Changes and updates made to Office 365 for IT Pros (2023 edition)
Original release: July 1, 2022, latest update: February 1, 2023
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 February 1, 2023 (monthly update #92). We 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.
We last updated the companion book on 28 September 2022.
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, 2023 ed.
| Chapter | Change |
| 1 (Overview) | August 2022 (86): Information adjusted from Microsoft FY22 Q4 results. November 2022 (89): New earnings information available from the FY23 Q1 results. February 2023 (92): Added details from Microsoft FY23 Q2 call. |
| 2 (Embracing the Cloud) | August 2022 (86): added coverage of Sovereign Cloud and Customer Lockbox for Power Platform. September 2022 (87): minor grammar and style corrections. October 2022 (88): added coverage of Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability; noted commercial-only availability of INR; minor grammar fixes. November 2022 (89): added coverage of data residency, plus a few enhancements to Cloud for Sustainability. December 2022 (90): expanded coverage of Microsoft cross-tenant migration tools. January 2023 (91): updated release dates; new notes on “intelligence cloud.” February 2023 (92): Added details on O365 Secret variant and updated various release dates. |
| 3 (Managing Identities) | August 2022 (86): Added coverage of Microsoft Entra; Updated app registration consent section; Added group writeback V2; Added inactive guest self-access reviews; Updates to leave organization text; Updated sources for B2B guests; Update converged registration text to reflect rollout. September 2022 (87): Updates to certificate-based authentication; updated conditional access samples; various grammar and formatting fixes. October 2022 (88): New Microsoft figures for the percentage of Azure AD accounts covered by MFA. Details of new OAuth app exploit against Exchange Online. Updates to sign-in frequency session control. Added control for guests leaving tenants. Added workload identities sign-in risk control. November 2022 (89): Added section about how to remove an authentication method for an account with PowerShell; coverage of new Authenticator app features; authentication strengths example and control; guest user targeting in conditional access policies; filter for applications in conditional access policies. December 2022 (90): Added date for mandatory Authenticator app number matching; reflected Entra workload identities leaving preview; Added favicon branding and additional layout controls; reflected authentication context being generally available; various miscellaneous small updates. January 2023 (91): Note about IPv6 addresses and named locations; link to sample of new company branding preview; Linux devices can be registered with Azure AD; reflected general availability of multi-tenant passwordless authentication on iOS. February 2023 (92): Updated guest invitation redemption reset content to reflect availability of GUI and general availability; significant updates to MFA section; updated SSPR section to discuss authentication methods policy. |
| 4 (Tenant Management) | August 2022 (86): added coverage of the new software update status page in the admin center. September 2022 (87): updated death (retirement) date for classic EAC. Added threat analytics to Defender portal section. Added sections on Experience Insights and Adoption Score dashboards. October 2022 (88): updated deprecation dates for classic EAC and classic protection.microsoft.com. Updated description of Secure Score. November 2022 (89): updated release dates for delayed features; added the cool cmd.ms parlor trick; updated Adoption Score organizational message feature. December 2022 (90): protection.office.com is finally dead. Added relevance to MC posts. Added note on health Dashboard. Added mention of “issues that need attention” emails. Added section on managing Viva. January 2023 (91): added information on enabling Adoption Score and new meeting-scoring features. Rollout of new Viva service plan name placeholders. February 2023 (92): minor updates to feature release dates |
| 5 (User Management | August 2022 (86): minor clarity and style fixes. September 2022 (87): minor grammar and style corrections. Updated all the rollout dates Microsoft missed for various features. October 2022 (88): Added reminder that groups used for group-based license assignments must be security-enabled. Minor style and grammar fixes. November 2022 (89): You can use plus addressing with shared mailboxes and distribution lists, but the plus addresses must be assigned by an administrator. December 2022 (90): Updated the date for the change to alias uniqueness. January 2023 (91): no changes. February 2023 (92): Rewrote section about creating new accounts in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Added section about license stacking for accounts. |
| 6 (Exchange Online) | August 2022 (86): Rewrote section about inactive mailboxes. September 2022 (87): Microsoft is changing the deleted mailbox retention period for inactive mailboxes from 183 days to 30 days in September 2022. Rewrote section about shared mailbox licensing. October 2022 (88): Updated section on Outlook archive folder to explain how to disable the backspace one-click to archive feature. Updated section covering automapping of shared mailboxes. Remove Figure 6-10 as it didn’t add much value. Updated figures for Exchange Online service and added new Figure 6-1 to reflect data provided by Microsoft at the MEC 2022 conference. The GUI for archive mailboxes now available in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal is being retired. November 2022 (89): Added text about inbox and sweep rules. Adjusted section about the retirement of basic authentication for email protocols as the final process is now happening. December 2022 (90): The deployment of cloud signatures (aka roaming signatures) is rolling out and available to Outlook for Windows click-to-run build 2209 or later. Microsoft is disabling basic authentication for the Autodiscover protocol. Microsoft is blocking moves of mailboxes with auto-expanding archives back to on-premises Exchange Server. January 2023 (91): The big basic authentication shutdown is in its final days. Rewrote some sections and made changes across the chapter. February 2023 (92): Rewrote section about regional mailbox settings. |
