Microsoft Learn learning rooms drive connection, guidance, and new possibilities

by Contributed | Jul 18, 2023 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

At Microsoft Learn, we’re passionate about helping our community build tech skills that can open doors to new possibilities and empower learning through connection. If you follow the Microsoft Learn Community, you may have already heard about the all-new Learning Rooms, and it’s only natural to ask what they are and how they can help you.

Make the most of Microsoft Learn learning rooms

Our collection of experiences in the Microsoft Learn Community offers a variety of ways to connect and engage with technical experts who are passionate about the community and who want to help you achieve your learning goals.

Learning rooms are an exclusive component of the Microsoft Learn Community, designed to offer learners like you a dedicated space where you can connect with experts and peers. Learning rooms are facilitated by Microsoft Learn experts who not only have extensive knowledge of and experience with Microsoft products and technologies but can also offer you more targeted opportunities for guidance and support. This direct engagement allows you to dive into topic-specific questions via asynchronous discussions and virtual sessions to help you achieve your skill-building goals in a global, diverse, and inclusive environment.

Expert speaking to cohort of learners

Enhance your technical learning journey

Whether you’re just beginning your learning journey or you have career experience and want to take it to the next level—or maybe you’re almost finished with school and are preparing to launch your career—learning rooms offer an in-depth experience where you can seek advice, ask questions related to skill-building, and connect with like-minded learners. With more than 29 learning rooms to choose from, covering AI; Azure; Microsoft business applications; Modern Workplace; Microsoft Security, compliance, and identity; and other general technologies, our new community experience covers a variety of topics that matter to you and can better guide your learning.

Receive the specific guidance you need

The Microsoft Learn Community is here to meet you where you are and to support your personal learning journey. Through learning rooms, you can collaborate with subject matter experts and receive guided support by participating in peer-to-peer virtual and in-person sessions on topics you’re passionate about. Becoming a part of this community can help drive your personal and professional growth, as you make the most of the valuable advice, training insights, and unique perspectives offered by experts and peers. These combined resources can help you not only build confidence but also increase your ability to upskill, pass Microsoft Certification exams, and achieve your career goals.

Choose the space that best suits your interests

Help accelerate your career journey in our dedicated learning environments, where you can amplify your impact and expand your network. Our community experience is designed to support ongoing dialogue and valuable interactions. To review all of the available rooms and to be added to those that interest you, go to the Learning Rooms Directory. You can filter by technology or language and view each of the descriptions to find the rooms that best suit you and your skill-building needs. When you’re ready to join, select the title of the room (or rooms) that you wish to join and then complete the registration form. You’ll receive an email letting you know that you’ve been added, and you can begin your Microsoft Learn Community journey. After you’re in a room, get the latest information from the General channel. Feel free to join any conversation or even start one yourself.

Directory of Learn Experts

Join the Microsoft Learn Community

We’re all here to support each other on our learning journeys, and our enhanced community experience offers you more ways to increase your expertise on the topics that matter most to you. It can even help you achieve your career goals. You’re at the heart of our community, and we welcome everyone to join, learn, and grow.

New transactable offers from Connecting Software and Varonis

by Contributed | Jul 17, 2023 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Microsoft partners like Connecting Software and Varonis deliver transact-capable offers, which allow you to purchase directly from Azure Marketplace. Learn about these offers below:

CB Dynamics 365 to SharePoint Permissions Replicator: This solution from Connecting Software secures your Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM documents stored in SharePoint. It covers full security roles, logic support, business unit hierarchy, sharing, cascading behavior, position-based hierarchy, and more.   CB Exchange Server Sync: CB Exchange Server Sync from Connecting Software synchronizes and migrates data between different servers, domains, and versions of Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. It’s ideal for large companies that need to manage shared resources across separate business units.   CB Seamless Attachment Extractor for Dynamics 365: Documents and attachments that harm CRM performance and undermine its functionality often take up most of the space used. Save valuable Microsoft Dynamics 365 database space by automatically moving attachments to alternative storage.

Varonis: Find, Monitor, and Protect Sensitive Data: Varonis is a data security platform that protects data with low-touch, accurate security outcomes by classifying more data, revoking permissions, enforcing policies, and triggering alerts for the Varonis incident response team to review on your behalf.

Sustainability and Tech – Do you have a role to play?

by Contributed | Jul 14, 2023 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Last month, I presented at Women in Tech Global Conference on the topic. During the conference and afterwards, I received a lot of queries on:

• Do I as a Technologist have a role to play in ‘Sustainability’?


• What is Technology’s role in Sustainability?


• How is Technology getting influenced by ‘Sustainability’?

In this blog, I am answering these frequently asked questions.

We often relate to Sustainability as an initiative or agenda through which carbon footprint of any product is shared and some organizations share their commitment to reduce the same.

Here is the high-level summary of the journey any enterprise or business function needs to take to become sustainable. It starts with measuring the current environmental impact of the business, which enables monitoring and leads to corrective action and thereby creating a difference by minimizing environmental impact.

What is ‘Environmental Impact’? Carbon emissions, Waste generation, water consumption and land use are key impacts to ‘Environment’ that any industrialization process brings along, digital technology included.

To make this relatable, and understand how sustainability can be factored into every business process, let’s wear a hat of Garments industry Customer.

Just imagine, you come across a great deal (in terms of price):

Your deciding factors primarily will be: Value of Product Price, you pay for it (in terms of money)

Now what if some additional information is provided: 

With this additional information, the decision of purchase will add an entirely new dimension, to consider the ‘Environmental Impact’ of this purchase decision. It will add additional factors:

1. Is the ‘Environmental Impact’ of this product worth the value?


2. What are the alternative options?


3. How can I maximize the usage of this product to minimize the ‘Environmental Impact’?

This transparency will lead the Garment manufacturers to explore the best available options across their whole business process from sourcing through manufacturing, distribution, and operations to ensure minimal environmental impact, there by staying competitive. This leads to prioritization for Sustainability at each stage of business enabled by technology.

To summarize, if we start measuring and sharing the environmental impact of every business, this will lead to consciousness and drive towards minimizing the impact.

These insights will lead to efficiencies across the product lifecycle leveraging the overall ecosystem. Each participant in this ecosystem has a role here in terms of sustainability, be it producer, operator, or consumer.

On the same lines, as a technologist we need to know:

1. What is the environmental impact of the business application we are supporting / leveraging?


2. How is this impact compared to other products available in the market?


3. How can you optimize the usage of these products, thereby minimizing the ‘Environmental Impact’?

So, whether you are a technology consumer or producer, we all have a role to play to ensure environmental impact is taken into account at every decision point.

We all have a role to play and responsibility here.

Who can leverage these solutions and resources?

Any technology customer needs to be conscious about the environmental impact their business is generating, thereby making a conscious decision during every stage of their business, be it procurement, operations, customer support or even disposition.

As of now this is heavily prioritized by the regional and industry-based compliance and competitive landscape, but it is not far that every business decision will be made with awareness and consideration of impact and responsibility towards the environment.

All these products and offerings enabling Sustainability awareness and transparency are at initial stages right now but are developing on rapid pace owing to the growing awareness and demand of having this transparency in addition to the Dollar price.

Public preview: Windows 365 alerts for Cloud PCs in grace periods

by Contributed | Jul 14, 2023 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

We are excited to announce the public preview of new alerts for IT admins managing Cloud PCs in Intune to better inform them about Cloud PCs in a grace period. This capability is available for Windows 365 Enterprise customers today!

We heard you. You want to receive proactive alerts on Cloud PCs so you can easily take appropriate actions based on this information. This can help reduce risk in situations where an IT admin may not be fully aware of Windows 365 provisioning controls and, therefore, make changes to user licensing or group membership that inadvertently trigger the grace period. Then you need this capability to extend to automated scripts, ensuring comprehensive coverage and proactive notification.

With this Windows 365 IT admin alerts, an email is delivered whenever a Cloud PC enters the grace period state. This provides admins with greater awareness of their environment so they can take appropriate actions and acts as a preventive measure against unintended Cloud PC deprovisioning.

Windows 365 IT admin alerts offer the following features:

• Admins can establish and customize system-based alerts for Cloud PCs in the grace period based on their preferences.


• IT admins can define alert rules by selecting from the available options, setting thresholds, specifying frequency, and choosing notification channels for receiving alerts.


• IT admins are able to assess their environment and take informed decisions to either reprovision or end the grace period for specific Cloud PCs as needed.

Enabling the functionality to generate alerts when a Cloud PC enters the grace period is a critical, precautionary measure. It acts as a safety net in scenarios such as Cloud PC license expiration or inadvertent changes made by IT admins to groups, resulting in a Cloud PC being set to deprovision within seven days.

Why is this important? Windows 365 Enterprise users are granted a seven-day grace period to continue using a Cloud PC once it enters that state. After the grace period elapses, the user is logged off, loses access to the Cloud PC, and the Cloud PC undergoes deprovisioning. Deprovisioning is a significant and irreversible action. By proactively notifying IT admins, unnecessary deprovisioning of Cloud PCs can be mitigated.

The Alerts (preview) in Microsoft Intune

In the Microsoft Intune admin center, under Tenant admin, you can review the alert history and monitor the status of a Cloud PC alert event, including details such as severity, state, and date.

Screenshot of Tenant admin in Alerts (preview) menu

Easy-to-understand alert insights

The event summary page provides a more detailed overview of the specific alert event that needs attention. This enables you to promptly investigate issues related to Cloud PCs in the grace period and gain a comprehensive understanding of the impact.

Screenshot of Alerts (preview) menu with a red highlight on the reports “Show all Cloud PCs in grace period”

When you select Show all Cloud PCs in grace, you are redirected to the corresponding alert event page, as displayed below. This page offers additional information about the alert event, enabling you to take appropriate actions to resolve the issue.

Screenshot of All Cloud PCs tab under the Windows 365 menu with a red highlight over the status of devices in grace period

If you select In grace period for a particular Cloud PC, a fly-out will appear, providing details about the impact of Cloud PCs in the grace period. You can then choose to either Reprovision Cloud PC or End the grace period.

Screenshot of CPC-SB pop up menu showing the option to “reprovision Cloud PC” or “end grace period”

Managing alert rules and email notifications

With this new capability, you have the flexibility to customize and enable or disable the alert rules, including conditions, settings, and notifications, depending on their specific requirement.

Additionally, you have the flexibility to configure your preferred notification methods for events by choosing options such as portal pop-up and email. We also provide support for email localization, allowing you to customize the language in which you prefer to receive alert notifications.

Screenshot of Alerts (preview) under the Alert Rules tab showing the optional notification methods

Screenshot of the Cloud PCs in grace period menu under the Alert rules tab showing more details on notification options

Prerequisites and what’s next

Windows 365 system-based alerts are currently available for Windows 365 Enterprise customers and only with Microsoft Intune. The account needs to have the Intune Global Admin, Intune Admin, or Windows 365 Admin roles assigned.

Enhanced IT admin alerts for Cloud PCs that are unable to connect are coming soon. You’ll also soon have the ability to proactively notify IT admins when Cloud PCs encounter issues such as unhealthy hosts, persistent connection errors, suspected infrastructure problems, or other systemic issues. These new capabilities will also provide valuable insights to assist in resolving the problem promptly.

For a demo on this new alerts capability for Cloud PCs in a grace period, now in public preview, please check out this video:

Learn more

Looking to see what the latest capabilities in Windows 365 alerts look like up close? See our documentation on Alerts in Windows 365.

Finally, have feedback or suggestions? Visit this forum to share your ideas and help shape the future of Windows 365!

Continue the conversation. Find best practices. Bookmark the Windows Tech Community and follow us @MSWindowsITPro on Twitter. Looking for support? Visit Windows on Microsoft Q&A.