Microsoft 365

Latest Articles

Using Adaptive Scopes with Retention Policies for SharePoint Online Sites

Adaptive scopes are a new way to target locations for Microsoft 365 retention policies. Previously, we covered how to use scopes to find users and groups. Now, we move to describe how to use adaptive scopes to find SharePoint Online sites and OneDrive for Business accounts. The process is not quite as easy as it is to create scopes for users and groups, but once you understand how to add custom properties to sites, you're home free and easy. That is, if you have the necessary Office 365 E5 licenses to use adaptive scopes...

November 15, 2021

Using Adaptive Scopes with Microsoft 365 Retention Policies for Users and Groups

Adaptive scopes are a new way to dynamically target sets of locations (sites, users, and groups) for Microsoft 365 retention policies. In this article, we discuss the basics of adaptive scopes and how to build the filters used in the scopes, and then how to use adaptive scopes in retention policies. Adaptive scopes are well suited to the kind of processing needed by large enterprises, which is good because they required Office 365 E5 licenses.

November 11, 2021

Use Desired State Configuration to Snapshot the Configuration of Your Microsoft 365 Tenant

Microsoft 365 Desired State Configuration (DSC), is a way to capture details of a tenant's configuration using PowerShell in such a way that any changes made to the configuration can be easily detected. DSC allows administrators to understand when configurations change so that they can take action when necessary. In this article, Sean McAvinue explains how to use DSC to capture and report details of your Microsoft 365 tenant.

November 8, 2021

Loop, Mesh, Connect IQ, and Lots of Teams Dominate Office at Microsoft Ignite 2021

The Office news at Microsoft's Fall Ignite event was dominated by Teams and technology associated with Teams. A new Microsoft 365 app called Loop will be available in 2022 and we'll have the chance to use Connect IQ to make our messages even more intelligent than they are now. And if you really get funky, you can join a Teams mesh meetings in a virtual environment. But the bad news is that Teams Shared Channels are delayed until preview in early 2022.

November 2, 2021

Hidden Gems in Microsoft 365 E3 Licensing

In many organizations, Microsoft 365 is a significant investment. However, you get so much with Microsoft 365 E3 licenses that many organizations are unaware of, including beneficial features across Productivity, Compliance, Security, and Device management. Kat Greenan shares some of her secrets and the hidden gems that can be found in a Microsoft 365 E3 license.

October 29, 2021

Ignite 2021 is Next Week. Here’s What I Anticipate for Microsoft 365

Microsoft Ignite 2021 happens (virtually) on Nov 2-4. There are tons of sessions scheduled and in this post we consider some important Microsoft 365 topics that we hope Microsoft will cover to help technologists plan tenant development over the coming year. Above all, we're looking forward to being able to attend conferences like Ignite in person so that we can learn from experts from inside and outside Microsoft.

October 26, 2021

How to Create a Microsoft 365 Licensing Report Using the Microsoft Graph SDK for PowerShell

After figuring out how to convert a script from using Azure AD licensing cmdlets (due to stop working in June 2022), we move on to create a licensing report for a tenant using cmdlets from the Microsoft Graph SDK for PowerShell. The code is pretty straightforward, but you need to do some up-front work to extract and prepare some input files containing product and service plan codes. Given that Microsoft is increasing its license fees, it's a good time to report this information...

October 14, 2021