With the rise of generative AI comes an increased risk of organizational data leakage. This article explores recommendations to secure Microsoft 365 data from unauthorized generative AI applications.

The post Securing Microsoft 365 Data from Unauthorized Generative AI Applications appeared first on Practical 365.

Introducing the new ERD-view data experience that streamlines the management of complex data models with Copilot assistance.

The post Work with complex data models in an ERD view assisted by Copilot appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Archival and removal of locations within SharePoint Online and Teams is a helpful addition to remove stale data from immediate access by users, but it can be confusing for tenant admins to understand the available options.In this article, we examine what options exist to archive data and why you would use each option.

The post Practical Admin: Archiving Options for Sites and Teams in Microsoft 365 appeared first on Practical 365.

On July 14, 2026, InfoPath Forms Services will be removed from Microsoft 365/SharePoint Online.InfoPath extended support for SharePoint Server will also end on this date.The Clock is Ticking…

Today we’re thrilled to announce the availability of Microsoft Power Apps public preview on RealWear devices and the RealWear Marketplace.The ability to build and deploy custom solutions for frontline professionals on RealWear devices is another step in our vision to empower every individual on the planet.

The post Through the looking glass: Power Apps and RealWear appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Looking for The Best Way to Find Memberless Groups The question arose about how to find groups without members using the Graph APIs.Microsoft’s ownerless group policy is […]

The post Practical Graph: Find Ownerless and Memberless Groups with Graph APIs appeared first on Practical 365.

The post Digital Workspace Revolution: Trends to Watch appeared first on Compass 365.

Defender for Endpoint gathers system information to support operation and detection needs. We can then leverage that data to build a custom report to show the deployment status. This blog walks through that process using KQL.

The post Using KQL to Pull the Deployment Status of the Defender for Endpoint appeared first on Practical 365.

Welcome back to our series on why your company needs an intranet.In Part 1, we covered the essential benefits like improving internal communications, increasing employee engagement, better collaboration, and effective document management.

The post Why an Intranet is Essential for Your Business: Part 2 – The Nuanced Benefits appeared first on Compass 365.

Microsoft already announced two sets of pre-release changes to Microsoft Recall that address some of its security issues.In this blog, we review your options to protect your organization against Microsoft Recall.

The post Practical Protection: Protecting Your Enterprise Against Microsoft Recall appeared first on Practical 365.

On this week's show, Steve and Paul are joined by Microsoft's Karin Skapski to discuss automation, Copilot, TEC, and much more.

The post Copilot in SharePoint, Recall is Recalled, plus Karin Skapski Talks Automation: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E21 appeared first on Practical 365.

In April, Microsoft launched the new Planner, complete with a new Planner app for Teams. The makeover is nice and the ability to create personal plans is appreciated. However, Planner Premium licenses are needed to access any of the Project on the web features that the new Planner is absorbing.

The post Slow Start for the New Planner appeared first on Practical 365.

PowerShell Parallel Processing is a mechanism to speed the processing of large quantities of data. In this example, we discuss how to use parallel batches to fetch Entra ID account information using mailbox data to drive information retrieval. Although this is only a demonstration of a technique, it might help those who must process thousands of mailboxes or accounts and would like to do so more quickly.

The post Experimenting with PowerShell Batching and Parallel Execution appeared first on Practical 365.

In this article, Paul Robichaux walks through the process of setting up the new Entra ID Enterprise SSO Plug-in on macOS.

The post Using the Entra ID Enterprise SSO Plug-in on macOS appeared first on Practical 365.

In this article, Jaap Wesselius explains the available options for SMTP relay when moving to Exchange Online.

The post Practical Exchange: Understanding SMTP Relay in Exchange Online appeared first on Practical 365.

In the realm of app development, user experience reigns supreme. Streamlining navigation through an application’s screens can make or break user engagement. It's in this pursuit of enhancing user experience that the concept of Deep linking emerges as a game-changer for Power Apps. In this blog post, I will discuss what Deep linking means [...]

