—using AI to complement human work. Given this evolution of work, AI skills are in high demand, and this presents an opportunity for employees in nearly every discipline, field, industry, and role. Proactively building AI skills equips workers to adapt to the transforming workplace. And skilling up provides a meaningful way for them to overcome their fears and develop confidence in their capabilities and in the technology. Organizations that provide skill-building opportunities thus help not only their workers but also the organizations themselves. For details on resources, opportunities, and solutions for acquiring AI skills and competencies, read Get AI ready: Build skills with Microsoft Learn. Dispelling AI uncertainty with a learning culture The AI transformation is happening so fast that uncertainty is sometimes seen as the baseline, not the outlier. We’re all learning right now, in real time. As we test Microsoft AI apps and services, we’re actively figuring out what AI can do. Practically speaking, everyone in the workforce needs to put AI to work and see what it can do. An organizational learning culture can support these efforts and help dispel uncertainty. Ethan Mollick, Professor of Management at the Wharton School and a noted authority on AI and entrepreneurship, has found that the biggest gains come in organizations that encourage cooperative learning. In the Beyond the Prompt podcast episode titled What everybody’s missing about AI in business, he points out, “It starts with culture.” The episode also encourages listeners with this key takeaway: “Use AI for everything you can: The only way to truly understand AI's capabilities is to use it for as many tasks as possible.” Empowering your teams with AI training on Microsoft Learn for Organizations The consensus on overcoming AI FUD in organizations is that skills training and a learning culture are key, and a team training environment can greatly support this growth. Microsoft Learn for Organizations curates Microsoft Learn training for teams and organizations, including offerings to help build AI skills and confidence: Microsoft Learn for Organizations Playbook: A guide to skill up your team for AI and beyond. The playbook helps you to develop an AI skill-building plan, with resources to maximize your impact at the individual, team, and organizational levels. Links to AI skill-building for your organization, live webinars, and insights and strategies on building a learning culture. Links to the Copilot learning hub on Microsoft Learn, the AI learning hub on Microsoft Learn, and the Security hub on Microsoft Learn. Official Plans that cover the latest Microsoft AI apps and services, including “Build, test, and deploy applications securely with GitHub and Microsoft Azure,” “Implementing data integration and model grounding with Azure AI Studio and Microsoft Fabric,” and “Accelerate app development by using GitHub Copilot.” The latest Microsoft Credentials. These industry-trusted and Microsoft-verified credentials give learners the flexibility to grow the AI and cloud skills needed for critical roles or projects. Microsoft Certifications validate a wide range of skills required to be successful in a job role. Learners earn a Certification by passing an exam. AI-focused Certifications include “Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals” and “Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate,” among others. Microsoft Applied Skills validate skill sets specific to real-world technical scenarios. Learners earn them by passing interactive lab-based assessments on Microsoft Learn. More than half of the Applied Skills portfolio is focused on AI, including “Build a natural language processing solution with Azure AI Language,” “Create an intelligent document processing solution with Azure AI Document Intelligence,” and many more. Get started on your AI journey at Microsoft Learn for Organizations, and make the most of the many team training opportunities available there. As you and your teams begin to put newly acquired AI skills to use streamlining workloads, increasing collaboration, adding productivity, and more, we hope that the fear, uncertainty, and doubt around AI begin to fade and are replaced by enthusiasm for the many possibilities that the future of AI in the workplace presents. View the full article

As we were building the Copilot learning hub on Microsoft Learn earlier this year, I realized how much Copilot was changing the way so many people—from my 78-year-old father to my teammates—complete daily tasks. I had first-hand insight into how, as an AI companion, Copilot enables us to be more creative and more efficient across a broad range of activities. When Microsoft released Copilot in March 2023, our customers had questions. They wanted to know how they could use Copilot to be more productive at work and in their personal lives. They were curious how to use Copilot within Microsoft 365 applications, like Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, and how to leverage Copilot for developers, data scientists, and security professionals. To answer these questions and more, we created the Copilot learning hub in May 2024. I recently asked Dona Sarkar and Dan Wahlin, Microsoft Principal Cloud Advocates—and members of the learning hub team—to share some of their stories about creating this powerful resource. The Copilot learning hub is “designed to meet learners wherever they are along their learning and adoption journey,” said Dona, “from understanding and using copilots, to customizing them with their own data, and, finally, building their own copilot.” The learning hub caters to technical audiences and ensures that each learner accesses content that is tailored to their learning goals. These resources augment the content available on the AI learning hub, which is designed for both technical and non-technical learners. These goals are grouped into four task-based Microsoft Learn Official Collections—understand, adopt, extend, and build – providing