News

Microsoft Releases SharePoint Server SE Version 24H1

• By Kurt Mackie
• March 12, 2024

Microsoft released SharePoint Server Subscription Edition (SE) version 24H1, per a Tuesday announcement.

The 24H1 release is just adding a few new features. It will enable customized searches, OpenID Connect certificate management and a new way to send feedback to Microsoft.

Customized Searches
The SharePoint Server SE version 24H1 feature update now lets organizations customize the server's "search verticals," which can be done "at both the site and organization level." SharePoint has four search verticals that are present in the Search Navigation Web Part, namely "Everything, People, Conversations, and Videos." For instance, if you just want a specific people search, it can now be customized to just return those results.

Users of the classic SharePoint Server products have had the ability to customize search results, but until this 24H1 update, SharePoint Server SE users were "locked into using the default search verticals" built into that product, the announcement explained. Now, "this limitation is removed" with version 24H1, Microsoft indicated.

OpenID Connect Certificate Management
The initial release of SharePoint Server SE included support for OpenID Connect (OIDC), which is said to make it easier to integrate applications with identity and authentication management solutions. The release of SharePoint Server SE version 24H1 is adding the ability to manage the certificate lifecycles of a so-called "nonce cookie certificate, which is part of the infrastructure that ensures OIDC authentication tokens are secure," the announcement explained.

Version 24H1 lets IT pros deploy a certificate "to all servers in the farm" and automatically configure the permissions, the announcement explained. IT pros also are getting a new SharePoint Health Analyzer rule that will "notify administrators if the nonce cookie certificate isn't being managed through SharePoint certificate management."

Customer Surveys
Microsoft's SharePoint product team wants customer feedback, and so it'll push out an "optional survey" to SharePoint farm administrators "from time to time when they visit the SharePoint Central Administration site."

It's possible to disable these surveys, if wanted, which can be done "on a per-user or farm-wide basis."

End of Support Warning
The announcement included a warning to users of the older SharePoint Server 2016 and SharePoint Server 2019 products that both products will reach their end-of-support milestones on July 14, 2026. End of support means no more security patches will arrive from Microsoft, which could entail risks or compliance issues for the organizations that continue to run those servers.

Microsoft wants organizations to move to SharePoint in Microsoft 365. While it still does offer SharePoint Server SE for installation at a customer's premises, Microsoft floated the frightening prospect of future "feature gaps" with the SE product.

"Note that while we'll continue to make investments in SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, the scope of those investments will be much smaller compared to SharePoint in Microsoft 365, so the feature gap between them will only increase over time," the announcement indicated.