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If you’ve been an IT Pro for many years (OK, decades), you likely know what an Active Directory OU (Organizational Unit) is. But, what if you’re new to the IT field or new to Microsoft Active Directory? No need to fret or get flustered – read my post to find out about OUs, what they are, and…

Microsoft is gearing up to introduce support for Personal plans in Microsoft Planner. These new Personal plans will provide users with a more tailored approach to managing tasks, granting creators exclusive ownership and access to their plans. Microsoft Planner is a popular task management service that allows enterprise teams to create, assign, and organize work…

Microsoft released yesterday a big update for Windows 11 version 22H2 with over 200 new features. The company announced this update during its special event last week, and one of the main highlights is the new Copilot assistant that can be pinned right on the desktop.  Copilot provides access to the same Bing Chat experience…

Microsoft has announced some important updates for its Defender for Cloud solution. This latest release introduces a new unified cloud data security dashboard and sensitive data discovery capabilities that promise to improve how organizations protect corporate data. First off, Microsoft has launched a new data security dashboard in public preview for its Defender for Cloud…

Microsoft is set to retire its Azure Database for MariaDB service, making way for Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server. This shift was announced yesterday, with the service scheduled for deprecation on September 9, 2025. Azure Database for MariaDB is a relational database service based on the open-source MariaDB Server engine. It offers a…

Microsoft has announced its September service release (2309) for Microsoft Intune with a focus on convenience and security. The major highlight of this release is the expansion of the Remote Help service to macOS, simplifying IT troubleshooting for remote Mac devices. Remote Help is a new cloud-based service that enables IT admins to remotely troubleshoot…

SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBM) developed by Microsoft that competes with Oracle, IBM DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and other RDBMs. In this article, I’ll explain in detail what SQL Server is and go through its release history over the past three decades. I’ll also detail what are the different SQL Server versions…

Microsoft has announced that its new web-based Outlook for Windows client is now generally available for consumers. The new app is also available to download on the Microsoft Store for commercial customers, and it will be shipped in tomorrow’s optional update, as well as Windows 11 version 23H2. In a separate blog post for IT…

In a world where online security is paramount, GitHub has just announced the general availability of passkey support for passwordless authentication. This new security feature, which launched in public beta in July, now offers developers a more secure and convenient way to access their GitHub accounts. Passkey is a security feature that allows users to…

In this episode of First Ring Daily, Brad Sams and Paul Thurrott discuss the unexpected departure of Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer Panos Panay, the company’s special event about AI and Surface yesterday, and the UK’s CMA provisionally approving Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition.

Microsoft held its Surface and AI event where the company unveiled several new security features and updates set to transform the digital landscape. With a commitment to a ‘security-first’ mindset, Microsoft is forging ahead with advancements in Windows 11, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Defender. “As we rapidly iterate and improve technology, it’s imperative…

Multi-tenant organizations (MTOs) are a new feature in Microsoft 365 and Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) that has reached the public preview stage in mid-2023. An MTO is a group of up to five Entra ID tenants linked together to offer your users seamless collaboration and the sharing of resources. In this article, I’ll…