Are you keeping up with Microsoft updates? The Microsoft Mondays: Microsoft Service Updates series from Total Solutions is here for your needs, and remember that Total Solutions also provides tailored, expert guidance during our consulting process. We are highlighting a few of the Microsoft announced upcoming updates from September:
- Loop workspaces will start counting towards tenant storage quotas
- Migrate to the Authentication methods policy in Azure Active Directory by September 30, 2025
- Microsoft Teams Live Event Retirement
- Introducing Microsoft Teams Town hall
- Introducing Left Navigation Customization on Microsoft365.com
- Important Notice: End of Support for Office 2013 and Recommended Upgrade
Keep an eye out for Microsoft Mondays for your Microsoft updates or speak with our technical team for your Microsoft needs.
* Updates posted here originally posted by Microsoft in the Microsoft 365 Message Center
Loop workspaces will start counting towards tenant storage quotas
[MC678308 · Published Sep 29, 2023]: Loop is a new app that enables your teams to think, plan, and create together like never before.
During the Loop app Public Preview, Loop workspaces were not counted towards your tenant’s storage quota. As the Loop app exits Public Preview, workspaces will start counting towards your tenant’s storage quota.
When this will happen:
Loop workspaces will start being counted towards your tenant’s SharePoint storage quota between late October and late November 2023.
How this will affect your organization:
Users in your organization may have created Loop workspaces during the Loop app Public Preview in 2023. During the Public Preview, each workspace was capped at a 5GB maximum size. Users could create any number of workspaces. These workspaces were not counted towards your tenant’s storage quota.
When this change goes into effect, new workspaces will instead have a 1TB maximum size. They will count towards your tenant’s SharePoint storage quota.
What you need to do to prepare:
You don’t need to do anything to enable this change. If you want to prevent more Loop workspaces from being created in your tenant, you have the option to proactively disable Loop workspaces in your organization using an admin setting. We recommend you also verify that the Loop admin setting is in the state you desire (i.e. “Enabled”, granting access to Loop workspaces, or “Disabled”, blocking access).
How you can see the storage consumption of Loop workspaces:
Admins can connect to SPO PowerShell to enumerate all Loop workspaces and view storage used by individual Loop workspaces by following these steps.
1. Run Get-SPOApplication
This command will return the Owning Application ID and Application Name associated with Loop.
2. Run Get-SPOContainer -OwningApplicationId <OwningApplicationID> | FT
- Input OwningApplicationID for the Loop app obtained in Step #1.
This command will return all the Loop workspaces created in the tenant.
3. Run Get-SPOContainer -OwningApplicationId <OwningApplicationID> -Identity <ContainerID>
- Input OwningApplicationID for the Loop app obtained in Step #1
- Input ContainerID of the workspace obtained in Step #2
This command will return StorageUsedInBytes along with other details of the workspace.
Migrate to the Authentication methods policy in Azure Active Directory by September 30, 2025
[MC678069 · Published Sep 28, 2023] On September 30th, 2025 we will be retiring the ability to manage authentication methods in the legacy Multifactor Authentication (MFA) and Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) policies in Entra ID. Organizations should migrate their methods to the converged authentication methods policy where methods can be managed centrally for all authentication scenarios including passwordless, multi-factor authentication and self-service password reset.
When this will happen:
Note: The date, September 30th, 2025, is an update from the previously communicated retirement date of September 30th, 2024.
What you can do to prepare:
Organizations can migrate their authentication methods manually by following the steps outlined in: How to migrate MFA and SSPR policy settings to the Authentication methods policy for Azure AD.
Microsoft Teams Live Event Retirement
[MC678003 · Published Sep 28, 2023]: With the introduction of Town halls in Microsoft Teams, Teams Live Events will be retired for commercial customers on September 30, 2024. This provides commercial customers with a 12-month window to prepare for the retirement and transition off Teams Live Events.
When this will happen: September 30, 2024
How this will affect your organization:
After September 30, 2024, Teams Live Events will no longer be supported, and access will be discontinued. Customers will not be able to schedule, start, or join any events on Teams Live Events after this date. Existing recordings will be available to access until December 31, 2024. If customers want to retain any recordings from prior events, they will need to download the recordings and upload them to a different location before December 31, 2024. Between now and September 2024, customers can continue to use Teams Live Events with no change in their existing experience. However, our recommendation is that customers (both existing and new) transition to and start to use town halls as it becomes generally available on October 5, 2023.
What you need to do to prepare: To prepare your organization for the transition we advise:
- Start to use town hall as it becomes generally available on October 5.
- Learn more about town hall when documentation becomes available on adoption.microsoft.com and learn.microsoft.com on October 5.
Start planning to download recordings your organization wishes to retain before December 31, 2024.
