Non profit business standard users join PCs to Active directory
Hi I have waded through masses of online stuff and can't get a clear answer to this. It is driving me insane! We have about 10 users on nonprofit business standard - all running win 10 or win 11 pro. I need to allow different users to share a PC - but have user restricted access to microsoft 365 online data - sharepoint - web apps etc Most older machines are domain aware as in you login with the domain account - they work fine. Newer machines cannot and all have only local accounts but have stored credentials for the main user for sharepoint etc. That is a problem when a PC is shared as someone may have logged in locally but they have left credentials for sharepoint allowing access. to privileged info If I upgrade one of the licenses to business premium would that enable me (with admin privs) to join existing and yet to be bought PCs to the domain or would I need a premium license for each user? We don;t need the higher up functionality such as intune as far as I know - just the ability for fred_AT_ourcharity.com to share a PC sensibly with bill_AT_ourcharity.comEntra and Microsoft 365 Could Improve License Reporting
License insights is a new feature in the Entra admin center. The Microsoft 365 admin center also shows some license insights in a dashboard card. The two views don’t line up. This isn’t very surprising because different teams generated the information, but it would sure be nice if Microsoft delivered comprehensive license reporting for Microsoft 365 tenants, including the Entra premium licenses. https://office365itpros.com/2026/04/24/license-insights/Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell Second Edition
The Office 365 for IT Pros team are thrilled to announce the availability of Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell (2nd edition). This completely revised 350-page book delivers the most comprehensive coverage of how to use Microsoft Graph APIs and the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK with Microsoft 365 workloads (Entra ID, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Teams, Planner, and more). Existing subscribers can download the second edition now free of charge. https://office365itpros.com/2025/06/30/automating-microsoft-365-with-powershell2/Writing PowerShell for the Eventually Consistent Entra ID Database
Entra ID uses an eventually consistent multi-region database architecture. PowerShell code that fetches and updates Entra ID objects needs to interact with the database in the most efficient manner. This article illustrates some guidance from Microsoft engineering with examples from the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. I’m sure your scripts already use these techniques, but if not, we have some helpful pointers. https://office365itpros.com/2026/04/13/eventually-consistent-entra-id/Leverage User and Group Assignments to Limit User Access to Apps
User and Group assignments can be added to Entra ID applications. Once assignments exist for an application, only assigned users can access that application. This method is a good way to secure access to applications that have consent to use high-profile permissions like Sites.FullControl.All or Mail.Read. Microsoft 365 tenants should consider how to use assignments to control user access to applications. https://office365itpros.com/2026/04/10/user-and-group-assignments/How to Report Entra ID Group Insights
Entra ID Group Insights are a new preview feature in the Entra admin center. The lack of documentation is challenging, but it’s easy to understand what kind of insights Microsoft wants to deliver. Looking behind the scenes, we find the Graph endpoint for Group insights and can extract the data. That allows us to combine insights with other information to make them more interesting. All done with PowerShell. https://office365itpros.com/2026/03/31/entra-id-group-insights/Conditional Access Policies are the Best Way to Block Weekend Access to Microsoft 365
Conditional access policies are very powerful. A beta feature appears to support time-limited blocks, but maybe the new feature is not needed because the same effect can be accomplished today through a mixture of conditional access policies, dynamic groups, and Azure Automation runbooks (or scheduled PowerShell scripts). Maybe that’s why Microsoft hasn’t released any documentation for the beta feature! https://office365itpros.com/2026/03/30/conditional-access-weekend-block/I built a free, open-source M365 security assessment tool - looking for feedback