content specific to each stage of the learning journey. Each collection contains a variety of training modules, documentation, and videos. Learners can even access content that is applicable to specific tech roles, such as administrators, data analysts, and developers. One learner favorite on the hub is the video library, which provides Copilot instructional content and customer use cases. According to Dan Wahlin: “People love to see what's possible and the benefits from using a copilot, so our videos focus on that angle. We show how a copilot makes both personal and work life easier and more productive, how creativity is enhanced, and how people can get started and immediately experience these benefits themselves.” Dona adds that the videos demonstrate the diverse applications of Copilot across Microsoft products and services. “People share their favorite Copilot use cases and how they leverage Copilot in various scenarios,” she said. “This approach makes the content more relatable and engaging by featuring stories from a wide range of professionals.” Check out this video to learn how cultural shifts and human factors play a crucial role in the successful implementation of AI technology like Copilot. Dona shared her own story about how learning a new programming language has changed now that she can rely on Copilot to assist her with her learning. Recently, she used GitHub Copilot as a coding coach to learn Python after working in C# for 20 years. Dona recalls it took her a full year to learn JavaScript years ago, but only one month to learn Python using Copilot. “That’s a real game changer. Imagine how Copilot can help expert and novice programmers alike gain new skills and do their jobs better,” she said. This is the true promise of the Copilot learning hub—putting expert content to work for you so you can excel using Copilot. With all the excitement around Copilot, we continue to provide new resources for learners. “We've received great feedback on the Copilot learning hub from learners. They've expressed how they appreciate the comprehensive resources and real-world examples available,” Dan said. “They've also provided us with great feedback that we're consistently applying to continue to take the Copilot learning hub to the next level.” Erica Woods, Director of Contractor Programs & Philanthropy and Principal at Apex Systems in Tampa, FL, has completed several modules and videos showcased on the learning hub. "I appreciate several things in the Copilot learning hub,” Erica said, “including insights on different ways to apply the technology that are easy to build directly into my day-to-day, the bite-sized chunks the training segments are delivered in, demo-style learning, the fun and conversational style of the videos, and the variety of topics included.” So, what’s next? These are some new resources you can expect to see in the coming months, each designed to further streamline your workflow and enhance your Copilot experience: In the weeks leading up to Microsoft Ignite, you’ll see new content on the “agentification” of Copilot. What are agents? They are copilots that can act independently, triggered by events—not just conversation—enabling you to automate and orchestrate complex, long-running business processes with less human intervention. For example, an “order taker” copilot can handle the end-to-end order fulfillment process—from taking the order, to processing the order and making intelligent recommendations and substitutions for out-of-stock items, to shipping to the customer. We are also working on stories showcasing how Microsoft customers and partners are helping their customers use Copilot, particularly in specialized industries like finance, manufacturing, and others. Coming up: Get AI ready: Discover AI skill-building with Microsoft Training Services Partners In our next Get AI ready blog, discover how Microsoft Training Services Partners (TSPs) are helping organizations worldwide build AI skills and stay competitive. Learn about the benefits of AI-powered tools and services, and how TSPs provide customized training plans to ensure your teams are AI-ready. Read inspiring stories from Sulava and Skillsoft and find out how they are transforming businesses with AI. Don't miss out on this opportunity to upskill your workforce and drive innovation. Learn Microsoft AI with our blog series: Get AI ready Check out other articles from our AI-focused series of blog posts exploring perspectives and opportunities to acquire critical AI skills. Get AI ready: Build skills with Microsoft Learn View the full article

In this era of rapid technological advancement, data engineering skills are indispensable. This is particularly true as organizations strive to harness the power of AI. Data engineers play a pivotal role in designing and implementing the infrastructure and data processing that enable efficient data analysis. And these are foundational elements for any successful data and AI initiative. Data engineering skills are essential for transforming data at scale and for training and deploying AI models. The Microsoft Fabric software as a service (SaaS) model frees up data engineers to focus on crucial tasks, such as data transformation, scalability, and optimization, without worrying about setting up infrastructure—it just works! And Azure Synapse Analytics offers data engineers more control over the infrastructure they need to transform data within a platform as a service (PaaS) framework. Announcing the new Fabric Data Engineer Associate Certification Microsoft Certifications verify world-class technical proficiency for in-demand job roles and are a vital part of our flexible credential portfolio. In keeping with our continued investment, we’re pleased to announce the upcoming Microsoft Certified: Fabric Data Engineer Associate Certification and its related Exam DP-700: Implementing data engineering solutions using Microsoft Fabric (beta), both of which will be available in late October 2024. Fabric data engineers have subject