For the past year, Microsoft Copilot has felt like the uninvited guest that wouldn’t leave. Forced onto taskbars and integrated into nearly every corner of Windows 11, the AI assistant was met with mixed reviews—and significant pushback from enterprise IT departments concerned about data privacy and “AI bloat.” Following the April 2026 Patch Tuesday update,…
Microsoft is introducing broad changes to Microsoft 365 in 2026 that go beyond Intune, combining a noticeable price increase with a push toward more tightly integrated security, collaboration, and AI capabilities across the suite. Core plans like Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 are gaining enhanced features in areas such as threat protection, data security, and…
For more on Configuration Manager Click Here For nearly three decades, Microsoft Configuration Manager has been a cornerstone of enterprise device management. From its origins as Systems Management Server (SMS) to its evolution into System Center Configuration Manager and today’s Microsoft Configuration Manager, the product has played a critical role in how organizations deploy operating…
For more on Configuration Manager Click Here On November 5, 2025, Microsoft has officially announced a significant change to the release model for Microsoft Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr). Beginning in 2026, the product will transition from its long-standing semi-annual release cadence to a single annual major release. This change brings greater predictability for IT teams and…
On August 12, 2025, Microsoft has a significant change to its Enterprise Agreement (EA) licensing structure — effective November 1, 2025, automatic price level discounts for Online Services (Levels B–D) under EA, OSPA, and MPSA agreements will be eliminated. All eligible customers will pay the Level A list price, regardless of size or prior spend….
As if this writing this is the list of items included with Microsoft Intune Suite which is an add-on to the Microsoft Intune Core product. ( Cost is $18/user/month = $8 core + $10 Microsoft Intune Suite) Resources: Microsoft Intune Plans and Pricing
It seems like Microsoft has named “everything” that has to do with Artificial Intelligence fall into the Copilot brand. Copilot is an AI feature that allows you describe what you need in plain English. Please refer to the updated Update Blog post: Microsoft Copilot Evolution – November 2024. Also you can see all Copilot related topics…
Microsoft has been working hard in consolidating their security messaging and in the past 6- 12 months there has been a number changes to their product lines and names which has caused some confusion to customers and partners
In early May 2022, Microsoft announced the launch of their Microsoft Security Experts Services Security Experts is a new managed service category that combines expert-trained technology and product innovation with human-led services. Right now Microsoft is doing a lot of the work directly, but soon they will have multiple certified security expert partners Video introducing the…
A a few weeks ago Microsoft announced a new service called Windows Autopatch for business customers that provides the ability to keep Windows, Office, Teams and Microsoft Edge software on devices enrolled and managed by Microsoft Intune up to date automatically. The service is now on public beta and scheduled to be GA sometime at…
The Microsoft Cloud Acquisitions Team of Technical Specialists have has a new YouTube channel around the Modern Work stack and their first set of webinars is a high-level overview of the Security Features available with M365. I particularly liked the Advanced Identity Concepts AD Premium Plan 2 one — very well presented and good content! Loved this Worth…
A lot of changes to the Microsoft Security products line up . Looks like they are finally consolidating all of the products into some sort of logic sense… This is very good news, but it has created some confusion in the field — I am sure there will be more, so I will attempt to…
I think it is fair to say that this is very – VERY – different than any other Windows OS launch than in the past. Microsoft has kept a very tight lip on what the announcements contain, and details (or leaks) have not surfaced yet.
Session with a great introduction, of what industry verticalcization of SaaS apps means and why this matters to all of us was Build differentiated SaaS apps with the Microsoft Cloud with Charles Lamanna.
On February 10, 2021, Microsoft reminded everyone that Microsoft Edge Legacy web browser (UWP-based) present on Windows 10 will end on March 9, 2021 (as expected) but it added that it will be automatically removed from your system with the April 13, 2021 Update Tuesday patch. The new standard, released back in January 2020, is Microsoft Edge…
Device as a Service (DaaS), PC as a Service (PCaaS), virtual desktop as a service and cloud-based desktops are not new to the industry. Now a potential service in this realm to be provided by Microsoft as part of their Microsoft 365 service offerings.
In a post on LinkedIn yesterday, Brad posted that after 17+ years at Microsoft he is leaving to to join Qualtrics as President of Product and Services. Brad Anderson was the Corporate Vice President of the Commercial Management Experiences team and in his 17 years at Microsoft he has been responsible for shaping the direction of…
Many of you know Michael. He has been the Microsoft face of Windows Autopilot for many years and before that he was the Windows as a Service chief communicator. He announced that he leaving Microsoft.
