Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 26-02-2026

Updated February 25, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

 What and Why

We’re introducing a new capability that allows users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license to scope and control Copilot Chat responses by selecting specific content sources. This enhancement is designed to improve the relevance and accuracy of Copilot responses by limiting them to user-selected sources, aligning with customer feedback for more transparent and customizable AI interactions.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 496596

Rollout Schedule

General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout will begin April 2026 (previously end of February).

Impact on Your Organization

• Who is affected:
  • Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
• What will happen:
  • Users will see a new option to select content sources when using Copilot Chat.
  • Copilot responses will be scoped only to the selected sources, improving control and precision.
  • This feature will follow a standard rollout and is enabled by default.
  • There is no impact to admin settings or policies.
  • No changes to existing Copilot behavior unless users actively select sources.

Action Required/Recommendations

• No admin action is required.
• This feature does not impact admin controls or require configuration.
• We recommend:
  • Informing helpdesk staff of this new user-facing capability.
  • Updating internal documentation if you provide guidance on Copilot usage.

Compliance Considerations

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.

Updated February 25, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

Copilot in PowerPoint is getting smarter. Soon, users will be able to generate a compelling title, concise summary, or captions for visuals simply by describing what they want in natural language. Copilot will use the context of the slide to generate relevant text, helping users turn ideas into content quickly and efficiently.

Note: A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required to access this feature.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs: 513427, 513428 and 513429.

General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout will begin in early April 2026 (previously end of February) and is expected to complete by end of May 2026 (previously end of March).

• Who is affected: Users of PowerPoint for Windows desktop, PowerPoint for Mac desktop, and PowerPoint Online Web.
• What will happen:
  • A new Copilot dropdown (pen icon) will appear for blank textboxes.
  • Editors will see a prompt box to enter instructions for generating text.
  • The feature will be on by default.

• No admin action is required before rollout.
• You may want to:
  • Notify users about this new capability.
  • Update internal documentation to reflect the change.

Updated February 25, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction]

Coming soon to SharePoint: Tenant admins will be able to centrally manage site branding using PowerShell. This update supports consistent branding across all SharePoint sites by enabling enforcement of enterprise themes, disabling custom branding on specific sites, and auditing branding changes. These capabilities help organizations maintain a unified brand experience and improve governance.

This message is associated with Roadmap ID 526794.

[When this will happen:]

• Targeted Release (Worldwide): Begins late November 2025, completes early March 2026 (previously mid-December 2025)
• General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): Begins mid-March 2026 (previously end of February), completes end of March 2026 (previously end of February)

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected: Tenant admins managing SharePoint Online branding and governance.

What will happen:

• Admins can disable or enable custom site branding per site using PowerShell.
• When site branding is disabled, site managers lose access to Site branding page in Site Settings.
• Admins can apply enterprise themes (including multi-color themes) to specific sites via PowerShell.
• Branding changes made via PowerShell are tracked for audit and accountability.
• New site creation scripts can include branding settings to ensure consistency from launch.
• Admins can remove existing Brand Center via PowerShell.
• Theme management via PowerShell is transitioning to a centralized model:
  • The primary geo will act as the central location for organization-wide theme creation and management.
  • Satellite geos will be able to view and apply themes from the primary geo using Get-SPOTheme and Set-SPOWebTheme cmdlets.
  • Themes previously created in satellite geos will remain available, but creating new themes in satellite geos will no longer be supported.

[Here’s what’s new:]

• Consistent branding enforcement: Admins can disable or enable custom branding per site. When disabled, site managers lose access to Site branding page in Site Settings.
• Automated theme application: Apply approved enterprise themes (including multi-color themes) to specific sites using PowerShell.
• Audit and transparency: All branding changes made via PowerShell are tracked, enabling visibility into who made updates.
• Automated site creation with branding: Embed theme settings directly into site creation scripts to ensure new sites launch with consistent branding.
• Easier Brand Center management: Admins can remove an existing Brand Center via PowerShell to reset or update branding controls.
• Centralized theme management across geos: Themes created in the primary geo are visible and applicable in satellite geos. Satellite geos can apply but not create new themes going forward.

[What you can do to prepare:]

• Review PowerShell documentation:
  • Set-SPOSite
  • Get-SPOTheme
  • Set-SPOWebTheme
• Upgrade your SharePoint Online Management Shell to the latest version after rollout.
• Communicate branding governance changes to your SharePoint admin team.
• Update internal documentation to reflect new PowerShell capabilities and theme management model.

