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Personal Teams accounts now available on Windows 10 and Mac

Miikka Oksanen — Tue, 2 Jul 2024 14:03:30 PDT

You can now use a personal account in the new Teams app on Windows 10 and Mac. Read more in the recent post on the Teams Insider Blog:

Personal Teams accounts now available on Windows 10 and Mac - Teams Insider - Teams for Personal

Recap: June 2024 Ambassador AI Projects Demo Day, Showcasing the Power of AI

Student_Developer_Team — Tue, 2 Jul 2024 13:12:04 PDT

Building with AI for Global Impact

On June 13, 2024, The Ambassador Projects Demo Day was held virtually on Teams. The event brought together rising developers from all over the world to collaborate and create innovative solutions to real-world problems.

We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to the Gold leads Aayushi Singh, Konstantinos Sitistas, Megha Vishwakarma, Hadil BenAmor, Marjan Hussein for their hard work and dedication in putting together such an amazing event and leading this past cycle of the projects program. Without their tireless efforts, this event would not have been possible. In addition, we would like to thank our Gold milestone judges, Byansi Anthony, Deepthi Balasubramanian, Meerali Naseet , Mudasir Murtaza and Subhashis Paul.

The winning team was Kairos, led by Ambassador Sarosij Ghosh Ray. Their project, Street Savvy, was chosen as the winner because of its innovative approach to solving a real-world problem. Street Savvy is an interactive simulation powered by Azure AI Services that teaches the player about the Indian traffic rules in a gamified manner. This project addresses the critical issue of road safety and driver education in India. Despite existing regulations, India continues to have one of the highest rates of traffic accidents and fatalities in the world. A major contributing factor is the lack of comprehensive understanding and adherence to traffic rules among drivers. Street Savvy tries to teach and raise awareness about Indian traffic rules and road safety in a fun and interactive way so that the youth, drivers or even kids can learn. The judges were impressed with the team’s ability to work together and create a solution that was both practical and innovative.

Other teams that participated in the Ambassadors Projects Program and made it to the final 5 round included Rhino Team, Team Matrix, Catalyst and AgriVision . Each team worked tirelessly to create innovative solutions to real-world problems. Although they did not win, their projects were impressive and showed great promise.

Rhino Team - Team Rhino is crafting an innovative Power Apps solution tailored for the more than 5000 Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors around the world. This app not only facilitates seamless team formation but also empowers team leads to pinpoint individuals with specific skillsets and team seeker to find adequate team thanks to AI suggestions.

Team Matrix - Aims to develop a Tomato Disease Classifier App using Azure Custom Vision, Azure Web App, and Azure OpenAI Service technology. The app targets farmers and agricultural professionals, providing them with a tool for early detection and classification of common tomato diseases. Leveraging machine learning, computer vision techniques, and natural language processing, the app will assist in identifying diseases promptly, thereby enabling effective disease management and enhancing crop yield and quality.

Catalys - The Code Analysis and Vulnerability Prediction Tool automates code analysis, predicts security issues using machine learning, and offers insights and mitigation strategies to developers.

AgriVision - The 2018 Kerala floods in India were a significant natural disaster caused by unprecedented monsoon rainfall, severely impacting the agricultural sector. This project aims to assess the impact of these floods on agricultural productivity using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data. By analyzing NDVI data, we aim to provide insights into the extent of agricultural damage and recovery post-flood. The results will help local communities and policymakers improve disaster preparedness, response strategies, and agricultural planning.

Overall, this cycle of Ambassador Projects was a huge success. The event brought together some of the brightest minds in the industry and showcased some truly innovative solutions to real-world problems. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for these talented developers.

Learn more about the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program here.

New Windows corporate device identifier feature with Microsoft Intune: Everything you need to know

Intune_Support_Team — Tue, 2 Jul 2024 12:00:00 PDT

By: Madison Holdaas, Sr. Product Manager | Microsoft Intune

How identifying corporate devices has worked in Microsoft Intune

As an administrator, you want to make sure that only authorized and compliant devices can access your organization's resources and data. To do that, you need to identify which devices are corporate-owned and which are personal. However, this isn’t always easy, especially when you have a large and diverse fleet of devices running different operating systems and platforms.

Today, Intune has a variety of methods to identify a device as “corporate” for Windows platform. If a device hasn’t enrolled using one of our true corporate methods, we do our best to determine an unknown device’s ownership by how the user enrolled the device. For instance, if a user automatically enrolls by registering the device to Microsoft Entra through Windows settings, then we determine that device to be corporate. If a user automatically enrolls by adding a work account from Windows settings instead, then the device is marked personal by Intune.

How enrollment restrictions have worked when blocking personal devices

One way to prevent personal or unknown devices from enrolling in your tenant is to use enrollment restrictions. Enrollment restrictions are policies that you can create and assign to groups of users or devices to control who can enroll which devices and how many. You can create two types of enrollment restrictions: device type restrictions and device limit restrictions.

