Hello, ho, ho and welcome to this week’s Practical 365 Podcast. In typical fashion, we’ll be keeping you up to date with what’s new in Microsoft 365 with the latest announcements and message center news. This week Steve and Sigi are getting together for a particularly festive episode.
Microsoft 365 News
17.12.2019: Released: December 2019 Quarterly Exchange Updates
Exchange 2016 CU15 and Exchange 2019 CU4 were released. No new Exchange 2013 this time, as Exchange 2013 is in extended support. Setup Now Requires .NET Framework 4.8. As previously announced .NET 4.8 is now required and enforced by setup with the updates released today.
Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 15 (KB4522150). Important: If you are upgrading from CU 12 for Exchange 2016 or before or from CU 1 or RTM for Exchange 2019 you need to run the /PrepareAD or /PrepareDomain. Fixes such as “Set-SendConnector doesn’t work for Exchange Server in hybrid scenarios with Edge Server installed” (KB4523519) are included. For more information follow this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4522150/cumulative-update-15-for-exchange-server-2016
Exchange Server 2019 Cumulative Update 4 (KB4522149). Cumulative Upate 4 includes a significant update to the Exchange 2019 sizing calculator. Fixes such as “Exchange PowerShell cmdlets take longer time to run in Exchange Server 2019” (KB4528696) are included. You can find out more here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4522149/cumulative-update-4-for-exchange-server-2019
18.12.2019: Public Preview: Azure AD B2C phone sign-in experience
Azure AD B2C now supports phone-based sign-in and sign-up for apps using B2C custom policy! Give it a try and read “Set up phone sign-up and sign-in with custom policies in Azure AD B2C”. More information on this is in the documentation here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory-b2c/phone-authentication
17.12.2019: Teams Rooms December Update
Content Camera (a.k.a the Magic Whiteboard) is now available for the older Surface Pro based devices such as the Logitech Smartdock, Crestron SR and Polycom MSR. The new version is 4.3.23.0 and includes an interface refresh for settings too and configuration to enable auto-accept of proximity-based calls, making it easier to walk into a meeting and use proximity join. Find out more here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/Microsoft-Teams-Rooms-December-update/ba-p/1069456
06.12.2019: Update to “Exchange AD Deployment Site” Exchange Team blog post
Describes in detail how to configure “AutoDiscoverSiteScope for an organization”. More on this here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Exchange-Team-Blog/Exchange-Active-Directory-Deployment-Site/ba-p/604329
Steve’s & Sigi’s Christmas Wish list
So Steve, if you were granted an ultimate wish for Christmas, what would you wish yourself from Santa’s sack of Microsoft goodies?
Steve:
- A full Teams API for migrations
- Azure AD Conditional Access as part of Office 365 E3…
And Sigi, what would you like for Christmas?
- Block calendar when Out of Office (Better OOF) in Outlook for Windows
- A Teams client that does not eat up 800 MB in my memory
- A solution for the “how to remove the last Exchange server” dilemma
Message Center Updates
- New Feature: Outlook on the web – Files view (MC198342)
- New Feature: Outlook on the web, new mobile browser experience (MC198328)
- Updated Feature: FindTime, updating back-end service (MC198325)
- Updated Feature: Teams meeting policies update (MC198471)
- Updated Feature: Email notifications for comments and @mentions in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel (MC198554)
New on the Roadmap
- Launched – Windows Virtual Desktop Latency Improvements in LATAM and APAC (59976 – 78)
- Announce when PSTN participants join/leave the meeting (59919)
- Enable organizers to change lobby settings for PSTN meeting participants (54418)
- View labeled & protected Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents stored in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business using Office Online apps (49448)
- Automatic sensitivity labeling in Office apps on Windows (49444)
- SharePoint: Stock Images (59834)
- Usage Analytics Report for Office 365 ProPlus and Forms (59845)
It’s your last chance to enter the Practical 365 survey. Enter and tweet us @Practical365 telling us content you’d like to see more of for a chance to win yourself a tidy Christmas present of one of three $25 Amazon Vouchers. Here’s the link to the survey.
We’re taking a break from the next week because we’ll be too busy eating mince pies! But we’ll be back in the usual fashion on January 3rd. Thanks for joining us and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2020 to you all!
