News


PowerShell 7 General Availability Planned for January 2020

The PowerShell 7 scripting language is expected to reach "general availability" commercial release status in January, according to an Oct. 23 Microsoft announcement.

Office 365 Groups Get New Automatic Renewals Policy

Microsoft changed group expiration controls for Office 365 so that groups now automatically renew with user activity, according to a Monday announcement.

Schuster Touts Microsoft Teams as 'The New OS' at IAMCP Event

Microsoft's top partner executive didn't mince words when it came to telling an audience of partners what the company considers to be its current top channel opportunity.

Analyst: Microsoft 365 Licensing May Bring Compliance Woes

Organizations could face costly compliance issues when purchasing Microsoft 365 subscription licenses, according to a recent presentation by Directions on Microsoft.

Microsoft Readies Self-Purchasing Capability for Power Platform

Starting in November, Microsoft will allow end users to effectively bypass their IT departments and make direct purchases related to the company's Power Platform.

Microsoft, OEMs Tout Chip-Level Security with Secured-Core PCs

Microsoft and its OEM partners are promising to stop Windows malware at the firmware level with new "Secured-core" PCs.

Microsoft-Mover Deal Aimed at Boosting Microsoft 365 Adoption

Microsoft has announced its acquisition of Mover, maker of a platform that assists medium-to-large companies in moving their files to cloud-based services.

Mark Hurd, Oracle Co-CEO, Dies at 62

Oracle co-CEO and former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Mark Hurd died last Friday at the age of 62 from unspecified causes.

Microsoft, SAP Ink Azure Deal Dubbed 'Project Embrace'

Microsoft is partnering with SAP, a major player in the enterprise application software space, in an effort to bring more customers to its Azure cloud.

Azure AD Outage Linked to Multifactor Authentication Issues

An Azure Active Directory outage that lasted for about 2.5 hours was caused by multifactor authentication challenges not working, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft Launches Desktop Analytics Service for Windows Devices

Now generally available, Desktop Analytics gives organizations dashboard views of their managed Windows "endpoints, applications and drivers."

Microsoft Unveils SQL Server IoT 2019, Other IoT Advances

Microsoft expanded its IoT lineup this week, announcing the general availability of NXP support in Windows 10 IoT Core and the forthcoming release of SQL Server IoT 2019.

Microsoft Partners with NIST To Improve Enterprise Security 'Hygiene'

Microsoft will "soon" kick off an effort to help organizations better patch their software, with help from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Microsoft, Pivotal Collaborate on Azure Spring Cloud

Azure Spring Cloud, a developer service jointly built and operated by Pivotal Software and Microsoft, debuted as a private preview this week.

Microsoft Adds SharePoint 2010 Sites Support to Migration Tool

The SharePoint Migration Tool's ability to move SharePoint Server 2010 sites or file shares to SharePoint Online has reached general availability.

Microsoft Adds 'Personal Vault' Security for Consumer OneDrive Storage

Microsoft announced that its OneDrive cloud-based storage service for consumers now has a new security feature called "Personal Vault" that's available worldwide.

Microsoft Broadens Partnerships with New Microsoft Surface Devices

Microsoft unveiled its coming Surface PC and device innovations on Wednesday, which also showcased partner efforts.

Microsoft Drops Volume Licensing Requirement for Windows 7 Extended Security Updates

The change opens Microsoft's patch extension program to smaller and midsize organizations, but only if they are using the Professional or Enterprise editions of Windows 7. 

Microsoft Launches 'True' Desktop VDI with Windows Virtual Desktop

First announced last fall and in preview since March, Microsoft's new Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available for commercial use.

How Microsoft Uses Machine Learning To Improve Windows 10 Upgrades

Microsoft data scientists described how the company uses machine learning algorithms to ensure Windows 10 upgrades are rolled out successfully at organizations.