Latest News from Practical365
A news aggregator from various RSS feeds, like technology, gaming, development and general news sites.
Practical Graph: How to Upload a Large Attachment to Exchange Online
Previously, the Graph APIs limited Outlook attachments to a maxium of 3 MB.That limit doesn't exist anymore, but the old method of uploading very large attachments in chunks to make sure that the operation is possible across flakey networks is still useful, so we explain how to do it here using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK.The post Practical Graph: How to Upload a Large Attachment to Exchange Online appeared first on Practical 365.
Using Custom Scripts to Support Endpoint Management
In this article, James Yip discusses different ways to leverage Intune to run PowerShell scripts as part of endpoint management, specifically for Windows workstations, to perform custom administrative tasks. The post Using Custom Scripts to Support Endpoint Management appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical AI: Managing My Travel Calendar with PowerShell
AI is supposed to make our lives easier, so how about writing some PowerShell to block out timeslots in a travek calendar when the calendar's owner is on the move? Eventually AI gets the task done, but it needed some coaching and firm instruction along the way. The post Practical AI: Managing My Travel Calendar with PowerShell appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Running Audit Log Searches with the AuditLog Query API
After a year or so of using the AuditLog Query Graph API, we have enough experience to be able to explain how to take advantage of the API and when it could be used to run audit searches instead of the Search-UnifiedAuditLog cmdlet.There's lots of PowerShell code in this article to give anyone who wants to experiment with the API a good start to finding audit events.The post Practical Graph: Running Audit Log Searches with the AuditLog Query API appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: Auditing Guest Access in your Microsoft 365 Tenant
Many tenants have inactive guest accounts, and sometimes in large numbers.Microsoft has made it easy to invite guests but harder for guests to voluntarily leave;The post Practical Protection: Auditing Guest Access in your Microsoft 365 Tenant appeared first on Practical 365.
Microsoft Increases for On-Premises Licenses Coming on July 1
On April 3, Microsoft announced a 10% increase in prices for on-premises products including Exchange Server SE, SharePoint Server, and Skype for Business SE. Prices for CAL suites also increase with the Enterprise CAL increasing by 20%.The transition to the cloud means that on-premises engineering costs must be met by fewer customers, so it's higher prices all round!The post Microsoft Increases for On-Premises Licenses Coming on July 1 appeared first on Practical 365.
Using Conditional Access to Combat Token Theft
With AiTM phishing attacks on the rise, it is important to have procedures in place to combat future attacks. In this article, we explore three different ways to protect against token theft using Conditional Access. The post Using Conditional Access to Combat Token Theft appeared first on Practical 365.
Evaluating Options for Exchange Server in 2025
With the end of support for Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 rapidly approaching on October 14, 2025, organizations that rely on these versions must make a strategic decision for their messaging infrastructure, with Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE) defined as the destination for Exchange on-premises mailboxes.This article gives practical guidance for the available options moving forward.The post Evaluating Options for Exchange Server in 2025 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Figuring Out Inactive Teams Isn’t That Easy
Some people say that the Teams usage report (available in the Microsoft 365 admin center) is a great way of finding inactive teams.I consider that viewpoint to be rubbish because the Teams usage report doesn't include all the kinds of activities that a team might host.This article explains how to use audit data to supplement the usage report and create a better view of inactive teams.
Exchange Online Cracks Down, Message Center Madness, and Conditional Access Done Right: Practical 365 Podcast S04 E37
Steve and Paul cut through the noise of a million Message Center notifications to bring you the need-to-know on Exchange Online's new sending limits.Plus, security expert Louis Mastelinck schools us on practical Conditional Access – because let's face it, most deployments are a mess.The post Exchange Online Cracks Down, Message Center Madness, and Conditional Access Done Right: Practical 365 Podcast S04 E37 appeared first on Practical 365.
How Microsoft Put Purview Priority Cleanup Together and How it Works
For years, Microsoft has told us that items held by retention policies or eDiscovery holds are immutable and cannot be removed.Well, that's not quite the case as proven by the launch of the Purview Priority Cleanup solution, which is able to find and remove held items (only in Exchange Online for now).There's lots of interesting technology to discuss, but I wonder if Priority Cleanup is too complex and a tad slow to succeed.
How Microsoft Put Purview Priority Together and How it Works
For years, Microsoft has told us that items held by retention policies or eDiscovery holds are immutable and cannot be removed.Well, that's not quite the case as proven by the launch of the Purview Priority Cleanup solution, which is able to find and remove held items (only in Exchange Online for now).There's lots of interesting technology to discuss, but I wonder if Priority Cleanup is too complex and a tad slow to succeed.
Practical Teams Phone: Shared Line Appearance
In this Installment of Practical Teams Phone, Thorsten Pickhan dives into Shared Line Appearance, how to set it up, controlling delegate calling with PowerShell, and more! The post Practical Teams Phone: Shared Line Appearance appeared first on Practical 365.
