M365

Staying organized is crucial for SMBs to maintain productivity and efficiency. With the numerous tasks and responsibilities that come with running a business, it can be challenging to manage everything. Microsoft 365 Copilot offers a variety of tools that help simplify your workflow, so you can prioritize what matters, reduce busywork, and keep your business running smoothly.  Here are three tips to help keep things in order using Copilot Notebooks, Copilot in Outlook, and Copilot in Teams.   Tip 1: Create and organize content with Copilot Notebooks  Copilot Notebooks helps keep important things in view. This new capability within Microsoft 365 Copilot allows you to gather, organize, and interact with content in a single, AI-powered workspace.  Think of it as a dynamic scratchpad that makes it easy to pull in files, chats, emails, and meeting notes, enabling more intelligent insights and tailored responses. Notebooks lets you build deeper context over time with longer prompts (up to 18,000 characters), so the responses you get are more relevant, more useful, and more tailored to your goals.  Use Notebooks to:  Improve customer proposals - Gather past proposals, client emails, meeting notes, and relevant research into one notebook. Use Copilot to summarize client needs, draft proposal sections, and iterate on messaging.  Streamline project management - Centralize timelines, campaign assets, product specs, and stakeholder feedback. Ask Copilot to identify blockers, generate a workback plan, or summarize status updates.  Develop a support knowledge base - Compile common issues, chat transcripts, product documentation, and troubleshooting steps. Copilot can suggest responses or summarize patterns in customer feedback.  These are just a few of the possibilities. To get started, go to microsoft365.com/copilot and sign in with your work account. You’ll find “Notebooks” in the left-hand navigation. Click “Create Copilot Notebook”, select content to include, and continue adding references as your project evolves.    Copilot Notebooks make it easy to bring together the content that matters to your task at hand. Tip 2: Prioritize your emails with Copilot in Outlook  Managing emails can be overwhelming, especially when you're juggling multiple responsibilities. Within Outlook, Prioritize by Copilot can help you cut through the noise, so you can act faster on time-sensitive or high-impact messages, and avoid missing important follow-ups.  Once you’ve finished a simple setup, Copilot marks specific email as “high priority” based upon criteria such as keywords, topics, and people you’ve marked as important, thread activity and urgency, and the sender’s relationship to you (e.g. manager, direct report).  This valuable and easy-to-use tool helps you focus on high-priority emails, reducing the time spent sorting through your inbox and allowing you to address key tasks promptly.  Set up Prioritize by Copilot by opening Outlook, click the Copilot drop-down and select “Prioritize”. Next, click “Set it up”, enter your priority criteria, and then click “Save”.    Within Outlook, click the Copilot dropdown, then select “Prioritize”. Tip 3: Streamline meetings with Copilot in Teams  It’s easy to have mixed feelings about meetings. They’re an indispensable part of business operations, but they can often be time-consuming and inefficient. Copilot in Teams helps streamline your meeting experiences – from prep to recap – so you can get the most out of your day.  Use Copilot to suggest action items, summarize meeting chats, provide answers to specific questions, and reason over content shared on-screen. Copilot automatically captures areas of agreement, as well as unresolved issues and next steps. Now you can focus on the strategic aspects of your meetings, while keeping everyone on the same page and driving better outcomes.    Let Copilot handle the note taking in your meeting, freeing you to focus on the discussion, while capturing all of the important details. Your own AI assistant to help organize the workday  Staying organized is fundamental to running a successful small or midsize business, and now, you don’t have to do it alone. With Microsoft 365 Copilot, you have an AI assistant helping you manage the chaos of the day. Whether it’s prioritizing your email in Outlook, pulling everything together in Copilot Notebooks, or making meetings more productive in Teams, Copilot helps you remain focused on what matters most.  With a little help from Copilot, you can work smarter, respond faster, and stay a step ahead. 