| 7 (Mail Flow) | August 2022 (86): New actions for common attachment filtering and junk email reporting. September 2022 (87): New default expiration for quarantined messages is 30 days. Added text about preset security policies. October 2022 (88): Rewrote description of DKIM key rotation. November 2022 (89): Rewrote description of administrator actions for quarantined messages. |
| 8 (SharePoint Online) | August 2022 (86): Added section about how to manage SPO with the Microsoft Graph API. Added section about how Add to OneDrive shared folders. Some Microsoft lists templates now include a pre-built Power Automate Flow. September 2022 (87): New IsCollabMeetingNotesFluidEnabled setting available to control fluid components in OneNote meeting notes. Starting in November, Microsoft will start to enforce site limits for SharePoint lists, libraries, and subsites. Microsoft will retire the global classic term store between September and October. October 2022 (88): SharePoint App bar can be temporary disabled until 31st March 2023. New control to govern SharePoint site creation by end users. New SharePoint Syntex and Power Automate integrations bring new automation scenarios in document generation. Full update of the Microsoft Search Usage Reports sections to reflect recent additions on this area. November 2022 (89): Stream migration tool (currently in preview) is available in the SharePoint Admin Center through the Migration Manager platform (MMP). Viva Topics setup supports the exclusion of files assigned specific sensitivity labels. December 2022 (90): SharePoint admins can download files infected with malware. SharePoint Syntex is now Microsoft Syntex. January 2023 (91): The sharing link dialog displays the name of a sensitivity label if assigned to a file being shared. New options to manage active sites in the SharePoint admin center. |
| 9 (Tasks) | August 2022 (86): Brief mention of forthcoming rollout of new Tasks in Teams experience. September 2022 (87): minor grammar and style corrections. Updated a few missed dates here too. October 2022 (88): noted promised appearance of grid view in October 2022. Updated yet another missed date for rich text previews. November 2022 (89): added coverage of new Business Scenarios API extensions. Still no grid view. December 2022 (90): surprising no one,the grid view and rich text availability dates have been adjusted again. January 2023 (91): grid view continues to be AWOL. February 2023 (92): Grid view! Plus Viva Goals integration. |
| 10 (Video) | August 2022 (86): The migration tool for Stream classic should be in public preview in late August 2022 (it still isn’t). October 2022 (88): Added section about recording a video with the new Stream client. The migration from Stream classic is expected in public preview in October. November 2022 (89): Migration tool is in public preview. You can edit transcript contents interactively in the video player. February 2022 (92): Microsoft will retire Stream classic on February 15, 2024. |
| 11 (Groups) | August 2022 (86): Added link to script to find groups with guests. September 2022 (87): Added detail about creating dynamic groups. October 2022 (88): Minor updates in wording for clarifications in several sections. December 2022 (90): Microsoft plans to deprecate the bulk migration of distribution lists to Microsoft 365 Groups in February 2023. OWA supports access to folders and tasks in group mailboxes, so we cover the organization-wide and group-specific settings that control this feature. Yammer now supports posting of photo and video stories to user storylines. January 2023 (91): The Azure AD collaboration policy can accept more than the 60 domains specified previously. The limit is now set by whatever domains you can fit in 25 KB. Updated text about guest accounts receiving invitations. |
| 12 (Teams) | August 2022 (86): Teams meetings now auto-expire if they become stale. The wiki tab is no longer provisioned automatically for new channels (from mid-August). Added coverage of the Teams Files policy. September 2022 (87): Clarified that tags can be used to start chats. Also, Teams now allows users to start chats with distribution lists, Microsoft 365 groups, or mail-enable security groups. October 2022 (88): If a meeting has more than nine participants, Teams automatically switches to the large gallery view. Added section about scheduled send for chats. Added section about video messages for chat. November 2022 (89): Updated details about shared channels. Replaced figure 12-11 because the activity feed now has an unread only option. The Teams Premium product will go into preview at the end of 2022. December 2022 (90): Rewrote script to generate a Teams directory and updated text referring to the article about the script. New Teams webinar experience is soon to roll out, so we updated that section. Firefox browsers are supported for Teams meetings, but only with a 2×2 view. Teams clients now support a Delete chat option. January 2023 (91): Meeting co-organizers can now manage breakout rooms. Users can now add others to group chats by @ mentioning them. Microsoft has extended the temporary limits for Live Events until June 30, 2023. At this point, the temporary limits are almost permanent. Teams for Personal Life is now Teams Free, which means that two Teams Free versions exist, but that’s not confusing at all. February 2023 (92): Added details about @Everyone mention for chats. Added details about privacy mode for external federated chat. Microsoft announced the retirement of the Teams wiki, so we removed most of the text about it. Removed details about the Teams advanced communication license as it’s likely to be replaced by Teams Premium. Video effects are available (preview) for Teams meetings. |
