Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter and blogs updates from 12-02-2025

Your Microsoft Intune account has been updated to the latest service build.

[How does this affect my organization:]

You will see the service release number updated in the Tenant Status blade of the Intune console soon. We have introduced some changes that we are excited for you to try out.

[What to do to prepare for this change:]

Click additional information below to learn more about what’s new in this service release. We will continue to update the What’s new page with any features that are released between now and the next monthly service update. Learn more by reviewing features highlighted in the latest Intune What’s new 2501 (January) blog and how the Intune service updates each month is described in the Microsoft Intune Service Updates blog. 

Additional Information:

Intune What’s new

What’s new 2501 (January) blog

Staying up to date on Intune new features, service changes, and service health

We will be retiring the classic eDiscovery including classic Content Search, eDiscovery (Standard), and eDiscovery (Premium) from the Microsoft 365 Purview portal starting August 1, 2025, and ending September 1, 2025. Instead, we recommend the new unified eDiscovery, which is faster and easier to use, combining standard and premium features, in a simpler workflow with robust reporting. We will continue to invest our development resources in the new unified eDiscovery.

Classic eDiscovery experience (red box) will retire. We recommend the new unified eDiscovery (green box) experience:

[How this will affect your organization:]

You are receiving this message because our reporting indicates one or more users in your organization may be using classic eDiscovery. Users will no longer be able to access classic eDiscovery after it retires. Users are defined as members of the eDiscovery administrator or manager role group or users with any of the eDiscovery relevant roles.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This change will happen automatically by the specified date. No admin action is required. Please notify your users about this change, update relevant documentation, and share the new experience and capabilities in the new unified eDiscovery.

Learn more

• About the new eDiscovery: Learn about eDiscovery (preview) solutions | Microsoft Learn
• Configuring the new eDiscovery experience for your tenant: Learn about user experience settings in eDiscovery (preview) | Microsoft Learn

Coming soon for Microsoft Teams: A new experience to search within Channel Posts. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Mac desktop, and web.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High): We will begin rolling out early March 2025 and expect to complete by mid-March 2025.

General Availability (DoD): We will begin rolling out mid-March 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Key enhancements include:

1. The new in-post Search experience will now be available in the right handrail, making it possible to see your post and your new search results in one single view. The initiation can be done using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F(win) or Cmd +F (Mac)

2. In-post search experiences will have enhanced captioning and keyword highlighting to aid the discernment of results:

3. In-post search will now also be available in pop-out window:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

The new search feature will be available by default.

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before or after the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Note: If you are not using frontline worker functionality, you can safely ignore this message.

We are pleased to announce new weekly Microsoft Teams Frontline Customer Office Hours: A dedicated time for you to engage directly with the product team to support Teams deployments for your frontline workers.

Objective: This initiative aims to enhance live customer engagement and satisfaction by:

• Addressing deployment-related questions in real time
• Providing direct support to ensure smooth and successful rollouts
• Gathering customer feedback to improve frontline worker deployment features

When are Customer Office Hours

The Teams Frontline Customer Office Hours takes place every Wednesday from 9:00-9:30am PT.

What Do Office Hours Cover?

• Customer Q&A: Get answers to questions about deploying teams at scale for your frontline workers and overall deployment best practices.
• Follow-ups: We will capture unresolved issues and address them after the meeting.
• Feedback collection: Share your thoughts on recently released deployment features.

Launch Timeline: Teams Frontline Customer Office hours launched on January 22, 2025.

How to join: Join the Teams meeting with https://aka.ms/TeamsFrontlineCustomerOfficeHours

Due to limited usage and our focus on investing in Microsoft Mesh where immersive 3D content can be created and experienced in a multi-user collaborative experience, we will retire the spaces feature from Microsoft SharePoint Online starting March 10, 2025 and ending August 11, 2025. As another alternative, you may choose to transition some existing content to SharePoint Pages.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users will no longer be able to view or create SharePoint spaces after this retirement is complete. Retirement timeline details:

• Starting March 10, 2025, the spaces feature be turned off by default. After this date, users can still access the spaces feature on SharePoint sites that have used it previously and users can enable the feature for individual sites on the Site features page.
• Starting May 15, 2025, users will no longer be able to enable the spaces feature on the Site features page, but SharePoint sites with the feature already enabled will continue to function as normal.
• Starting August 11, 2025, the feature will be fully disabled and users will be unable to view, edit, or create new spaces.

