Tech Community Discussion topics

Tool for managing and monitoring Hyper‑V,

ssk0303 — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 13:29:30 GMT

We have to manage and Monitor the Hyper V - Is there any tool apart from SCVMM .

Please suggest

Building Production-Ready Pipelines in Azure DevOps: Beyond the Documentation Examples

AbdullahShahid984 — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 15:27:44 GMT

Hi everyone,

When moving from basic Azure DevOps tutorials to enterprise production environments, we all quickly realize that documentation examples don't always cover real-world complexities. Handling multi-stage dependencies, keeping Terraform state secure, and managing secrets across environments requires a highly strategic approach.

To help DevOps engineers bridge this gap, I recently put together a deep-dive architecture breakdown detailing how to build a resilient, multi-stage YAML pipeline from scratch.

Here is a quick look at the core enterprise architecture I focus on:

- Multi-Stage Lifecycle: Safe progression flows through Build, Dev, QA, UAT, and Production stages.

- Infrastructure Automation: Clean integration with Terraform, including state and secrets management using Azure Key Vault.

- Security Gates: Implementation of SAST scanning, Workload Identity, and automated approval policies.

- Team Alignment: Connecting Azure DevOps with project tools like Asana to streamline cross-platform tracking.

I wanted to share this pattern here to get some community feedback on the YAML structure.

Before I post the full configuration snippets, I would love to hear how your teams handle environment gates and approvals. What are the biggest bottlenecks you run into with multi-stage YAML pipelines? Let's discuss in the comments below!

Best regards,

Abdullah Shahid

Locked out of Microsoft 365 Admin Account

Cefak — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 08:22:01 GMT

Hello,

until recently, logging into our admin account always worked without any problems. Now, however, in addition to the password, we’re always being asked for an MFA code that’s supposedly been sent to the Microsoft Authenticator app. Neither I nor my colleagues are aware that we ever set up MFA authentication. Consequently, we don’t have an MFA code to enter.

This concerns the global administrator account. None of our other users can reset it.

I’ve already called Microsoft Support about this, but I’m only connected to an AI that, on several calls, kept hanging up after a while.

Can anyone help me with this problem?

Clipchamp

PV3 — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 19:26:45 GMT

How to edit an existing video on Clipchamp? I have a video composed of several individual scenes (done in clipchamp). I want to add a new scene. it does not seem possible, what ever I do, I don't succeed in opening the video in Clipchamp - each time I click on the video, the video disappears and a only have a blank "new project" in Clipchamp.

365 overwriting office 2024 activation credentials

terencesumpter — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 15:23:54 GMT

I have a pre-installed 2024 Office pro on my PC, recently outlook(classic) was being problematic whereby the usual fixes were not working, consequently did the longer MS fix on line which was successful, however, now I come to use word, excel etc and am advised only have 2 days left on free trial of 365 ( I have never used or signed up for 365 nor do I wish to), I have signed out of my account, signed back in restarted etc etc all to no avail. In my account it tells me 'awaiting activation'. As this was pre-installed I do not have an activation code, I wonder if anyone has come across this issue and a remedy for it - any advice much appreciated - Terry

Venting about all the security features blocking my own local apps

GaryGoGoGo — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 22:09:05 GMT

I have Windows 11 Pro with a new laptop (a good brand with 32GB RAM). (I wanted a Surface, but way too expensive.) I am a retired .NET developer and I still code at home. I have a few personal apps that are run from task scheduler. Getting a laptop to start an app from the task scheduler in the middle of the night is a whole other discussion (laptops prefer not to stay in a state that task scheduler can wake from).

But let's say I have apps that upload files to my personal web site. I have needed to:

add firewall rules for the apps in whatever folders they run from;
add Windows Security exceptions for the EXEs and folders;
move the EXEs to folders under Program Files because Device Guard otherwise blocks them (I don't want to bother with signing the apps), and trust me when I say you don't want to try to disable Device Guard, and there is no way to add exceptions to Device Guard;
wonder why aka.ms/myrecoverykey has been messed up for days;
adjust Visual Studio Debug settings to refer to the Program Files locations;
log extensively from my apps because I never know what new Windows feature will block them, and watch obscure event logs such as CodeIntegrity;
constantly update third-party modules (Nuget, etc.).