Microsoft strives to deliver utmost value to our customers through modern, optimized, secure solutions in this newly evolved world focused on digital transformation. As part of this evolution of Microsoft 365 solutions, we will be retiring SharePoint Alerts and believe Microsoft 365 customers will be better served by modern notification solutions based upon the Power Automate platform or SharePoint Rules.   Timeline  Date  Action  From July 2025  The creation of new SharePoint Alerts will be gradually turned off for newly onboarding tenants.  From September 2025  The creation of new SharePoint Alerts will be gradually turned off for all tenants.  From October 2025  The SharePoint Alert expiration feature will be gradually activated. Once activated, any SharePoint Alert will have a validity of 30 days starting from its first run, then it will expire. Users can self-service re-enable expired SharePoint Alerts and extend their expiration for another 30 days. Re-enabling and extending SharePoint Alerts can be done by using the “Manage my alerts” list/library menu item, opening the SharePoint Alert to update, extending its expiration date and clicking OK.  From July 2026  Microsoft will remove the ability to use SharePoint Alerts; existing SharePoint Alerts cannot be extended anymore and will not work anymore.    Call to Action Guidance  Update user training content and helpdesk  It’s recommended to update your user training content and prepare your help desk to support your organization with this retirement. SharePoint Alerts users will be notified of this feature retirement via banners in both the relevant SharePoint Online page and Alert emails and users can self-service extend the alerts they deem required.    The option to create new Alerts will be blocked (from July 2025, for new tenants, from September 2025, for existing tenants). Users trying to create a new Alert will not be able to save the Alert plus they’ll see a banner to make them aware of the SharePoint Alerts feature is retiring.    As of October 2025, users will see an option to extend the expiration of their existing SharePoint Alerts plus they’ll see a banner to make them aware of the SharePoint Alerts feature is retiring.      When a user receives a SharePoint Alert email as of October 2025, the email will also contain a banner clarifying the SharePoint Alert feature is retiring plus the email will show when the SharePoint Alert that triggered this email will expire. The date shown is a UTC date. Users can proactively extend their SharePoint Alerts, or in case a SharePoint Alert did expire re-enable and extend it. The maximum validity of a SharePoint Alert extension is 30 days.  Microsoft 365 Assessment tool  To understand if your organization is using SharePoint Alerts or begin planning migration to Power Automate or SharePoint Rules, we recommend that customers run the Microsoft 365 Assessment tool to scan their tenants for SharePoint Alerts usage. Using the Power BI Alerts Report generated by the scanner tool, you can see all the SharePoint Alerts defined in the tenant, filterable by site collection and web.  Power Automate reference samples  The recommendation is to user Power Automate with SharePoint Online for modern notification scenarios. To help you with the transition to Power Automate we’re actively building reference samples, we’ll update this chapter once these samples ship.  How do I get help  You can use the following services and partner programs to help with your migration from SharePoint Alerts:  Microsoft Solution Provider  Microsoft Power Automate Partners  Help on Microsoft 365 Assessment tool: Open a support ticket 

Today at the Microsoft 365 Community Conference, we announced the next generation of sharing for Microsoft 365. Not just an experience refresh, this year we are improving the underlying model that enables collaboration within oM365. We are making it simpler to use, more intelligent, and ensuring that users can keep their content secure by default. In 2011, the cloud revolutionized collaboration and SharePoint Online launched with direct permissioning to enable sharing. Three years later, the on-going cloud transformation led to the invention of “link-based sharing” to allow users to forward and share URLs that grant access within defined, yet secure scopes. Over the last decade, collaboration flourished with over 1.2 Billon people using the share dialog in M365 per month. But as we look ahead, we see new demands emerging to meet the needs of collaborative, agentic workplaces. We are excited to give you a walkthrough of the third generation of sharing in Microsoft 365 and introduce the hero link, the power behind the next decade of collaboration. Meet the hero link The next generation of sharing makes you the hero of collaboration! Each file gets a single hero link which controls all access to the file. Whether you’re clicking “Copy Link”, sending an e-mail, or yes, even copying the URL out of the address bar, it’s all the hero link! This removes the need to create, delete, and manage multiple links on your files, creating a vastly simpler experience. Sharing files with your company has never been easier: simply update the hero link and anyone with the link in your company will get access. Need to lock down a file? Change the link to only allow access for people you directly add, keeping your files secured. We know that users don’t always check file permissions before they send out a link, which can lead to frustrating “Access Denied” page. With hero links, users are empowered to update the link that they already sent, enabling them to quickly increase or decrease the scope of the hero link to match their needs. Secure by default Every hero link starts by working for only the people who have already been added to the document. As users embark on their collaboration journey, they can add more people and teams directly to the document or update the hero link as needed to broaden access. For files that are shared externally, the new share experience explicitly tags external users and guests to make sure they stand out and can be managed appropriately. Administrators will be able to change this default on a per-site collection or OneDrive basis, as needed. With the next generation of sharing, users can further secure their content by controlling who can add people or update access of the file or folder, which gives users the granular control they need to protect their most important content. At a glance access The next generation of sharing requires easy understanding of not only who has access to a file, but how they have access.  