Changes and updates made to Office 365 for IT Pros (2021 edition)
Original release: July 1, 2020. Current book dated: January 1, 2021
This log describes the changes made to the book since its original release. The document is up to date as of the version released on January 1, 2021. We try and release an updated version monthly, usually on the first of the month unless something like a major conference disrupts our ability to produce an update.
Changes per Chapter
This table serves as a rough approximation of where the book’s content has changed. The number of individual changes or additions of new text within a chapter might be far higher. The chapter numbers are bolded.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 6 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | |||||
| 4 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 1 |
Chapter Update Counts:
- August 2020: 18 chapters.
- September 2020: 17 chapters.
- October 2020: 21 chapters.
- November 2020: 22 chapters.
- December 2020: 23 chapters.
- January 2021: 21 chapters.
We have released six updates for the 2021 edition since its publication: 1 August, 1 September, 1 October, 1 November, 1 December, 1 January. You can find update information on the inside cover of the book. The companion book was last updated on 1 November 2020.
We can only ask Amazon to update monthly and even so, sometimes they do not agree that we make enough changes to justify them sending a notification to customers that they can download the updated file.
Individual Chapter Changes for Office 365 for IT Pros, 2021 ed.
| Date | Chapter | Change |
| Jan | 1 | SharePoint Online now has 200 million monthly active users. |
| Jan | 2 | Added short section on DR and BC planning for the cloud. |
| Jan | 3 | Minor updates to clarify licensing requirements for several features. |
| Jan | 4 | Skype for Business connector is retiring on 15 Feb 2021. Skype admin center deprecated. Added initial coverage of data-at-rest encryption and Customer Key. Updated section on Productivity Score. |
| Jan | 5 | Added section about updating user photos for mailboxes (and by extension, to other Office 365 apps). A new option allows Outlook desktop to create Teams online meetings by default. |
| Jan | 7 | Many small updates to sections. The most important change is that Exchange Online supports only TLS 1.2 connections from January 11, 2021. |
| Jan | 8 | External sharing capability for a site can be set via a sensitivity label. Microsoft search can recommend bookmarks for publication. New section about sharing for Microsoft Lists. |
| Jan | 9 | Yammer support for guest user access is in preview. |
| Jan | 10 | Dynamic Azure AD groups are limited to 5,000 per tenant. |
| Jan | 11 | Rewrote section on Meet Now after Microsoft released this capability for mobile clients. Added information about how to edit the deeplink used for Live events. Description added of pre-release channels for Teams. Meeting polls are available for personal Teams meetings. Microsoft has released a public gallery for Teams background images. Teams channel calendar app will roll out in January 2021. |
| Jan | 12 | Teams can now be archived through the Teams admin center. Rewrote opening section about creating Teams. Microsoft is tweaking the set of MAPI properties captured in Teams compliance records. |
| Jan | 13 | Made the point that Set-UserPhoto can update a picture for a team (Set-TeamPicture can too, but its use is limited to team owners). Updated description about the Teams PowerShell module. The Skype for Business Online connector is retired effective 15 February 2021. Rewrote section about using the Graph to process Groups and Teams data. |
| Jan | 14 | Updates on collaboration bar and collaborative calling. |
| Jan | 15 | Planner will generate compliance records for task creation and edits from January 2021. |
| Jan | 16 | Quota assigned to Stream classic is not transferred to SharePoint Online when the transition to the new Stream happens. |
| Jan | 17 | Minor typo fixes |
| Jan | 18 | Added mention of Teams Public Preview program and channels; minor corrections. |
| Jan | 19 | Minor corrections to Records management section. |
| Jan | 20 | Added note about including variations of personal identifiers as conditions for content searches. Advanced eDiscovery exports can decrypt protected documents stored in SharePoint and OneDrive. |
| Jan | 22 | New country-specific sensitive data types introduced for DLP policies. |
| Jan | 24 | The container management settings for sensitivity labels can now control external sharing capabilities for SharePoint Online sites. Microsoft has fixed the bug which caused documents with sensitivity labels to become inaccessible when moved or copied between sites. |
| Dec | 1 | SLA data for Q3 2020 (99.97%). |
| Dec | 2 | Fixed typos; clarified process of moving into GCC/GCC High tenants. |