Yeesh, I just want to post a message of the day on my own web site.

Again Exam Voucher not available

corradus — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 10:04:15 GMT

Today, 1 of august again I don't see any voucher available for exam disccount.

I see it happened also to other MCT in the last days.

I wanted to book an exam urgently and I cannot. Any idea?

Regards.

Corrado

Looking for Guidance: Improving Playwright MCP Runbook Replay Reliability

shobhit-vishwakarma — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:28:58 GMT

Hi everyone,

We are building an AI-powered browser automation agent using Playwright MCP, and we have implemented a runbook/replay mechanism to reduce repeated reasoning and improve navigation performance.

Current Architecture

Our setup currently looks like this:

AI Agent (Client) – Hosted on Azure Container Apps
Playwright MCP Server – Hosted on Azure Container Apps
Chrome Extension – Running in the user's browser

The Chrome Extension maintains a webhook connection with the Playwright MCP relay/server.

The MCP server generates Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) commands, which are executed by the Chrome Extension in the user's browser.

Runbook Functionality

When the agent needs to navigate to a particular page, it normally performs multiple browser actions such as:

browser_navigate
browser_snapshot
browser_click
browser_type
Other Playwright MCP tools

During the first successful execution, we record the tool calls and their parameters used by the agent to reach the desired page. We store these actions as a runbook.

For subsequent requests requiring navigation to the same destination, instead of asking the AI agent to reason through the navigation steps again, we directly replay the stored runbook.

First execution

User Request ↓ Agent Reasoning ↓ MCP Tools ↓ Browser ↓ Desired Page

Example recorded sequence:

browser_navigate → browser_snapshot → browser_click → browser_snapshot → browser_type ...

Subsequent execution

User Request ↓ Runbook Replay ↓ MCP Tools ↓ Browser ↓ Desired Page

This significantly reduces latency, token usage, and unnecessary LLM reasoning.

Example Runbook Step

{ "tool": "browser_click", "args": { "target": "e140", "element": "Earn credentials link" }, "a11y": { "role": "link", "name": "Earn credentials", "index": 0, "text": "Earn credentials", "textIndex": 0, "path": "generic/list/listitem/article/generic/generic", "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/" }, "pageUrl": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/", "timestamp": "2026-07-30T10:24:04.374Z" }

For each recorded action, we persist information such as:

MCP tool name
Tool parameters
Snapshot reference
Accessibility role
Accessibility name
Element text
Element index
Text index
Accessibility-tree path
Page URL
Other relevant metadata

The Problem

The main challenge is runbook replay reliability.

A runbook contains references obtained from a previous browser_snapshot. During replay, the page may have:

Slightly different DOM structure
Timing differences
Dynamic content
Accessibility-tree changes

As a result, a previously recorded snapshot reference may no longer match the current page.

For example, a recorded action may effectively be:

browser_click(ref="some_snapshot_ref")

During replay, that reference may no longer exist or may resolve to a different element because the current snapshot has changed.

This causes intermittent failures in operations such as:

browser_click
browser_type
Other element interactions

Current Status

We have improved the replay mechanism and currently achieve approximately 90% replay success.

The remaining ~10% failures are difficult because they are often nondeterministic. The same runbook can succeed or fail depending on the current browser or page state.

Questions

We would appreciate advice from anyone with experience using Playwright MCP or building production browser automation systems.

What is the recommended way to make Playwright MCP tool calls more resilient to changes in snapshot or accessibility-tree references?
Is relying on snapshot ref values fundamentally unreliable for replay? Should we instead store a different representation of the target element?
If so, what additional information would you recommend storing for each interaction?
What is the best strategy for re-resolving an element when the original snapshot reference is no longer valid instead of failing the entire runbook?
Are there Playwright MCP capabilities or recommended patterns that specifically address dynamic pages and changing accessibility trees?
For a production-grade browser automation agent, what architecture or strategy would you recommend to achieve >99% replay reliability?

Our goal is not to eliminate dynamic behavior from websites, but to make the runbook intelligent enough to recover when previously recorded element references become invalid.

