Recent Discussions
Local Admin Rights
Hi Experts, I have a customer running a Hybrid Azure AD Join environment with all Windows devices enrolled in Intune. Currently, Domain Users are being added to the local Administrators group on all devices via an on-premises Group Policy from the Domain Controller (Restricted Groups / Local Admin configuration). This effectively gives all users local admin rights. I want to remove Domain Users from the local Administrators group on endpoints while not modifying the Domain Users group itself in Active Directory. What is the recommended / best-practice approach to handle this in a Hybrid + Intune setup? Specifically: What is the safest migration strategy to avoid device or admin lockouts? Any Hybrid-specific gotchas when transitioning from on-prem GPO to Intune? Looking for advice from those who’ve implemented this in production environments.
Outlook Autodiscover Caching, MAC OS
Environment: - Microsoft 365 tenant - New Outlook for Mac - macOS Tahoe Scenario: An email address (email address removed for privacy reasons) previously existed as an alias on a mailbox whose primary address was on Domain B (email address removed for privacy reasons). Today, that alias was removed from the Domain B mailbox, and a new licensed mailbox was created using the same SMTP address on Domain A (email address removed for privacy reasons). Behavior: - Sign-in to the new mailbox works immediately in Outlook Web (OWA) - Mailbox is accessible and functional online - Adding the account in New Outlook for Mac fails with: “This account has already been added” - Account reset, sign-out, removal of all accounts, reinstall, and keychain cleanup do not resolve the issue Observation: This appears to be related to Autodiscover or mailbox GUID caching in New Outlook for Mac when an SMTP address previously existed as an alias on a mailbox under a different primary domain. Questions: Is there any supported method to force New Outlook for Mac to re-resolve the mailbox identity after alias removal? Is this a known limitation or bug specific to New Outlook for Mac? Additional note: The issue occurs even though the mailbox is fully functional in OWA immediately after alias removal and mailbox creation.Read this BEFORE you post!
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Microsoft Authenticator help
keep getting Microsoft Authenticator attempts on my Hotmail account every 15 mins or so from an overseas location that im not aware of. I have changed my password, however im still getting attempts. I deny the request every time, and when i look at security section under my account > view my sign-in activity. it doesn't appear here .
New Year greetings and appreciation to the Microsoft engineering teams
Dear Microsoft Team, I would like to express my sincere New Year greetings and my deep appreciation for your work in the field of information technologies. As a long‑time user of Microsoft products and services, I see how much dedication, intelligence, and responsibility stand behind your engineering decisions. Your work shapes the digital world in which millions of people live, work, and create every day. Thank you for your continuous pursuit of improvement, for your commitment to quality, and for the technologies that empower people around the world. Please accept my warmest wishes for the new year — for clarity, inspiration, and continued success in everything you build. With respect and gratitude, Hermann Thomas Germany
STOCKHISTORY function
The STOCKHISTORY function intermittently returns #CONNECT! errors in Microsoft Excel 365. The same formulas sometimes return valid historical monetary data and other times return #CONNECT! without any changes to the workbook. Recalculating, refreshing, or reopening Excel may temporarily resolve the issue. The problem affects multiple symbols simultaneously, suggesting a service-side or backend problem rather than a formula syntax issue. Example formula: STOCKHISTORY("EUR/USD", start_date, end_date). Is this a known issue or a service degradation? Are there any recommended workarounds? Is there any known issue preventing access from Spain or Office 365 accounts? It was working without problems until two days ago.Neujahrsgrüße und Wertschätzung an die Microsoft‑Ingenieurteams
Liebes Microsoft‑Team, ich möchte Ihnen meine aufrichtigen Neujahrsgrüße und meine große Wertschätzung für Ihre Arbeit im Bereich der Informationstechnologien aussprechen. Als langjähriger Nutzer von Microsoft‑Produkten und ‑Diensten sehe ich, wie viel Engagement, Intelligenz und Verantwortung hinter Ihren technischen Entscheidungen stehen. Ihre Arbeit prägt die digitale Welt, in der Millionen von Menschen täglich leben, arbeiten und kreativ tätig sind. Vielen Dank für Ihren ständigen Anspruch an Verbesserung, für Ihre Verpflichtung zu Qualität und für Technologien, die Menschen weltweit stärken. Bitte nehmen Sie meine besten Wünsche für das neue Jahr entgegen — für Klarheit, Inspiration und weiteren Erfolg in allem, was Sie entwickeln. Mit Respekt und Dankbarkeit, Hermann Thomas Deutschland
Designing patch management in a fully restricted intranet (no internet access on user machines)
Hello, I am designing a Windows patch management solution for a restricted intranet environment where direct access to Microsoft Update / Windows Update endpoints from client machines is strictly prohibited. Environment constraints: Windows 10 / Windows 11 (Enterprise) Client endpoints have no internet access Access to Microsoft Update endpoints is blocked by policy Only explicitly approved servers may ever have outbound access Feature upgrades are controlled and infrequent Goals: Centralized control of Windows OS updates (security + cumulative) Ability to stage, approve, and deploy updates in waves (rings) Support for air-gapped or near air-gapped operation Use Windows’ native servicing stack (no unsupported installers) Integrate with a custom in-house endpoint agent for orchestration/reporting Questions: 1. Since Windows Update for Business (WUfB) requires direct access to Microsoft Update endpoints, is WSUS the only supported option for environments where endpoints cannot access Microsoft servers? 2. Is the following architecture considered supported and best practice? A WSUS server (or staging WSUS) with controlled/temporary internet access Offline export/import of update metadata and content using wsusutil Internal WSUS serving all client machines 3. Are there official Microsoft recommendations for: Disconnected WSUS synchronization Offline approval and transport of updates Highly regulated or air-gapped environments? 4. Can WSUS + Group Policy be used to effectively replicate WUfB concepts such as: Update rings Deferrals Deadlines Pausing updates? 5. Are there any modern alternatives (beyond classic WSUS) that are supported in environments where Microsoft CDN access is completely blocked? 6. For enterprises building custom orchestration layers: Is it recommended to rely solely on WSUS for Windows OS updates And restrict custom repositories to third-party application patching only? Any guidance, official documentation, or architectural recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.W11 Black screen on Desktop. Explorer issue
Hello. first post in this community as I am having a dreadful issue. I was transferring some files form a my PC to a smartphone and Explorer crashed, without warning. I rebooted my PC and after the W11 Opening screen where you enter your password, I got stuck on a black screen. My mouse was working and I could get to the Task Manager with my wireless keyboard too. Looking at similar issues on the net, I believed that my System files got corrupted during the files transfer I was doing, lucky me....... Anyway, I managed to open a CMD and get SFC/ scannow and the 3DISM commands to run fully. I was optimistic it would fix the issue. It didn't. If I open Task Manager I can see Explorer "running" but without any CPU activity. And trying to access the Exe location got me stuck at Not responding prompt. what are my Options before a Windows reinstall? I am on W11 PRO H2/2025 if that helps at all. thanks so muchIntroduction – Microsoft Certified Trainer and Solution Architect
Hello everyone, I’m Patrizio Tardiolo Bonifazi, a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), Solution Architect, and Senior Engineer. I work extensively with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Graph, Power Platform, Microsoft Teams Premium, Microsoft Entra ID, and DevOps practices, combining hands-on engineering with training delivery. I joined the Microsoft Tech Community to learn from others, share real-world experiences, and contribute with practical insights and best practices. Nice to meet you all!SCOM Linux Parameter for Expression/Alert Description
Hi, I would like to know if there is a way to get more information from //*[local-name()="StdOut"] parameter. I know that it can be used in this way in Expression and $Data/Context///*[local-name()="StdOut"]$ in Alert. But I would like to forward little bit more info into Alert and Expression itself. For example got script which returns two values Uptime and LastBoot. And I would like to build the Expression based on Uptime and provide LastBoot into Alert description. I wonder if this is even possible in SCOM. Script itself : #!/bin/bash # Get uptime in seconds uptime_seconds=$(cat /proc/uptime | cut -d'.' -f1) # Get last boot time last_boot=$(who -b | awk '{print $3, $4}') # Output in the required format echo "Uptime : $uptime_seconds" echo "LastBoot : $last_boot" So I tried with //*[local-name()="StdOut"][contains(., "last_boot")]/text() $Data/Context///*[local-name()="StdOut"][contains(., "last_boot")]/text()$ But it doesn't work.urgent! i need help on how to copy & paste number ID from a webpage to excel
hi i need urgent help!!! I have been sitting in front of my desktop trying to copy and paste only numbers ID from a webpage to excel but to no avail regardless spending exceeding 2 hours experimenting how to set it right in excel. after pasting in the column, when i click away, that particular column's pasted number would auto change to 5.80948E+17. pls pls help me guiding me step-by-step tutorial thanks
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