Controlling Access to Microsoft 365 for Entra ID Apps
In the first installment of this new series on Entra ID Access Control, we explore the fundamentals of granting permissions to Entra ID user accounts and applications for task automation. The post Controlling Access to Microsoft 365 for Entra ID Apps appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: Three Essential Security Alerts You Should Enable
Microsoft is doing more and more to apply security defaults to our tenants.This is good, but it is still not enough!In this episode of Practical Protection, we dive into a few essential security alerts you should enable in your tenant.
Practical Graph: Create SharePoint Files from Azure Automation Runbooks
In this Practical Graph article, we describe how to create SharePoint files using an Azure Automation runbook.The code uses the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK whenever possible, but we had to resort to Graph API requests at times.We also look at how to update document metadata for the newly uploaded files.
Practical Graph: Reporting the Status of Group-Based License Assignments
This article describes how to create a report about group-based licensing assignments and any errors that might have occured.The code uses the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK to fetch information about the groups used for licensing assignments, interpret the assignments, find users with assignment errors, and send email to inform administrators about what's been found.The post Practical Graph: Reporting the Status of Group-Based License Assignments appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Teams Phone: How Emergency Calling Works
Emergency Calling is one of the most important aspects that organizations should consider when deploying a new phone system. In this Episode of Practical Teams Phone, we discuss how Emergency Calling works and some considerations when deploying. The post Practical Teams Phone: How Emergency Calling Works appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Nag Users to Upgrade to a Strong Authentication Method
Convincing people to use MFA is one challenge.Convincing them to use a stronger authentication method than SMS is another.This article explains how to use PowerShell to find people still using SMS for MFA and send email to ask them to upgrade their authentication method.
Practical Protection: Automating Inactive Account Blocking with PowerShell
Inactive accounts aren’t glamorous, but they’re a real risk!In this episode of Practical Protection, we dive into the basics of inactive account blocking and share some PowerShell scripts to help automate this process.The post Practical Protection: Automating Inactive Account Blocking with PowerShell appeared first on Practical 365.
Exchange Server Updates, AI Hype, and Practical Cybersecurity with Paula Januszkiewicz: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E36
In this episode, Paul and I discuss the latest Exchange Server updates, question the hype around AI agents, and welcome cybersecurity expert Paula Januszkiewicz who shares eye-opening stories about security breaches, social engineering tactics, and practical advice for organizations of all sizes.Paula reveals how AI is transforming both sides of the cybersecurity battlefield and why even the most basic security measures can make a significant difference.The post Exchange Server Updates, AI Hype, and Practical Cybersecurity with Paula Januszkiewicz: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E36 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical PowerShell: Restore an Entra ID Deleted User Account and Update Its User Principal Name
The need to restore deleted user accounts sometimes arises.But if you need to restore a deleted user account and change its user principal name, that operation can only be done with PowerShell.This article explores why updating a user principal name during a restore might be necessary and the code to restore accounts.
Practical Graph: Creating SharePoint News Items from an RSS Feed
This article explains how to use the SharePoint Pages API to create new site pages with the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK after reading information from an RSS feed.Parsing the RSS feed to find article details is just one of the challenges encountered and solved to accomplish the goal.The post Practical Graph: Creating SharePoint News Items from an RSS Feed appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical PnP: Automating Teams Creation using Templates
In this installment of Practical PnP, Sean McAvinue dives into how PnP PowerShell can help to improve automated Teams provisioning using templates and preset structures. The post Practical PnP: Automating Teams Creation using Templates appeared first on Practical 365.
Microsoft Announces Tenant-Level External Recipient Rate Limit for Exchange Online
In an announcement that will surprise many, Microsoft announced the introduction of a tenant-wide external recipient rate limit for Exchange Online tenants to roll out starting on March 3, 2025.The new limit is designed to stop bad actors using Exchange Online as a spam platform.Microsoft says that its telemetry indicates that the new TERRL will not impact many tenants, but that fact is worth checking for any organization.
Practical Protection: Banning Apps with Intune
In this in episode of Practical Protection, we dive into some recent IT incidents involving applications, and how Intune can be used to block them from your devices. The post Practical Protection: Banning Apps with Intune appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Exploring the Best Way to Control User Access to Entra ID Apps
Most Microsoft 365 tenants have a collection of Entra ID apps to manage.One task might be to control access to Entra ID apps, so the question is how best to do this.Assignments for users and groups control the ability to use apps while custom app roles are there for developers to determine what a user can done when they run an app.
Practical PowerShell: Parameter Input Validation
In previous Practical PowerShell articles, Michel discussed using parameters in advanced functions and utilizing dynamic parameters.In this article, we will dive in a bit deeper on a topic we touched on lightly in those articles, which is ways to validate parameter input.The post Practical PowerShell: Parameter Input Validation appeared first on Practical 365.
Protecting Exchange Server with TLS 1.3
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is used to setup secure connections between clients and servers. In this blog, we review TLS 1.3, its changes and advantages, and compare it to its predecessor, TLS 1.2. The post Protecting Exchange Server with TLS 1.3 appeared first on Practical 365.