I work as an IT consultant, and a good chunk of my time is spent assessing Microsoft 365 environments for small and mid-sized businesses. Every engagement started the same way: connect to five different PowerShell modules, run dozens of commands across Entra ID, Exchange Online, Defender, SharePoint, and Teams, manually compare each setting against CIS benchmarks, then spend hours assembling everything into a report the client could actually read. The tools that automate this either cost thousands per year, require standing up Azure infrastructure just to run, or only cover one service area. I wanted something simpler: one command that connects, assesses, and produces a client-ready deliverable. So I built it. What M365 Assess does https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess is a PowerShell-based security assessment tool that runs against a Microsoft 365 tenant and produces a comprehensive set of reports. Here is what you get from a single run: 57 automated security checks aligned to the CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark v6.0.1, covering Entra ID, Exchange Online, Defender for Office 365, SharePoint Online, and Teams 12 compliance frameworks mapped simultaneously -- every finding is cross-referenced against NIST 800-53, NIST CSF 2.0, ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS v4.0.1, CMMC 2.0, CISA SCuBA, and DISA STIG (plus CIS profiles for E3 L1/L2 and E5 L1/L2) 20+ CSV exports covering users, mailboxes, MFA status, admin roles, conditional access policies, mail flow rules, device compliance, and more A self-contained HTML report with an executive summary, severity badges, sortable tables, and a compliance overview dashboard -- no external dependencies, fully base64-encoded, just open it in any browser or email it directly The entire assessment is read-only. It never modifies tenant settings. Only Get-* cmdlets are used. A few things I'm proud of Real-time progress in the console. As the assessment runs, you see each check complete with live status indicators and timing. No staring at a blank terminal wondering if it hung. The HTML report is a single file. Logos, backgrounds, fonts -- everything is embedded. You can email the report as an attachment and it renders perfectly. It supports dark mode (auto-detects system preference), and all tables are sortable by clicking column headers. Compliance framework mapping. This was the feature that took the most work. The compliance overview shows coverage percentages across all 12 frameworks, with drill-down to individual controls. Each finding links back to its CIS control ID and maps to every applicable framework control. Pass/Fail detail tables. Each security check shows the CIS control reference, what was checked, what the expected value is, what the actual value is, and a clear Pass/Fail/Warning status. Findings include remediation descriptions to help prioritize fixes. Quick start If you want to try it out, it takes about 5 minutes to get running: # Install prerequisites (if you don't have them already) Install-Module Microsoft.Graph, ExchangeOnlineManagement -Scope CurrentUser Clone and run git clone https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess.git cd M365-Assess .\Invoke-M365Assessment.ps1 The interactive wizard walks you through selecting assessment sections, entering your tenant ID, and choosing an authentication method (interactive browser login, certificate-based, or pre-existing connections). Results land in a timestamped folder with all CSVs and the HTML report. Requires PowerShell 7.x and runs on Windows (macOS and Linux are experimental -- I would love help testing those platforms). Cloud support M365 Assess works with: Commercial (global) tenants GCC, GCC High, and DoD environments If you work in government cloud, the tool handles the different endpoint URIs automatically. What is next This is actively maintained and I have a roadmap of improvements: More automated checks -- 140 CIS v6.0.1 controls are tracked in the registry, with 57 automated today. Expanding coverage is the top priority. Remediation commands -- PowerShell snippets and portal steps for each finding, so you can fix issues directly from the report. XLSX compliance matrix -- A spreadsheet export for audit teams who need to work in Excel. Standalone report regeneration -- Re-run the report from existing CSV data without re-assessing the tenant. I would love your feedback I have been building this for my own consulting work, but I think it could be useful to the broader community. If you try it, I would genuinely appreciate hearing: What checks should I prioritize next? Which security controls matter most in your environment? What compliance frameworks are most requested by your clients or auditors? How does the report land with non-technical stakeholders? Is the executive summary useful, or does it need work? macOS/Linux users -- does it run? What breaks? I have tested it on macOS, but not extensively. Bug reports, feature requests, and contributions are all welcome on GitHub. Repository: https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess License: MIT (free for commercial and personal use) Runtime: PowerShell 7.x Thanks for reading. Happy to answer any questions in the comments.Latest MS Trend: abysmal AI phone support
Hello, I've just tried three times the MS 365 Support Phone Hotline. The AI Bot is designed to just hang up or provide an aka.ms/??? link which exactly leads to the problem that I am trying to contact support for. Thanks for nothing. Hope you fire also the people that worked on the Bot and not only your support hotline staff. It seems there are none left. I am going to recommend my company to move to a different product and drop ms ai slop. Bye