| 13 (Managing Teams) | August 2022 (86): Minor updates. September 2022 (87): Minor updates. October 2022 (88): The Microsoft 365 substrate captures reactions posted to Teams chats and channel conversations. December 2022 (90): Some of the Teams policy management cmdlets have been modernized and can be used in Azure Automation. Rewrote section about guest user licensing. Teams retention processing now includes call data records (CDRs). January 2023 (91): The Teams RSC model is extending to allow access to channel and chat conversations by bots. |
| 14 (Managing Calling and Devices) | August 2022 (86): Rewrite of the call queue and auto attendant section to cover updates and improve clarity. Minor updates covering some small feature improvements and tweaks to overall structure and wording. September 2022 (87): Added new pay-as-you-go calling plan information and updates to Common Area phone license. Added information about Emergency Calling (LIS). October 2022 (88): Updates to Microsoft Teams Rooms licensing with new Basic and Pro license types replacing Standard and Premium. November 2022 (89): Explanation of new Teams Phone Mobile solution, tweak to Teams Room information, updates to Calling Policy to match changes in TAC. Updated unassigned number configuration to match new TAC capability. December 2022 (90): Minor tweaks & change in branding of Common Area Phone license to Teams Shared Device license. January 2023 (91): Minor tweaks & reference to VAAC. February 2023 (92): Minor fixes & added an overview of Policy-based recording. |
| 15 (Clients) | August 2022 (86): Added section on blocking Office macros with OCPS. Mentioned macOS ODB sync health reports. Mentioned Outlook Lite. Short section on Bookings client. September 2022 (87): minor grammar and style corrections. Updated iOS/iPad OS support range. Updated EWS death (retirement) date. And, for fun, updated a few more missed rollout dates. October 2022 (88): Microsoft plans to retire the Linux version of the Teams desktop client in December 2022. Updated section on non-Microsoft browser compatibility. Updated coverage of Monarch. November 2022 (89): gloatingly covered the enforced blocking of IE11 starting January 2023.Updated macOS and iOS support ranges. December 2022 (90): new SaRA network connectivity feature. Added upcoming deadline for Authenticator number matching rollout. January 2023 (91): updated info on IE11 disablement. Rollout of OneDrive sync health reports. February 2023 (92): Microsoft will remove Exchange client access rules permanently in September 2023, so we removed most of the text about this feature. Added link to mapping document for EWS to Graph APIs. Added note on Teams support for iOS 14. |
| 16 (Managing Devices) | August 2022 (86): Added new app protection data transfer setting (photo library); clarified support for device actions on Android; Updated UI text for configuration profiles and added settings catalog option. September 2022 (87): Added additional app protection policy data transfer options; tweaks to email profile deployment; various grammar and layout fixes. October 2022 (88): Added iOS device enrollment types preview, note about targeting compliance policies to all users/all devices; iOS version updates. November 2022 (89): Replace MEM branding with Intune; updated preview status for Android Open-Source Project (AOSP) devices. December 2022 (90): Added enrollment notifications; miscellaneous updates. January 2023 (91): Added coverage of multi-administrative approval for apps and scripts |
| 17 (Compliance) | August 2022 (86): Added more details about app-specific retention compliance policy cmdlets. Clarified information about item disposition at the end of a retention period set by a label. September 2022 (87): New compliance licensing guideline document released by Microsoft. Updated section about adaptive scopes. November 2022 (89): Emphasize that Teams retention policies have an in-built delay before items are removed from clients. The Teams Files channel tab can now apply a retention label to a SharePoint file. December 2022 (90): Adaptive scopes support limited account and mailbox properties, but you can use the custom properties to store values that you want to use to scope queries against Azure AD. January 2023 (91): It’s possible to automate the management of specific locations in a retention policy with PowerShell. We show how. February 2022 (92): SharePoint Online now hides the preservation hold library from users (in Site Contents). Administrators can still access the PHL. |
| 18 (eDiscovery) | November 2022 (89): Emphasize that some file formats cannot be previewed but can be recovered by exporting search results. |
| 19 (DLP) | August 2022 (86): The release of the new credentials sensitive information types means that the total available are now over three hundred. |