The Share Dialog and Manage Access experiences are now unified into a single, powerful interface, ensuring users can see and manage their documents and folders with effortless precision. Updates to permissions now appear in real-time, giving users confidence and real-time feedback as they share! With this new sharing model, you can now update permissions in bulk. It is now easier than ever to change or remove permissions for multiple people in a single session. Changes appear instantly, helping you stay in control! If a user wants additional granularity, they can even create additional sharing links to be used for specific purposes. These links can even be named, to help users track and assign them to specific tasks. Copilot + Sharing Save time for your coworkers and keep your team up to speed by using Copilot when you share. With a single click, generate a summary of your document that will be included in the notification mail. Recipients can now understand what the file is about, without needing to open it and read the content. This is a great way to save time and help get your collaborators up to speed! Choose when you notify Have you ever had those days where your notifications are going crazy from teammates adding you to files? We hear your frustration-and we are happy to tell you that you can now choose whether to send an e-mail notification or not when you add people to your file. This update puts you in control of how you share and notify teammates – simply check the box or not based on your preference! This control is critical when you’re bringing a colleague up to speed on multiple documents, or just want to make sure that your file is shared correctly before incorporating into a SharePoint News Post or Amplify! Looking Ahead This new sharing experience and model will be rolling in late 2025! You can track the latest timelines and updates via the Microsoft 365 Message Center or the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. We know change management is top of mind with any product change, and especially one’s as critical to your organization as collaboration.In addition to the standard updates at Microsoft Docs, we’ll also be uploading how to videos for end users and IT Pros to the Microsoft Community Learning YouTube Channel, walking through the changes in depth on  the Sync Up Podcast  and in the OneDrive Customer Office Hours. We’re excited to share the future with you! Frequently Asked Questions We know how important collaboration is to your organization! Here are answers to a few of the common questions we’ve heard! If you have others, let us know in the comments below! Q - What do I need to do to prepare for this change? A – For now, keep an eye on the roadmap id and Message Center for more information! As we get closer to release, we’ll ensure you have the content you need to update and prepare your users, admins and security teams.   Q - What happens to my existing collaboration experience? A – Nothing! The new sharing model is fully backwards compatible. All the links and permissions you have today will continue to work and will show up in the “Other Links” section of the dialog! Q - Where will this change happen?  A - Everywhere! OneDrive powers the sharing experience across 64 apps in M365. This change will be updated consistently across the entire ecosystem.

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Use Microsoft Purview and Microsoft 365 Copilot together to build a secure, enterprise-ready foundation for generative AI. Apply existing data protection and compliance controls, gain visibility into AI usage, and reduce risk from oversharing or insider threats. Classify, restrict, and monitor sensitive data used in Copilot interactions. Investigate risky behavior, enforce dynamic policies, and block inappropriate use — all from within your Microsoft 365 environment. Erica Toelle, Microsoft Purview Senior Product Manager, shares how to implement these controls and proactively manage data risks in Copilot deployments. Control what content can be referenced in generated responses. Check out Microsoft 365 Copilot security and privacy basics. Uncover risky or sensitive interactions. Use DSPM for AI to get a unified view of Copilot usage and security posture across your org. Block access to sensitive resources. See how to configure Conditional Access using Microsoft Entra. Watch our video here. QUICK LINKS: 00:00 — Microsoft Purview controls for Microsoft 365 Copilot 00:32 — Copilot security and privacy basics 01:47 — Built-in activity logging 02:24 — Discover and Prevent Data Loss with DSPM for AI 04:18 — Protect sensitive data in AI interactions 05:08 — Insider Risk Management 05:12 — Monitor and act on inappropriate AI use 07:14 — Wrap up Link References Check out https://aka.ms/M365CopilotwithPurview Watch our show on oversharing at https://aka.ms/OversharingMechanics Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics? As Microsoft’s official video series for IT, you can watch and share valuable content and demos of current and upcoming tech from the people who build it at Microsoft. Subscribe to our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MicrosoftMechanicsSeries Talk with other IT Pros, join us on the Microsoft Tech Community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-mechanics-blog/bg-p/MicrosoftMechanicsBlog Watch or listen from anywhere, subscribe to our podcast: https://microsoftmechanics.libsyn.com/podcast Keep getting this insider knowledge, join us on social: Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MSFTMechanics Share knowledge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft-mechanics/ Enjoy us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msftmechanics/ Loosen up with us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@msftmechanics Video Transcript: -Not all generative AI is created equal. In fact, if data security or privacy-related concerns are holding your organization back, today I’ll show you how the combination of Microsoft 365 Copilot and the data security controls in Microsoft Purview provide an enterprise-ready platform for GenAI in your organization. This way, GenAI is seamlessly integrated into your workflow across familiar apps and experiences, all backed by unmatched data security and visibility to minimize data risk and prevent data loss. First, let’s level set on a few Copilot security and privacy basics. Whether you’re using the free Copilot Chat that’s included with Microsoft 365 or have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, they both honor your existing access permissions to work information in SharePoint and OneDrive, your Teams meetings and your email, meaning generated AI responses can only be based on information that