Recent Discussions
How to Send a Welcome Message to New Employees with Attachments for Calendar Events
ICS files are a useful method to send information about calendar events between different IT systems. This article discusses using PowerShell to create ICS files for Teams Online meetings as part of a project to send welcome messages to new employees that contain information about upcoming corporate events that the new people might like to attend. Suffice to say that formatting the ICS files to Outlook’s satisfaction takes some effort. https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/25/online-meeting-ics-files/Microsoft 365 PC: The Modern Windows Experience for Work and Business
In today’s workplace, a computer is no longer just a machine used to write documents or browse the internet. Modern businesses need devices that are secure, connected to the cloud, easy to manage remotely, and powerful enough to support hybrid work. That is where the concept of a “Microsoft 365 PC” comes in. https://dellenny.com/microsoft-365-pc-the-modern-windows-experience-for-work-and-business/
Automate Copilot in Excel
Hi, Is it possible to automate opening Copilot in Excel and send a prompt using VBA? Currently, Copilot in excel seems to work only through the UI, where we have to manually click the Copilot button in the ribbon section and paste the prompt. I want to automate this process so that, with a single click, Excel opens Copilot and enters the prompt automatically. If this is not possible, are there any alternative approaches to achieve similar automation?Switching Data Loss Prevention Client-Side Checks for OWA
Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rule checks can happen client-side and server-side. This change updates the Exchange Online organization configuration to instruct OWA to stop using Exchange Online to detect potential DLP rule violations before users send email. Instead, OWA will use the workload-neutral Data Classification Services (DCS). Using a workload-neutral service comes with some consequences in terms of OWA being unable to evaluate Exchange-specific predicates. https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/22/data-loss-prevention-dcs/Use a SharePoint List to Store Weekly Open Tasks Statistics
Creating a PowerShell script to send details of open tasks to users for follow up is a good thing. Storing open task statistics in a list for analysis of open task burndown over time is even better. This article describes how to update the script that sends email about open tasks to add the code necessary to use a list in a SharePoint Online site to store details about open tasks. https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/21/open-task-statistics-planner/
Microsoft 365 Apps SHOULD NOT overwrite Office 2019/2021 one-time retail installs
I want to raise a serious concern about Microsoft 365 Apps being imposed over existing Office 2019/2021 installations that were activated with legitimate one-time installation retail keys. In our case, these are not Microsoft 365 subscriptions and they are not licenses we can simply deactivate and reactivate freely. They are one-time installation retail keys. Once the product has been installed and activated, removing Office and reinstalling it later can make the original key unusable or trigger “already used” activation problems. That is precisely why the current behavior is so damaging. We have PCs with legitimate Office 2019/2021 installations. These machines did not request a migration to Microsoft 365 Apps. However, after internet connection, Office update activity, or Microsoft account interaction, Office appears to silently update, convert, or replace the existing retail installation with the Microsoft 365 Apps version. This is not a minor inconvenience. It creates a serious licensing and operational problem: -A valid one-time Office 2019/2021 installation is replaced by Microsoft 365 Apps without clear, explicit consent. -The original retail installation is no longer cleanly usable. -Fixing the issue requires uninstalling Office, removing Click-to-Run/licensing/account leftovers, and reinstalling the previous Office 2019/2021 version. -But because these keys are one-time installation keys, that reinstall process can render the original key unusable or create activation failures. -In practice, a forced Microsoft 365 conversion can destroy the value of a legitimate one-time Office license. From a user’s perspective, this looks less like a normal software update and more like an exploitative commercial strategy: using Microsoft’s control over Office updates, account sign-ins, Click-to-Run, and activation systems to push already-paid retail users toward Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Even if Microsoft does not intend that result, the practical effect is that users who already paid for Office 2019/2021 can lose practical access to their licensed product and are then nudged toward paying again through a subscription. This should not happen. A perpetual or one-time installation Office license and Microsoft 365 Apps are different products with different licensing models. Microsoft should not silently replace or convert one into the other because a Microsoft 365 account exists on the PC, because the user signs into Office, because OneDrive is present, or because Office updates are enabled. At minimum, Microsoft should provide: -A clear opt-in confirmation before replacing, converting, upgrading, or rebranding Office 2019/2021 retail installations as Microsoft 365 Apps. -A supported way to block Microsoft 365 Apps from taking over one-time installation Office versions. -A clean removal tool that fully removes Microsoft 365 Apps, Click-to-Run leftovers, licensing remnants, and account-based activation conflicts. -A reliable way to restore the original Office 2019/2021 retail installation without invalidating or losing the original one-time key. -Clear separation between Windows account sign-in, OneDrive sign-in, Microsoft 365 entitlement, and local Office retail activation. Users who purchased legitimate one-time installation Office licenses should not be forced into Microsoft 365 Apps by unclear update behavior. If Microsoft wants users to move to Microsoft 365, that should be a deliberate, informed choice — not a silent process that leaves the user cleaning up the installation and losing access to a paid retail license. I am not asking how to install Microsoft 365. I am asking Microsoft to stop Microsoft 365 Apps from taking over valid one-time Office 2019/2021 installations without explicit consent.