Any architectural recommendations, implementation patterns, or examples from production systems would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Playwright MCP browser context is lost after 8-12 minutes of idle time.

shobhit-vishwakarma — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 07:00:50 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I'm building an AI agent that uses Playwright MCP to control a browser, and I'm running into an issue where the browser context is lost after the agent remains idle for a while.

Architecture

My current setup looks like this:

AI Agent (Client) hosted on Azure Container Apps
Playwright MCP Server hosted on Azure Container Apps
Chrome Extension running in the user's browser
The extension maintains a webhook connection to the Playwright MCP relay/server.
The MCP server generates Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) commands, which are executed by the Chrome Extension in the user's browser.

This allows the browser to continue running on the user's machine while the agent and MCP server are hosted remotely.

Issue

Everything works as expected while the agent is actively interacting with the browser.

However, if the agent stays idle for around 8–12 minutes, the next request fails with an agent response that the browser context is lost (or the context/browser is no longer available).

If I ask the agent to retry, it invokes the browser_close tool and creates a new browser session. While this allows execution to continue, it completely loses the previous browser state, including:

Current page
Navigation history
Login/session state tied to that browser context
Any work already completed in the existing session

Ideally, I want the existing browser session and context to remain usable even after periods of inactivity.

Questions

Is there any idle timeout in Playwright MCP or its browser context management that could explain this behavior?
Could this be related to the CDP connection between the Chrome Extension and the MCP server being dropped after inactivity?
Are there recommended keep-alive or heartbeat mechanisms for long-lived browser sessions?
Has anyone successfully maintained browser contexts for extended idle periods (30+ minutes or longer)?
Is there a recommended pattern for reconnecting to an existing browser context instead of creating a new one when the connection is interrupted?

Environment

Playwright MCP Server hosted on Azure Container Apps
AI Agent hosted on Azure Container Apps
Chrome Extension executing CDP commands in the user's local Chrome browser
Communication between the agent, MCP server, and extension over the network

I'd appreciate any guidance on where to investigate this issue or best practices for maintaining persistent browser contexts in this kind of architecture. If anyone has encountered a similar problem, I'd be interested in hearing how you resolved it.

Thanks in advance!

Unable to follow the Viva Glint Blog

VK_Sym — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 22:30:41 GMT

This post was originally submitted as a question in MS Learn on July 2 and I was advised to move it to the tech community.

Hi MS team,

I continue to click "Follow" on the Viva Glint blog to ensure I receive release updates but then get automatically set to not follow. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/category/Viva-Glint

For the second time, I am being automatically set to not follow. I checked with my admin team (there are 4 of us) and this is not an individual/isolated incident. They are also being automatically set to unfollow the Viva Glint blog. Please see screenshots attached from myself and my manager. We should be seeing the button as "Unfollow" indicating that we are following, instead it is showing "Follow" indicating that we are not following.

I have opened an MS ticket about this already and was directed to contact the Microsoft Tech Community platform team. I followed the Glint blog back on 4/9/2026 and then was set to unfollow. I followed again at the beginning of June (maybe on 6/4/2026) and I was set to unfollow again. I did receive one "Microsoft Community Hub Weekly Digest" email on 6/7/2026 so I must have still been following then but I have not received any communications before or after.

Can you please provide an explanation and a solution? We need to receive email notifications about updates and releases. Following the blog should be a reliable process. As of today, 7/28/2026, I am still following the Glint blog which is great but how do I know I won't be automatically set to "unfollow" a third time?

Xbox verification

maverickhuntersnow — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 01:44:06 GMT

Hello my xbox account is in the US but i get the UK age verification on my settings saying my account is not verified. How do I fix this? Not in any family groups nor is it a teen or child account.

Outlook Groups: who can send an email?

GeneL56 — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 23:59:02 GMT

In my personal Outlook email account, I created a Group, me as the Owner, everyone else as a Member without Trusted Sender rights. However, at least one of the Members is able to send emails to the Group? Why have a Trusted Sender category if a mere Member can send emails to the Group? Thanks.

Root DFS and ntlm hardening

Marek746 — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:33:46 GMT

Hi all

Recently we have tried to harden our NTLM. After applying some settings the access to the root of our domain has become intermittent \\domain.co.uk but all the namespaces as well as symbol etc I der the root are working fine and can be navigated to without an issue.