So Long Rich, and Thanks for Avoiding the Phish: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E35
Join Steve Goodman and Rich Dean for Rich's final episode of the Practical 365 Podcast, where they reflect on memorable guests and insights from past episodes.Plus, meet new co-host Bastiaan Verdonk, a cybersecurity expert with over 28 years of industry experience, as they discuss AI developments and the future of technology.The post So Long Rich, and Thanks for Avoiding the Phish: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E35 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Controlling App Access to SharePoint Online Sites
The Microsoft Graph API offers great access to SharePoint Online site content, but sometimes the need exists to resist app access to SharePoint Online sites.That's where the Sites.Selected Graph permission comes in by allowing administrators to dictate exactly which sites an app can access.Practice the Principle of Least Permission!
Integrating Microsoft Forms with SQL Server using Power Automate
Integrating Microsoft Forms with SQL Server through Power Automate provides a structured way to store form submissions.In this blog, we review how to implement this process and provide a real-world use case, including important security considerations.The post Integrating Microsoft Forms with SQL Server using Power Automate appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: Logging – What the Feds Say You’re Doing Wrong
In this episode of Practical Protection, Paul Robichaux dives into CISA's Microsoft Expanded Cloud Logs Implementation Playbook, its prerequisites, and applying this advice into your organization. The post Practical Protection: Logging – What the Feds Say You’re Doing Wrong appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Teams: Teams Premium Administration and Licensing Guidance
When at least one user has a Teams Premium license assigned within an organization, several new features and settings are activated.In this article, we provide guidance to Teams administrators on which settings to monitor, features that are enabled by default or require specific configurations to work, and help identify who needs a Teams Premium license to access and use these various features.The post Practical Teams: Teams Premium Administration and Licensing Guidance appeared first on Practical 365.
Will Copilot Agents Run Amok in Microsoft 365 Tenants?
Everyone's very excited about the potential goodness of Copilot agents, but how Microsoft 365 tenants will manage potentially thousands of agents in the future is something that isn't clear.Some administrative capabilities are in the Microsoft 365 admin center, but are these sufficient?We don't think so, and this article explain why and what we'd do about the problem.
Identifying Privileged Applications and Their Secret Passwords
Securing applications in an Entra tenant is crucial, especially after recent attacks like Midnight Blizzard.This article reviews how to use PowerShell to help identify privileged applications, their permissions, as well as client Secrets.The post Identifying Privileged Applications and Their Secret Passwords appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Finding and Removing Underused Microsoft 365 Copilot Licenses from User Accounts
Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing costs a lot of money.Usage data is available in the Graph, and some PowerShell can reveal who's using Copilot and who's not.With that data, you can decide whether to remove licenses for reassignment to other users.
Practical Graph: Apply Retention Labels to Unlabeled SharePoint Files
A previous article described a script to find SharePoint Online files that didn't have retention labels.This article picks up the thread and shows how to use the data generated by the previous script to apply retention labels to the unlabeled files using cmdlets from the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK.The post Practical Graph: Apply Retention Labels to Unlabeled SharePoint Files appeared first on Practical 365.
Free Copilot Chat Lands For All, Exchange Audit Logging Changes & The New Outlook Arrives: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E34
Join Steve Goodman and Paul Robichaux to discuss Microsoft's latest announcements, including the surprise move to make Copilot Chat free for all Microsoft 365 users, significant changes coming to Exchange Online audit logging, and the new Outlook's arrival via Windows Update.Plus, get their takes on Microsoft's major AI reorganization with the new CoreAI division, and what all these changes mean for IT pros as we start 2025.The post Free Copilot Chat Lands For All, Exchange Audit Logging Changes & The New Outlook Arrives: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E34 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Purview: Replacing Purview Retention Labels with PowerShell
This installment of Practical Purview describes how to update a retention label on files across a SharePoint site using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. The post Practical Purview: Replacing Purview Retention Labels with PowerShell appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Copilot: Creating a Declarative Agent
Microsoft is all in for Copilot at present and agents are a big part of the story.Multiple ways exist to create a declarative agent for use with Copilot in BizChat and Teams.This article reviews how to create an agent with the Teams Toolkit, Copilot Studio, and Microsoft 365 Copilot - and if any usage data are created for custom agents.
Voice and Face Recognition in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams Voice and Face Recognition has been around since the beginning of 2024, but it is not configured by default. This blog reviews what this feature does, how to enable it, and an important update coming in February 2025. The post Voice and Face Recognition in Microsoft Teams appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: Two Kinds of Bad
In this installment of practical protection, we dive into two kinds of crimes, and how you can practically apply that knowledge to securing your network and services within your organization. The post Practical Protection: Two Kinds of Bad appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Sentinel: The Value of MITRE ATT&CK
In this episode of Practical Sentinel, we dive into the MITRE ATT&CK framework and how to integrate it within your environment through Microsoft Sentinel & Defender XDR. The post Practical Sentinel: The Value of MITRE ATT&CK appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical SharePoint: Discover Where Files without Retention Labels Exist in SharePoint and OneDrive
Purview Data Lifecycle management includes many ways to apply retention labels to SharePoint Online files, some of which require E5 licenses.Tools are available to show you what files have retention labels, but finding unlabeled SharePoint files is difficult because no out-of-the-box methods are available.Here we show how to use a content search to find unlabeled SharePoint files, and how to adjust the search results to have usable data for further processing.
