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In this first episode of First Ring Daily of the new year, Brad Sams and Paul Thurrott discuss what to expect from the CES 2025 trade show that will officially kick off next week.

This article explores Microsoft Defender for Cloud features, benefits, integration capabilities, and best practices, offering actionable insights for IT professionals managing multicloud environments. Modern cloud environments demand robust security solutions to tackle ever-evolving cyber threats. Microsoft Defender for Cloud answers this call with a unified security platform that protects resources across Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web…

Microsoft has published a recap of all the enhancements made to its Teams collaboration platform in December 2024. This time around, the company highlighted enhanced screen-sharing controls, improvements for webinars and town halls, as well as new Teams-certified devices. Updates to meetings, webinars, and town halls Microsoft has released a new update that allows meeting…

Cybersecurity experts have discovered a series of attacks where hackers compromised multiple Chrome extensions. According to a new report from Reuters, the attackers used malicious code designed to steal browser cookies and hijack authentication sessions The cybersecurity firm Cyberhaven informed its customers that the hackers compromised a company account to release a malicious update (version…

Newly provisioned devices should use Microsoft Entra Join directly rather than starting with on-premises Active Directory (AD) and syncing to Entra ID. This way, organizations can fully benefit from modern Windows features and streamlined management. But many organizations get stuck using Entra Hybrid Join without plans to move to cloud-native setups. One major blocker is…

Microsoft has rolled out Double Key Encryption (DKE) support for its Microsoft 365 apps on Android devices. The company has announced on the Microsoft 365 admin center that this security feature is now available in public preview for commercial customers. Double Key Encryption is a robust security feature that enhances data protection by using two…

In this episode of First Ring Daily, Brad Sams and Paul Thurrott discuss Microsoft’s recent Copilot key changes, Asus announcing a new Copilot+ PC NUC, and CES 2025 being just around the corner.

Microsoft is currently investigating a new issue affecting its Office apps, including Word, Outlook, and Excel. The company acknowledged in a support document that users are encountering unexpected “Product Deactivated” errors. According to Microsoft, this problem might be triggered when an administrator makes changes at licensing level. Specifically, this issue could be caused while moving…

Microsoft-owned GitHub has launched a free version of its Copilot AI assistant, making it available to all developers. The AI-powered code completion tool is now seamlessly integrated into the Visual Studio Code (VS Code) IDE. GitHub first launched the Copilot coding assistant back in 2022. Previously, GitHub Copilot was only available for free to all…

Microsoft is preparing a major update to the UI of its Microsoft 365 app in early 2025. The company has notified its commercial customers that the app will get a new icon and be rebranded to Microsoft 365 Copilot starting in mid-January. Microsoft plans to simplify the Microsoft 365 Copilot app by removing the header…

In this guide, we’ll explore Azure Monitor’s key components, advanced features, and use cases while integrating practical examples, KQL (Kusto Query Language) insights, and best practices. By the end, you’ll know how to leverage Azure Monitor to optimize resource performance, ensure availability, and reduce costs. What is Azure Monitor? Microsoft Azure Monitor is a comprehensive…

Microsoft is changing the way the Search-UnifiedAuditLog cmdlet works in Exchange Online. Starting in January 2025, the HighCompleteness parameter, which administrators can currently toggle between true and false, will be permanently set to true for all queries. What is the Search-UnifiedAuditLog cmdlet? The Search-UnifiedAuditLog cmdlet is a PowerShell command that is used in Exchange Online…