Device type enrollment restrictions allow you to block or allow specific types of devices from enrolling, such as Windows, iOS, Android, or macOS. You can also block or allow for specific configurations, such as blocking personally owned or unknown devices. The setting to block personally owned devices prevents the following from being enrolled, even though they are assumed corporate by Intune when allowed to enroll:

Automatic MDM enrollment with Microsoft Entra join during Windows setup
Automatic MDM enrollment with Microsoft Entra join from Windows Settings
Automatic MDM enrollment with Microsoft Entra join or hybrid Entra join via Windows Autopilot for existing devices

New corporate device identifiers for Windows

The new Windows corporate identifier feature is a solution that can help you identify and manage your corporate Windows devices more easily and securely. The feature allows you to upload a CSV file with the serial number, manufacturer, and model of your known Windows devices to your tenant. This marks the devices as corporate in the Microsoft Intune admin center and applies the appropriate policies and settings to them once they enroll into your tenant. Note that the feature only works for Windows 11, version 22H2 and later with KB5035942 (OS Builds 22621.3374 and 22631.3374) or newer.

Important: Enrollment device type restrictions are only editable by the Intune Service Administrator or Global Administrator. Corporate device identifiers have their own permission that must be assigned. Since these permissions are not the same, confirm that any existing enrollment restrictions will not be impacted before uploading a corporate device identifier.

To use the new feature, follow these steps:

Create a CSV file with the serial number, manufacturer, and model of your corporate Windows devices. You can use any tool or method to generate the CSV file, as long as it follows the format and requirements specified in the documentation.
In the Intune admin center, upload the CSV file to your tenant. You can find the upload option under Devices > Windows > Corporate identifiers. You can upload up to 5,000 devices or 5MB in a CSV. If you need to upload more, we recommend using PowerShell and interacting with the Microsoft Graph API directly.
Verify that the upload was successful and that the devices are marked as corporate in the Intune admin center. You can view the status and details of the upload under Devices > Windows > Corporate identifiers. You can also view the device ownership and other properties of the devices under Devices > All devices.

A screen capture of adding a corporate identifier in the Intune admin center.

Some enrollment methods will always be considered corporate enrollment because we trust devices enrolling through these methods are known devices. Once an admin has uploaded a single Windows corporate identifier, the way we define Corporate and Personal changes to the following in the table:

Windows enrollment types	Without corporate identifiers	With corporate identifiers
The device enrolls through Windows Autopilot	Corporate	Corporate
The device enrolls through GPO, or automatic enrollment from Configuration Manager for co-management	Corporate	Corporate
The device enrolls through a bulk provisioning package	Corporate	Corporate
The enrolling user is using a device enrollment manager account	Corporate	Corporate
The device enrolls through Azure Virtual desktop (non-hybrid)	Corporate	Corporate
Automatic MDM enrollment with Microsoft Entra join during Windows setup (Including new Autopilot device preparation profiles)	Corporate, but blocked by Personal enrollment restriction	Personal
Automatic MDM enrollment with Microsoft Entra join from Windows Settings	Corporate, but blocked by Personal enrollment restriction	Personal
Automatic MDM enrollment with Microsoft Entra join or hybrid Entra join via Windows Autopilot for existing devices	Corporate, but blocked by Personal enrollment restriction	Personal
Automatic MDM enrollment with Add Work Account from Windows Settings	Personal	Personal
MDM enrollment only option from Windows Settings	Personal	Personal
Enrollment using the Intune Company Portal app	Personal	Personal
Enrollment via a Microsoft 365 app, which occurs when users select the Allow my organization to manage my device option during app sign-in	Personal	Personal

Admins that want to use the existing enrollment method logic to determine corporate versus personal (i.e. the “Without corporate identifiers” column) can just delete or remove all Windows corporate identifiers and ownership goes back to behaving as previously done in Intune.

New enrollment restriction experience using model and manufacturer device properties in filters

The new Windows corporate identifier feature also enables a new enrollment restriction experience that allows you to use the model and manufacturer device properties in filters to block devices from enrolling more granularly. You can block specific models or manufacturers of Windows devices from enrolling, such as Manufacturer = Microsoft or Model = VM. Note that model and manufacturer properties only work for Windows 11 version 22H2 and above at enrollment time.

To use the new enrollment restriction experience, navigate to the Intune admin center and follow these steps:

Create a device filter with the model and manufacturer device properties. You can find the device filter option under Devices > Filters. You can create up to 100 device filters per tenant, and each device filter can have up to 10 conditions.
Create an enrollment restriction policy with the device filter. You can find the enrollment restriction option under Devices > Enrollment> Device platform restrictions. You can assign the device filter to your enrollment restriction policy in the Assignments tab.
Assign the enrollment restriction policy to a group of users. You can assign the policy to any group that you have created or synced in your tenant, such as security groups or dynamic groups. You can also assign the policy to the default group, which applies to all users in your tenant. Reminder that enrollment restrictions are user based – so they don’t apply to user-less enrollments.

A screen capture of creating a filter in the Intune admin center, using model and manufacturer device properties.

Note that since model and manufacturer properties only work for Windows 11 version 22H2 and above – to address unsupported versions – we recommend including the null values of manufacturer and model.