| 20 (Information Protection) | August 2022 (86): Added new example of how to find Microsoft 365 Groups with guests that have inconsistent sensitivity labels. September 2022 (87): Added note about SPO-Tenant setting to block notifications for mismatched labels. Added link to script to allow admins to find which users caused document mismatches to occur. November 2022 (89): Discussed the fact that OME uses the Electronic Codebook (ECB) cipher method and why this isn’t a real problem. You can now add colors to sensitivity labels from the Compliance portal (or PowerShell), so several figures and sections of descriptive text around creating a sensitivity label needed updating. Adobe has shipped its support for sensitivity label creation and management within Acrobat (the paid-for versions). December 2022 (90): Added link to article showing how to use a traffic-light color scheme for sensitivity labels. Rewrote section about the requirement for E5 licenses for automatic application of sensitivity labels. The Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise have built-in support for sensitivity labels, so Microsoft is blocking the use of the unified labeling client when applying protection. The client can still assign labels to non-Office 365 files. January 2023 (91): Added clarification about when the co-author and co-owner rights should be used in sensitivity labels. Added text about Azure AD settings that could stop external people accessing protected email and documents. |
| 21 (Reporting and Auditing) | September 2022 (87): Added text showing how to use the programmatic (Graph) controls to update the setting to generate concealed data in Graph-based reports. October 2022 (88): Updated advice about enabling auditing for mailboxes with Office 365 E3 licenses. A preview of a new audit search GUI is available. November 2022 (89): Added note about using Azure Automation to search the event log on a scheduled basis. Microsoft is removing a bunch of default alert policies because they cause too many false positives (MC447684), so this section is updated. January 2023 (91): Communications compliance policies will support adaptive scopes to identify policy reviewees from February 2023. |
| 22 (Power Platform) | August 2022 (86): Minor updates to licensing and plan information. Some rewrites of paragraphs in the Power BI section. September 2022 (87): Added coverage of Power Apps Code Review tool. October 2022 (88): Added section about Power Apps Express Design. November 2022 (89): Included section covering the AI Builder for the Power Platform. January 2023 (91): Many updates across the chapter. February 2023 (92): Added extra information about environments. |
| 23 (PowerShell) | August 2022 (86): Added more examples of using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. Added section covering the Get-MgUserMemberGroup cmdlet. September 2022 (87): Microsoft changes the retirement date for the Azure AD and MSOL license assignment cmdlets from August 26, 2022, to March 31, 2023. Replaced Get-TeamChannel with the new Get-TeamAllChannel cmdlet in code example and added a section explaining how the cmdlet works. Added new example of checking the enablement status of a service plan in user assigned licenses. Added section explaining how to resolve tenant identifiers to tenant display names. Rewrote section about removing service plans from licenses for multiple Azure AD accounts. October 2022 (88): Added section about managed identities. Version 3.0 of the Exchange Online PowerShell module is now available. Added some extra license management examples. Retirement date for the Azure AD and MSOL modules is now June 30, 2023. November 2022 (89): Added details about using Connect-MgGraph to connect to other clouds than the default commercial cloud. Rewrote section covering managed identities now that Exchange Online PowerShell supports these objects. Added note about updating PowerShell modules for Azure Automation accounts. December 2022 (90): Rewrote section about sending email using Graph APIs. Added section about using the SDK cmdlets to interact with Exchange Online custom attributes and Azure AD custom security attributes. Added extra information about listing the members and owners of groups using the Graph SDK, plus some extra examples of finding groups using different filters. Updated the section about getting and removing member information from groups using SDK cmdlets. January 2023 (91): Rewrote section about finding and restoring deleted groups. Added section covering the preview of RBAC for Applications. Added more script examples for the Graph SDK. Microsoft will block Remote PowerShell connections to Exchange Online from June 30, 2023. V2.0 of the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK is in preview, and it might affect the way people write scripts. Removed text about using PowerShell remote sessions now that this is no longer used by Exchange Online. February 2023 (92): Microsoft removed the Restore-MgGroup cmdlet from the Graph SDK, so we updated the section about restoring deleted groups. Added note about the way that jwt.io reports access tokens issued by Azure AD for the Graph to have an invalid signature. Added note about the tasks necessary to build out complete Microsoft 365 accounts. Many changes to improve the script examples for dealing with the ownership and membership of groups. Azure Automation does not support Run As accounts after September 30, 2023. |
| Appendix | August 2022 (86): Added data from Microsoft FY22 Q4 earnings. September 2022 (87): Added SLA result for Q2 2022 November 2022 (89): Added data from Microsoft FY23 Q1 earnings. January 2023 (91): Added SLA result for Q3 2022. February 2023 (92): Added data from Microsoft FY23 Q2 earnings. |