DCs have now been applied the same settings which are send LM and ntlm and use V2 if negotiated. The issue is intermitted as it it will work on a DC and then stop and then work again.

Similar is on the end user devices.

We have on prem DCs and all devices are in tuned and entra joined.

We are hybrid but we do not sync or write the devices to ad.

Replication and DFS itself are healthy.

Issue are some users who have AFS paths already mapped to their devices it fails to connect to them sometimes. But new mapping works.

Any ideas or assistance will be appreciated.

I have posts that have been under review for HOURS. What is going on?

stormin — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:27:21 GMT

Yes, this is directed at people reviewing these posts. Why the delay?

Come on, there are problems I want to get in front of people

How can we paste markdown into one of these posts, to get formatted text?

stormin — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:56:01 GMT

Pasting markdown into the text entry box does not create formatted text. It just puts in the characters that the markdown is using.

Publishing does not convert it to formatted text.

The Help icon in the formatting bar gives a pop up with three tabs, one of which is for Markdown Syntax.

Which strongly implies that markdown is a supported format.

Markdown is VERY commonly used and a straight paste is incredibly useful.

Mailbox automatically Pinning every new incoming email - Desktop and Mobile

ev2522 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:01:00 GMT

I have a user that, whenever they receive a new email, that email will automatically pin to the top of their inbox.

We have tried to recreate the outlook profile

Adjust and create mail rules to not pin emails

Modify settings within webmail

Remove all flags and all disable all setting pertaining to flagging and pinning

Reset customization

reset nav panes

reinstalled office

Tested in the "new outlook"

On the mobile side, Deleted all mail profiles

Installed the outlook app instead of the ios mail app

made sure he has no specific mailbox retention or policies that would apply a setting like this

This issue has been going on for months with no sign of being fixed. pretty much nothing at all has stuck and the issue persists. I am a systems admin, so i have the ability work on this from the backend. My entire team is just at a loss with this issue.

Mailbox automatically Pinning every new incoming email - Desktop and Mobile

ev2522 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:00:48 GMT

I have a user that, whenever they receive a new email, that email will automatically pin to the top of their inbox.

We have tried to recreate the outlook profile

Adjust and create mail rules to not pin emails

Modify settings within webmail

Remove all flags and all disable all setting pertaining to flagging and pinning

Reset customization

reset nav panes

reinstalled office

Tested in the "new outlook"

On the mobile side, Deleted all mail profiles

Installed the outlook app instead of the ios mail app

made sure he has no specific mailbox retention or policies that would apply a setting like this

Using a Proxy outlook address, but still got "too many times user name or password".

GregG1 — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 21:55:29 GMT

Hi all

For months I was getting the dreaded "too many times user name or password" and a check of attempt "sign ins" showed numerous attempts to sign in from IP addresses all over the world.

In other discussions and internet search it has been suggested

A) Create a Proxy address only known to me (done)

B) Make this new Proxy address the only way to sign into Hotmail Microsoft (done)

C) Check to see if the original address is no longer recognized as a valid address, so that no attempt to sign in be even be attempted (done)

Yesterday morning in my first attempt (previous successful attempts were during the day before) to sign in I got the "too many times user name or password" to an address nobody else knows exists? I tried several times yesterday to all receiving the dreaded "too many times etc"

Obviously I have been successful to sign into Hotmail (and this community) today, though I don't know if it because of time passed and/or clearing of cookies and internet data?

So my primary Questions

A) How could I possibly be locked out to a Address no one else on the planet, except outlook knows about?

B) If there was something my PC could have done to inadvertently trigger the "too many times etc" error by mistake?

I am running the current up to date versions of Windows 11 and Norton 360.

where to download office 2019 professional plus?

dawei4321 — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:50:57 GMT

I have to reinstall office 2019 professional plus, and the directions by MS are pure crap!!!!! They tell you

the links in the articles are how to do it, but they are not. They keep doing their usual FORCE to but 365.

Mettez à jour Microsoft 365 ou Office sur votre appareil macOS ou iOS.

tahia — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:29:17 GMT

Bonjour,

Je n'accède plus aux fonctionnalités de Word, Excel etc... et ils me demandent de mettre à jour et je n'y arrive toujours pas, même en suivant les étapes...? Quelqu'un pourrait-il m'aider?