Microsoft Education Solutions Guide - available for all IT Admins, partners and schools
What is ESG- Education Solutions Guide The Microsoft Education Solution Guide (ESG) was developed to simplify and enhance understanding of the license features and products that you have available to you in a Microsoft 365 tenant. Initial focus and intent were to create better tools to understand the tenant setup and configuration to enhance security and compliance. Link to full guide is here. It consists of three stages: Goals and Objectives for ESG Goals Develop prescriptive deployment guides that provide a centralized resource with education-specific scenarios to assist organizations in defining, managing, and organizing their tenant and appropriate applications. Reduce the overall complexity of tenant and service deployment. Establish baseline recommended pathways to facilitate a common and agreed-upon configuration based on subject-matter experts. Utilize AI technology to uncover and compare recommended settings against user requirements based on documented configurations. Implement phased configurations to aid customers and partners in understanding what they may not know or should consider during discovery to meet customer expectations. Highlight unused features and products to ensure customers fully leverage the potential and benefits of their purchased product licenses. Identify opportunities for partner participation in achieving customer goals and expectations based on customer requirements and ESG findings. Create an easy pathway for customer change management to enhance control, security, compliance, and privacy of tenants. Develop custom assessments to evaluate product entry for items such as Copilot, Defender, Purview, Intune, Zero-Trust, and Microsoft Entra ID. Objectives Deliver information for features available (used/unused) to users based on license model. Prescriptive recommendations based on education scenarios. - Present upgrade license opportunities from A1 to A3 to A5. Security analysis exposing gaps and issues proactively to allow modifications before it's too late. Promote partner access to customers that have defined gaps based on assessments and are requesting partner assistance. Better discovery and assessment analysis with new tools. Designed to be more self-serving customer and partner access management. Speed up user adoption for educators and IT Admins alike. Recommended Roles for Implementation IT Admin Identity Admin Security Admin Compliance Admin OneDrive Admin SharePoint Admin Exchange Online Admin Teams Admin Navigation ESG has seven main sections in the navigations. ESG – Microsoft Solutions Guide overall, Microsoft Education license (A1-A3-A5), and Microsoft addons licenses. Baseline Phase – Overview, Products and Features, Licenses. All five sections (Setup, Identity, Applications, Security and Compliance, and Devices) Standard Phase - Overview, Products and Features, Licenses All five sections (Setup, Identity, Applications, Security and Compliance, and Devices. Advanced Phase - Overview, Products and Features, Licenses. Three sections (Identity, Applications, and Security and Compliance) Addons – Any addon products and when/where they can be added to your current license configuration. Windows – Education specific Windows based products and features. References – Any process or configuration that is not outlined in the three license phases will be included here. Phases Deployment Sequence The Baseline phase is the first step in the three-phase approach: Baseline (A1) → Standard (A3) → Advanced (A5) The Baseline phase is the foundational first phase in the Microsoft Education Solution Guide deployment sequence, aligned with the Microsoft 365 A1 education license. Standard Phase - The Standard phase is the second phase in the Microsoft Education Solution Guide deployment sequence, aligned with the Microsoft 365 A3 education license. The Advanced phase is the third and most comprehensive phase in the Microsoft Education Solution Guide deployment sequence, aligned with the Microsoft 365 A5 education license. Sections Setup Tenant setup is key to establishing a secure and valid tenant. Setup goes through domain assignments, administration, and service management. Identity Establishing an identity via Microsoft Entra ID and establishing authentication methods, Single Sign-On, and user procurement methodologies. Applications Applications like Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange Online is the core to a Microsoft tenant. Getting these applications setup are essential to allow users in education to access services and apps like Learning Accelerators. Security and Compliance Security via each phase is essential to maintain order and blocking access for bad actors. Along with security compliance/privacy considerations that are established to adhere to a multitude of local and government requirements worldwide. Devices Managed and unmanaged devices are another key to helping secure the network and potential cyber-security considerations that enter the network via these devices. How do you use ESG? ESG uses deployment guidelines for content that contain education scenario specifics. These prescriptive “Purple Boxes” allow education organizations the ability to see prescriptive guidelines and recommendations based on an edu scenario. ESG has a linked path for each modules based on the phase (Baseline,Standard,Advanced). Users can follow the deployment content to establish or redefine the tenant configuration in order to enable additional services and products. What’s Next Go to https://aka.ms/esg to access Microsoft Education Solutions Guide. Stage 2 – A custom agent to discover the tenant configuration settings and allow customers and partners the ability to qualify what is set to standard recommendation. This agent will also have the ability to access partner content and internal Microsoft resources. Using an AI Agent to discover tenant settings based on Graph API calls and Microsoft MCP Server for Enterprise to evaluate against known Microsoft recommended settings. Part 3 – Change management from discovery data baselines to access and deliver any updates/changes/modifications, daily/weekly/monthly.