Learn how to identify SharePoint sites with the spaces feature enabled: SharePoint Spaces deprecation – Microsoft Support

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This change will happen automatically by the specified date. No admin action is required; however, existing content will no longer be usable after the feature is retired. Please notify your users about this change, update relevant documentation, and consider Microsoft Mesh for future immersive experiences in Microsoft 365.

You and your users can identify spaces content in a SharePoint site by going to the Pages library and looking for files where the Content type is Space.

Learn more: SharePoint Spaces deprecation – Microsoft Support

• This security update includes improvements that were a part of update KB5050094 (released January 28, 2025).
• This update makes quality improvements to the servicing stack, which is the component that installs Windows updates.
• This update makes miscellaneous security improvements to internal OS functionality. 

• Windows 11, version 24H2: KB5051987
• Windows 11, versions 23H2 and 22H2: KB5051989
• Windows 10, versions 22H2 and 21H2: KB5051974
• Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 and Windows Server 2019: KB5052000
• Windows 10 LTSB 2016 and Windows Server 2016: KB5052006
• Windows 10 LTSB 2015: KB5052040
• Windows Server 2025: KB5051987
• Windows Server 2022: KB5051979
• Windows Server 2012 R2: Monthly Rollup: KB5052042
• Windows Server 2012: Monthly Rollup: KB5052020
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1: Monthly Rollup: KB5052016 / Security Only: KB5052032
• Windows Server 2008 SP2: Monthly Rollup: KB5052038 / Security Only: KB5052072

1. Ensure that all Windows domain controllers and Windows clients are updated with a Windows security update released on or after April 9, 2024.
2. Review Audit events that are visible in Compatibility mode. This will help identify which devices have not been updated with a Windows security update released on or after April 9, 2024.
3. Install the April 2025 Windows update on all Windows domain controllers and Windows clients, once it becomes available later this year. Enforcement mode will be fully enabled in your environment. This will properly mitigate the vulnerabilities described in CVE-2024-26248 and CVE-2024-29056 will be mitigated.

• KB5037754: How to manage PAC Validation changes related to CVE-2024-26248 and CVE-2024-29056
• KB5020805: How to manage Kerberos protocol changes related to CVE-2022-37967

Updated February 11, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

In new Outlook for Windows and web, when single-clicking on an empty time slot on the calendar surface, the quick compose pop-up will no longer appear. Instead, you will be able to create an appointment by typing directly in the time slot on the calendar grid, just as you can in classic Outlook for Windows. There will be no change to double-click behavior; the full compose form will still open as it does today.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 406948.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early March 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by late March 2025 (previously late February).

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 (previously late February) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously late March).

[How this will affect your organization:]

This may affect how users create appointments quickly on the calendar surface. We expect this to be a better experience, especially for those familiar with classic Outlook inline appointment creation.

This update is available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically with no admin action required. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Updated February 11, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon for Microsoft Outlook: If users have enabled work hours and location in Settings, their colleagues will be able to more quickly see who plans to be in the office with a new calendar feature.

This message applies to new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 410986.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out in mid-August 2024 and expect to complete by late August 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early October 2024 and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously early February).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout: Users select the Location icon for each day in the calendar to see who plans to be in the office:

After this rollout: In addition to the Location icon, users will have a new “always on” peek in the top right of the calendar that shows who plans to be in the office for the current day:

This feature is on by default and available to all users of new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Updated February 11, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon: Users will be able to automatically see their automapped calendars when toggling from classic Microsoft Outlook to new Outlook for Windows. This message applies to classic Outlook for Windows desktop and new Outlook for Windows desktop.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 415168.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out in early March 2025 (previously early Feb) and expect to complete by early April (previously early March).

General Availability: We will begin rolling out in early April 2025 (previously early March) and expect to complete by early May (previously early April).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, users were not able to see their automapped calendars when toggling from classic Outlook to new Outlook.

To access an automapped calendars, users can go to Microsoft Outlook > Calendar icon on left of screen > My Calendars > Automapped calendar.

This feature is on by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

Learn more

• The section called Use the shared calendar from the shared mailbox in Open and use a shared mailbox in Outlook – Microsoft Support
• Definition of automapping: Remove automapping for a shared mailbox – Outlook | Microsoft Learn

#newoutlookforwindows

Updated February 11, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft Purview | Information Protection: Admins will be able to use auto-labeling policies to automatically label files and emails with Fingerprint based SIT (sensitive info type).

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 396173.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late November 2024 and expect to complete by mid-February 2025 (previously early February). 

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout, admins are not able to use auto-labeling policies to automatically label files and emails with Fingerprint based SIT.

