Verifying Office 365 Administrator Access to User Data
Office 365 tenant administrators can use different ways to access user data. Shouldn’t you have a policy to govern that access?
Using Dynamic Office 365 Groups with Teams
Some say that Microsoft Teams doesn’t support dynamic Office 365 Groups. Well, I couldn’t find anything formal on the topic and the teams that I have configured to use dynamic groups work well, so what’s the real scene? As it turns out, Microsoft is still working on the feature.
New German Office 365 Datacenter Region to Replace Black Forest
New German Office 365 datacenters are on their way and will replace the dedicated Black Forest region that’s been used by German tenants since 2015. The move is good for tenants because they’ll be able to access more functionality.
Keeping Up With Office 365 IP Ranges
If you’re responsible for running the local network used by an Office 365 tenant to connect to Microsoft’s network, you need to know about the IP addresses and ranges used for Office 365 endpoints.
Office 2016, Office 365, and October 2020
Microsoft has published some statements about not allowing older Office clients to connect to Office 365 from October 2020. Well, the word “allow” should really be read as “support.” Or so we hear.
AllAbout365 Podcast
Looking for a good podcast about Office 365? You could try the AllAbout365 podcast and we don’t think you’ll be too disappointed. Newly updated with a podcast recorded at the UK Evolve conference in October 2019.
Office 365 Groups management capabilities coming to the SharePoint Online admin center
An update coming soon to the SharePoint Online Admin Center means that administrators will be able to manage Office 365 Groups. Given the importance of Office 365 Groups to SharePoint, it’s a good change.
Making sure that Microsoft 365 Retention Policies process Teams Items
Microsoft Teams support Office 365 retention policies, but how do you know if policies you create are effective in removing items from Teams? Well, as it turns out, you must go poking under the covers to validate that removals happen as planned.
How Did Slack Justify That $7B Valuation?
Apparently, Slack is now worth $7.1 billion. That’s a lot of money for a company that faces huge competition from Microsoft Teams, especially with the ever-increasing size of the Office 365 installed base.
Microsoft to Support Google IDs for Azure B2B Collaboration
Microsoft has launched the preview of Google B2B Federation, which allows Google accounts to be used to access Azure AD apps. Quite how this will work out for apps that use guest user accounts is unknown at this point.
Mass Delete Notifications for SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business
Microsoft says that they will soon send email to users when Office 365 detects a higher than normal number of file deletions in SharePoint Online sites and OneDrive for Business accounts. There’s no real detail provided as to what counts as a high volume or why Microsoft is sending the notifications.
Free eBook Covering Teams Deployment
Everyone likes free stuff. Here’s a link to a free eBook published by Quadrotech relating their experience of introducing and using Teams.
“Unable to discover PowerShell endpoint URI” when using MFA with Skype Online
Grrr. It’s been that kind of day. While chasing a Teams bug (about which more another time, once I have a consistent repro case), I needed to log on to Skype Online PowerShell. We use the Azure baseline policy that forces MFA for all admin accounts in our tenant; I just updated Chapter 3 of …
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Reassembling IM Conversations with Skype for Business Online and Teams
A new Petri.com article explains how to reassemble IM conversations using the compliance records captured by Skype for Business Online and Teams.
Update 5 Released for Office 365 for IT Pros (2019 edition)
The August 28, 2018 update for the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook is now available in PDF, EPUB, and Kindle formats. This is a large update for the book as we changed 13 out of 24 chapters.
Adding a New Microsoft 365 Group to an Existing (Classic) SharePoint Online Site
As announced in this post in the Microsoft Tech Community, the ability to add a new Office 365 Group to an existing SharePoint Online (SPO) site is finally available to Office 365. You will be able to connect existing classic SPO sites to new Office 365 Groups by means of two possible mechanisms: PowerShell (first …
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Creating an All-Employees Team (in Microsoft Teams)
Do you want to create an all-employees team spanning everyone in the company? Here’s a PowerShell script that will create and populate the team for you.
Teams Data Now Stored in Japan and Australia Office 365 DataCenters
In a surprise Sunday announcement, Microsoft said that from August 27 they will deliver Teams services from Office 365 datacenters in Australia and Japan.
Microsoft Completes Work to Bring Skype for Business Functionality into Teams
On August 24, Microsoft announced that their roadmap to bring the functionality and features from Skype for Business Online to Teams was complete. It’s always good news when you see a plan coming together, but it’s also important to understand that a world of difference exists between an announcement and being able to move an organization’s communications workload.
New IRM Option to Control Decryption of Attachments of Encrypted Messages
Microsoft has released a new setting in the tenant Information Rights Management (IRM) configuration to control if attachments of messages encrypted with the Encrypt Only feature (in OWA and Outlook) are decrypted when downloaded. In fact, two settings are available. One for people with Azure AD accounts, and one for those without.