| Dec | 3 | Microsoft strongly recommends use of app-based verification for MFA. Security defaults adds four new roles for mandatory MFA. |
| Dec | 4 | Updated V2 EXO cmdlet coverage; added forewarning of new stripped-down small-tenant admin center; added coverage of the new Productivity Score data set. |
| Dec | 5 | Added detail about what to do when the Recoverable Items folders approaches its quota limit. |
| Dec | 6 | Rewrote section about dynamic distribution lists. |
| Dec | 7 | Many changes and updates, including Advanced Threat Protection is now Microsoft Defender for Office 365, new blocks on automatic mail forwarding, and new blocks on high-confidence phish messages. |
| Dec | 8 | General refresh. OneDrive For Business Admin features to be integrated in the SharePoint Admin Center. Added available Microsoft Lists controls to disable personal lists creation and specific list templates. |
| Dec | 9 | Teams button is now available in the Outlook Groups toolbar and is exposed when a team-enabled group is accessed. Replaced Figure 9-10. |
| Dec | 10 | Rewrote section about dynamic Microsoft 365 Groups. |
| Dec | 11 | Together mode in Teams meetings now supports a set of backgrounds provided by Microsoft. Rewrote section about roles in meetings. Teams personal now supports desktop (Windows) and browser clients. Switching to public preview is now available for desktop and browser clients. |
| Dec | 12 | Rewrote section covering disabling chat. |
| Dec | 13 | Fixed bug in script for synchronizing security group membership with a Microsoft 365 Group. |
| Dec | 14 | Minor updates. |
| Dec | 15 | Minor updates including noting that a task can have a maximum of 20 checklist items. |
| Dec | 17 | Added info on Intune reports; clarified macOS/iOS support timelines. |
| Dec | 18 | Added coverage of M365 App Admin Center; updated recommended best practice for Office app channel balance. |
| Dec | 19 | Expanded section about retention labels marked as records to include regulatory records. |
| Dec | 20 | Export of attachments for protected email found by searches now decrypt attachments (MC225739). Edge now needs to be configured to allow ClickOnce to download and run the eDiscovery Export tool. |
| Dec | 21 | The ApplyRecord audit action is available for mailboxes to track marking items as regulatory records (with retention labels). |
| Dec | 22 | Clarify how the order of DLP policies and rules within policies affect the evaluation of potential violations. Sensitivity labels can now be specified as a condition for checking in DLP policies. Endpoint DLP policies are now generally available (require Microsoft 365 E5 licenses – not Office 365). |
| Dec | 23 | Microsoft Power Platform CoE Starter Kit is available. |
| Dec | 24 | Updated notes for EnablePDFEncryption setting. Rewrote introduction to section about sensitivity labels. Office desktop apps will generate audit records when sensitivity labels are applied to documents. |
| Nov | 1 | Included SLA result for Q2 2020. Included Microsoft FY21 Q1 results. |
| Nov | 2 | Added section on GCC and country clouds; added mention of adoption.microsoft.com site. |
| Nov | 3 | Azure AD now has nearly 400 million daily active users. Adjusted text for CA policy for Outlook mobile. |
| Nov | 4 | Rewrote section in discussion about the need for Office 365 backup. More changes to reflect new security and compliance centers. Cross-reference to discussion of new Advanced Audit license in Chapter 21. |
| Nov | 5 | Emphasize that mailboxes forwarding email must remain licensed to work. |
| Nov | 8 | SharePoint spaces is now GA. Extra search vertical added (Power BI) for Microsoft Search. SharePoint Syntex is available. |
| Nov | 9 | Clarify that guests are automatically added to group subscriber lists. Replaced Figure 9-8. |
| Nov | 10 | Updated sections about Dynamic Groups and Group expiration policy. |
| Nov | 11 | Users can now set their Teams status to be offline. The Teams desktop client now has some basic support for offline working. A native ARM client is now available for ARM on Windows devices. Teams meeting recordings can now be stored in OneDrive for Business. A duration setting is now available for user presence. |
| Nov | 12 | Teams admin center (Manage apps) now supports the ability to assign permissions, including resource specific consent, for third-party and LOB apps. Several changes following the change in storage location for Teams compliance records. |
| Nov | 13 | Example script updated after Microsoft changed the storage location for Teams compliance records. |
| Nov | 14 | Updated information about Teams Displays and Collaboration bars. Add information about location-based routing for direct routing. |
| Nov | 15 | The Tasks in Teams app has reached general availability. Updated text to make it clear which plans are shown in the app. Replaced Figure 15-17. |