Introducing Microsoft Teams Town hall
[MC678002 · Published Sep 28, 2023] To simplify the virtual event experience on Teams, we are integrating our live event capabilities into our Teams meeting experience. This will create a unified experience for users whether they are hosting a small meeting, customer-facing webinar, or company-wide town hall. As a part of this integration, we are introducing Town halls in Microsoft Teams, a new experience to host and deliver large-scale, internal events to create connections across an organization. Town halls will provide a one-to-many format with advanced production capabilities and a structured approach for attendee engagement. With town halls, customers can host various types of internal as well as external events including company-wide town halls, all hands, global team meetings, internal broadcasts, fireside chats, and more.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 123148
When this will happen:
Standard Release (if applicable): We will begin rolling out early October 2023 and expect to complete early October 2023
How this will affect your organization:
Town hall will replace Teams Live Events and be available for Microsoft 365 and Office 365 customers and advanced capabilities in town hall will be available for Teams Premium customers. The new town hall experience will be generally available and start to roll out globally to commercial customers on October 5. Starting at launch, town hall will have an ongoing release of features to create parity with Teams Live Events functionality and will reach full feature parity ahead of Teams Live Events retirement in September 2024.
Our recommendation is that customers (both existing and new) start using town hall as it becomes generally available in October. Basic town hall functionality in Microsoft 365 and Office 365 E1/E3/E5/A3/A5 offerings provide the following capabilities:
- Attendee capacity of 10,000 attendees
- Host up to 15 concurrent events across a tenant
- Co-organizer support
- Automated invitation and event recording emails
- Green room
- Manage what attendees see
- RTMP-in
- RTMP-out
- On-demand recording
- Live translation captions (up to 6 languages)
- Live transcription (AI-generated)
- AI-generated captions
- Third-party eCDN and Microsoft eCDN support
- Attendee reporting
Town hall Template The template can be found in the Teams client via Calendar > New meeting dropdown > The Town hall feature will reside between the Webinar and Virtual Appointment options.
Template Form:
In the template, organizers can write the title and event description, set the date and time, invite co-organizers, internal presenters, and attendees. Inviting attendees is scoped by default to Your Organization which allows attendees who are within your organization and guests to enter the event session. Public setting allows the event to be accessed by any individual with the join link (this is only recommended for public, non-confidential events). Additionally, you can toggle “Only allow Invited people to join” for Your Organization events to enforce access only to attendees explicitly invited in the Town hall template form.
Selecting “Save and Send” informs Presenters and Co-Organizers via email of the event while in draft. The Publish button formally invites all attendees, presenters and co-organizers to the event. Once the event has been saved and published, the organizer can use the following tabs to manage their event:
- The Theming tab allows email customization for the Event Invite
- The Emails tab allows deeper customization to the Event Invite as well as the email for Recording link
- The reports tab presents post session analytics.
Meeting Options:
The organizer can further customize their event via the Meeting Options. The Meeting options will have pre-configured settings to enable a large scale, structured event. The organizer can edit default settings for features such as Green room, Q&A, Manage what attendees see, and RTMP-In.
What you need to do to prepare:
This feature will be enabled by default upon release, however if required by Admin Policy, can be disabled.
Please update PowerShell module to the latest version before making Large Scale Meeting Event policy changes.
To disable Town hall use the following script:
Set-CsTeamsEventsPolicy -Identity <policy name> -AllowTownhalls Disabled
To disable Public Town hall utilize the following parameter (this also affects Webinars)
-EventAccessType : EveryoneInCompanyExcludingGuests
Everyone: Enables creating events to allow in-tenant, guests, federated, and anonymous (external to the tenant) users to join the event. (enables/disables a public Large Scale Event)Note: Learn more about town hall when documentation becomes available on adoption.microsoft.com and learn.microsoft.com on October 5.
Introducing Left Navigation Customization on Microsoft365.com
[MC678068 · Published Sep 28, 2023] We are excited to announce a new feature that will allow individuals to customize the apps on the left navigation on microsoft365.com. This feature will give individuals more control and flexibility over the apps they use and access frequently.
When this will happen:
We will begin rolling this feature out in early October 2023 and will complete by mid-December 2023.
How this will affect your organization: As part of this feature, the current set of default apps on the app bar will be removed and users will be presented with an experience allowing them to pin the specific apps they want. Users will be able to add and remove apps to the left navigation from the Apps page at Microsoft365.com/apps. Admins will not be able to manage or override the user’s app choices.
What you need to do to prepare: No required preparation for this change. Training and documentation may need to be updated as appropriate.
Important Notice: End of Support for Office 2013 and Recommended Upgrade
[MC678062 · Published Sep 28, 2023] Note: This message only applies to you if members of your organization are still running Office 2013.
Introduction
As of six months ago, support for Microsoft Office 2013 has officially ended. This means that security updates, non-security updates, free or paid assisted support options, or online technical content updates from Microsoft have ended for this version of the product.
How this will affect your organization:
If your organization is still running this version of the product, we strongly recommend that you upgrade to a newer version as soon as possible. Continuing to use Office 2013 could expose your system to potential security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues with new software and updates.
To ensure continuous support and access to the latest features, we recommend migrating to Microsoft 365 E3, which includes the Microsoft 365 Apps. This product is continuously supported and updated by Microsoft, providing you with the most secure and efficient tools for your needs.
Please take a moment to review this article that provides recommendations, information, and links to help organizations plan their upgrades from older versions of Office to Microsoft 365 Apps. If you haven’t already begun to upgrade from these older versions of Office, we recommend you start now.
Check out previous Microsoft Updates that Total Solutions has posted here -> Microsoft Updates Archives – Total Solutions Inc.