I haven't seen anyone talking about this online store
There is this office and windows key store called esd codes and they sell office keys. They seem legit since they're affiliated with Microsoft and they have mostly positive reviews but I the description of every office key and I mean every has a note stating "if office (literally every single one) version is not available, you will receive the Professional Plus version at the same price" which they are trying to make it look like an upgrade but from what I searched the professional plus versions are bought in bulk by big companies and organizations and after they stop being updated they are being sold for cheap probably by employees. I have found multiple for less than 2 or even 1 buck and I feel they are scamming people.SharePoint Site Administrators Can Now Control Restricted Content Discovery
Restricted Content Discovery (RCD) is a feature that blocks access by Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents to the files stored in a SharePoint Online site. Instead of relying on tenant administrators, site administrators can now enable or disable RCD. It’s a natural evolution of what is an essential feature to keep sensitive and confidential information being leaked inadvertently by AI. https://office365itpros.com/2026/01/13/rcd-site-level/
Microsoft Copilot
Is anyone else having issues today? I was using copilot today like I have been for months. Using the same prompts I have been using for months when I started getting this response "I'd really like to help, but it seems this topic is off-limits for me. sorry about that!" I was trying to discuss with the AI what the issue was and tried showing the prompt when all of a sudden it said I was suspended for an hour. I tried to talk with support but they were no help.📣 Getting Started with AI and MS Copilot — Português
Olá, 👋 📢 Quer explorar IA e Microsoft Copilot de forma prática para o aprendizado? Participe da sessão “Introdução à IA com o uso do MS Copilot”, pensada especialmente para docentes que estão começando a usar o Copilot. Vamos aprender os fundamentos da IA generativa, como criar boas instruções e aplicar essas ferramentas na sala de aula. 📌 Sessão com exemplos práticos, materiais para utilizar e um espaço ideal para praticar e tirar dúvidas. No horário indicado, favor realizar acesso ao link: Teams meeting.Helping users navigate the rebrand to the "Microsoft 365 Copilot" App
This app/experience was formerly known as the Microsoft 365 App or by many just as the Microsoft 365 homepage (especially in the context of the browser and URLs like Microsoft365.com). Now that it's been rebranded to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, I'm curious to know how peers are adapting their support for end users in regards to this change. If you want users to head to this app or web location to use Copilot Chat (in one of its forms - web or work) there isn't really much issue ("Go to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to use Copilot"). But what these other scenarios? In the browser/or desktop app "Go to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to modify your M365 Profile "Go to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to download the desktop Office apps" "Go to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to access PowerPoint in the browser. In the mobile app "Go to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to update that PPT you've been working on while you're in an Uber." "Go to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to capture pics of whiteboards and add them to your OneDrive" All these scenarios really have nothing to do with Copilot, but you've got to use the Copilot app...a little awkward right? (p.s. trying not to incent a riot about MSFT's naming skills) What makes it downright silly is if you've suppressed Copilot all together for users for whatever reason, right? To my understanding even if you've blocked Copilot Chat in your org, this app is still called Microsoft 365 Copilot... If I've misunderstood anything about the situation, please educate me. Otherwise, I'd love some thoughts on the group on how you are or are thinking about navigating this awkwardness with users.Welcome to the Microsoft 365 Copilot community!
Greetings, IT admins, tech enthusiasts and Microsoft 365 enthusiasts alike! We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Microsoft 365 Copilot community-a hub where admins and users gather to explore the possibilities and harness the power of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Check out our first blog post in the community about how to get ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot. The Copilot community serves as a collaborative space where users can connect, share ideas, and collaborate on all things Microsoft 365 Copilot. Whether you're seeking tips and tricks to enhance productivity, looking to learn more about Microsoft AI, or are curious about Copilot, we’ve created this space for you. Expect digital events, like Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA), engagements with Microsoft experts and engineers, vibrant discussions with fellow Microsoft 365 users, advice from pros, and the latest news on updates and releases for Copilot. In addition to this community, check out this helpful article on Microsoft AI help and learning to get a broader understanding of how Microsoft is approaching AI and get oriented to what’s coming. Together, let's elevate our skills, empower our organizations, and embark on an exciting journey of digital transformation with Microsoft 365 Copilot! Explore. Engage. Empower. Welcome to the Microsoft 365 Copilot Community!Consumption-based pricing for agents built in SharePoint
Learn more about the pay-as-you-go pricing model as it relates to SharePoint agents in Microsoft 365. Last month, we introduced consumption-based pricing for SharePoint agents. This new billing model offers greater flexibility for organizations looking to start using SharePoint agents. The pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) meter enables customers to pay only for the messages they consume, providing an alternative to a per user/per month license. This model is designed to accommodate varying usage patterns, making it ideal for businesses with fluctuating demands.SharePoint: Using agents, AI-powered authoring, and automation, for high impact content management
With over 2 billion files added and 2 million sites created per day, SharePoint is the world’s most powerful and flexible content management platform. SharePoint allows you to create stunning intranets, orchestrate powerful workflows and develop business-critical applications, while also powering a breadth of innovations across Microsoft 365 in Teams, OneDrive, and Copilot. The SharePoint event today showcased an exciting breadth of innovations across SharePoint. With these innovations, we believe SharePoint is the best platform for managing content for AI, and the best application for using AI to achieve high impact business outcomes. The innovations shown today span three key areas – Agents built in SharePoint: create and manage AI experts for your SharePoint content with just a few clicks. AI-powered authoring for stunning intranets: use AI to easily create beautiful looking intranet sites using the best of what the web has to offer. Automation for streamlining business workflows: automate critical content-based business processes with AI. Visit the new event microsite on adoption.microsoft.com | Access all new videos, adoption resources, hackathon details, and more: https://aka.ms/SharePointEvent/Adoption https://aka.ms/SharePointEvent/Adoption. Agents built in SharePoint: AI experts for every user At Microsoft Ignite 2024, we announced the general availability of agents built in SharePoint. These agents are tailored assistants scoped to specific SharePoint sites and content, becoming your subject matter experts working on behalf of a person, team, or organization to handle simple tasks or more complex business processes. Every SharePoint site now includes an agent grounded to that site’s data ready for immediate use. With just a few clicks users can easily create their own custom agents with specialized skills scoped to their specific SharePoint files and folders. And of course, agents adhere to existing SharePoint content permissions and governance polices, ensuring your data and content are used in a safe and secure manner. We see our customers using agents today for a range of scenarios such as onboarding, product support, planning and more. Amey is just one such customer who is using agents built in SharePoint to get the most out of their content and knowledge real estate on SharePoint. AI-powered authoring: Create and communicate with AI. Today you saw a range of capabilities that allow you to build SharePoint sites that look better than ever. With improvements like flexible layouts, design ideas, co-authoring, and Copilot throughout the experience, this represents a huge step forward for SharePoint’s UX capabilities. Creating high quality, engaging content on SharePoint has never been easier. Creating with Copilot With the new "create with Copilot" feature you can either use a prompt or use a selection of templates to