After this rollout, you can configure Fingerprint based SIT using the condition Content contains sensitive information types. Files that match Fingerprint based SIT will show in simulation.

Note: Contextual summary is not available for Fingerprint based SITs.

This change will be on by default and available for admins to configure.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review use cases and set up for configuring document fingerprinting.

Learn more

• About document fingerprinting | Microsoft Learn
• Automatically apply a sensitivity label in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

Updated February 11, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

The room audio auto-detect and pre-select feature for Microsoft Teams BYOD rooms (released October 2024) will soon activate the video component of composite audio-video peripherals as the selected camera in Teams. This message applies to Teams for Windows desktops and Teams for Mac desktops.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469496.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early April 2025 (previously mid-March) and expect to complete by mid-April 2025 (previously late March).

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out in mid-April 2025 (previously late March) and expect to complete by late April 2025 (previously early April).

[How this will affect your organization:]

When a user selects an audio peripheral in the Room Audio option on the meeting prejoin screen, if that peripheral has a video component, that video component will be used as the video device for the Teams meeting.

This change will be available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Inform your users that this new behavior will be coming so they are aware that the room’s camera will be used if there is one.

Updated February 11, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We are introducing the ability to forward app cards. With the addition of app card forwarding, users now have a new way to share app cards across chats. To forward a message containing an app card, simply navigate to the More Actions menu of any message containing an app card and select forward. From here, the forward message dialog will populate, which provides users with a preview of the message being forwarded, including the app card. 

Please note: Forwarding of bot cards is excluded from this release. 

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 469506.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by late February 2025 (previously mid-February).

General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 (previously late January) and expect to complete by early March 2025 (previously early February).

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users will now have less restrictions when forwarding content. Previously, users were unable to forward messages that contained app cards. With this improvement, this restriction does not exist. 

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Users must have the latest Microsoft Teams build to receive these updates. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Updated February 11, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

Organizers and presenters can now end the session with this new “End Event” button for town halls, webinars, and structured meetings. After selecting this button, attendees will see a message on stage stating that the session has concluded, and presenters will return to the Green Room.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470432

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 (previously early February) and expect to complete by mid-February 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-February 2025 and expect to complete by late February 2025.

General Availability (GCC): We will begin rolling out late February 2025 and expect to complete by early March 2025.

General Availability (GCC High and DoD): We will begin rolling out late March 2025 and expect to complete by early April 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

When users join a town hall, webinar, or structured meeting with Green Room turned ON, they will now see the “End event” or “End meeting” button:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This feature change will be available once it is fully released in your tenant.

Updated February 11, 2025: We have updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We are updating the ‘Modern Workplace – Autopatch Client Setup’ script used by Windows Autopatch. Currently, this script installs the ‘Microsoft Cloud Managed Desktop Extension’ and ‘Windows Autopatch Client Broker’ applications, which share the same script for post-device registration readiness checks. The updated script will uninstall the old ‘Microsoft Cloud Managed Desktop Extension’ application and upgrade the existing application for improved performance.

[When will this happen:]

We will start the updates in mid-February 2025 (previously early February), and they will continue through late February 2025.

[How will this affect your organization:]

The ‘Windows Autopatch Client Broker’ will replace the ‘Microsoft Cloud Managed Desktop Extension,’ offering better scalability and performance through Windows Autopatch. We are continuously working to enhance functionality. There will be no immediate impact on your environment.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

To ensure the new application runs successfully, ensure that the new endpoint – device.autopatch.microsoft.com – is added to your allow list.

For more information, see Configure your network | Microsoft Learn. We will start the updates in early February, and they will continue through the end of the month.

If you have any questions or concerns, or need assistance, file a service request by visiting the Microsoft Intune admin center.

Updated February 11, 2025: We have updated the title and content. Thank you for your patience.

Coming soon to Microsoft New Outlook: Users of the New Outlook for Windows can now set custom descriptions for their accounts, making it easier to identify their multiple accounts in the New Outlook folder list as well as various lists and menus across Outlook.

This message applies to New Outlook for Windows.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 470602.

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out in late February 2025 and expect to complete by late March 2025.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out in late March 2025 and expect to complete by late April 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users can set the custom descriptions in Outlook Settings > Accounts > Your Accounts > Manage:

In this example, the user chose “Work” as the name of their first account:

Examples of custom descriptions (“Work” and “Personal”) for multiple Outlook accounts:

This change will be available by default.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Review your current configuration to determine the impact for your organization. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.

#newoutlookforwindows