[Compliance considerations:]

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.

Updated February 25, 2026: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction]

We’re introducing Message Trace support on Microsoft Graph to provide a modern, REST‑based API experience for tracing email across your Exchange Online organization. This update aligns with our ongoing effort to move message trace support from the legacy Reporting Web Service to Microsoft Graph. Public Preview is now available, and General Availability roll-out begins January-end.

[When this will happen]

Public preview (worldwide): Available now.

General availability (worldwide): Rollout begins in late January 2026 and is expected to complete by early February 2026.

[How this affects your organization]

Who is affected: Admins and developers who use automated or programmatic message trace capabilities in Exchange Online. Admins and developers who use Reporting Web Service for message trace.

What will happen:

• Message trace and message trace detail functionality is now available through Microsoft Graph API.
• The API provides a modern, RESTful experience for querying message trace data.
• This feature will replace the message trace and message trace detail endpoints in the legacy Reporting Web Service.
• Retirement of the Reporting Web Service message trace endpoints begins April 8, 2026.
• New Exchange Online organizations already do not have access to message trace support via the Reporting Web Service.
• No user impact: this change affects admin and developer tooling only.

[What you can do to prepare]

• Review any scripts, automation, or integrations that use the Reporting Web Service for message trace.
• Plan your migration to the Microsoft Graph message trace API before April 8, 2026, when retirement begins.
• Update internal documentation where message trace automation or reporting is referenced.
• Share this update with your dev/ops teams or helpdesk if they rely on trace automation.
• For API details and migration guidance, refer to Message Trace support using Graph API is now in Public Preview | Exchange team blog | Exchange | Microsoft Community Hub.

[Compliance considerations]

No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.

Updated February 24, 2026: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction]

Microsoft is introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat within Microsoft Forms, along with a new Surveys Agent integration tailored to help creators design, distribute, and analyze forms more effectively. This update streamlines form creation and insights by providing AI-driven suggestions, improvements, and analysis.

This message is associated with Roadmap ID 553136.

[When this will happen:]

• General Availability (Worldwide): We’ll begin rollout early March 2026 and expect to complete by late March 2026.

[How this affects your organization:]

Who is affected: Users with an active Microsoft 365 Copilot license who create or edit forms in Microsoft Forms on the web.

What will happen:

• Users will find a new Copilot icon in Microsoft Forms.
• Surveys Agent and Copilot Chat will be available directly in the form-editing experience.
• Users can perform tasks such as:
  • Getting AI‑generated suggestions to refine or improve their form or quiz.

  Screenshot 1: Select the Copilot button to chat, get suggestions, and effortlessly improve your form

  

  • Adjusting question clarity and form structure with support from Surveys Agent.
  • Drafting invitation messages.
  • Analyzing survey or quiz results with AI assistance.

  Screenshot 2: Unlock quick, actionable insights from your data, and chat to dive deeper

  

• This feature will be on by default for Copilot licensed users and can be disabled by admins.
• Existing Copilot policies apply; no new admin controls are required.

[What you can do to prepare:]

No action is required.

Recommended:

• Inform helpdesk staff about new AI capabilities.
• Update internal documentation as needed.
• Review Copilot licensing and policy settings.

Learn more: 

• Welcome to Copilot in Forms – Microsoft Support
• Get started with Surveys Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot – Microsoft Support
• Microsoft Forms Blog | Microsoft Community Hub (will be updated before rollout)

[Compliance considerations:]

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.

Updated February 25, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

[Introduction]

Microsoft Teams is introducing simplified meeting passcodes to reduce friction when joining meetings, especially when participants must manually enter a passcode. This feature is off by default and must be explicitly enabled by a tenant administrator.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 555858.

[When this will happen]

• Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out in early April 2026 (previously early March) and expect to complete by mid-April 2026 (previously mid-March).
• General Availability
  • Worldwide & GCC: We will begin rolling out in mid-April 2026 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete by late April 2026 (previously late March).
  • GCCH & DoD: We will begin rolling out in early May 2026 (previously early April) and expect to complete by mid-May 2026 (previously mid-April).

[How this affects your organization]

Who is affected:

Tenant administrators who manage meeting security settings in Microsoft Teams.