create an engaging page, grounded in the content of your choosing, in minutes. This allows you to spend less time on the mechanics of creating the page and instead focus on the core message and content to maximize engagement and impact. Using Microsoft 365 Copilot in SharePoint to help create and design the sites you want with ease, and assistance. Design ideas: Augment creativity with AI. Design Ideas leverages your content and provides several professionally designed suggestions, automatically taking your content-specific requirements into account. You can easily invoke Design Ideas with just the click of a single button and in seconds, transform your sections into user-ready content. You can even use Design Ideas starting with blank sections or plain blocks of text! Design Ideas in the right pane of a SharePoint page showcasing different suggestions. Flexible sections: Build unconstrained For the longest time ever, SharePoint restricted you to building within the three columns framework. We heard your feedback - with Flexible sections, you now have access to all 12 columns on the SharePoint canvas! Move images, text, and all your other favorite web parts around with fine control, and freely resize them in an easy, intuitive manner. And with AI-based authoring features like Design Ideas, it allows you to take full advantage of Flexible sections to provide the best possible layout recommendations for your content. 12 column canvas with Flexible Sections on a SharePoint page. These innovations and more have been rolling out to customers over the past several months. See how customers such as Avanade are using these capabilities to create engaging and beautiful content, and how Takeda sees a future with the latest innovations. AI and automation for streamlining your work Billions of pieces of content are added to SharePoint each day relevant to both, small team collaborations, and broad company-wide initiatives. This puts SharePoint in the middle of business processes both big and small. From out of the box simple approvals and automation, to site, doclib, and list templates and all the way to Power Platform integration – Automation in SharePoint spans the continuum of business processes to get work done faster and at higher quality. As just one example, over 3 billion Power Automate flows run against SharePoint every week. In this next phase of innovation, we are excited to share more about how automation and AI integrate together. Enhance business processes with AI Autofill is one feature that enriches content by extracting and generating structured metadata at scale – increasing the value of your content real estate. Using a natural language prompt you can describe the metadata you need, easily classifying, extracting, or generating new content as metadata. This will automate the process of new and modified files, saving you time and enhancing your business processes. Price change updates As part of our commitment to make advanced AI accessible to everyone, we are also excited to announce that SharePoint Autofill pricing has adjusted from $0.05 per page to $0.005 per page starting in March 2025! Learn more about SharePoint pay-as-you-go services. Next steps We are excited to announce the next SharePoint Hackathon - and invite you, our customers, partners, and MVPs, to craft experiences using AI and the latest SharePoint features. See more details and register here! SharePoint Hackathon - Share your designs and engage with likeminded makers: https://aka.ms/SharePointHackathon. And finally, I personally invite you all to attend the Microsoft 365 Community Conference (May 6-8, 2025) in Las Vegas. We’re showcasing the latest news and best practices for SharePoint and M365 with leaders, product makers, partners, and MVPs. We can’t wait to hear more about how you put Microsoft 365 to work in your organization. Thank you! Learn more and explore! To skill up your SharePoint IQ even further – review the full event + AMA, visit our new microsite, register for the hackathon, watch our new, in-depth SharePoint learning series videos from our incredible product team members: "SharePoint: From concept to creation to impact + Live AMA" New SharePoint Event microsite on adoption.microsoft.com SharePoint Hackathon + upcoming webinar series YouTube playlist of all 17 new video assets (Main event, learning series, customer voices, and upcoming hackathon webinars) 5-part SharePoint learning series SharePoint customer stories: Amey, Takeda, and Avanade The trust and feedback from you all, the SharePoint community, developers, customers and MVPs have helped us evolve SharePoint to be the best content cloud solution in the world. Thank you! Related resources Getting started with SharePoint is a breeze! Check out the latest tutorial on building a SharePoint site. NEW agents built in SharePoint adoption guide (adoption.microsoft.com) Agents built in SharePoint (adoption.microsoft.com) Subscribe to the SharePoint community blog Add and upvote feature request: SharePoint Feedback PortalS