A Practical Tool to Prevent Misuse of Entra Group Assignment
Managing a wide variety of Entra Groups with multiple administrators and teams can be challenging.In this blog, Jasper Baes shares a helpful tool to help maintain control over group assignments, and how to implement it within your organization.The post A Practical Tool to Prevent Misuse of Entra Group Assignment appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Combining Sign In Activity and Sign in Logs in a User Report
Often, tenants create user sign-in reports based on the sign-in data held in user account properties.This article explains how to supplement that information with insights about the apps users sign into using sign-in audit logs.The post Practical Graph: Combining Sign In Activity and Sign in Logs in a User Report appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: Heading Into 2025
With 2025 in full swing, it's time to do some reflecting! In this episode of practical protection, we look back at the major Microsoft security events in 2024 and how you can prepare yourself for what's to come in 2025. The post Practical Protection: Heading Into 2025 appeared first on Practical 365.
Cloud.Microsoft Domain Changes, Viva Goals Retirement & Copilot Updates: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E33
In this week's episode, we dive deep into Microsoft's latest announcements and changes that will impact your organization in 2025 and beyond.We examine the reasoning behind the cloud.microsoft domain rollout, what the retirement of Viva Goals means for organizations invested in OKR solutions, and discuss the implications of the forced transition to the new Outlook for Windows by 2026.The post Cloud.Microsoft Domain Changes, Viva Goals Retirement & Copilot Updates: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E33 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical 365 Review of 2024
In our 2024 review of Microsoft 365, we consider some of the major technical advances that occured in Microsoft's cloud ecosystem in 2024 together with some upcoming changes that have the potential to affect tenant operations.As always, our choice of what's important and what's not might not match yours, so feel free to comment and voice your opinion.The post Practical 365 Review of 2024 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Understanding What Happens When the Connect-MgGraph Cmdlet Runs
This article describes what happens when the Connect-MgGraph cmdlet runs in interactive and app-only sessions with the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK.A session is created and a context is established, and it's possible to use the session context to do real work.The post Practical Graph: Understanding What Happens When the Connect-MgGraph Cmdlet Runs appeared first on Practical 365.
Automating the Distribution of Microsoft 365 Updates
This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to use Power Automate Flow to create a workflow that sends a weekly digest email of Microsoft 365 Roadmap updates. The post Automating the Distribution of Microsoft 365 Updates appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Entra ID: Find Unused Guest Accounts with PowerShell
Given the widespread use of guest accounts within Microsoft 365 to allow external sharing of resources, it’s almost inevitable that some unused guest accounts exist in any Microsoft 365 tenant.Identifying unused guest accounts is a good management practice.This article explores how to find unused guest accounts.
Practical Protection: The Great “Connected Experiences” Panic of 2024
This episode of Practical Protection dives into connected experiences, what they are, and debunks some claims that were made regarding AI models using customer data via Connected Experiences. The post Practical Protection: The Great “Connected Experiences” Panic of 2024 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Copilot: Figuring Out What People Do with Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft has a new allInteractionHistory Graph API in beta.The API returns details of user interactions with Microsoft 365 Copilot apps, like Copilot in Word and Copilot in Outlook at a much more detailed level than what is available in the usage report API.Despite the current flaws in the API, having access to detailed information about how people use technology is incredibly valuable.
Practical Sentinel: Operationalizing Health Monitoring
Like all cloud services, Microsoft Sentinel can fail from time to time.In this blog, we dive into how to find and fix these issues using the Microsoft Sentinel Health feature, which enables monitoring for analytic rules, automation rules, and data connectors.The post Practical Sentinel: Operationalizing Health Monitoring appeared first on Practical 365.
How to Use Redirects to Minimize Disruption When Moving SharePoint Sites
Minimizing disruption is key to any migration. In this blog, we discuss migrating SharePoint sites and data to SharePoint Online, reviewing common issues, and offering a few different approaches to reduce friction. The post How to Use Redirects to Minimize Disruption When Moving SharePoint Sites appeared first on Practical 365.
Microsoft Places, Teams Features and Copilot Confusion: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E32
In this Episode of the Practical 365 Podcast, Paul and Steve explore Microsoft's ever-expanding Copilot strategy, debate the complexities of Microsoft Places licensing, and discuss whether every AI feature really needs Copilot branding.
Practical Copilot: Stop Microsoft 365 Chat Accessing the Content of Confidential Documents
You can't prevent Microsoft 365 Chat finding documents based on searches against Microsoft 365 Search and the semantic index.But you can stop Copilot from using the content of sensitive documents in its summaries and generated text.This article explains how the different ways to block Copilot in Microsoft 365 work.
