Microsoft Roadmap, messagecenter en blogs updates van 27-10-2024

• You can now stop the suggestions to turn off notifications from certain apps.
• In the Start menu, “All apps” has a new name, “All.”
• You can configure the Copilot key on the keyboard.
• This update addresses an issue that may cause a device to use too much battery power while the device is in Modern Standby.

• Windows 11, versions 23H2 and 22H2: KB5044380
• Windows 10, version 22H2: KB5045594

Custom engine agents and Teams bots can now stream responses like Microsoft Copilot. They can provide real-time updates on their actions while delivering parts of the response as they generate it, making interactions feel faster and more engaging.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422261

[When this will happen:]

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

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-December 2024 and expect to complete by late-December 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

When users interact with a custom engine agent or Teams bot that streams its response, they will experience the new UX.

Users will first see informative updates from the agent on what it is doing while it generates a response to the user’s message:

Once the agent has performed prerequisite actions and is ready to respond, users will start to see the agent’s response flow in as incremental chunks until the full response is available. This experience is very similar to how the response iteratively appears on leading AI experiences like ChatGPT or Copilot:

Users will have the option to stop generating the response if they feel the agent is headed down an ineffective path. Users can simply click on the stop button underneath the response, and this will stop the agent’s response. Users can then prompt the agent again:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

You may consider updating your training and documentation as appropriate.

We will retire the Monitor action in the Safe attachments policy in Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (Microsoft Defender for Office 365) starting late February 2025 and ending by late May 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

A Safe attachments policy provides an additional layer of protection against malicious content (attachments) in emails by analyzing attachment content and behavior in a sandbox environment. This policy provides four actions: Off, Monitor, Block, and Dynamic delivery. We made the Monitor action available for customers who wanted a Safe attachments policy to process attachments, deliver the emails (without blocking malicious attachments), and track what happened with attachments identified as malicious. Customers used reports to see detections from the Monitor action in the policy.

As part of this retirement, if your organization has Safe attachments policies set to the Monitor action, we will automatically change the action in from Monitor to Block. We will not change the policy’s recipients, status, or priority. After retirement, the Monitor option will not be available in the Safe Attachments policy page in the Defender security portal or the corresponding Microsoft PowerShell cmdlet.

Before retirement, you can find the Monitor action in Defender > Email & collaboration > Policies & rules > Threat policies > Safe attachments > choose a policy or create a new policy > Edit settings (or Settings if creating a new policy). We will also retire Redirect messages with detected attachments, because this option only supports the Monitor action):

After the retirement, the only actions in the Safe attachments policy will be Off, Block, and Dynamic delivery.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Before the retirement, review your Safe attachments policies and take appropriate action if your organization has Safe attachments policies set to the Monitor action. We recommend changing the action from Monitor to Block.

Alternatively, if you still need to run Safe attachment policy in audit mode, we recommend using Evaluation mode. Learn more about Evaluation mode.

You can also review detections by Evaluation mode policies using the Threat Protection Status report.

Learn more: The Safe Attachment policy settings section of Safe Attachments – Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn

You can now search for content related to specific people.  Start by typing the name of the relevant person in the search bar and select the filter to narrow down the search results and get relevant content suggestions

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 421189

[When this will happen:]

Targeted Release: We will begin rolling out early-November 2024 and expect to complete by mid-November 2024.

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out mid-November 2024 and expect to complete by late November 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users in the organization can now filter search results in Teams by the person with whom the content was shared (e.g. shared by, modified by, participated by)  

[What you need to do to prepare:]

No action is needed to prepare for this rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.

Microsoft has been on a mission to enable first party and third-party partners to build domain-specific experiences on Microsoft 365 apps sidecar copilot, for transformative user value. As part of that effort, we are excited to announce the availability of Declarative agents (DAs) in Word and PowerPoint Web platforms.

Declarative agent allows users to extend or tailor the capabilities of Copilot for Microsoft 365 to better suit individual or organizational needs by providing specific instructions and knowledge. Declarative agents run on the same foundational models, AI services, and orchestration that power Copilot for Microsoft 365.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): rollout will begin in late October 2024 and is planned to be completed by late November 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Users in your organization will now be able to install declarative agents on Word and PowerPoint web platforms. They can then use Declarative Agents through:

1. Installing a Declarative Agent:

• Users can install a Declarative Agents in either of the following ways –
  • Sideloading a Declarative Agent
  • In the App Store on Teams, users can go to “Manage your Apps” on bottom left corner and choose “Upload an App”. Then users can upload the DA zip file on the “Upload a custom app” pop-out
• Add from Teams Store
  • In Teams App Store, simply click on “Add” to install any of the Declarative Agents

  • Administrators can manage the agents published to their organization using Integrated Apps in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center in the same way they can manage other Integrated Apps. For more information, see: Manage Copilot agents in Integrated Apps – Microsoft 365 admin

    
    

2. Using a Declarative Agent:

• Users can now open any new Word/PowerPoint document on Web and go to Home->Copilot and then the Hamburger Menu to view installed Declarative Agents. Next, users can select the Declarative Copilot from the switcher menu and wait for the Chat pane to load the same. Now the user is all set to start interacting with the Declarative Agent
• Enter the prompt or just click on any starter prompts to get started.
• You can now @mention Declarative Agents directly from the regular App chat Copilot. Simply type “@” & a list of installed Declarative Agents will appear, allowing you to start a conversation instantly

[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.

Note: The Copilot “Extensions” name has changed to Agents, and this change will be part of the GA scope. As such, “Declarative Copilots” are now “Declarative Agents” moving forward.

Coming soon to Microsoft Teams: Anonymous unauthenticated users will be able to join watermarked meetings and have access to all meeting content, including video. This message applies to Teams on Windows desktop, Teams on the web, Teams for Android/iOS, and Teams Rooms.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out early November 2024 and expect to complete by mid-November 2024.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Before this rollout: Unauthenticated users who join a watermarked meeting can hear the meeting audio only.

After this rollout:

• Admins: The watermark policy in the Teams admin center will remain the same as it is now, because anonymous guest support will not be tied to a policy.
• Users: Anonymous users can join as before the rollout. They will see a watermark of their guest name they entered on the pre-join screen and will be able to access all meeting content.

An anonymous user will be asked to enter their name on the pre-join screen:

After the anonymous user joins the meeting, they see the name they entered on the pre-join screen as the watermark:

[What you need to do to prepare:]

This feature will be on by default. If you do not want guest name as the watermark for anonymous users, you can run a Microsoft PowerShell script for these guests to have access to audio only in meetings.

Learn more: Require a watermark for sensitive Teams meetings – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (will be updated before rollout)