Microsoft Endpoint Manager was announced last week at Microsoft Ignite 2019. Microsoft is working on bringing together System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and the Microsoft Intune mobile management service into a new brand called “Microsoft Endpoint Manager,” Microsoft is consolidating most (all) of their client management tools (SCCM, Intune, Desktop Analytics, etc. ) into one now…
Microsoft released Active Directory in Windows 2000 server, and it became a standard for enterprise identity management. Active Directory lives on-premises in servers called Domain Controllers (DC). Active Directory lives on-premise in servers called Domain Controllers (DC). Windows Active Directory or commonly referenced as Active Directory (AD) is Microsoft’s predecessor to Azure Active Directory, Azure Active Directory…
What is Windows Autopilot white glove? The new Windows Autopilot white glove process, which lets IT technicians, partners, and even OEMs pre-provision devices before they are delivered to the user. Using this process, all device configuration tasks, including apps (machine-targeted or user-targeted), certificates, and policies, can be completed in advance, making it so that when…
Microsoft Office is a widely used product suite which includes tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project, Publisher, Access, and OneNote. It has been around since 1988 and has gone through many versions, each of which has a specific support cycle with defined dates. All versions of Microsoft Office products before Microsoft Office 2019…
Just a few of days ago (Sep 6, 2018) Microsoft announced Windows 7 Extended Support Upgrade (ESU) where businesses can now pay to extend Windows 7 Security Updates Beyond January 14, 2020. (See summary of announcement here ) Although pricing was not revealed, the blog post announcement, authored by Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for…
I wanted to write something about a question I get often asked: What is the pricing and the differences between the different versions of Microsoft 365. Microsoft has a variety of productivity and security management offerings that small to medium-sized and large enterprise customers may consider when upgrading their desktop and device infrastructure, each bringing…
If you have not seen the latest (January 27, 2017) Microsoft Tech Summit video from Michael Niehaus you are missing a lot ! Enhance Windows 10 deployment: What’s new with Windows 10 deployment? It is a wealth of information on current releases but also lots of insights on best practices as well! One particular item…
[ Update 20161004: I encourage you to watch Brad Anderson’s keynote session at Microsoft Ignite 2016 – Simply IMPRESSIVE! ] As I have written before, technology management has made an incredible shift over the past few years (maybe the last 3-5 years). Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service are now the common conversations in most…
This is really good news… Microsoft Live Writer is a tool I use daily, and for several years no one knew what the future of it was going to be.. So many of us went on to find alternatives, but nothing simple and good is available on the marketplace (remember FrontPage – Anything comparable?) It…
Interesting article on how Microsoft's $15 billion cloud bet ended up at the center of the company http:/ /bit.ly/1Nq7bIZ
I have been asked a couple of times about end of Mainstream support for Windows 7 Regarding Windows 7: January 12, 2015 – Microsoft will stop mainstream support for Windows 7 January 14, 2020 – Windows 7 extended support ends http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?alpha=windows+7 What does end of mainstream support mean? You still get the monthly updates and…
My professional live has revolved, in great percentage, around Microsoft and Microsoft technologies. It has been a good life, but over the few years it has felt it like swiming against the current because of the major trends out there.. With so much of the market going cloud-services, device independent application delivery, bring-your-own-device,…
This weekend I upgraded several of my Windows 8 machines to Windows 8.1 which I got from my MSDN subscription… Here are a few notes on the experience… First, you will need new Keys for the Windows 8.1 installation. The old ones will not work, and the installation ask for it early in the process,…
The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) guides series have been updated to reflect the version upgrades and changes to the Microsoft product line in the past few months. Definitely worth the review: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc196387.aspx As a reminder: The series is a collection of documents that leads the reader through a sequence of core decision points to…
It is simply amazing to see how much is Microsot investing into its online division. Based on the the latest Microsoft quarterly result published last week, the operating loss for the online services division was $726M in the 3rd quarter alone, and a loss $1.8B for the current year. If we look back to when the…
We are often asked what is Windows Azure, and how does it help the business. Explaining what an application hosting platform is, and how it can help it is not as simple as it sounds… Microsoft Azure is an application hosting environment rather than a server-based like Amazon’s AWS environment. Azure is a service that…
According to a CNN report today, “More than 100 people, many of them dressed in black, were expected to gather around a coffin Thursday night to say goodbye to an old friend. The deceased? Internet Explorer 6.” March 1st marks the official death of the IE6 browser – http://ie6funeral.com/ Internet Explorer Six, resident of the…
Microsoft’ Ron Markezich, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Online, made available a basic but interesting video on his views on cloud computing adoption which he expressed at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium in Boston, MA For one thing, chief information officers are uncertain how to fashion a roadmap that brings “cloud services” into their IT architecture….
“Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.” – Theodore Logan. In this case it would be at the “Circle M” – strange and cool things. I downloaded and installed XP Mode onto my Windows 7 RC 1 base image on my laptop – a Dell Latitude D820 Core 2 Duo with 4 gigs of…
Microsoft’s Business productivity Online Services (BPOS) is getting ready to officially launch within a few weeks… They have moved all beta users in to release candidate code and are in high gear recruiting partners, as their strategy is 100% partner attachment for these services… ( We are hoping this to be the case for many years…
A stunning piece of news that I would have been incredulous to hear if I hadn’t been there when they said it. I think Microsoft is taking some great steps in a thought-leadership position. Sure, they’re buying their way into markets, but that’s what they excel at, and if you’re watching closely, and ignoring the…
Huzzah! MDOP has been updated! The App-V Blog : MDOP 2008 R2 Releases to Manufacturing! MDOP 2008 R2 Releases to Manufacturing! In case you missed all the fireworks and champagne corks yesterday it was in celebration of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2008 R2 being released to manufacturing. Of course you already know that this version…
What do the title topics and the actor Kevin Bacon have in common? I dunno – it just sounded funny after listing all of the topics in this posting. Who knows – Windows 7 could be his love child. I mean, really – where did Windows 7 come from? No one wants to talk about…
If you’re a sysadmin for a small shop and are letting desktops update on their own, or if you’re at home and running XP, you may be wondering how to get SP3 Release Candidate to come down the pipe through Windows Update. It turns out that you need to flip a registry bit to get…
Best Practice Alert – did you folks in the app-virtusphere know that Office 2k7 was not initially designed for virtualization? I’m a bit bemused by the SoftGrid Blog team using that phrase “not designed.” I just wonder, with my tin-hat on, waiting for the black helicopters – did MS do this with intention? Will Biff…
Microsoft recently updated and renamed its Business Desktop Deployment Solution Accelerator and as of a short time ago, Microsoft Deployment 1.0 was born. It’s now available for public download, and this article attempts to describe some of the major feature enhancements since BDD 2007.
