M365 Weekly Newsletter
Issue #92
☁️What’s on my mind
It happened as I expected it would. The first of October. Luckily it was a Saturday. Monday was, as expected, so much more diverse. Why?
Microsoft has turned off basic authentication. It would have looked a bit too surreal if it hadn’t been for a torrent of phone calls.
“Hey, for some reason (ancient) Outlook at the client doesn’t connect to the mail server anymore and asks for a password over and over again. What is wrong? It was working perfectly well for them a few days ago.”
If they were reading this newsletter, they would have read more than a year in advance about what was to happen on the first of October 2022. Do you know anyone that would benefit from reading M365 Weekly Newsletter? Kindly forward them this issue. Thanks.
Have a really great day.
Matic Z.
☁️Productivity & Modern Workplace
Guide to designing a page in Power Pages. Either I am living under a rock, or Microsoft Power Pages was launched without any fanfare. Whichever way you look at it, Power Pages seems to be a very serious competitor to Wix or Squarespace. Power Pages is a service that allows you to build websites with little or no coding. Being part of the Power Platform, it goes without saying that the integration with other Power services is more than excellent.
Powerpoint title design ideas. Another good idea for animating text or a title in PowerPoint.
10 Useful Microsoft Teams Apps to Boost Your Productivity. The vast number of apps available in Teams allows employees to have the best possible workplace experience — wherever they are.
Outlook Calendar Permissions – What you need to know. Want to give your colleagues a full view of your calendar, not just the free/busy time slots?
☁️Sysadmin Stuff
Techniques to Configure Office 365 Spam Filter. One would think there is much less spam today than there used to be. But statistics show that of the total amount of e-mail, more than 45% is still spam. Why, then, do we not see so much of this junk in our mailboxes? The fact is that spam filters have become really good.
Manage ownerless Microsoft 365 groups and teams. Teams or groups can be left without an owner due to incautious administrators. Fortunately, there are policies that solve these kinds of problems.
Managing the Microsoft 365 tenant. There is no “one admin center to rule them all”. Fortunately, admin centers are mostly divided by service (e.g. Exchange admin center, Teams admin center) or by function (Security, Compliance). This article gives you an overview of the admin centers you will use most often.
Set Guest User Access Expiration in SharePoint Online. In most situations, it’s not wise to forget about guest accounts. It’s quite possible that you’re sharing a lot more than you ideally want to. At the very least, set an expiry date for them.
☁️Security & Data Governance
Protecting Windows 10 and other devices with Microsoft Defender. It would be interesting to know if people perceive Microsoft as a security provider. We used to laugh at their attempts in this domain, but nowadays the big analyst firms put Microsoft at the top. Defender for Endpoint is probably one of the best device protection solutions on the market.
Protect passwords with enhanced phishing protection. Will this constant cat-and-mouse (cybercriminals vs. users) dance ever end? There is little chance of that happening. Fortunately, users always have more and more good ways to defend themselves.
Avoid MFA fatigue attacks in Microsoft 365. What will an unwitting user do when the MFA application starts showing the login confirmation window several times a minute? He will assume that one of the applications on his computer is requesting access and he is not getting it. Of course, the user will not investigate further, but will almost certainly press “approve” to get rid of the application’s constant nagging. And that is exactly what the criminals want.
☁️Noteworthy (long)reads
Hybrid Work Guides: Great or late? Teams Rooms Licensing Delights or Disappoints. I mostly listen to these two men when I drive to the office twice a week. So I also work in hybrid mode. That’s why the title of the show attracted my attention.
Metaverse City – Smart City and Place. When I’m reading about metaverse stuff I feel like a character from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. There they have this special alcoholic drink called PanGalactic GargleBlaster. Its effect is similar to “having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick.” I can’t find better words that would better describe my feelings.
☁️Classifieds
The Sample. A whole new way of discovering exciting email newsletters. Sign up and you will get sample newsletters based on the interests that you’ve tagged.
☁️On a Less Serious Note
☁️ Last but not least …
Here are a few things you can do if you enjoyed reading this newsletter:
- Become a subscriber: m365 Weekly Newsletter Subscribe
- Explore past issues: m365 Weekly Newsletter Archive.
- Get in touch / Share cool M365 or other stuff: matic@m365weekly.com