Forcing Gridlines to print through shaded cell formatting
I know how to force gridlines to print but if any cells are formatted with a fill shading in them, the gridlines will not print through them. Is there a way to print gridlines in formatted cells which are filled? No gridlines will print through the shaded cells.Error del complemento. No pudimos conectarnos con el servidor de catalogo "{0}" para este documento
Estoy usando Word Online (Office 365) y al abrir complementos como Mendeley Cite aparece el error: “Error del complemento. No pudimos conectarnos con el servidor de catálogo {0} para este documento.” En general, este error aparece en todos los complementos existentes, como si en mi cuenta los mismos no estuvieran habilitados. Ya probé: Cambiar de navegador (Edge, Firefox, Google). Limpiar datos de navegación. Reiniciar sesión y el computador. Permitir cookies y permitir permisos de los navegadores Hasta ahora no hay forma de que los complementos funcionen en Word Online. ¿Alguien sabe cómo resolverlo? El flujo concreto es: Entro a un documento en word online -> oprimo el botón de complementos -> se abre la lista de complementos -> elijo cualquier complemento y me aparece el error del titulo de esta discusión. Hace una semana si me funcionó en edge, ahora no hay formas.SharePoint Online Gets Authoritative Sites
SharePoint Online authoritative sites are trusted sites for Microsoft 365 Copilot to give priority to when using material for chats and search results. Tenants that don’t use Microsoft 365 Copilot appear to gain nothing from the new ability to mark sites as authoritative because it’s all about “Improved relevance and trust in AI-driven responses grounded in authoritative content.” It does seem like a good idea, though. https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/19/authoritative-sites-spo/Search-UnifiedAuditLog Updated to Make Large Searches Easier to Manage
The advent of the MoreRecordsAvailable property gives the Search-UnifiedAuditLog cmdlet more precise control over fetching large numbers of audit records (up to 50,000 records). It’s a welcome change to report something positive about the Microsoft Purview Audit solution because most of the time we complain about its stability, slowness, and bugs. Things are looking up. https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/18/morerecordsavailable-property
Ruby text functionality/Publisher-like formatting
I use Publisher to create workbooks for students learning Japanese. Word is not a suitable replacement because it has ridiculous formatting issues. PowerPoint has better functionality because you can control placement of text and images and the pages are discrete. But there is no way to use Ruby text (phonetic guide) in PowerPoint. Can it be enabled in Powerpoint? I asked a support person and they told me to copy the sentence from Word to PowerPoint but that doesn't work. Alternatively, is there a way to make Word function like Publisher, so each page is a discrete entity and when I add something, it doesn't muck up the formatting on every other page or push things to another page?