The post The Power of Deep Linking in Power Apps appeared first on Compass 365.

In the modern workplace, intranets have evolved from simple document repositories to dynamic, interactive platforms that drive communication, collaboration, and engagement. Did you know that companies with highly engaged employees outperform their peers by 147% in earnings per share? After working with countless organizations, I've seen these benefits in action time and again. In [...]

The post Why an Intranet is Essential for Your Business: Part 1 – The Core Benefits appeared first on Compass 365.

We are thrilled to announce the release of our latest white paper, “Develop a tenant environment strategy to adopt Power Platform at scale”, available now on Microsoft Learn. This comprehensive guidance is designed to help organizations effectively manage and optimize their Power Platform environments, ensuring they can leverage the full potential of their Power Platform investments.

The post Develop a tenant environment strategy to adopt Power Platform at scale appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

In this episode of Practical Sentinel, Thijs Lecomte discusses how to create some basic KQL queries to track MFA usage.

The post Practical Sentinel: Auditing Multifactor Authentication with Sentinel appeared first on Practical 365.

Implementing a well-defined environment strategy is essential for harnessing the full capabilities of Microsoft Power Platform. Our latest white paper provides the guidance you need to learn how to best use the latest features of the platform to implement a strategy that can allow your adoption of Power Platform to reach enterprise scale. We are excited to see how this resource will support your journey towards digital transformation. Download the white paper today and take the first step towards optimizing your Power Platform environments.

Welcome to the Power Apps monthly feature update! We will use this blog to share a summary of product, community, and learning updates from throughout the month so you can access it in one easy place. This month we’ve got a great set of updates for Makers, Admins, and users across Power Apps, Dataverse and

The post What’s new: Power Apps May 2024 Feature Update appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Welcome to the Power Apps monthly feature update! We will use this blog to share a summary of product, community, and learning updates from throughout the month so you can access it in one easy place. This month we’ve got a great set of updates for Makers, Admins, and users across Power Apps, Dataverse and Copilot.

In this Episode of Practical Protection, we talk about BitLocker's new self-service recovery key access feature.

The post Practical Protection: Adding Self-Service to BitLocker Recovery Key Access appeared first on Practical 365.

This article explains how to use PowerShell to create a report listing the files from a OneDrive for Business account. Because so many Microsoft 365 apps store their files in OneDrive (and other apps too), OneDrive can become a form of dumping ground for data. Seeing file information in the report allows account owners to clean up their digital debris.

The post How to Create a Files Report for a OneDrive for Business Account appeared first on Practical 365.

Note: This blog is in continuation of the series of modern controls coming to canvas apps. You can find the March 2024 updates here.  Since last update in early April, we have continued making critical leaps to enable our app creators to build truly modern apps. We have many exciting announcements – Updates to modern theming, availability of icon in buttons, more controls in generally available state and ~100 new styling properties across modern controls.

The post May 2024 updates for modern controls and theming appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Do you want to build modern and accessible apps with Power Apps? Then you will love our latest updates on modern controls and theming capabilities. You can now customize the size, style, and alignment of checkboxes, radio buttons, badges, input controls, text, and buttons. You can also choose from different appearance options and change the border radius of these controls. Plus, we are adding more styling properties and new modern controls soon. Learn more about these updates and how to use them in your apps below.

In this week's episode of the Practical 365 podcast, Steve Goodman and Rich Dean are joined by Microsoft's Andy Jaw, a senior security specialist with a fascinating background spanning the military, law enforcement, and now as a cyber security expert.

The post Mastering ITDR Response – Insights from Microsoft’s Andy Jaw: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E20 appeared first on Practical 365.

The goal of fusion development is to create an environment where Citizen Developers, Professional developers (aka code-first) and IT Professional can collaborate seamlessly. We want to create great experience for makers creating an app for the first time and for code-first developers that want to have the transparency of the source code for their Power Apps. We

The post Introducing Code View in Power Apps Studio (Public Preview) appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

This article describes how to use the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK to interact with Teams messaging to create new one-to-one and group chats and post messages to chats and channel conversations.