Practical PnP: Managing Site Permissions
Permissions are central to SharePoint Online and it’s important to be able to manage site permissions effectively. In this episode of Practical PnP, we deep dive into site permissions, providing practical examples and use cases that you can apply to your environment. The post Practical PnP: Managing Site Permissions appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: Getting Ready for MFA Enforcement in Microsoft 365
Starting in February 2025, Microsoft is going to enforce MFA for all access to the Microsoft 365 admin center—both for users and administrators.Let this episode of Practical Protection serve as a reminder to configure MFA for your tenant, if you haven’t already!The post Practical Protection: Getting Ready for MFA Enforcement in Microsoft 365 appeared first on Practical 365.
Handling Date Values When Moving from EWS to the Graph
Microsoft announced the Retirement of EWS in Exchange Online a while ago.That means any scripts or applications you have written should be reviewed and rewritten to use Microsoft Graph.In this blog, we review an example of moving from EWS to the Graph while handling date values.
Practical Sentinel: Adding Automation for Networking Data
In this episode of Practical Sentinel, we explain how to use Microsoft Sentinel’s SOAR capabilities to build automation on top of networking data through enrichments, automated actions, and threat intelligence integrations. The post Practical Sentinel: Adding Automation for Networking Data appeared first on Practical 365.
Identity Management Deep Dive with Microsoft’s Merill Fernando – The Practical 365 Podcast S4E31
In this episode of the Practical 365 Podcast, we are joined by Maryl Fernando to discuss Ignite, Maester.dev, and more! The post Identity Management Deep Dive with Microsoft’s Merill Fernando – The Practical 365 Podcast S4E31 appeared first on Practical 365.
New SharePoint Setting to Make It Easier to Use the Site Property Bag
A relatively low-key but important change for a new tenant-wide setting was recently introduced to allow updating of a site’s property bag without having to enable/disable site scripts.In this blog, we dive into this change and explore two ways the new tenant setting can be updated.The post New SharePoint Setting to Make It Easier to Use the Site Property Bag appeared first on Practical 365.
Reflecting on Copilot Wave 2, Exchange’s Final Countdown & Teams Updates – The Practical 365 Podcast S4E30
In this Episode of the Practical 365 Podcast, Steve and Paul talk Copilot wave 2, Exchange 2016/2019 end of support, new Teams updates, and more.The post Reflecting on Copilot Wave 2, Exchange’s Final Countdown & Teams Updates – The Practical 365 Podcast S4E30 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Teams: What’s New for Task Publishing
Task publishing in Teams has been around for a number of years, but Microsoft recently introduced several major updates. In this installment of Practical Teams, we review these new additions and explain how they are useful. The post Practical Teams: What’s New for Task Publishing appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Teams: The New Chat and Channels Experience
Since its inception, the Teams user interface has emphasize teams and channels for collaboration.But that's not how people work, and the new chat and channels experience emphasizes chats a lot more.They remain the foundation of teams and the right way to communicate and share information for ongoing use, but the change to highlight chats might take some getting used to.
Practical Graph: Extracting Value from Entra Sign In Logs
Entra ID sign-in data is a valuable source of information for Microsoft 365 tenant administrators.Although you can browse sign-in data through the Entra admin center, working with the data through PowerShell reveals all sorts of possibilities for analysis to answer questions about who is connecting to your tenant.The post Practical Graph: Extracting Value from Entra Sign In Logs appeared first on Practical 365.
How to Swap Licenses Using Group-Based Licensing
Moving Group-Based Licensing to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center can create some challenges. Luckily there is a way to avoid this. In this blog, we explain how to execute Group-Based License swaps with the help of the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. The post How to Swap Licenses Using Group-Based Licensing appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Power Apps: How to Manage an Approval Process with a PowerAutomate Flow
Welcome to Practical Power Apps! In this first installment, Rachel Irabor explores how to manage an approval process using Power Apps and Power Automate in a real-world scenario. The post Practical Power Apps: How to Manage an Approval Process with a PowerAutomate Flow appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: Leveling up Conditional Access Policy Management
In this episode of Practical Protection, Paul Robichaux provides a practical approach to Conditional Access Management, combining both the Beas and Microsoft frameworks. The post Practical Protection: Leveling up Conditional Access Policy Management appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Endpoint: Restricting Admin Access to an Endpoint
In this episode of Practical Endpoint, we explain two approaches to restricting Admin rights to corporate devices using Intune and Autopilot. The post Practical Endpoint: Restricting Admin Access to an Endpoint appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Analyzing Copilot Interactions Using Compliance Records
Every time Microsoft 365 Copilot interacts with a user, the Microsoft 365 substrate captures the Copilot interaction as a compliance record in the user's mailbox.By fetching and analyzing the compliance records, we can understand how the user interacts with Copilot.This article discusses how to retrieve and analyze the records with the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK.
