Microsoft Ignite 2023 - "Windows App" revelead

Microsoft just announced at Ignite 2023 a new app called..."Windows app". This new app, still in preview, that you can get right now, is available for iOS, the web and Windows.

It enables users to connect to various types of Windows "machines" like Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, Microsoft Dev Box, or a personal Remote Desktop PC.

At the moment, there's no much information about the app but screenshots in Windows Store shows PCs and also a list of apps, which may indicate that users will be able to launch apps remotely installed on other devices.

If you're curious about this new app, go ahead and installed it from the Windows Store:
Windows Store - Windows App

Powershell - Exchange Online - Shared Mailboxes - Enable automatic copy of sent items

 

When you create a shared mailbox in Exchange Online (EXO) by default the sent items will end up in your main mailbox sent items.

That's a bit annoying since if you want others, that have access to the shared mailbox, to see your replies, you'll need to manually copy, or create a rule for it.

But there's a solution, and you just need to follow these steps using PowerShell:

1. Connect to Exchange Online:
   Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName yourusername@upn.com
   
   
2. Next, if you what check the current status for sent items:
   Get-Mailbox sharedmailbox | select MessageCopyForSentAsEnabled
   
   
3. To enable automatic sent items copy:
   Set-Mailbox sharedmailbox -MessageCopyForSentAsEnabled $True

And you're done! :)

Windows 11 23H2 - How to enable/access Copilot in Europe

 

So, you've already using the new Windows 11 23H2 Feature Update and you notice that on of the most awaited features is nowhere to be found?
If your living in Europe, you can give many thanks to Digital Markets Act (DMA) for blocking it in EU.

Well, but this is technology so...there's always workarounds...here's one while we wait for DMA to unblock Copilot:

1. Create a shortcut (Right-click > New > Shortcut)
2. For the item location write down "microsoft-edge://?ux=copilot&tcp=1&source=taskbar" and click Next
3. Now type your preferred name for the shortcut, Copilot for example and click Finish

Now just try it out. Copilot will open exactly like other guys have outside EU.

If you want to have a nice Windows Copilot icon, just download this one:

Windows Copilot Icon

Windows 11 23H2 - How to force upgrade with Enterprise SKU

 
If you're using a Windows 11 Enterprise SKU, you may not automatically receive 23H2 update right now. Even if you enable the "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" and then check for updates, the Feature Update may not be available today.

This was the easiest and fastest way to upgrade my machine from 22H2 to 23H2 and for obvious reasons it's fine for an isolated upgrade, and not for an enterprise-wide rollout. For that kind of scenario you should use Windows Update for Business; VLSC; etc.

So, just follow these steps:

1. Download Windows 11 Installation Assistant from here
2. Double-click, next, next next
3. Wait....
4. Done!

Don't be afraid because this will upgrade your Windows version and not wipe out your disk.

After the upgrade, open Windows update and install the latest quality update, which for the moment I'm writing this article is this one: 
2023-10 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5031455)

VBScript to R.I.P. Soon

 

It seems like that after 30 years, the good old favorite scripting language for sysadmins is going to rest in peace.

VBScript aka Visual Basic Script was introduced in 1996 and integrates active scripting into Windows environments, and communicates with host applications through Windows Script.This was one of the favorites scripting languages for system administrators.

Microsoft announced VBScript's deprecation October 9th on it's "Deprecated features for Windows Client" article following the September announcement of WordPad end of life.

So, the plan to retire VBScript starts with it being preinstalled via Features on Demand (FoD), and in the "near future" remove it from the OS and only available has a FoD.

It had a been a long and fantastic life for VBScript. For those that never tested PowerShell, now is time to really dig into it. 

Long live VBScript. :)

M365 Defender - Get Email Notifications for Incidents

 

Because nowadays you've to look for a lot of information, it's important that the information you really need, comes to you and not the other way around.

That's why I believe it's important to have the least possible endpoints where you get your information about your infrastructure. And if your giving support to more than one tenant this is even more important.

So, instead of going to Microsoft 365 Defender all the time, you can create email notifications for what you need, and receive everything in one place.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. Open Microsoft 365 Defender (https://security.microsoft.com)
2. Go to Settings > Email Notifications
3. And from there create a new rule or edit an existing one
4. Select which products you want to receive email notifications
5. Next select the recipients
6. Done! :)

Intune - Expedite Updates - Expedite Client Missing - Solved

 

One of the recent functionalities in Microsoft Intune, is the "Expedite Updates".
This allows you to "force" clients to receive Windows Updates as soon as possible. In addition to rely on Microsoft Windows Update service, it also relies on Microsoft Update Health Tools.

Microsoft Update Health Tools as a service called...Microsoft Update Health Service or "uhssvc".

After created the policy to update devices with latest Windows quality update, some devices were reporting "Expedite client missing". 

Although the most common issue is that the device don't really have Microsoft Update Health Tools installed correctly, and you can download it here: Update Health Tools, in this case I found how a different cause.

The Microsoft Update Health Service was Disabled. So it was has easy as enable and start the service and everything just started working right away.