matter expertise in data loading patterns, data architectures, and orchestration processes. This Certification measures the following Fabric data engineer skills: Implementing and managing an analytics solution Ingesting and transforming data Monitoring and optimizing an analytics solution These professionals work closely with analytics engineers, architects, analysts, and administrators to design and deploy data engineering solutions for analytics. Hone your skills with Microsoft Credentials for analytics and data science The new Fabric Data Engineer Associate Certification strengthens Microsoft’s credentials portfolio. It helps you to prove your skills for critical roles and key scenarios that involve using Fabric and Azure in areas like data engineering, data analytics, or data science. Depending on your current or desired role, the projects you’re working on, or those you want to work on, there are several suggested combinations of credentials for you to explore. Certifications validate broad role-based competencies while Microsoft Applied Skills help you demonstrate your capabilities in specific scenarios or workloads. Applied Skills complement the broader skill set validated by Certifications. You can combine these two types of Microsoft Credentials to demonstrate a comprehensive skill set in data and AI. Explore the many combinations of Microsoft Credentials to validate your skills in data engineering, data science, and data analytics. Grow your data engineering skills. If you’ve already earned the Azure Data Engineer Associate Certification (Exam DP-203), consider earning the new Fabric Data Engineer Associate Certification to help future-proof your skills, since Fabric is the next-generation analytics platform. By doing so, you can expand your skills from data engineering with PaaS to SaaS models in the context of Microsoft data services. To prove your skills for common data projects, like building data lakehouses, Real-Time Intelligence solutions, or data warehouses, consider the relevant Applied Skills, as itemized in the illustration. These credentials are logical complements for the Azure Data Engineer Associate, the new Fabric Data Engineer Associate, the Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate, or the Power BI Data Analyst Associate Certification, since they demonstrate your ability to perform additional skills by using Fabric. Connect with complementary roles in data projects. End-to-end analytics focused on data engineering and data science supports machine learning model training and AI development. After data engineers ensure that the data is on the platform, they work closely with people in analytics and data science roles, and some skills can be transferable from one role to another. For example, as a data engineer, you can benefit from combining skills proven by the Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate or the Azure Data Scientist Associate Certification, or scenario-specific data science skills validated by Applied Skills. Data analysts can also combine skills to enrich data for analytics, proven by the Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate Certification. Start now to help future-proof your data engineering skills The new Exam DP-700 will be available in late October 2024, but you can start building your skills now as you prepare to take the exam and earn the Certification: See what to expect on the exam and explore potential topics it covers in our Exam DP-700 study guide. Work through the Prepare for the Fabric Data Engineer Certification Official Collection of curated content to help you get ready. Explore the capabilities of Fabric, with the Get started with Microsoft Fabric learning path. Join the Microsoft Learn Learning Room: Microsoft Fabric Café, and stay updated with the latest trends, features, and updates in Microsoft Fabric. Read the European Microsoft Fabric Community Conference (FabCon) 2024 announcements. Build your technical skills for any role or project No matter what your current or desired role, we have the resources and offerings you need to build and prove your technical skills. Check out the many options on Microsoft Learn. And stay tuned for the Fabric Data Engineer Associate Certification and Exam DP-700: Implementing data engineering solutions using Microsoft Fabric (beta)—available in late October 2024—and get ready to prove your data engineering skills in Fabric. View the full article

Welcome to our new blog series designed to help you skill up on Copilot and Microsoft 365 technologies. We hope you will make this your go-to source for the latest updates, resources, and opportunities in technical skill building for Copilot and Microsoft 365. Start your Copilot journey with these essential resources: Copilot Lab. If you or your coworkers are just getting started with Copilot, Copilot Lab is the best place to begin the journey. It includes helpful introductory videos, guidance on the art of prompting, practical everyday uses for Copilot, and more. Copilot Success Kit and User Enablement Toolkit. Drive Copilot adoption, and provide employees at your organization with the guidance and resources they need to become daily Copilot users. The Copilot Success Kit and User Enablement Toolkit provide new customizable email templates, end-user trainings, license assignment guidance, and manager resources. Microsoft Copilot Scenario Library. Explore top use cases and day-in-the-life scenarios for using Copilot across your organization. The Copilot Scenario Library lets you view scenarios by role or by use case so you can discover quick ways to start using Copilot in your daily work. “What’s new in Copilot” blog series. In this monthly series, we highlight new features and enhancements in Copilot for Microsoft 365 to help administrators stay up to date on this helpful technology so users can be more productive and efficient in the apps they use every day. Catch up on Copilot content for small and medium-sized organizations Copilot can help organizations of