The post Working with Teams Messaging Using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK appeared first on Practical 365.

Fusion development is getting easier. Now, developers can view and use source code in a readable YAML + Power Fx format. Code view in Power Apps Studio allows a greater level of transparency for developers as they work with canvas apps as well as the ability to copy and paste code between your preferred code editor—enabling small changes in code, reuse across your apps, and sharing code with other developers and the community.

In this episode of Practical PowerShell, we continue the conversation around another essential part of flow control: Branching.

The post Practical PowerShell: Branching appeared first on Practical 365.

The TEC 2024 Keynotes will feature compelling sessions on identity, security, and the future of Windows. Delivered by speakers with strong opinions, these sessions are definitely not to be missed. Join the Practical365 crew at TEC 2024 in Dallas, Oct 1-2.

The post Practical 365 Approved! Don’t Miss These Groundbreaking Keynotes at TEC 2024 in Dallas appeared first on Practical 365.

What is a functional specification document? A functional specification document (FSD) is a detailed description of the functionality, design, and user interface of a software product or system.  It outlines the system's features, capabilities, and interactions, as well as the expected behavior and performance.  An FSD is a key document for any software development [...]

The post Why You Need a Functional Specification Document for Your Intranet Project appeared first on Compass 365.

Power Apps is now used by more than 25 million users every month, with an increasing number of those apps delivered by dedicated teams of professionals. We’re investing in the end-to-end experience of these developer teams, bringing together Copilot and human collaborators to be able to deliver impactful and scalable apps faster than ever.

The post Power Apps is making it easier for developers to build with Microsoft Copilot and each other appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Enhancing your AI business strategy with Microsoft Copilot Studio and Microsoft Dataverse enables organizations to simplify the complex data integration, third-party data extensibility, and security guardrails organizations must have in place to assist in the implementation and adoption of AI.

The post Unlock new levels of productivity with Microsoft Dataverse and Microsoft Copilot Studio appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

In this blog, we take a look at the Unified Security Operations Platform, review what is available right now, discuss what Microsoft is building, and ask whether you need this functionality.

The post Practical Sentinel: A Practical Look at the Unified SecOps Experience appeared first on Practical 365.

Power Apps is now used by more than 25 million users every month, with an increasing number of those apps delivered by dedicated teams of professionals. We’re investing in the end-to-end experience of these developer teams, bringing together Copilot and human collaborators to be able to deliver impactful and scalable apps faster than ever.

Enhancing your AI business strategy with Microsoft Copilot Studio and Microsoft Dataverse enables organizations to simplify the complex data integration, third-party data extensibility, and security guardrails organizations must have in place to assist in the implementation and adoption of AI.

Microsoft 365 Archive is a solution to move SharePoint Online sites from hot to cold (less expensive) storage. It works well, and it comes with an added benefit in that archived sites are inaccessible to Copilot. In other words, you can make sure that Copilot doesn't process old and obsolete material by archiving sites that contain this type of content. Seems like a no-brainer.

The post Microsoft 365 Archive Could Help SharePoint Online Cope with Digital Debris appeared first on Practical 365.

Announcing Power Platform Well-Architected, a comprehensive framework designed to help you maximize the value of your investments in modern enterprise application workloads with Power Platform. As organizations increasingly rely on modern applications to drive their business processes, ensuring that these applications are built on a strong, adaptable foundation is more critical than ever. Power Platform Well-Architected helps you design Power Platform workloads that are built to change and built to last.

The post Announcing Power Platform Well-Architected appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Announcing Power Platform Well-Architected, a comprehensive framework designed to help you maximize the value of your investments in modern application workloads with Power Platform.

Microsoft recently released a memo from Security VP, Charlie Bell. In this blog, we recap the memo and discuss some of the new security initiatives Microsoft is working towards.

The post Practical Protection: Copying Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative appeared first on Practical 365.