Note – Windows 10 will be a supported feature starting July 9th – devices will need to be updated to the following KB: KB5039299.

With this new feature, you can easily distinguish between corporate and personal devices and apply different enrollment policies accordingly. Additionally, you can leverage the model and manufacturer device properties to create more granular filters to block unwanted devices from enrolling.

If you have any questions or feedback, leave a comment below or reach out to us on X @IntuneSuppTeam.

Celebrating 2024 Partner of the Year Awards Social Impact Category Winners

Gena_Goh — Tue, 2 Jul 2024 11:00:00 PDT

Congratulations to the winners and finalists for the 2024 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards!

The Social Impact category highlights partners accelerating innovation and technology applications that are making a difference for individuals, customers, and communities around the world. We read so many strong entries of partners embracing the possibilities that AI is creating and taking the lead in applying this latest technology to solve societal challenges, creating more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable models of growth.

Together with the team behind the Partner of the Year Awards Social Impact category, we're thrilled to honor winning partners for the inclusion changemaker, sustainability changemaker and community response awards.

POTYA Community Response winner: Simpson Associates | United Kingdom

The Community Response Partner of the Year Award recognizes a partner organization that is providing innovative and unique services or solutions based on Microsoft technologies, helping solve challenges faced by communities and making a significant social impact during unprecedented times.

Simpson Associates has been a key technical delivery partner for the Tackling Organized Exploitation (TOEX) Program in two ways. First, it implemented an Azure-based TOEX Data Platform, the first data solution to combine force, regional and national data sets from UK law enforcement agencies to create an enhanced intelligence picture of organized exploitation. Second, it delivered enhanced technical capabilities through predictive analytics to strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of policing.

POTYA Inclusion Changemaker winner: Legal Interact | South Africa

The Inclusion Changemaker Partner of the Year Award recognizes a partner organization that excels at providing innovative and unique services or solutions based on Microsoft technologies that help customers solve challenges of diverse representation, economic access, digital inclusion, and/or accessibility.

Legal Interact’s “My AI Lawyer” bridges justice gaps in South Africa by leveraging Azure Cloud and AI on WhatsApp, offering scalable legal advice and affordable access to law. This innovation marks a significant step towards a more just society by enabling inclusive access to critical legal services.

POTYA Sustainability Changemaker winner: EY | United States

The Sustainability Changemaker Partner of the Year Award recognizes a partner organization that excels at providing innovative and unique services or solutions based on Microsoft technologies that help customers solve challenges of sustainable digital transformation.

Together, EY and Microsoft help customers make better decisions, meet regulatory requirements and generate value at every stage of their environmental, social and governance-based investing (ESG) and sustainability journey. By combining EY’s deep and broad technical expertise with Microsoft’s reputation for cutting-edge technological solutions, EY has helped over 100 clients accelerate their decarbonization journey, creating sustainable value and helping them deliver on their ESG goals.

Congratulations also to our Partner of the Year Award Social Impact category finalists!

POTYA Community Response

POTYA Inclusion Changemaker

POTYA Sustainability Changemaker

Join us at MCAPS Start for Partners and at Microsoft Ignite (November 18-22, 2024) to celebrate the outstanding achievements of these partners. Learn and find winners and finalists across all categories at the Partner of the Year Awards website.

Modernized Excel Grid

Microsoft Excel — Tue, 2 Jul 2024 10:30:00 PDT

Our latest update for web users brings you a host of powerful features designed to make your spreadsheet tasks simpler, faster, and more enjoyable. From effortless resizing and streamlined inserts to enhanced navigation and easy cell highlighting, discover how these modern tools can revolutionize your workflows.

Simple. Easy. Delightful

Resize rows and columns with ease

Quickly resize rows and columns for better data visibility and presentation. Hover over the border of a row or column header, click and hold the handles, then drag to resize.

Resize rows and columns with ease

Simplified insert options

Our new simplified interface makes adding rows, or columns to your spreadsheet a snap. Just hover over the respective row or column header and then click on the small circles (convert to + on hover). Streamline your workflow and get more done in less time.

Simplified Insert Options

Streamlined unhide feature

Show hidden rows or columns with one click and get a complete view of your data instantly. Just hover over the row or column header and then select the small arrows that appear.

Streamlined unhide feature

Freeze panes for better navigation

Keep important headers or columns visible as you scroll to ensure that important information stays visible, no matter how far you scroll down or across your spreadsheet.

To do so, drag the handles in the top left corner of the headers and drag them to the desired position. To change existing freeze panes, just drag the freeze pane line.

Freeze panes for better navigation

Drag & drop to rearrange elements

Effortlessly rearrange elements in your worksheet with drag and drop, making data organization a breeze.

To try the drag and drop feature, select any row or column, hold and drag when the cursor shows the hand icon, and then drop in any other row or column.

Drap and drop to rearrange elements

Highlight cells for clarity

Highlight important cells to emphasize critical information and improve readability. To use this feature, just select a row, column, range of cells, or individual cell.

Highlight cells for clarity

Availability

These features are currently rolling out to all Excel for the web users.