Four Practical Tools and Strategies for Success with Conditional Access Policies
Many organizations still find it challenging to implement Conditional Access effectively.In this blog, we share a new open-source framework, introducing 4 tools to help create and validate access policies and strategies, ensuring that security measures are effective and efficient.The post Four Practical Tools and Strategies for Success with Conditional Access Policies appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Teams Phone: How to Deal with Unassigned Numbers
This installment of Practical Teams Phone covers how to deal with unassigned numbers and how the Teams Administrator can configure the unassigned number feature in the Teams Admin Center (TAC). The post Practical Teams Phone: How to Deal with Unassigned Numbers appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Using Graph Schema Extensions
The Graph provides several extensibility options.This article describes how to define and use schema extensions to store information about the container management labels assigned to Microsoft 365 Groups.The post Practical Graph: Using Graph Schema Extensions appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: The 2024 Microsoft Digital Defense Report
It's that time of the year again! In this episode of Practical Protection, we review the 2024 Microsoft Digital Defense Report and offer our recommendations to protect against the emerging and current threat. The post Practical Protection: The 2024 Microsoft Digital Defense Report appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical PowerShell: The Dark Power of Dynamic Parameters
In this episode of Practical PowerShell, we dive into the dark power of dynamic parameters, and how to use them within in functions and scripts. The post Practical PowerShell: The Dark Power of Dynamic Parameters appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Compliance: Using Purge Actions to Remove Mailbox Items
Compliance search purge actions are Microsoft's search and purge tool.Today, a purge action is limited to removing 10 items per mailbox.This article reviews the state of play for mailbox purging and contemplates how purges might work after modernization finishes.
Practical Exchange: Microsoft Update Affects How Wildcards Work with Dynamic Distribution Groups
It's time to check recipient filters for dynamic distribution groups to ensure that you don't have any wildcard prefixes used with the -eq operator to find recipients based on their email addresses.A November 30 update will stop this kind of recipient filter working, and might have a knock-on effect on other processes.The post Practical Exchange: Microsoft Update Affects How Wildcards Work with Dynamic Distribution Groups appeared first on Practical 365.
Evaluating Privileged Identity Management Effectiveness
This article outlines how to get started with PIM, how to audit its use, and what workarounds could be circumventing your security controls. The post Evaluating Privileged Identity Management Effectiveness appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical SharePoint: Intelligent Versioning Rolling Out
The deployment of intelligent versioning to SharePoint Online worldwide is proceeding.Intelligent versioning is all about reducing the amount of storage quota consumed by file edits.The post Practical SharePoint: Intelligent Versioning Rolling Out appeared first on Practical 365.
Microsoft Security Copilot: AI’s Role in Revolutionizing Cybersecurity – The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E29
This week on the Practical 365 podcast, Rich & Steve sit down with Rod Trent, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft, to explore the game-changing potential of Microsoft Security Copilot.The post Microsoft Security Copilot: AI’s Role in Revolutionizing Cybersecurity – The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E29 appeared first on Practical 365.
Manage Your SharePoint Online Environment with PnP PowerShell
In this article, we explain how to get started using PnP PowerShell, and review some practical examples of where the module can immediately add value for tenant administrators. The post Manage Your SharePoint Online Environment with PnP PowerShell appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Compliance: Microsoft Revamps Purview eDiscovery
Microsoft is giving Purview eDiscovery a make-over to introduce a modernized UI and to simplify the solution into standard and premium variants.It's time to prepare the folks who work on compliance and run eDiscovery investigations for the changes coming at the end of 2024/2025.The post Practical Compliance: Microsoft Revamps Purview eDiscovery appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Reporting Shared OneDrive for Business Files
This article describes how to write a script to report file sharing for OneDrive for Business accounts.It's an example of using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK to understand what's happening in a tenant.The post Practical Graph: Reporting Shared OneDrive for Business Files appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: Updating Your Password Policies
This week on Practical Protection, we are talking about Password Policies, what NIST thinks, and offer some advice on staying secure. The post Practical Protection: Updating Your Password Policies appeared first on Practical 365.
A New Version of the Room Mailbox Statistics Script
The room mailbox statistics script has proven to be a popular script downloaded and used by many to analyze the usage patterns of room mailboxes.Recently, a reader pointed out that the Graph API request to fetch workspaces didn't work.The post A New Version of the Room Mailbox Statistics Script appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Purview: Controls to Include in a SharePoint/Teams Provisioning Solution
This episode of Practical Purview showcases some compliance controls that you should consider including in any provisioning solution. This is not an exhaustive list, but rather some key controls to consider. The post Practical Purview: Controls to Include in a SharePoint/Teams Provisioning Solution appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Finding and Removing Messages from Exchange Online Mailboxes
These messages are of no great value after a few days, so here's a script to find and remove messages to clean up mailboxes.All written using cmdlets from the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK.The post Practical Graph: Finding and Removing Messages from Exchange Online Mailboxes appeared first on Practical 365.
Using Device Control in Defender for Endpoint to Block USB Drives
Copying data from Windows endpoints to USB storage devices is one of the largest sources of data leakage. In this article, we discuss two simple solutions to avoid this problem. The post Using Device Control in Defender for Endpoint to Block USB Drives appeared first on Practical 365.
TEC Special: AI, Identity, and the Future of IT with Shinesa Cambric – The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E28
In this episode of the Practical 365 Podcast, we are joined by TEC Speaker, Shinesa Cambric, to explore the parallels between AI adoption and the cloud revolution, get into the changing nature of identity in our digital world, and get a sneak peak into Shinesa's Keynote session.The post TEC Special: AI, Identity, and the Future of IT with Shinesa Cambric – The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E28 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Teams Phone: Microsoft Teams Shared Calling
In the first episode of Practical Teams Phone, Thorsten Pickhan reviews Teams Shared Calling, how it works, and some practical use cases. The post Practical Teams Phone: Microsoft Teams Shared Calling appeared first on Practical 365.
