Here's a nice Windows IT blog post of various ways to stay informed about Windows world.
From websites, blogs, X accounts, podcasts, it's a nice backed list of link to have Windows information the way it suits you best.
Take a look here:
Skilling snack: Windows information and resources for IT pros
The new Microsoft Teams is coming and you can preview it right now!
Rolling out in September 2023 for new and existing installations of Microsoft 365 Apps for Windows, currently, users can install the new Teams by using the "Try the new Teams" switch in classic Teams or having administrators bulk deploy directly to the computers in theirs organization.
To enable the switch for specific users or groups, follow the instructions here:
Deploy the new Teams client using policies - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
If you want to bulk deploy in your organization, you should follow this instructions:
Bulk deploy the new Microsoft Teams desktop client - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
The option to opt-out will be available in early August 2023.
For a complete list of what's new and improved in the new Teams experience, here's the Microsoft Blog announcement:
Introducing the new Microsoft Teams, now in preview - Microsoft Community Hub
Generally available today, it's now possible to retrieve the BitLocker recovery keys of your devices, directly from the Company Portal.
To do so, you just need to follow these steps:
Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AAD) is becoming Microsoft Entra ID.
"To simplify our prodcut naming and unify our product family, we're changing the name of Azure AD to Microsoft Entra ID," Microsoft president Joy Chik says in the announment post.
So here are the corresponding names of Azure AD to Entra ID:
It seems the platform will be run of x.com domain name also.
In another tweet: "If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make [it] go live worldwide tomorrow."
And it seems he already chose the new X logo.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
In April 2023, the company disclosed that Musk had changed the company’s name from Twitter Inc. to X Corp., which is incorporated in Nevada with its main place of business San Francisco.
Were you approached by some backup vendors this week? Was that approach about M365 backup?
There's probably a good reason for that. First of all, because it's largely known that there's a "Microsoft 365 Shared Responsibility Model" where users and organization data it's your responsibility.
Something very well represented in this Veeam example:
Microsoft just announced the availability of Bing Chat for Enterprise.
Although this will only be automatically available mid-august, you can activate it in advance....right now!
To do so, just navigate to the following link and enable it: Enable Bing Chat for Enterprise
This can take about 4 hours to activate.
Microsoft announced today Bing Chat Enterprise.
After 15 years of Calibri, Microsoft is changing the default font in Microsoft Office/365 suite.
In 2021 (!) Microsoft started testing 5 new fonts (Bierstadt, Grandview, Seaford, Skeena and Tenorite).
All this fonts were available through the various Microsoft 365 products like Word or Excel, and now they have a winner.
It seems like Bierstadt was the one with more positive feedback. In its final version, it will be renamed to Aptos. In the next few months Microsoft will roll-out Aptos and make it the default font across Microsoft 365 products replacing Calibri (which will still be available).
Take a look to the official Microsoft post:
Microsoft - A change of typeface: Microsoft’s new default font has arrived
Just a quick reminder about the EoS for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2.
In less that 90 days (next October 10th 2023) as previously announced, all editions of Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 will reach end of support on October, 2023. The October 10, 2023 security update is be the last update available for these products. After this date, these versions of Windows Server will no longer receive updates containing protections from security threats, bug fixes, or technical support.
Here's the official Microsoft announcement and guidance:
Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 reaching end of support
I think Zero Trust Security will be one of the most important and discussed subjects in the next years.
Everything got so ubiquitous and all the enterprise services and resources expanded outside of the organization in the last couple of years, that securit it more important than ever and...will be even more important as users workplace is literally everywhere, anywhere, any device, etc.
Microsoft has an interesting page with quizzes to evaluate the zero trust posture:
Evaluate your Zero Trust security posture
This is almost a "Microsoft Rule". Every enterprise grade product licensing is a nightmare to understand.
The new Microsoft Fabric keeps the tradition and again, every sys admin gets scratching their head, trying to understand which is the best option to choose for their scenario.
I found this video from "Guy in a Cube" that really narrows everything in a very nice way, explaining the different licensing types and options.
Take a look:
