Changes and updates made to Office 365 for IT Pros (2026 edition)
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 October 1, 2026 (monthly update #124). We release an updated version monthly, usually on the first of the month.
Individual Chapter Changes for Office 365 for IT Pros, 2026 ed.
| Chapter | Change |
| 1 (Overview) | August 2025 (122): brief note on “Chinagate.” September 2025 (123): updated info on datacenter rollout schedule; updated summary of FY results. October 2025 (124): restructured sovereign cloud section for improved clarity. |
| 2 (Managing Identities) | August 2025 (122): added SharePoint and OneDrive app consent requirements; linkable token identifiers in sign-in logs; CA policy audience reporting in sign-in logs. September 2025 (123): added note on cross-cloud support for cross-tenant synchronization; Azure DevOps support for continuous access evaluation; added inactive guest accounts dashboard; support for scoping of different certificate authorities for different groups of users with certificate-based authentication; conditional access optimization agent for reviewing conditional access policies. October 2025 (124): Updated conditional access token protection control to reflect general availability; additional information about using authentication contexts; QR code sign-in is now generally available; information about Entra ID Free. |
| 3 (Tenant management) | August 2025 (122): Added section on Loop workspace control. Rewrote Defender portal description to reflect new UI. Noted new Microsoft365CopilotChatIconEnabled setting for Managed Edge. Noted planned rollout of Copilot PAYG budgeting. Noted preview of Copilot custom dictionary feature. Noted Copilot release notes page. September 2025 (123): Addition of the Places admin center. October 2025 (124): note about forthcoming new licensing experience; updated Copilot report section; updated section on Copilot billing. |
| 4 (User Management | August 2025 (122): Clarified details about how mailbox plan settings are processed. Updated requirements for delicensing resiliency. Covered blocking ad-hoc email trial subscriptions. |
| 5 (Exchange Online) | August 2025 (122): Added note on disabling connected experiences and default state (OWA). Added restriction on domain name enumeration using Autodiscover. |
| 6 (Mail Flow) | August 2025 (122): Added note on Report Junk’s unsubscribe option. Added DKIM Signing note for new custom domains using .dkim.mail.microsoft. September 2025 (123): Added information on MOERA throttling. Added result details may include AI-generated explanation. Adjusted timeline for the option to challenge MDO analysis. October 2025 (124): Removed heads-up note to disagree with analysis option, as it is rolled out now. Added Outlook profile card external visual indicator note. Replaced 2 instances of admins with administrators for consistency. Removed heads-up on legacy Message Trace UI + cmdlets. Adjusted timeframe for legacy Message Trace functionality in Reporting Webservice. |
| 7 (SharePoint Online) | August 2025 (122): SharePoint Online implements a Content Security Policy (CSP) to monitor and log violations in the execution of external scripts in SharePoint pages. Minor corrections in the Microsoft Syntex section. Copilot Search is available to users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. September 2025 (123): Update SharePoint Online quotas section explaining that additional storage purchased is linked to a base subscription and the side effects of a cancelation of that subscription. New user experience to Share/Copy videos when added to SharePoint pages. Agent Link Web Part allows site owners to embed a link to an existing Agent in any SharePoint Page. Updated offline mode in the OneDrive for Business section to include the names of the processes and tasks that power that mode. October 2025 (124): Oversharing reports in SharePoint Advanced Management can be generated with PowerShell or in the SharePoint Admin Center. A site lifecycle policy can apply to all sites in the tenant or to a list of up to 10,000 sites provided in a CSV file. Advanced tenant rename is available for tenants with between 10,000 and 500,000 sites. SharePoint Knowledge Agent is available in public preview. Power BI “Visualize the List” and “Visualize the Library” features in lists and document libraries will retire between mid-November and mid-December 2025. SharePoint Syntex has been renamed to Document processing for Microsoft 365. Microsoft Copilot Search usage report is available as part of the Microsoft 365 usage reports. |
| 8 (Tasks) | August 2025 (122): Minor updates September 2025 (123): preview of Information Barrier support; restrict PMA by group; updated SPO grounding coverage; death of Project on the web. October 2025 (124): Minor updates to Project Manager Agent roadmap/schedule text. |
| 9 (Video) | August 2025 (122): Minor style and grammar fixes. September 2025 (123): noted removal ofdownload button on shared videos; minor chapter restructuring. October 2025 (124): added Clipchamp OCPS admin controls. |