What will happen:

• A new admin setting allows simplified 8‑digit numeric‑only meeting passcodes.
• The feature is off by default; admins must opt in.
• The setting can be applied to:
  • Specific users
  • Groups
  • The entire tenant
• Only newly scheduled meetings use numeric‑only passcodes.
• Existing meetings are not changed.
• If the feature remains off, Teams continues to use the default, more complex passcodes.

Security considerations:

• Numeric‑only passcodes reduce cryptographic strength relative to the default setting.
• The simplified passcode applies whether users join via meeting ID or by clicking a meeting link.
• Admins will see a security warning when enabling the setting.
• All other Teams meeting security controls remain unchanged, including:
  • Lobby and admission controls
  • Organizer and participant policies
  • Tenant authentication and access controls

[What you can do to prepare]

• Review your organization’s meeting security requirements.
• Decide whether simplified passcodes meet your policies.
• If enabling, determine appropriate scope (users, groups, or tenant‑wide).
• If maintaining current behavior, no action is required.
• Consider updating internal documentation and informing helpdesk staff if you enable the feature.

[Compliance considerations]

No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.

• Windows first sign-in restore experience now available
• Windows Backup for Organizations
• What is Microsoft Entra?

Updated February 25, 2026: We are removing this message and will be providing an updated message shortly. You can safely disregard this message. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

—-Disregard—

Starting March 23, 2026, we’re disabling on‑demand synchronization for eDiscovery cases and searches created, modified, or deleted using PowerShell cmdlets. As a result, cases and searches created through cmdlets will no longer automatically appear or stay in sync with the eDiscovery UX.

[When this will happen:]

March 23, 2026

[How this will affect your organization:]

You are receiving this message because our reporting indicates your organization may be using eDiscovery tool.

Note: Administrators can identify usage by reviewing PowerShell audit logs or automation scripts that create or manage eDiscovery cases and searches.

eDiscovery users will no longer see cases or searches created, modified or deleted using cmdlets reflected in the eDiscovery UX when this change is implemented.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

When this change takes effect, no action is required if you manage cases and searches exclusively through the eDiscovery UX.

If your organization currently uses PowerShell cmdlets to create or manage eDiscovery cases or searches and expects them to appear in the UX, you will need to:

• Use Microsoft Graph APIs to create and manage eDiscovery cases and searches.
• Continue using PowerShell cmdlets for backend or automation scenarios without expecting visibility or synchronization in the UX.

Learn more about eDiscovery: Learn about eDiscovery solutions | Microsoft Learn

Learn more about Graph API for eDiscovery: Use Microsoft Purview APIs for eDiscovery | Microsoft Learn 

Compliance considerations:

[Introduction]

Microsoft Fabric will introduce a Public Preview feature called workspace-level IP firewall rules. This feature allows workspace admins to block inbound public access to workspace data, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorized access and potential data breaches.

[When this will happen]

• Public Preview: We began rolling out mid-January 2026 and expect to complete by early March 2026.
• General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2026.

[How this affects your organization]

Who is affected:

• Fabric tenant administrators
• Fabric workspace administrators

What will happen:

• A new tenant-level toggle called Configure workspace-level IP firewall rules will be available in the Advanced networking section of the Fabric admin portal.
• By default, this tenant toggle is Enabled, allowing workspace admins to configure IP firewall rules for their workspaces.
• Tenant admins can turn this toggle off to prevent workspace admins from configuring IP firewall rules.
• The tenant toggle depends on the existing Configure workspace-level inbound network rules setting.
  • The IP firewall toggle can only be enabled or disabled when inbound network rules are enabled.
• When enabled, workspace admins can:
  • Define an allowlist of public IP addresses for inbound access
  • Block all other public inbound connections to the workspace
• There is no impact to users unless IP firewall rules are explicitly configured on a workspace.

This feature provides Workspace admins with more granular control of inbound access protection of workspaces. With workspace IP firewall rules, you can manage the inbound connections from the workspace with an allowlist of public IPs, thereby reducing the risks of inbound access from public endpoints.

[What you can do to prepare]

• Review the Configure workspace-level IP firewall rules setting in the Fabric admin portal.
• Ensure Configure workspace-level inbound network rules is enabled if you plan to use this feature.
• Decide whether to keep the setting enabled or disable it to prevent workspace admins from configuring IP firewall rules.