Environment groups and rules help admins manage multiple environments more effectively by applying consistent policies and settings across them. Admins can group related environments by any criteria and apply six key capabilities of managed environments to all of them. These include setting sharing limits for canvas apps, using AI to generate app and solution summaries, and enforcing best practices with solution checker. This ensures that all environments in a group follow the same standards and reduces the need for manual configuration.
Environment routing directs new makers to their personal developer environments instead of the default one. Personal developer environments are individual workspaces where makers can build apps and solutions using Microsoft Dataverse without interfering with others' work. Admins don't have to worry about makers working in the default environment by mistake. Personal developer environments also come with environment-level governance settings, such as sharing limits and solution checker, making it easier for makers and admins to work in Microsoft Power Platform.

The post Announcing General Availability of environment groups and environment routing appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Environment groups and rules help admins manage multiple environments more effectively by applying consistent policies and settings across them. Admins can group related environments by any criteria and apply six key capabilities of managed environments to all of them. These include setting sharing limits for canvas apps, using AI to generate app and solution summaries, and enforcing best practices with solution checker. This ensures that all environments in a group follow the same standards and reduces the need for manual configuration.
Environment routing directs new makers to their personal developer environments instead of the default one. Personal developer environments are individual workspaces where makers can build apps and solutions using Microsoft Dataverse without interfering with others’ work. Admins don’t have to worry about makers working in the default environment by mistake. Personal developer environments also come with environment-level governance settings, such as sharing limits and solution checker, making it easier for makers and admins to work in Microsoft Power Platform.

The 2024 Microsoft 365 Community Conference, held in Orlando, Florida - April 30 to May 2, offered a variety of sessions, keynotes, and workshops focusing on the future of workplace collaboration and AI integration. This year's event placed a significant emphasis on Microsoft Copilot and its applications across Microsoft 365 services. Opening Keynote [...]

The post Microsoft 365 Community Conference 2024 Recap: An AI-Powered Future appeared first on Compass 365.

In this blog, Brandon Colley reviews how to use PIM approvals to create a workflow that could stop attackers in their tracks, even if they have already compromised credentials.

The post Leveling Up Privileged Identity Management with Approvals appeared first on Practical 365.

AI models are improving rapidly, and customers need effective tools to integrate AI into their business solutions that provide precise, reliable and consistent information, and are easy to deploy. Today we are happy to announce our latest improvements to help makers integrate AI into their low-code apps and solutions. Now available as Public Preview in Microsoft Copilot Studio, data grounding with Dataverse tables allows makers to create powerful AI prompts that are grounded with their enterprise data while enforcing real time enterprise security. Additionally, we are excited to announce that low-code plugins now support five new AI Power Fx functions, and share  how Capgemini New Zealand, a global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, is leveraging these new capabilities to create value for their clients and solve business problems faster than ever before.

The post Infuse any AI solution with your enterprise data, prompts and plugins appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

On this week's episode, Paul and Steve cover several major Microsoft announcements impacting the future of AI, Exchange Server, and identity solutions.

The post Exchange Server Roadmap, New MS AI model on the way & Entra ID MFA: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E19 appeared first on Practical 365.

AI models are improving rapidly, and customers need effective tools to integrate AI into their business solutions that provide precise, reliable and consistent information, and are easy to deploy. Today we are happy to announce our latest improvements to help makers integrate AI into their low-code apps and solutions. Now available as Public Preview in Microsoft Copilot Studio, data grounding with Dataverse tables allows makers to create powerful AI prompts that are grounded with their enterprise data while enforcing real time enterprise security. Additionally, we are excited to announce that low-code plugins now support five new AI Power Fx functions, and share  how Capgemini New Zealand, a global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, is leveraging these new capabilities to create value for their clients and solve business problems faster than ever before.

A reader asked if it is possible to generate room mailbox weekly schedules that can be sent to distribution lists. This article explains how to accomplish the task using PowerShell and Graph API requests. Once you can get at the data, you can do anything!

The post Reporting the Weekly Schedule for Room Mailboxes appeared first on Practical 365.