all sizes boost efficiency and streamline workflows. The following resources are especially helpful for small- and medium-sized organizations: Copilot Success Kit for Small and Medium Business. We're pleased to announce a new Copilot Success Kit specifically designed for customers with Microsoft 365 Business licenses. The kit provides end-to-end guidance on implementing Copilot, including technical readiness and user enablement strategies. Grow Your Business with Copilot for Microsoft 365. If you're looking to get inspired by how other businesses are using Copilot, check out this new monthly series. In each post, the team features a customer that’s successfully putting Copilot to work to go above and beyond in their industry. The series also covers the latest product enhancements, what they mean for organizations, and how you can best take advantage of them to meet your organization’s unique needs. Explore the latest learning paths on Microsoft Learn The following learning paths on Microsoft Learn offer helpful skill-building opportunities for learners who want to make the most of Copilot for Microsoft 365: Extend Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 with Copilot Studio. Find out how to create Copilot Studio actions that extend the knowledge and capabilities of Copilot for Microsoft 365 using external data, tailored conversations, automated flows, and custom prompts. Build connectors and plugins for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365. Discover extensibility options available for Copilot for Microsoft 365. Copilot Foundations. Explore options for adopting, using, and creating copilots. Create copilots with Microsoft Copilot Studio. Get started creating copilots with Microsoft Copilot Studio. Extend and manage Microsoft Copilot Studio copilots. After you've mastered the basics of building bots in Copilot Studio, focus on bot enhancements and management. Develop your own custom copilots with Azure AI Studio. Learn how to build generative AI applications, like custom copilots that use language models and prompt flow to provide value to your users. Enhance endpoint security with Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Copilot for Security. Uncover the essentials of Intune, advanced threat detection and response with Copilot for Security, and how to optimize the integration between Intune and Copilot. Watch technical videos on Microsoft Mechanics Microsoft Mechanics is an official video series from Microsoft designed for IT pros, solution architects, developers, tech enthusiasts, and others. Check out these videos to learn how to streamline the work you do every day: How to get ready for Copilot for Microsoft 365 faster | New Restricted SharePoint Search option. Jeremy Chapman of Microsoft demonstrates how to roll out Copilot for Microsoft 365 at scale in three quick steps, including preparing your data for search, apps, and prerequisites, so you can connect to Copilot services. He also covers the fastest method for giving your teams access to Copilot services. Get Copilot responses based on your own files (no copy/paste). Mary Pasch from the Copilot platform team at Microsoft explains how to author prompts that retrieve information on your behalf, add context to your prompts without copy/paste, and get personalized responses back that are tailored to the app you're using—whether it's Word, PowerPoint, or others. Build your own copilot! New Microsoft Copilot extensions explained. Abram Jackson, Microsoft 365 Principal Product Manager, shows you new options for building Copilot extensions, whether you want to create your own custom copilot experiences prioritizing specific knowledge, add read/write integrations to external services with plugins, extend Microsoft Graph beyond Microsoft 365 with connectors, or mix and match all three. Explore additional Copilot resources for developers The following offerings are especially for developers and provide practical resources and opportunities to take advantage of the latest technology: Microsoft 365 Developer Center. We’ve updated the Microsoft 365 Developer Center with the Copilot extensions, resources, and tools announced at Microsoft Build in May 2024. Extend Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365. New guidance on Microsoft Learn highlights building your own copilots, extending Copilot for your scenario, adding knowledge and actions using Copilot Studio and in code, and much more. Your extensibility options for Microsoft 365 Copilot. This new documentation can help streamline your extensibility journey with Copilot. Microsoft Build: Microsoft 365 Developer video series. These practical videos cover Copilot experiences, including a deep dive on plugins, a developer’s guide to customizing Copilot, and building your own Copilot, among others. Attend an upcoming technical skill-building event Interactive training can help you learn to put the latest technology to work right away. The following events provide opportunities to build your skills in Microsoft Loop, Copilot, and more: Microsoft Loop | Live, Five-Part Learning Series. In this series that runs from August 14 through September 11, 2024, get a demo of Microsoft Loop in action, learn about upcoming roadmap items, and find out about Copilot and AI innovations. Ask questions about this next-generation co-creation experience, get timesaving tips and tricks, and provide direct feedback to the Microsoft Loop product team. Find out more about Microsoft Loop | Live, Five-Part Learning Series, register for the remaining events, and watch past sessions on demand. Copilot for Microsoft 365 QuickStart Training. Make the most of our new interactive workshop with live support to enhance your Copilot skills. Explore real-world scenarios for various departments and industries. Use your own Copilot license to follow along with the prompt training and other demos. In this workshop, which is offered in several languages, you can expect: A quick understanding of how Copilot for Microsoft 365 works. Interactive training and prompting exercises to use Copilot and immediately generate results in Outlook, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint—using your own company data. Demonstrations of how other users are using Copilot across support, human resources, marketing, sales, and other disciplines. The opportunity to ask questions of an expert facilitator. This session can help you increase your productivity and creativity in the long run and reduce manual, repetitive efforts, freeing up time for higher-value work. To attend this training and follow along with the content, you must have a Copilot license. Find all the details and register for Copilot for Microsoft 365 QuickStart Training. Microsoft Ignite. Get ready to achieve more with the power of AI and the Microsoft Cloud. Join us in Chicago, November 18–22, 2024, to discover solutions that can help you modernize and manage your own intelligent apps, safeguard your business and data, accelerate productivity, and connect with partners as you grow your community. To get notified when registration opens, sign up for the Microsoft Ignite email list. European SharePoint Conference 2024. Join other tech enthusiasts from around the globe at ESPC24 in Stockholm, Sweden, December 2–5, 2024. Learn expert AI strategies to boost your workflow and insights to excel in the evolving tech world. Register for ESPC24. Catch up on recent events If you missed Microsoft Build 2024 or the Microsoft 365 Community Conference, you can still learn about the event, get announcement details, and watch sessions on demand: Microsoft Build 2024. At Microsoft Build, our annual flagship event for developers and decision makers, we introduced new ways to optimize and personalize the Copilot experience, including new agent capabilities, Team Copilot, custom copilots created from SharePoint, new Copilot extensions, and Copilot connectors in Copilot Studio. We also unlocked a new era of innovation with Windows Copilot Runtime and Copilot+ PCs. Microsoft 365 Community Conference 2024. This community event was dedicated to learning, professional development, and networking opportunities for forward-thinking professionals looking to build their skills in the era of AI. The conference highlighted innovations for end users, developers, and IT across Microsoft Copilot and Copilot for Microsoft 365, including uses in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft Viva, and more. Recordings are available on demand for the conference sessions, including “The Age of Copilots,” “Transforming Communications with AI,” “How Copilot for Microsoft 365 Works,” and much more. View the full article

Build a security-first organization with up-to-date cybersecurity skills Like others around the globe, your organization is likely dealing with an ever-increasing number of cyberthreats and you need skilled team members to help address them. According to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2023, cybersecurity is near the top of the list of the fastest-growing job roles. There’s an increasing need for professionals with cybersecurity skills—a need that will continue to grow in the future. In the world of business today, every member of every team must be ready to address cyberthreats. At Microsoft, one of the ways that we help counter these threats is to promote a security-first culture—security above all else. We continuously apply what we’ve learned from security incidents to improve our methods and practices. To that end, we’ve created the Microsoft Secure Future Initiative (SFI), our commitment to advance the way we design, build, test, and operate our technology so our solutions can meet the highest possible security standards. Empower your workforce to counter cyberthreats Strengthening your organization’s cybersecurity posture and supporting a security-first culture involves upskilling across all roles to handle cyberthreats. Get started on Microsoft Learn for Organizations, where you can find the latest team training resources and opportunities, including cybersecurity training to build skills that your teams can put to work right away. Check out the self-paced, on-demand, Microsoft Official Plans highlighted there, including: Learning for Microsoft cybersecurity architects Learning for Microsoft data security administrators Learning for Microsoft identity and access administrators Learning for Microsoft security operations analysts Microsoft Security for business leaders and CISOs Plus, Microsoft Learn for Organizations offers a variety of practical insights, inspiring success stories, and additional resources for teams that are skilling up to keep pace with fast-evolving technologies and close the skills gap. Join us for an important cybersecurity skills webinar Jump-start a skill-building plan to help your organization address threats to your data, assets, systems, and more. Join us online for the Microsoft Secure Future Initiative Master Class: Red vs. blue skills to counter cyberthreats, on September 25, 2024, from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM Pacific Time, a webinar that focuses on monitoring and detecting threats and accelerating remediation—all part of the SFI pillars. In this important webinar, you can: Learn from experts. Hear from Microsoft Security experts, along with Microsoft Certified Trainers from our Training Services Partner NetCom Learning. Experience a red versus blue team demonstration. See Microsoft Security solutions, like Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and Defender XDR in action through real-world cyberattack scenarios. Discover skills to help secure your organization. Explore learning paths to upskill your team and protect against evolving cyberthreats. Join a live Q&A with experts. Get answers to your security training questions from some of the best in the industry. Reserve your spot for this webinar, and let’s build a more secure future together! View the full article