| Nov | 16 | Tenants can now store Teams meeting recordings in OneDrive for Business. |
| Nov | 17 | Updates to iOS/macOS/Android channel names. Updated description of OneDrive sync client updates. Fixed a few typos and broken links. |
| Nov | 18 | Added guidance on OS support timelines for Windows & macOS. Added coverage of help and troubleshooting toolset in Intune. |
| Nov | 19 | New UI introduced (simplified and better) for creating retention labels. Screen shots updated and text refreshed. |
| Nov | 20 | Added information about unindexed items found by content searches. |
| Nov | 21 | Three new crucial audit events are available to help investigators track what happens inside compromised accounts. |
| Nov | 22 | Microsoft has made a playbook available to help tenants move from Exchange DLP policies to Microsoft 365 DLP policies. Therefore, we moved the information about Exchange DLP policies to Chapter 8 of the companion volume. |
| Nov | 23 | CDS storage of 1 GB is provided to Office 365 tenants. Additional storage can be purchased. |
| Nov | 24 | Double key encryption is now generally available. End-user training material for sensitivity label is available from Microsoft. Scoping for sensitivity labels is now generally available, which necessitated a major rewrite of that section. |
| Oct | 2 | Added notes on Teams SBA and Project Nucleus. Updated dates for TLS 1.2 decommissioning. Various text updates. |
| Oct | 3 | Minor updates, including public preview of Continual Access Evaluation. |
| Oct | 4 | Version 2.0.3 of the Exchange Online Management module supports simultaneous connections to the Exchange Online and the Security and Compliance endpoints. More on the security/compliance center split. Mention of Linux support for EXO V2. Introduced modern EAC. Added coverage of new network connectivity health checks; miscellaneous text updates. |
| Oct | 5 | Added section about plus addressing support for Exchange Online. |
| Oct | 6 | Section on dynamic distribution lists rewritten. |
| Oct | 7 | Rewrites of many sections as this chapter is restructured and refreshed. |
| Oct | 8 | Added section about SharePoint weekly mail digest and other tweaks across the chapter. |
| Oct | 9 | Outlook desktop is changing the way it displays unread counts for Groups. |
| Oct | 10 | Rationalization and rewriting of some sections about adding guests to groups. |
| Oct | 11 | Safari 13 supports incoming video for Teams meetings. Customized badges are supported for the Praise app. Link to new feature by platform page included. Section added about Teams breakout rooms. |
| Oct | 12 | Added extra content about how sensitivity labels can restrict guests being added to team membership. |
| Oct | 13 | Note about the better performance of the Where method for arrays. |
| Oct | 14 | Sections added about Teams Survivable Branch Appliances and 3pip Phones. |
| Oct | 15 | Planner has some limited offline capability. |
| Oct | 16 | Stream 2.0 moves video storage to SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. Recordings of Teams meetings can move to the new platform in October. Added notes about replacing a video in Stream. |
| Oct | 17 | Silverlight Intune is EOL! Updated MEM/Intune naming usage to reflect MS guidance. Renamed M365 MDM to Basic Mobility and Security. Noted upcoming EOL for Android Device Admin. |
| Oct | 18 | A few minor updates to cover changes announced at Ignite. |
| Oct | 19 | Information barrier policies now GA for SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business sites. |
| Oct | 21 | New trainable classifiers and roles available for communications compliance policies. Update for the sample PowerShell script to report workload data via the Graph is available. New layout for standard workload usage reports in Microsoft 365 admin center (Figure 21-18). Added section explaining how to search the audit log for actions performed against objects (documents, users, and groups). |
| Oct | 22 | An action in a DLP policy can now block access to SPO and ODFB content for those with Anyone links. |
| Oct | 24 | The advent of scoping for sensitivity labels mean that the sections describing how to plan for and create and edit sensitivity labels were rewritten. |
| Sept | 1 | Added link to Microsoft’s per-country list of where Office 365 customer data is stored. |
| Sept | 3 | Minor changes to wording in several places. |
| Sept | 4 | Refreshed Graph Explorer control to reflect the fact that Microsoft is pushing out some tenant admin controls that can only be set through the Graph. Internet Explorer 11 will not be supported after August 17, 2021. Added mention of new support PIN verification process. Added Visio and Project to list of self-service license purchase SKUs. Incident notification in Outlook |
| Sept | 5 | OWA now includes a warning when mailbox quota exceeds 90% of allocation. |
