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In this episode of First Ring Daily, Brad Sams and Paul Thurrott discuss their issues with the new Outlook for Windows, Notion launching a new mail app, and OpenAI launching its new o3 reasoning model.

Microsoft has announced the general availability of its Conditional Access Reauthentication Every Time Policy for Entra ID customers—a new feature that enables administrators to enforce fresh user authentication for specific actions. This policy ensures tighter control over access to sensitive resources and user activities. When the “Every Time” setting is enabled, users must fully reauthenticate…

Microsoft talked a lot about Copilot Vision at its ‘Windows 50 Years’ event a couple of weeks ago. In case you’re not familiar with the technology, Vision allows Copilot to see exactly what you can see on your screen. If you’re thinking “what could possibly go wrong with that?” – considering the controversy over Windows Recall, I…

Last week, administrators across numerous organizations were blindsided by widespread account lockouts. This issue was caused by Microsoft’s newly launched MACE Credential Revocation app in Entra ID, which mistakenly flagged legitimate users as high risk. The MACE app in Microsoft Entra ID (formerly known as Azure Active Directory) is called MACE Credential Revocation. Microsoft recently…

Microsoft today released its second Secure Future Initiative (SFI) progress report. This new report outlines significant efforts in fortifying digital infrastructure and enhancing the cybersecurity resilience of organizations worldwide. What is the Secure Future Initiative (SFI)? Microsoft launched its Secure Future Initiative in November 2023. The SFI includes six pillars or areas of focus, with…

VMware has reinstated the free version of its vSphere Hypervisor (also known as ESXi), which was discontinued in February 2024. This news was quietly announced in the release notes for ESXi version 8.0 Update 3e. ESXi allows users to run multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical server in order to optimize resource utilization…

Cayosoft has released its 2025 Active Directory Insights report that includes findings from a Petri Media survey of over 1,000 IT and security professionals. The report shows that more than 88% of enterprise hybrid Active Directory environments contain critical security vulnerabilities. Active Directory (AD) is a key element in enterprise environments because it allows IT…

Microsoft is investigating a newly discovered bug that’s prompting unexpected Windows 11 upgrade offers for some enterprise users due to an issue with Microsoft Intune. The company has acknowledged the issue on the Microsoft 365 admin center and is actively deploying a code fix to affected devices. Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based endpoint management solution…

Cayosoft started life as a license management solution for Microsoft 365 and it gradually evolved into a comprehensive backup, protection, and administration product for Active Directory (AD) and Microsoft Entra ID. In this episode of Petri Dish, Petri’s Editorial Director, Russell Smith, talks to Cayosoft CEO and founder Bob Bobel about managing complexity in Identity…

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered that hackers are actively exploiting a critical NTLM spoofing vulnerability in Windows systems, despite Microsoft having released a patch for it back in March. The ongoing attacks underscore the urgency for organizations to update their systems before more damage is done. NTLM (New Technology LAN Manager) is a security protocol suite…

PowerShell boasts various powerful comparison operators and arithmetic operators, the “Not Equal” operator (-ne) is particularly useful in conditional logic and scripting. Understanding its nuances and real-world applications can significantly enhance your scripting efficiency. Let’s explore mastering the PowerShell Not Equal operator (-ne) thoroughly, including logical operators and case sensitivity considerations. What is the PowerShell…

Microsoft has issued a reminder to administrators: Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 will officially reach end of support this October. The company is urging IT teams to plan migration now to avoid security vulnerabilities and service disruptions. Microsoft dropped mainstream support for Exchange Server 2019 on January 9, 2024, whereas Exchange Server 2016’s mainstream support…