At Microsoft Learn, we continually review and evolve our portfolio of Microsoft Certifications to help learners around the world stay up to date with the latest technologies in our fast-changing digital world, especially as AI skills become increasingly important in the workplace. Microsoft Certifications are globally recognized credentials that validate your skills for various job roles using these technologies. According to the 2023 Skillsoft IT Skills & Salary report, 62% of those who earned certifications felt that the quality of their work improved. They’re also more engaged at work (47%) and perform their duties faster (45%). Whether you’re a student, a professional, or someone changing careers, earning a Microsoft Certification can help you accomplish your goals and demonstrate your commitment to continuous learning and improvement. This achievement can also help boost your confidence and credibility at work as you showcase your expertise to employers and customers. What’s changing? We regularly update our exam content, format, and delivery to help ensure that our exams are aligned with industry standards and best practices. In recent years, we’ve made significant investments in developing and launching new exams and certifications for critical roles that use Microsoft apps and services, like Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform. We also review and adjust exam prices to help maintain the quality and value of our Certification program. As a result, effective November 1, 2024, Microsoft is updating the retail prices for its Certification exams to reflect the current market conditions and the value of the Certifications. Our goal is to make the exam pricing simpler and more consistent across geographies while still offering a fair and affordable value proposition for our Certification candidates. What are the new prices? The new retail prices for Certification exams vary depending on the country or region where you take the exam. For most areas, there will be no change in the price. For some areas, the price will decrease to make the exams more affordable. In a few areas, the price will increase to align with global and regional standards. To find the updated price of the exams in your area, check out the full list of new prices for Microsoft Certifications by country or region. How does this news affect you? If you’re planning to take a Microsoft Certification exam, you can register for and take the exam at the current price until October 31, 2024. If you register to take the exam on or after November 1, 2024, you’ll pay the updated price. Remember, in many countries and regions, the retail price is not changing and might even be decreasing. For more information on how to register and pay for your exam, go to the Microsoft Certification exam policies and FAQs. To prepare for the Certification exam, make the most of the many resources and opportunities available on Microsoft Learn, such as free self-paced training, along with exam readiness resources, like Practice Assessments, exam prep videos, and more. You can also enroll in instructor-led training with Microsoft Training Services Partners or join the Microsoft Learn Community to prepare with peers and colleagues. Earn a Microsoft Certification today Microsoft Certification exams are more than just a test of your knowledge. They demonstrate your commitment, passion, and excellence in the IT industry. Earning a Certification is an investment in your professional life that can pay off in many ways, helping you build your skills and enhance your career. A Certification can boost your career prospects, improve your professional credibility, and unlock new opportunities for growth and success. Invest in your future and earn a certification today! View the full article

We’re looking for Dynamics 365 customer experience analysts to take our new beta exam. Are you responsible for configuring, customizing, and expanding the functionality of Dynamics 365 Sales to create business solutions that support, automate, and accelerate your organization’s sales process? Do you use your knowledge of customer experience capabilities in Dynamics 365 Sales and Microsoft Power Platform to configure Dynamics 365 Sales standard and premium features, implement collaboration features, and configure the security model? Additional helpful qualifications include the ability to perform Dynamics 365 Sales customizations, extend Dynamics 365 Sales with Microsoft Power Platform, and deploy the Dynamics 365 App for Outlook. If this is your skill set, we have a new Certification for you. The Microsoft Certified: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Experience Analyst Associate Certification validates your expertise in this area and offers you the opportunity to prove your skills. To earn this Certification, pass Exam MB-280: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Experience Analyst, currently in beta. Is this the right Certification for you? As a customer experience analyst, you’re responsible for participating in Dynamics 365 Sales implementations, understanding your organization’s sales process, and demonstrating the capabilities of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Data and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys. You have experience configuring model-driven apps in Power Apps. You understand accounts, contacts, and activities; leads and opportunities; the components of model-driven apps, such as forms, views, charts, and dashboards; model-driven app personal settings; and Dataverse, including tables, columns, and relationships. Plus, you have experience working with Dataverse solutions and you’re familiar with Power Automate cloud flow concepts, such as connectors, triggers, and actions. Additionally, you have an understanding of the Dataverse security model and features, including business units, security roles, and row ownership and sharing. Ready to prove your skills? Take advantage of the discounted beta exam offer. The first 300 people who take Exam MB-280 (beta) on or before September 13, 