Agents the Most Interesting Initiative in Copilot Wave 2
Microsoft's big launch of Copilot Wave 2 featured many new capabilities, like a super-duper focused Inbox for Outlook (one that works this time), Python in Excel, and a profusion of agents for SharePoint Online.The idea behind agents is pretty good and should be valuable, even if IT might have some dark thoughts about how agents might allow people to access information that they shouldn't (this won't happen).The post Agents the Most Interesting Initiative in Copilot Wave 2 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: Sign-In Marking
Microsoft reported yet another nation-state attack, code-named Peach Sandstorm. In this blog, we discuss the threat actor and provide steps to defend against similar attacks. The post Practical Protection: Sign-In Marking appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Creating Contacts using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK
Three years ago, we described how to create organizational contacts in user mailboxes with Graph API requests.In this iteration, we read the contacts from a Microsoft list and use Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK cmdlets to update user mailboxes.The post Practical Graph: Creating Contacts using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK appeared first on Practical 365.
Group Writeback with Microsoft Entra Cloud Sync
Microsoft recently stopped supporting Microsoft Entra Connect and introduced its successor, Microsoft Entra Cloud Sync. This blog reviews how to set up and configure Microsoft Entra Cloud Sync, with helpful tips along the way. The post Group Writeback with Microsoft Entra Cloud Sync appeared first on Practical 365.
Microsoft’s Simple Message: Prepare to Move to Exchange Server Subscription Edition
Microsoft plans a transition of the current Exchange Server licensing and support model to Exchange Server subscription edition (SE) starting in 2025.Organizations must prepare for the transition by upgrading servers to the latest cumulative updates of Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019.The post Microsoft’s Simple Message: Prepare to Move to Exchange Server Subscription Edition appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Working with Microsoft Lists using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK
Microsoft Lists are a powerful tool for end users to store and manage data stored in SharePoint Online sites.The Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK includes cmdlets to work with Microsoft Lists and this article explains how to use the cmdlets to add new lists, add items to lists, retrieve data from lists, and remove items from lists.The post Practical Graph: Working with Microsoft Lists using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK appeared first on Practical 365.
The Future of Windows and Copilot: Paul Thurrott on Practical 365 S4 E7
On this episode of Practical Protection, we are joined by Paul Thurrott to discuss AI and Microsoft, plus give a sneak peek into his session at TEC 2024. The post The Future of Windows and Copilot: Paul Thurrott on Practical 365 S4 E7 appeared first on Practical 365.
Scanning Networks with Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
In this blog, Thijs Lecomte dives into how to protect you public-facing infrastructure with Microsoft Defender's External Attack Surface Management tool. The post Scanning Networks with Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management appeared first on Practical 365.
Checklist for Terminating Employees with Microsoft 365 Accounts
Terminating employees is never fun, but it does happen. And when it happens, you need to know the necessary steps for removing their access. This blog serves as a checklist for removing employees with Microsoft 365 Accounts, The post Checklist for Terminating Employees with Microsoft 365 Accounts appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: Imposing Cost
No one likes spending money! In this episode of Practical Protection, we dive into imposing cost on attackers, hopefully deterring them from attacking in the first place. The post Practical Protection: Imposing Cost appeared first on Practical 365.
Using Dynamic Watermarking with Sensitivity Labels
Dynamic watermarking is a new feature for sensitivity labels that's intended to provide a visual deterrent to screen captures of confidential documents.The feature works by using the email address of the signed-in user as a watermark.The post Using Dynamic Watermarking with Sensitivity Labels appeared first on Practical 365.
TEC Special: Microsoft 365’s Darkest Corners & PowerShell Scripting with Tony Redmond & Michel de Rooij – The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E26
This week on the Podcast we are joined by Paul Robichaux - as a guest alongside MVPs Tony Redmond and Michel de Rooij to discuss The Experts Conference (TEC) 2024 in Dallas, Texas!The post TEC Special: Microsoft 365’s Darkest Corners & PowerShell Scripting with Tony Redmond & Michel de Rooij – The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E26 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical PowerShell: Output and Logging
In this installment of the Practical PowerShell series, we discuss some of the most common options for output and adding custom logging to your script. The post Practical PowerShell: Output and Logging appeared first on Practical 365.
Microsoft Enhances Message Recall for Exchange Online
Microsoft released the initial implementation of a cloud-based message recall feature last year.Now they're back with a set of enhancements to take the rough edges off, like explaining to users why messages disappear from the inbox and enabling support for external services like email hygiene and mail autosignature providers.The post Microsoft Enhances Message Recall for Exchange Online appeared first on Practical 365.
TEC Tips: Why You Need to Care About Retention in Your Microsoft 365 Tenant
This blog dives into the importance of Data Retention in your Tenant and offers a preview into Joanne Klein's upcoming session at TEC 2024. The post TEC Tips: Why You Need to Care About Retention in Your Microsoft 365 Tenant appeared first on Practical 365.