| 10 (Groups) | September 2025: Minor updates. |
| 11 (Teams) | August 2025 (122): Cleaned up chapter grammar and repetitive phrases, reorganized Teams Meetings section and added new functionality for town halls. September 2025 (123): Shared file storage location updates, private channels storage migration, threaded channel layouts, KeyQL search, reduced E2EE section since it’s covered in Ch13, and added policy setting updates. October 2025 (124): Updated cross references, added section explaining functionality of audio recaps, removed outdated text related to Live Events with the pending deprecation now that Town Halls and webinars have reached feature parity, and minor grammar fixes. |
| 12 (Managing Teams) | August 2025 (122): Added a section on the Best practice configuration dashboard. September 2025 (123): Added information around remote client log collection. October 2025 (124): Minor grammar and style changes based on reader feedback |
| 13 (Managing Calling and Devices) | August 2025 (122): Tightening of overall chapter grammar, updates to Pro Management Portal functionality. September 2025 (123): Added information about call encryption, added note about added KYC support for Calling Plans. October 2025 (124): Added information about Silent test calling and Call Queue to Shifts integration. |
| 14 (Clients) | August 2025 (122): additional coverage of Word Startup Boost; updated EOL date for Office 2016/2019; updated timeline for various New Outlook features; described Monarch PST blocking. September 2025 (123): death of Apps Health and Update Validation features; new force-to-cloud policy. October 2025 (124): Cloud Update GA; macOS Tahoe release; updates to New Outlook policy settings; M365 companion apps and Copilot app for Windows 11 installations. |
| 15 (Managing Devices) | August 2025 (122): Added a note about app protection policy interaction with Apple AI features. September 2025 (123): Android strong integrity requirements update; information about Apple automated device enrollment; updates to scope of multi admin approval. October 2025 (124): Resource explorer is now Device inventory; minimum supported iOS version is now version 17; additional multi admin approval capabilities. |
| 16 (Compliance) | August 2025 (122): The Purview Priority Cleanup solution is now GA. Added details about how to remove items from view to allow priority cleanup to process items without needing to rush. Added section about targeted auto-label policies. September 2025 (123): Note that shared mailboxes do not need licenses for retention processing. October 2025 (124): Note that Information barriers are supported by Planner. |
| 17 (eDiscovery) | August 2025 (122): Added note about eDiscovery PAYG billing for non-Microsoft 365 data sources. September 2025 (123): After August 31, 2025, the Connect-IPPSSession needs a new switch to enable access for eDiscovery action. October 2025 (124): Clarify that hold policies are set on individual target data sources. |
| 18 (DLP) | August 2025 (122): Added section about OCR support in DLP, including Exchange DLP support for detection of sensitive data in image metadata. Updated section for DLP diagnostics now that the UX is in the Purview compliance portal. September 2025 (123): Clarified how DLP policy synchronization happens. October 2025 (124): Diagnostics can now be run by multiple Purview roles, including compliance administrator. |
| 19 (Information Protection) | August 2025 (122): Clarified delegate access to protected email in shared mailboxes for Outlook clients. September 2025 (123): SharePoint Online support for sensitivity labels with user-defined permissions is finally GA. Updated discussion about use license validity periods. October 2025 (124): Sensitivity labels are respected across Microsoft 365 clouds. Emphasized that assigning a label to a file updates its modified by and modified date properties. Updated section on use licenses and the AIPService module. |
| 20 (Reporting and Auditing) | August 2025 (122): Minor changes. |
| 21 (Power Platform) | August 2025 (122): Expanded Creating Environments section. Updated verbiage in Power Automate section and expanded Advanced Actions in Power Automate. September 2025: Minor updates. October 2025 (124): Moved and expanded the Search and Retrieval Behavior subsection for Copilot Studio. |
| Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell eBook | Version 14: Many changes and new examples throughout the book. Version 15: New EnableSearchOnlySession parameter for the Connect-IPPSSession cmdlet required for compliance sessions that interact with eDiscovery cases. Added details about the new runtime environments in Azure automation. Version 16: Added details about Get-SPOSite processing. Added information about EmployeeOrgData properties for Entra ID accounts. Added note about assembly clashes. |
| Appendix | August 2025 (122): SLA data for Q2 CY25. Microsoft results for FY25 Q4. |