2024, can get 80 percent off market price. To receive the discount, when you register for the exam and are prompted for payment, use code MB280LMhiking. This is not a private access code. The seats are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. As noted, you must take the exam on or before September 13, 2024. Please note that this beta exam is not available in Turkey, Pakistan, India, or China. Get ready to take Exam MB-280 (beta): Review the Exam MB-280 (beta) exam page for details. The Exam MB-280 study guide alerts you to key topics covered on the exam. Skill up with the Microsoft Learn Official Collection Level Up: Dynamics 365 Customer Experience Analyst. Want even more in-depth training? Connect with Microsoft Training Services Partner in your area for in-person offerings. Need other preparation ideas? Check out my blog post Just How Does One Prepare for Beta Exams? Read about our new and improved exam UI in Reimagining the Microsoft Certification exam UI experience. Did you know that you can take any role-based exam online? Online delivered exams—taken from your home or office—can be less hassle, less stress, and even less worry than traveling to a test center, especially if you’re adequately prepared for what to expect. To find out more, read my blog post Online proctored exams: What to expect and how to prepare. The rescore process starts on the day an exam goes live, and final scores for beta exams are released approximately 10 days after that. For details on the timing of beta exam rescoring and results, check out my post Creating high-quality exams: The path from beta to live. Ready to get started? Remember, the number of spots is limited to the first 300 candidates taking Exam MB-280 (beta) on or before September 13, 2024. Related resources Evolving Microsoft Credentials for Dynamics 365 Dynamics 365 Sales documentation on Microsoft Learn Dynamics 365 Customer Insights documentation on Microsoft Learn View the full article

Are you hoping to learn new technical skills to excel in your current job or prepare for a new career? Is your organization looking to upskill employees in AI and other critical technologies? Microsoft Learn’s 30 Day Plans are a great option for skilling up quickly in a variety of specific fields and topics, including AI, data science, security, and more. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in all sectors of the economy, expanding your portfolio of skills is a smart investment. In fact, professionals with AI skills earn 21% more on average than those without. Curated by Microsoft subject matter experts, 30 Day Plans are designed to be completed in one month or less so you can reach your learning goals sooner. Each Plan is also aligned to a Microsoft Certification exam or Microsoft Applied Skills assessment so you can prove your expertise by earning a verified Microsoft Credential. With carefully designed learning outcomes, clear milestones, and automated nudges, 30 Day Plans help keep you focused and on track. That way, your next step is always clear and your goal attainable. Plus, you can pursue the training whenever, wherever, and however works best for you! 30 Day Plan topics cover an array of subjects, including: AI: Azure AI Engineer, Azure AI Language, Copilot for Microsoft 365 Security: Security Operations Analyst, Get AI-Ready with Microsoft 365 Admin Data: Azure Data Fundamentals, Make Your Data AI Ready with Microsoft Fabric Get a jump-start on your individual or organizational technical skilling goals with 30 Day Plans on Microsoft Learn. Our skill-specific learning content is ready to go anytime you are. Try a 30 Day Plan Learn more about Plans on Microsoft Learn View the full article

In this commentary, I examine the iPhone's evolution into a true smartphone! More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Which means that a bunch of inventive people have found ways to get the mp4 file *snicker* More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

In this exhaustive overview of Apple's iPhone 2.0 Software Update announcement, I explain how the company is making the iPhone an indispensible tool for all Windows users! More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

I think it would be great if you could configure the input method per application. Some apps work better with the onscreen keyboard, others work better with the block recogniser, and OneNote works really well with this handwriting recognition thing that I've installed. Now if the right input thingy would pop up as you changed applications .... Thanks for listening. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Hi all, I am trying to make certain changes to the registry under the HKLM\Comm directory and according to Microsoft these are considered "protected from normal applications" (see below). However, under WM6 Professional, I have no problem making the changes I need to.* Its only on Smartphone WM6 Standard (considered two-tier protected?) that I can't.* I am using the Microsoft remote tools - Remote Registry Editor.* After trying to connect it says, "A connection could not be made because the device actively refused it" or something to that effect.* Any ideas?