Microsoft 365 E5 Developer Program Phone Number Issue
I have been trying to set up my a developer program account to play around it and test things but when I try to sign up for it It says that my phone number is already in use and that I can't use it. I don't really remember creating a developer program account and I understand that your only allowed to have one but none of my accounts that I have access too seem to be the one that it's linked too. I've exhausted every other method to try and fix it so I am resorting to posting this here in hopes that somebody has some insight into how to fix this.Planner Synchronization of Microsoft 365 Message Center Notifications Improves
Microsoft published the very good news that the Planner synchronization with the Microsoft 365 message center will support HTML formatted text when it creates or updates tasks. This might seem like a small change, but if you use Planner to track the progress of anything, like we do for the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook, it’s sometimes the little changes that make the biggest impact. https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/15/planner-synchronization/Why Graph-added People Skills Don’t Show Up on the User Profile Card
Microsoft’s People Skills service can use AI to attribute 16,000 different skills to users. Those skills show up on the user profile card. However, once a Microsoft 365 tenant enables People Skills, they lose the ability to add custom skills for user profiles via Graph APIs or People Connectors. It’s a curious situation where Microsoft blocks custom additions because its AI-powered service is active. Couldn’t both exist alongside each other? https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/14/people-skills-graph/
Problem: Excel opened the first file quickly, but the second and subsequent files very slowly
Problem: Excel opened the first file quickly, but the second and subsequent files opened very slowly when launched externally (double click from Explorer or using excel.exe "file.xlsx"). Environment: Windows 11 Pro 25H2 Office 2021 Pro Plus Clean Windows installation Clean Office installation Modern hardware (Intel 13th gen + NVIDIA RTX) Symptoms: First Excel file opened fast Second and subsequent files became progressively slower Opening files from inside Excel was always fast Drag & drop from Explorer into an existing Excel window was fast Word did NOT have the problem Reinstalling Office did not solve it Disabling Defender, Protected View, StartAllBack etc. did not solve it Cause: Registry DDE handler related to Excel shell open behavior. Registry key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec The (Default) value was empty. Fix: Set (Default) to: [open("%1")] Then reboot Windows. After that: multiple Explorer launches became instant again no more progressive slowdown Excel external opening worked normally again Important note: On other healthy machines the value may still appear empty, so the fix may actually force Windows/Excel to rebuild or refresh the COM/DDE association/cache rather than the value itself being universally required.Line chart dynamic scaling of Y-axis
Micro$oft, please, please, pretty please with sugar on top, END the ensh*ttification, and get the Y-axis of a line chart to dyanmically scale with the data range that is being plotted. The range defaults to 0 as the lowest Y-value. The only way to change it, is to manually set the ax range, or use a work-around involving VBA. So... NO! This is crazy! It should be easy as apple pie for you lot to add an option to dynamically scale the Y-range in the chart, but I guess you are far too busy pushing people onto your crappy AI, which you can really stick some place the sun doesn't shine. Thank you.Understanding How Graph Permissions for Groups Work
Understanding the set of Graph permissions required by apps can be challenging. In this article we discuss how the Group.Read.All and GroupMember.Real.All permissions work and why you should choose one permission over the other so that you respect the principle of least permission when it comes to assigning Graph permissions to your apps and PowerShell scripts. Experience of reviewing scripts shows that too many people use Group.Read.All without needing to. Don't over-permission your scripts! https://office365itpros.com/2026/05/13/graph-permissions-groups/
Why Businesses Choose Rackspace to Office 365 Migration
Businesses are increasingly adopting Rackspace to Office 365 Migration to improve collaboration, scalability, and security in modern work environments. As organizations grow, they require cloud platforms that offer advanced communication tools, centralized management, and seamless accessibility across devices and locations. One major reason companies prefer Rackspace to Office 365 Migration is access to Microsoft’s integrated productivity suite. Applications such as Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Excel, and Word provide businesses with powerful collaboration capabilities. Employees can communicate, share files, and manage projects efficiently from virtually anywhere, supporting both remote and hybrid work models. Another advantage of migrating from Rackspace to Office 365 is enhanced security and compliance. Microsoft 365 includes advanced threat protection, multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and compliance management tools that help businesses secure sensitive information. These features are especially valuable for industries with strict regulatory requirements. Scalability is also a key factor driving Rackspace email to Office 365 migration projects. Organizations can easily add users, expand storage, and integrate additional Microsoft services as business demands evolve. This flexibility helps companies avoid costly infrastructure upgrades while maintaining operational efficiency. Businesses also benefit from improved reliability and uptime with Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure. A properly planned migration ensures minimal disruption while transferring emails, contacts, calendars, and other business-critical data securely. For organizations seeking professional migration assistance, Apps4Rent provides expert support to ensure a smooth and secure transition with reduced downtime. Overall, Rackspace to Office 365 migration enables businesses to modernize communication systems, strengthen security, improve collaboration, and build a scalable foundation for long-term growth and productivity.
Recent Blogs
- Learn about updates we're making based on your feedback to give you more control over how Copilot appears in your favorite apps.May 21, 2026
- If you’ve ever typed an equation into Microsoft Word, copied math from the web into a document, or relied on a screen reader to understand an equation, you’ve benefited from Murray Sargent’s work, ev...May 21, 2026