In this blog, Sean Mcavinue reviews an update to his original Tenant-to-Tenant Migration Assessment, which is designed to gather key data to consider during the migration planning process.

The post Microsoft 365 Tenant-to-Tenant Migration Assessment Version 2 appeared first on Practical 365.

We are pleased to announces the General Availability of the Power Apps maker welcome content feature, which allows Power Platform admins to customize the welcome message that makers see when they sign in to the maker portal. The feature can be used to provide makers with important information, resources, and updates on Power Platform.

The post Announcing General Availability of Power Apps maker welcome content appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

We are pleased to announces the General Availability of the Power Apps maker welcome content feature, which allows Power Platform admins to customize the welcome message that makers see when they sign in to the maker portal. The feature can be used to provide makers with important information, resources, and updates on Power Platform.

Welcome back! In my previous article, we walked through the basics of conducting a preliminary intranet review yourself. But when it comes to ensuring your intranet is an indispensable business app, a professional review is super helpful. I’ve had the opportunity to work with hundreds of organizations and launch just as many intranets over [...]

The post Revitalize Your Intranet: Compass365’s Complimentary Internet Review Process appeared first on Compass 365.

Microsoft has announced that Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE) will appear in summer 2025. You'll be able to do an inplace upgrade from Exchange Server 2019 CU15 or a "legacy upgrade" (hardware switchover) for other versions. The initial version of Exchange Server SE is unexciting, perhaps deliberately so. It's all about getting customers to transition to the subscription model.

The post Exchange Server Subscription Edition Arrives in Summer 2025 appeared first on Practical 365.

This Episode of Practical Protection is all about Passkeys, how they are different from other credential types, and how they could put an end to phishing.

The post Practical Protection: Understanding Entra ID and Passkeys appeared first on Practical 365.

We are excited to announce General Availability of Block unmanaged customizations. This is an environment setting that allows Power Platform system administrators to block direct development in production environment by preventing unmanaged customizations. By blocking any unmanaged customizations and import of unmanaged solutions, admin can ensure that any changes to the environment, specifically the test and production environments, are only going through approved application lifecycle management (ALM) processes that have reliability, safety, and auditing.

This article describes creating a SharePoint Online files report using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. While keeping digital debris online might have been unimportant in the past, it's something that can wreak havoc in the era of generative AI when tools like Copilot for Microsoft 365 are happy to consume obsolete and inaccurate material.

The post Report SharePoint Online Files Using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK appeared first on Practical 365.

On this week's episode of the Practical 365 podcast, Steve, Rich, and Paul are joined by Alex Weinert, Director of Identity Security at Microsoft, to discuss the critical topic of identity threat detection and response (ITDR).

The post Microsoft on Protecting Identity – The Core of Your Digital Ecosystem: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E18 appeared first on Practical 365.

Welcome to Practical Sentinel! In the introductory blog of this series, we review how Microsoft positions Sentinel, what capabilities the product includes, and what it does well.

The post Practical Sentinel: Setting the Scene appeared first on Practical 365.

Welcome to the Power Apps monthly feature update! We will use this blog to share a summary of product, community, and learning updates from throughout the month so you can access it in one easy place. This month we’ve got a great set of updates for Makers, Admins, and users across Power Apps, Dataverse and Copilot.

We are excited to announce the General Availability of Customer Managed encryption keys for Power Apps data in your environments! Customer Managed encryption keys (CMK) provide an added data protection layer for your cloud assets on top of the Microsoft-managed default encryption keys. This extra protection is especially relevant for highly regulated industries like Healthcare and Financial Services and is now available for all managed environments.

If you haven’t already heard, Power Platform is advancing in the mission to democratize healthy ALM by removing a significant barrier to entry: manual setup. We are excited to announce that the feature set included in Pipelines for All is now Generally Available, and we’ve made some upgrades, such as adding a stage and reusing pipelines across dev environments, to make personal pipelines even more useful across a variety of use cases.