* Is the only way to get a certificate from the OEM? Thanks in advance Nick From the page titled, Privileged APIs: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa455835.aspx In Windows CE, the following registry root keys and their subkeys are protected from normal applications: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Init HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Services HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\WDMDrivers More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Yeah it's coming...it's even above .Mac More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Flash Player not suited for iPhone says Apple CEO wow, after this news article... The Trouble with Steve Jobs Though, I like what Techcrunch had to say about all this... "Of course, as Duncan speculates, this provides an opportunity forMicrosoft to swoop in and enable the iPhone with Silverlight. But isthat even imaginable?" More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Vista SP1: Still lagging behind the Linux desktop eWeek, NY - 6 hours ago Like the HP Pavilion, it started life as a Windows Media Center PC. Now, I did not expect either system to be great with Vista. Neither one has the horses ... High time for Intel to get serious about graphics ZDNet Asia all 15 news articles More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Vista SP1: Still lagging behind the Linux desktop eWeek, NY - 30 minutes ago Like the HP Pavilion, it started life as a Windows Media Center PC. Now, I did not expect either system to be great with Vista. Neither one has the horses ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Apple plans to make it easier to add programs to iPhones Detroit Free Press, United States - 4 hours ago On Vista, the latest and much-criticized version of the Windows operating system. Microsoft announced just before the weekend that its home and ultimate ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Apple plans to make it easier to add programs to iPhones Detroit Free Press, United States - 19 minutes ago On Vista, the latest and much-criticized version of the Windows operating system. Microsoft announced just before the weekend that its home and ultimate ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

MIKE WENDLAND Apple to open the iPhone for more programs Detroit Free Press, United States - 1 hour ago On Vista, the latest and much-criticized version of the Windows operating system. Microsoft announced just before the weekend that its home and ultimate ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

MIKE WENDLAND Apple to open the iPhone for more programs Detroit Free Press, United States - 19 minutes ago On Vista, the latest and much-criticized version of the Windows operating system. Microsoft announced just before the weekend that its home and ultimate ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Last November, I wrote a C program that can find large prime numbers (using the Lucas Lehmer test for mersenne prime numbers). Today, I installed Ubuntu 6.10 LTS in Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and proceeded to install gcc, m4, autoconf and gmp. I also installed all of the patches available for Ubuntu and upgraded the kernel to the i686 version. I downloaded the source code for my program from my university's unix server using sch and compiled my program using GCC. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my program executed in a Virtual PC far faster than it executes on Windows. Here are some numbers: Testing all of the mersenne numbers ((2^x) - 1) between 0 and 2281 takes 1 second on Ubuntu and 3 seconds on windows. Testing all of the mersenne numbers between 0 and 3217 takes 5 seconds on Ubuntu and 10 seconds on Windows. Testing M21701 ((2^21701) - 1) takes 6 seconds on Ubuntu and 20 seconds on Windows. You could say that my program runs twice as fast on Ubuntu, but that would be wrong, because Microsoft Virtual PC does not have SMP support, so my these tests are being run in a single thread on Ubuntu and two threads on Windows (three if you include the main thread that waits for the other threads to terminate) with the exception of the test of M21701, which uses a single thread on both. Since I am using win32-pthreads for multithreading, I decided to do another run that would eliminate shared resources between the threads as a source of overhead by ensuring that each thread had a ton of work to do before needing to lock the mutex. So I tested all of the mersenne numbers between 2281 and 3217. It took 4 seconds on Ubuntu and 7 seconds on Windows. The variables here are the operating systems and the compilers. I am running Windows Media Center 2005 Edition with Visual Studio 2008 Professional and under Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, Ubuntu 6.10 LTS with GCC 4.03. I am compiling my program in Visual Studio 2008 Professional under release mode with all compilation flags that I could find set. That includes /Ox, /Ob2, /Ot, /Oy, /GL, /arch:SSE2, /fp:fast and /GS-. I am compiling my program on Ubuntu with the following command: gcc -m32 -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -mtune=k8 -march=k8 mersenne.c /usr/local/lib/gmp.so There are no background processes running that are sucking up CPU resources and I did each test (particularly on Windows) several times to try to minimize the negativity of the results. The code is the same and the hardware is the same. The only other variable is Virtual PC, which should be harming performance on Ubuntu, not Windows. So would anyone be able to tell me, exactly what is making my program run so much slower on Windows than it runs on Ubuntu? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

I've been trying to fix my WM6*Professional*mobile phone as it wouldn't sync with Windows Mobile Device Center. I kept getting "ActiveSync encountered a problem on the desktop." with the error code 0x86000107. I tried everything, a device hard reset, uninstalling and*reinstalling Windows Mobile Device Center, Turn off all device security with Visual Studio, etc. Then just before i was about to give up i turned off the USB to PC*"advanced network functionality" and it started*working again :D As i couldn't find much information regarding the*error code*i'm posting my solution here. Start --> Settings --> Connections -->* USB to PC --> untick "Enable advanced network functionaility" If anyone has a better solution let me know. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Hi to all. i am new to this community. i need to develop a windows mobile application. i dont know anything about this. i need to start from the scratch. can any one please help me to find out what are all the softwares needed for this and how to approah this? Thanks in advance. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds