How to get the best of Windows on the Microsoft 365 admin center

[Guest Mabel_Gomes]

Time flies and it's hard to believe that one year ago, in April 2021, we were concluding the rollout of Windows release heath and Windows message center content[1] to the Microsoft 365 admin center. We want to take advantage of this one-year anniversary to share some good news about a brand-new capability, and to remind you how to get the best Windows content from the admin center so you stay informed about both known issues and important, upcoming changes.

 

Let's start with some news worth celebrating: Message center posts about Windows are now returned via the Service Comms Graph API. Initially, admin center users were able to use the service communications API in Microsoft Graph to access message center posts about multiple products and services, but not about Windows. Now with this new access, you can use your organization's apps to enable custom workflows for administrators to review, assign, and triage communications about Windows from the message center.

 

Your apps can access the Windows communications data on behalf of a signed-in user, or without any signed-in user in the tenant, if you set up the appropriate delegated or application permissions. For more information on access tokens, app registration, and delegated and application permissions, see Authentication and authorization basics.

 

Set up email notifications

 

 

Remember that you can view Windows-related notifications in the message center and customize your notification preferences just as you would for any other product or service in the Microsoft 365 admin center. If you have applicable licensing subscriptions and do not automatically see Windows content, select Message center and then Preferences. Once you're there, select Microsoft Windows in the Custom View tab.

 

You can also opt in to receive weekly digests and immediate alerts for major updates via email by selecting the Email tab in Preferences. The weekly digest email is sent on Mondays and includes links to all messages published over the past week regarding the products and services you choose. The major update email alerts bring you relevant announcements, such as the release of an out of band update or availability of new Windows versions. These alerts are sent on the same day the announcement is published.

 

New admins, specifically those with the roles of Global Admin or Message Center Privacy Reader, will be subscribed to a 4-week trial period for the Message center weekly digest and can choose to stay subscribed once the trial has concluded by using the Message center preferences menu.

 

For more information about how to use the message center, see Manage messages in Message center. For a quick step-by-step on how to set up email notifications for Windows announcements,

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We want to hear your feedback!

 

 

Every message center post can be rated with a thumbs up or thumbs down, and you can provide any specific feedback you'd like to share with us. If you'd like to talk about your experience, you can check the box saying It's OK to contact me about this feedback. The same goes for the Windows release health page and known issues posts: you can click on Is this post helpful? and share your thoughts on how we can improve communications about issues. We do read all comments and take customer feedback into account for future enhancements to the tool and content.

 

 

Continue the conversation. Find best practices. Visit the Windows Tech Community.

 

Stay informed. For the latest updates on new releases, tools, and resources, stay tuned to this blog and follow us @MSWindowsITPro and @WindowsUpdate on Twitter.

 

 

[1] Requires one of the following subscriptions: Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3/A3/F3, Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5/A5, Windows 10 Enterprise E3/A3, Windows 10 Enterprise E5/A5, Windows 11 Enterprise E3/A3, or Windows 11 Enterprise E5/A5.

 

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