The Difficulties of Defining a Sensitive Data Type
Microsoft thoughtfully provided Office 365 tenants with a Data Loss Prevention template for GDPR personal data. The only problem is that the rules in the template were too sensitive and started to block email.
When Teams is Better Than Email
Teams won’t take over from email anytime soon, but it is much better at organizing face-paced conversations.
How to Remove a Feature from an Office 365 Plan with PowerShell
Need a script to turn off sub-options in Office 365 plans like the one that controls Microsoft Teams? Here’s a Petri.com article that explains how to do it with the Microsoft Online Services PowerShell module.
Visio Stencil for Teams and Skype for Business
Need some Visio shapes to build presentations or plans featuring Teams or Skype for Business Online? Here’s how to get a copy of the stencil.
Fix for Active Directory Federation Services Security Hole Discovered
Microsoft has issued patch CVE-2018-8340 to fix a problem with Active Directory Federation Services. You should download and install this patch now.
The Microsoft 365 Roadmap is Coming
A new Microsoft 365 Roadmap will soon replace the current Office 365 Roadmap. The new roadmap will include Enterprise Mobility and Security, Windows 10, and Azure security.
New Search Experiences Arriving (finally) to SharePoint Online
Search in SharePoint Online (SPO) is an area that we will see change in the future. Indeed, you might have already seen some of the new search experiences in your modern SPO sites
MyAnalytics to Add Skype for Business Signals
The Office 365 MyAnalytics application is to add Skype for Business signals (and then Teams) to the set of data it processes to derive insights about the time users spend on different activities.
Avanan’s PhishPoint – FUD or a Real Problem?
The security company Avanan says that 10% of Office 365 users are affected by “PhishPoint.” That estimate seems pretty high to me.
How to Control the Access of Guest Users to Confidential Information in Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams
Many Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams are used to hold confidential information. Sometimes you don’t want guest members to have access to the information. A variety of methods are available to control guest access.
Why SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business Have a One Hundred Version Minimum
SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business sites will soon boast 100 minimum versions, which they need to power features like AutoSave and OneDrive Restore. But if you work for an organization that doesn’t want to use so many versions for files, you can update your SharePoint tenant configuration to disable minimum versioning. That is, provided you do so by September 30, 2018.
Network Principles for Office 365 Connectivity
People sometimes complain about Office 365 network performance. The root cause is unlikely to be in Microsoft’s network. It is much more likely to be in the “last mile” to the user device.
Removing Email Addresses from Microsoft 365 Groups
Like all mail-enabled objects, Office 365 Groups can have multiple proxy addresses. Microsoft has fixed a bug in the Set-UnifiedGroup cmdlet so that you can remove proxy addresses from groups, but take care before you do.
Office 365 for IT Pros at the UK Evolve Event – Birmingham, September 10, 2018
The Office 365 for IT Pros team will be at the UK Evolve conference on September 10. Come along and hear us talk!
Why Search-Mailbox Can’t Remove All Office 365 Content
The Search-Mailbox cmdlet is very powerful when it comes to removing items from Exchange Online mailboxes, but it can’t deal with other Office 365 content.
Losing the Last Name, First Name Legacy
A recent post by MVP Mark Vale describes how to use synchronization transformation rules in AADConnect to change the last name, first name format (for example, Smith, James) for display names to a more user-friendly first name last name format (our example becomes James Smith) for accounts as they synchronize to Azure Active Directory from an …
Teams Services Now Hosted in Canada
On August 10, 2018, Microsoft announced that the Azure-based Teams data services are now hosted in Canadian datacenters in Toronto and Quebec City. Teams services, which are what handle personal and channel messages and media (graphics), now run in the following Azure datacenters: Asia-Pacific: Singapore and Hong Kong. EMEA: Dublin and Amsterdam. Americas: Bay (California) …
Use the New-UnifiedGroup Cmdlet to Create Microsoft 365 Groups with Multiple Users
This article describes how to run the New-UnifiedGroup cmdlet to create Microsoft 365 groups with multiple group owners.
The History and Story Behind the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook
Office 365 for IT Pros is the world’s best book about Office 365 tenant management. Written by world-class experts, Office 365 for IT Pros teaches readers how and why the technology works the way that it does. Here’s the history of the book from its earliest days as an idea for a book about cloud Exchange right up to the latest edition.
Debugging Teams Clients When Something Goes Wrong
Making Teams Client Behave Most of the time, the Teams clients run along without a problem. But like all software, they have their moments. Here’s how to attack the problem if your Teams clients start to misbehave, including how to give the Microsoft developers some feedback. This article was posted on Petri.com on August 9, …
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