M365 Weekly Newsletter
Issue #185
☁️Productivity & Modern Workplace
How to enforce the right to disconnect in Microsoft 365. In Microsoft 365, you can support the right to disconnect using features like quiet time and app protection policies to control after-hours notifications. Utilize mail flow rules and conditional access to maintain boundaries, and employ advanced automatic replies and email forwarding for smooth business operations while respecting employees’ work-life balance.
Most common OneDrive Sync Issues. OneDrive Sync issues can be frustrating, but understanding common problems helps. Ensure user training to minimize errors. Frequent sync arrows might mean exceeding the 300,000 file limit (which is crazy in 2025) or having disabled Files on Demand. If sync stops, check for shortcuts or conflicts between folders and libraries, etc.
☁️Copilot & AI
M365 Copilot Chat vs. Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot offer AI-driven assistance within Microsoft 365 apps but differ in capabilities and pricing. Copilot Chat is a free tool accessible to all business users, focusing on web-based and uploaded document interactions. Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 Copilot, priced at $30 per user monthly, integrates deeply with your work environment, leveraging Microsoft Graph to access emails, calendars, and more.
Announcing the availability of the o3-mini reasoning model in Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service. OpenAI’s o3-mini model is now part of the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, offering significant cost savings and enhanced reasoning capabilities compared to o1-mini. You can benefit from features like reasoning effort control, structured outputs, and seamless integration with tools, making it ideal for AI-powered automation. With optimized performance for coding, math, and scientific reasoning, o3-mini provides faster and more efficient handling of complex tasks, ensuring your enterprise AI solutions are both scalable and reliable.
Will Copilot Agents Run Amok in Microsoft 365 Tenants? Microsoft’s Copilot agents automate business processes but lack lifecycle management tools, complicating control in large organizations. Suggestions include policy-driven management, agent expiration systems, and better reporting. Without addressing these administrative gaps, Microsoft risks repeating past issues with new technologies.
☁️Sysadmin Stuff
Top misconfigurations in Microsoft Email Security. Ensuring robust Microsoft email security involves addressing common misconfigurations. Avoid overly broad allow lists, and configure impersonation settings to protect key personnel effectively. Safe Links should block click-throughs, and tenant allow/block lists must be correctly set up for spoofed senders.
Create Folder for All Mailboxes in Exchange Online. Automate the creation of a specific folder across all mailboxes in Exchange Online using PowerShell to ensure consistency.
You can now block individual people from communicating with your organization. Great news for Microsoft Teams administrators! You now have the ability to block specific individuals from communicating with your organization. This feature is perfect for preventing interactions with malicious or unwanted external users.
☁️Security & Data Governance
Practical Protection: Two Kinds of Bad. Understanding the distinction between “malum prohibitorum” (illegal) and “malum in se” (morally wrong) can enhance your approach to IT security. Combine technical and educational controls for effective protection. Reassess outdated security rules, focusing on enforceable and meaningful policies.
Microsoft 365 administration – how to view unlicensed users in my tenant. Just that: how to figure out which users are unlicensed.
11 New Identity Secure Score Recommendations In Microsoft Entra. Microsoft Entra has introduced 11 new Identity Secure Score recommendations to enhance cybersecurity. These actionable steps, like enforcing multi-factor authentication and blocking legacy authentication, aim to fortify your organization’s security posture. You can easily access these recommendations through the Entra portal, improving both the security and performance of your Microsoft Entra environment.
☁️Noteworthy (long)reads
Creating audiobooks with Azure AI Speech. Creating audio recaps for your D&D sessions using Azure AI Speech is a great idea for keeping your group engaged. While neural HD voices and SSML enhance the experience, technical hiccups with long files might require batch processing and file concatenation. Despite current limitations in audio quality, this tech could evolve, offering better results over your campaign’s duration.
Microsoft now hosts AI model accused of copying OpenAI data. Microsoft is now hosting DeepSeek R1, an AI model accused of using OpenAI’s outputs against its terms. Despite the controversy, R1 offers comparable performance to OpenAI’s o1 at a fraction of the cost, making it an attractive option for developers. This move highlights Microsoft’s commitment to expanding AI accessibility, even amid potential ethical concerns and competitive tension in the AI landscape.
☁️Classifieds
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☁️On a Less Serious Note
☁️ Last but not least …
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