Improving your AD Security with Derek Melber: The Practical 365 Podcast S04 E25
On the show this week, Steve Goodman and Rich Dean are joined by speaker guest, TEC speaker & 20-time Microsoft MVP, Derek Melber to discuss Securing your AD, removing NTLM passwords from use in your organization, and the aftermath of Crowdstrike.The post Improving your AD Security with Derek Melber: The Practical 365 Podcast S04 E25 appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Teams: Using Templates and Sensitivity Labels with Teams Meetings
In this episode of Practical Teams, we dive into meeting templates and sensitivity labels, exploring how labels and templates can be used to adhere to requirements, policies, and if necessary, enforce some applicable settings in meetings.The post Practical Teams: Using Templates and Sensitivity Labels with Teams Meetings appeared first on Practical 365.
How to Handle an Unwanted Sensitivity Label
Sometimes sensitivity labels defined for use within a Microsoft 365 tenant turn out to be unnecessary.The question then is what to do with these unwanted sensitivity labels.The post How to Handle an Unwanted Sensitivity Label appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Sentinel: Creating Incidents From Networking Data
After identifying what networking data you should ingest into Sentinel, the next step is to start creating alerts and incidents using the data. And that is exactly what we cover in this episode of Practical Sentinel. The post Practical Sentinel: Creating Incidents From Networking Data appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: How to Score a Raise
Looking to score that raise? In this episode of Practical Protection, we dive into Microsoft 365 Secure score, how it works, and help you better secure your Microsoft cloud environments. The post Practical Protection: How to Score a Raise appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Graph: Working with Exchange Online Mailbox Data
Exchange Online mail folders and messages are a very important resource for Microsoft 365 tenants.This article discusses how to use cmdlets from the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK to retrieve information about mailbox folders and mail messages together with some performance tips for dealing with folders that store thousands of messages.The post Practical Graph: Working with Exchange Online Mailbox Data appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Sentinel: Ingesting Networking Data in Microsoft Sentinel
In this episode of Practical Sentinel, Thijs describes the different ingestion methods, how to choose the best method, and advises how to filter the ingested data. The post Practical Sentinel: Ingesting Networking Data in Microsoft Sentinel appeared first on Practical 365.
Copilot for Microsoft 365: Datacenter Investments, Customer Spend, and Black Hat Exploits
Market analysts question if companies like Microsoft will ever generate a return on their AI investment.Meanwhile, at Black Hat USA 2024, a presentation exploring some vulnerabilities in Copilot should make all Microsoft 365 tenants with Copilot consider how to secure their organization better.The post Copilot for Microsoft 365: Datacenter Investments, Customer Spend, and Black Hat Exploits appeared first on Practical 365.
Crowdstrike Fallout, OneDrive Changes, and Planner Gets Copilot: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E24
On this week's episode of the Practical 365 Podcast, Steve and Paul discuss the Crowdstrike outage, important changes coming to OneDrive for Business, Copilot for Planner Preview, and more! The post Crowdstrike Fallout, OneDrive Changes, and Planner Gets Copilot: The Practical 365 Podcast S4 E24 appeared first on Practical 365.
Using Azure Email Communication Service to Send Messages
If you're looking for an email service capable of handling large volumes of email to external recipients, Microsoft will propose Email Communication Services (ECS).Built on top of Exchange Online, ECS shares some characteristics with the High Volume Email (HVE) solution.The post Using Azure Email Communication Service to Send Messages appeared first on Practical 365.
Controlling Teams Transcripts
Teams meeting transcripts can significantly enhance meeting productivity and accessibility, but their management involves careful consideration of data protection, privacy, and storage concerns.This article provides an overview of how to manage Teams meeting transcripts effectively, covering key topics such as storage changes, privacy controls, and strategies to ensure compliance while maximizing the benefits of transcription in your organization.The post Controlling Teams Transcripts appeared first on Practical 365.
The New Outlook for Windows Reaches General Availability
The new Outlook for Windows client is generally available, which means that Microsoft supports it for product usage.Fortunately, Microsoft will support Outlook classic until "at least 2029."The post The New Outlook for Windows Reaches General Availability appeared first on Practical 365.
Practical Protection: Incident Response
Incident Response is all about people, process, and technique. In this episode of Practical Protection, we review different issues that can arise during incident response. The post Practical Protection: Incident Response appeared first on Practical 365.
Exchange Online’s New High Volume Email (HVE) Solution
The Exchange Online High-Volume Email (HVE) solution handles up to 100,000 internal messages and 2,000 external messages daily.It's intended to replace on-premises Exchange servers that organizations keep just to service email submission from devices and applications.The post Exchange Online’s New High Volume Email (HVE) Solution appeared first on Practical 365.
New Features to Manage Inactive Devices in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Over the last year, Microsoft has released several new features to make management of inactive devices easier.In this blog, we review these features and build off our original blog post on "Handling Inactive Devices in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint."The post New Features to Manage Inactive Devices in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint appeared first on Practical 365.