you have access to. -Importantly, after you submit a prompt, Copilot will retrieve relevant index data to generate a response. The data only stays within your Microsoft 365 service trust boundary and doesn’t move out of it. Even when the data is presented to the large language models to generate a response, information is kept separate to the model, and is not used to train it. This is in contrast to consumer apps, especially the free ones, which are often designed to collect training data. As users upload files into them or paste content into their prompts, including sensitive data, the data is now duplicated and stored in a location outside of your Microsoft 365 service trust boundary, removing any file access controls or classifications you’ve applied in the process, placing your data at greater risk. -And beyond being stored there for indexing or reasoning, it can be used to retrain the underlying model. Next, adding to the foundational protections of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Purview has activity logging built in and helps you to discover and protect sensitive data where you get visibility into current and potential risks, such as the use of unprotected sensitive data in Copilot interactions, classify and secure data where information protection helps you to automatically classify, and apply sensitivity labels to data, ensuring it remains protected even when it’s used with Copilot, and detect and mitigate insider risks where you can be alerted to employee activities with Copilot that pose a risk to your data, and much more. -Over the next few minutes, I’ll focus on Purview capabilities to get ahead of and prevent data loss and insider risks. We’ll start in Data Security Posture Management or DSPM for AI for short. DSPM for AI is the one place to get a rich and prioritized bird’s eye view on how Copilot is being used inside your organization and discover corresponding risks, along with recommendations to improve your data security posture that you can implement right from the solution. Importantly, this is where you’ll find detailed dashboards for Microsoft 365 Copilot usage, including agents. -Then in Activity Explorer, we make it easy to see recent activities with AI interactions that include sensitive information types, like credit cards, ID numbers or bank accounts. And you can drill into each activity to see details, as well as the prompt and response text generated. One tip here, if you are seeing a lot of sensitive information exposed, it points to an information oversharing issue where people have access to more information than necessary to do their job. If you find yourself in this situation, I recommend you also check out our recent show on the topic at aka.ms/OversharingMechanics where I dive into the specific things you should do to assess your Microsoft 365 environment for potential oversharing risks to ensure the right people can access the right information when using Copilot. -Ultimately, DSPM for AI gives you the visibility you need to establish a data security baseline for Copilot usage in your organization, and helps you put in place preventative measures right away. In fact, without leaving DSPM for AI on the recommendations page, you’ll find the policies we advise everyone to use to improve data security, such as this one for detecting potentially risky interactions using insider risk management and other recommendations, like this one to detect potentially unethical behavior using communication compliance policies and more. From there, you can dive in to Microsoft Purview’s best-in-class solutions for more granular insights, and to configure specific policies and protections. -I’ll start with information protection. You can manage data security controls with Microsoft 365 Copilot in scope with the information protection policies, and the sensitivity labels that you have in use today. In fact, by default, any Copilot response using content with sensitivity labels will automatically inherit the highest priority label for the referenced content. And using data loss prevention policies, you can prevent Copilot from processing any content that has a specific sensitivity label applied. This way, even if users have access to those files, Copilot will effectively ignore this content as it retrieves relevant information from Microsoft Graph used to generate responses. Insider risk management helps you to catch data risk based on trending activities of people on your network using established user risk indicators and thresholds, and then uses policies to prevent accidental or intentional data misuse as they interact with Copilot where you can easily create policies based on quick policy templates, like this one looking for high-risk data leak patterns from insiders. -By default, this quick policy will scope all users in groups with a defined triggering event of data exfiltration, along with activity indicators, including external sharing, bulk downloads, label downgrades, and label removal in addition to other activities that indicate a high risk of data theft. And it doesn’t stop there. As individuals perform more risky activities, those can add up to elevate that user’s risk level. Here, instead of manually adjusting data security policies, using Adaptive Protection controls, you can also limit Copilot use depending on a user’s dynamic risk level, for example, when a user exceeds your defined risk condition thresholds to reach an elevated risk level, as you can see here. -Using Conditional Access policies in Microsoft Entra, in this case based on authentication context, as well as the condition for insider risk that you set in Microsoft Purview, you can choose to block their permission when attempting to access sites with a specific sensitivity label. That way, even if a user is granted access to a SharePoint site resource by an owner, their access will be blocked by the Conditional Access policy you set. Again, this is important because Copilot honors the user’s existing permissions to work with information. This way, Copilot will not return information that they do not have access to. -Next, Communication Compliance is a related insider risk solution that can act on potentially inappropriate Copilot interactions. In fact, there are specific policy options for Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions in communication compliance where you can flag jailbreak or prompt injection attempts using Prompt Shields classifiers. Communication compliance can be set to alert reviewers of that activity so they can easily discover policy matches and take corresponding actions. For example, if

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