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Microsoft has officially declared 2025 the “year of Windows 11 PC refresh.” The company is urging customers to prepare to upgrade as Windows 10 approaches its end-of-support deadline in October 2025. “We believe that Windows 11 is available at a time when the world needs it most – providing advanced AI capabilities and modern security…

Microsoft Global Secure Access (GSA) offers an integrated, identity-driven approach to securing remote access to applications, file shares and resources, regardless of location, device, or user identity. I didn’t expect we’d see the beginning of the end of traditional VPNs for at least a decade. The ever-present need for on-premises applications, file shares, and resources to…

Microsoft Teams is set to roll out new recording policies specifically for town halls and webinars. This feature will be available across the Microsoft Teams desktop app for Windows, the Teams web client, and mobile apps next month. Microsoft Teams introduced support for town halls in October 2023. This feature allows organizations to host large,…

Cybersecurity researchers have warned about a critical vulnerability in Windows Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), posing a significant threat to unpatched Windows Servers. This flaw could be exploited to trigger server crashes or enable unauthorized remote access. What is LDAP? LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is a popular protocol for accessing and managing directory services…

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…