Virtual network support, now generally available for Dataverse plug-ins within Power Platform, enhances security for outbound connections to private network resources. Leveraging Azure Subnet Delegation, customers can delegate subnets to Power Platform, ensuring egress traffic management aligns with network policies.

Discover how Copilot, a feature in Power Apps, can help you create and understand formulas in Power Fx, improving productivity, enhancing collaboration, and reducing errors when building apps.

Intranets play an important role in how modern businesses thrive. An effective intranet helps streamline communication, enhance collaboration, and ensure information is easily accessible across all departments and communities. In this blog post, I’ll utilize more than a decade’s worth of intranet experience to explain how you can perform a preliminary review of your [...]

The post DIY Intranet Review Guide appeared first on Compass 365.

We’re excited to announce that Microsoft has been named a Leader in the Omdia Universe: No-Code, Low-Code Solutions 2023-2024. Power Apps is in a leading position thanks to its technological capabilities, market reach, and momentum. 

Attending the 2024 Gartner Digital Workplace Summit was an eye-opening experience, filled with valuable insights and cutting-edge trends shaping the future of work. Among the myriad of discussions and sessions, three key takeaways stood out, shedding light on the current landscape of digital workplaces and the direction they are headed. 1. The Continuing Need [...]

The post Top 3 Insights from the 2024 Gartner Digital Workplace Summit appeared first on Compass 365.

In the dynamic world of business, staying ahead of the curve is paramount. Microsoft Copilot is a cutting-edge AI assistant designed to enhance business productivity, amplify human creativity, and customize workflows to meet the unique needs of your company. With its integration into Microsoft 365, Copilot is not just an add-on—it's a transformative tool [...]

The post What can Microsoft Copilot do for your organization? appeared first on Compass 365.

A little-known Power Automate secret is that you can manually trigger a flow to run from a selected SharePoint List item by just clicking on a Hyperlink field. It almost sounds too good to be true, but all it takes is knowledge of the “For a selected item” SharePoint trigger and some custom JSON. [...]

The post Power Automate’s Best Kept Secret: ‘For a selected item’ SharePoint Trigger appeared first on Compass 365.

History of Delve Launched in 2015, Delve is the first Microsoft 365 app to leverage the power of Microsoft Graph and machine learning to map interactions between people and content across Office 365. For users that fully adopted Delve, it became a hub to discover, favorite, and organize content on boards that the user [...]

The post Microsoft Delve is Going Away, But Don’t Panic appeared first on Compass 365.

Welcome to a list of customer stories curated by the Power CAT team. These stories showcase the ingenuity of a wide breadth of organizations and users that have adopted low-code and Microsoft Power Platform along with Microsoft 365, Azure, and Dynamics 365. Makers of apps, flows, reports, and chatbots have digitally transformed their business processes, and in some cases transformed organization culture, careers, and lives. We hope these serve as inspiration for you as you embark on your own Power Platform journey.

In the ever-evolving landscape of app development, efficiency and flexibility are paramount. Power Apps Components emerge as a game-changer, offering a myriad of benefits that revolutionize the app development process. Power Apps Components serve as building blocks that empower developers to not only create sophisticated applications with ease but to do so in a [...]

The post Elevating App Development with Power Apps Components appeared first on Compass 365.

Power Platform Center of Excellence: Empower Users and Govern Solutions By establishing a Power Platform Center of Excellence (CoE), you can not only empower your citizen developers but also set and maintain standards, foster consistency, and ensure governance across the entire organization. Would you benefit from Power Platform CoE? Deliver apps [...]

The post Power Platform Governance Infographic appeared first on Compass 365.

We're thrilled to announce our participation as co-sponsors of the upcoming Gartner Digital Workplace Summit, taking place March 18th and 19th. This event promises to be a cornerstone gathering for professionals seeking insights and strategies to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of digital workplaces. As part of our commitment to innovation and collaboration, we're not [...]

The post Join Us at the Gartner Digital Workplace Summit and Exclusive Dinner Event appeared first on Compass 365.