| Sept | 7 | Updated PowerShell examples for quarantine access. General restructuring of some sections covering Message Hygiene. |
| Sept | 8 | Discover view is being retired in ODFB. Microsoft Lists a new App in Microsoft 365 to access and create new enhanced SharePoint lists is rolled out. |
| Sept | 9 | Preview now available to assign Azure AD roles to (new) groups. |
| Sept | 11 | New guidance for deploying Teams on Windows Virtual desktop and VDI environments. Whiteboard app for Teams now supports sticky notes and text boxes. Added more detail about Teams meeting settings. Teams now remembers the background effect chosen by users and persists it for every video meeting until a new effect is chosen. Teams won’t support IE11 after November 30, 2020. The Graph presence subscription API is now used to detect calendar changes and calculate user presence. |
| Sept | 12 | Microsoft 365 communication compliance policies which process Teams messages can now block messages which violate policy. |
| Sept | 14 | Added info about connecting analog devices to direct routing; how to bypass enterprise voice and dial-in conferencing during migrations; and info about the CallRecord API. |
| Sept | 15 | Clarification about Planner service location. |
| Sept | 16 | Clarification about the video view captured in Teams meeting recordings. |
| Sept | 17 | Added mention of end of support for iOS 11. |
| Sept | 18 | Updated deathwatch dates for Internet Explorer 11. Added info on per-user storage restriction in OneDrive. |
| Sept | 19 | Added definition of trainable classifier and other minor changes. |
| Sept | 21 | Emphasize that Planner does not generate audit records. Sway no longer generates audit events. Rewrite section about alert policies. |
| Sept | 24 | Power BI now supports sensitivity label inheritance for Excel worksheets generated through the PivotTable connection and Analyze with Excel features. |
| August | 1 | Updates for Microsoft FY20 Q4 results. |
| August | 2 | Several refinements for information about planning for cloud migrations. |
| August | 3 | Minor changes. |
| August | 4 | Update to Power Apps admin center URL; added self-service purchase approval flow warning; intro to Exchange PowerShell v2 cert-based authentication; updated coverage of the improved Secure Score experience; various text updates and fixes. |
| August | 5 | Preview of Exchange Online Management PowerShell module supports unattended script execution. Note about importing on-premises archives larger than 100 GB to Exchange Online. Microsoft has reduced the number of events created from email to just travel and parcel delivery. Changes to discussion about inactive mailboxes and how to preserve data for ex-employees. |
| August | 7 | Beginning of an end-to-end review by new author taking over chapter to refine, clarify, and improve flow of text. |
| August | 8 | Added section about Content Type Gallery. Fixed some typos. |
| August | 9 | Change in OWA create new Microsoft 365 dialog meant changes to several screen shots and accompanying text. |
| August | 10 | Moved script for updating group display names in line with naming policy to GitHub after updating it to deal with both prefixes and suffixes. |
| August | 11 | Clarifications about different forms of Teams meetings. Note added about Teams memory usage on Windows. |
| August | 12 | Added discussion about the ramifications of disabling the Chat app in Teams. Updated section about bulk policy assignment for Teams. Storage of Teams compliance records is not charged against user mailbox quotas. Added note about resource-specific consent for Teams apps. Removed text about discovery of private teams (Microsoft is reconsidering how to engineer the functionality). |
| August | 13 | Rewrote script for archiving a group to make it handle multiple groups. The Teams preview and production PowerShell modules are now both in the PowerShell gallery. |
| August | 14 | Added details about Teams advanced communications licenses, and updates for auto attendants and call queues. |
| August | 15 | Planner doesn’t have a recycle bin (emphasized). Noted that the Planner browser client is updated regularly, and users are prompted to refresh to load the changed code. New Tasks in Teams app released. |
| August | 16 | Changes for A1 users about what happens when they record a Teams meeting. |
| August | 17 | Short introduction to Desktop Analytics; coverage of new Intune pivot in Microsoft 365 admin center. |
| August | 21 | Communication compliance policies now cover Teams messages sent by users with on-premises mailboxes. |
| August | 22 | Included example of using a SharePoint Online managed property as a condition in a DLP policy. |
| August | 23 | Rewrote section about Power Platform management. |
| August | 24 | Chromium-based Edge browser can open protected PDFs. Sensitivity labels can control sharing capability for SharePoint Online sites. |