Learn more: 

• Manage admin access to workspace inbound access protection settings | Security | Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn
• Set up workspace IP firewall rules (Preview) | Security | Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

[Compliance considerations]

[Introduction]

We’re introducing a new co-branding capability that will allow organizations to display a branded footer at the bottom of the Chat screen in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. This update will enable admins to add their organization’s logo to their users’ Microsoft 365 Copilot app, helping users confirm they are using their trusted, work-managed Copilot experience.

This feature will begin rolling out in March 2026 and is expected to complete by late April 2026.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 555852.

[When this will happen]

• General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout will begin in late March 2026 and is expected to complete by late April 2026.

[How this will affect your organization]

Who is affected

• All Microsoft 365 tenants using the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.

What will happen

• Admins will be able to upload a logo in the Microsoft 365 admin center to customize the footer in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.
• The footer will display an “Approved by [Logo]” indicator to help users confirm they are in an organization-approved Copilot environment: 

  

• Only the logo from your organization’s theme configuration will be used; other theme elements will not be applied in this release.
• This feature will be off by default and will require admin configuration.
• There will be no user impact unless an admin enables the footer.

[What you can do to prepare]

No action will be required unless you want to enable the branded footer.

Admins who want to configure this feature should:

• Review and verify your organization’s theme configuration in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
• Upload the logo you want to display in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app footer once rollout begins.
• Use the existing theme management flow to apply co-branding once the feature is available.

For configuration guidance: Customize the theme for your organization | Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

[Compliance considerations]

No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.

[Introduction]

We’re updating Outlook for iOS and Android to make it clearer when additional messages may be available while viewing filtered message lists. This change reduces confusion in scenarios where results appear unchanged because no additional items matching the selected filter are currently synced to the device.

When more filtered items may exist on the server, Outlook will provide an option to search for all items that match the applied filter, helping users find the messages they need. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs 557349 and 557350.

[When this will happen]

General Availability (Production): We will begin rolling out in mid‑March 2026 and expect to complete by late March 2026.

[How this affects your organization]

Who is affected

• All users of Outlook for iOS and Android who apply filters such as Unread, Flagged, Has attachments, Categories, To me, or Mentions me.

What will happen

• Users will see a new option to search for all filtered items when more messages may exist beyond what is synced locally:

  

• Selecting this option automatically opens Search with the filter automatically applied.
• This update will improve clarity but will not change admin configuration, sync behavior, or filtering capabilities.
• The update will not change how many messages are synced to the device or how items are retrieved from the server.
• The feature will be enabled by default and will require no action from admins.
• No admin controls or opt‑in/opt‑out settings will be introduced.

[What you can do to prepare]

No action is required.

You may choose to:

• Notify your users of the new behavior.
• Update internal help content or training materials that describe filtered message lists or scenarios where users load additional messages.

[Compliance considerations]

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.

[Introduction]

We’re introducing the ability for admins to configure separate retention policies for Copilots and AI apps. This enhancement gives organizations more flexibility to manage retention and deletion timelines for Copilot and generative AI interactions.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 520388.

[When this will happen]

General Availability (GCCH): Rollout is expected to begin in mid-March 2026 and will complete by May 2026.

[How this affects your organization]

Who is affected: Admins managing Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management for Copilot experiences and AI apps.

What will happen:

• Organizations will now have controls to configure different retention policies for Copilots and AI apps under Microsoft Copilot Experiences, Enterprise AI Apps, and Other AI Apps.
• This feature provides options to delete Copilot and generative AI interactions faster if needed.

[What you can do to prepare]

• Review your organization’s retention requirements for Copilot and AI app interactions.
• Update internal documentation and communicate changes to your compliance and IT teams.
• Learn more about retention policies in Microsoft Purview: https://learn.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/compliance/retention-policies
• Automatically retain or delete content by using retention policies.

[Compliance considerations]

We've released updates to the following update channel for Microsoft 365 Apps:

• Current Channel

[When this will happen:]

We'll be gradually rolling out this update of Microsoft 365 Apps to users on that update channel starting February 24th, 2026 (PST).

[How this will affect your organization:]

If your Microsoft 365 Apps clients are configured to automatically update from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN), then no action is required.

If you manage updates directly you can now download this latest update and begin deployment.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

To get more details about this update view the following release notes:

• Current Channel