Category Archives: Uncategorized

Azure FAQs

Microsoft have updated the Azure FAQs.

The revised document includes a chunky new section at the end, all about Azure Local. A set of 15 new questions details its use cases, hardware and deployment configuration options, and billing and operational policies.

Whilst the live Microsoft website only displays the current version of these FAQs, we track and preserve all changes to the various online licensing guidance. If you’re a subscriber, you can always check out the details of what’s new (and what’s wrong!) in our Licensing Guides Gallery: https://bit.ly/GuidesGallery. In the meantime, find the latest capture here: https://bit.ly/4aSbkIK.

Microsoft 365 packaging and pricing changes for July 2026

The July 2026 Microsoft 365 pricing and feature changes are now live!

The updates include the addition of Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 to the Office 365/Microsoft 365 E3 licenses, broader Intune features for Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, and an extra 50 GB of mailbox storage for the Microsoft 365 Business plans. Microsoft are updating their documentation for the new capabilities that coincide with the expected price increases.

Don’t forget our subscriber-exclusive interactive tools to assist with these changes:

• The Office 365/Microsoft 365 Plan Picker helps you choose the right plan based on specified features: https://bit.ly/PlanPicker
• Our Product Price Plotter helps you track exactly which licenses are affected by the price changes: https://bit.ly/ProductPricePlotter
• Use the Licensing Guides Gallery (https://bit.ly/GuidesGallery) to view the history of changes to the Subscription License Suites website, which Microsoft are currently updating to reflect the changes: https://bit.ly/4cqn6v9

Amazon WorkSpaces deployment rights update

Microsoft update the 1 July, 2026 Product Terms to add the Microsoft 365 E3/A3/G3 – Unattended Licenses to the list of eligible products that allow you to run the Microsoft 365 Apps in Amazon WorkSpaces. Find the full page of rules here: https://bit.ly/4fdNFoK.

Windows 365 and developers

In September 2025, Microsoft announced that they would stop accepting new customers for Dev Box from 1 November 2025 and would instead bring developer capabilities to Windows 365.

At Build in early June 2026 they announced the public preview of a Windows 11 developer configuration image for Windows 365.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4esjVD3.

World-class licensing training for free!

At Licensing School, if there’s one thing we love as much as licensing, it’s training!

Licensing legend Louise pairs these passions three times a month, enthusiastically upskilling licensing professionals around the world. Our recent Microsoft 365 training was a huge hit with subscribers and, for a limited time, it’s free to everyone! The session demystifies the Apps, Windows, security, and the available plans. Our huge back catalogue of on-demand training is jam-packed with similar content covering everything from the mainstream to the mind-bending – all made clear with Louise’s unique delivery style.

Enjoy the free session and get in touch to discuss access to our full treasure trove of training. Dive in now: https://bit.ly/FreeM365Training. Contact us: info@licensingschool.co.uk

Copilot Cowork now GA

Microsoft announce the general availability of Copilot Cowork.

Rather than just another standalone Agent, Copilot Cowork is an “agentic system” that lets you execute complex, long-running tasks in the background, powered by Work IQ. Unlike a standard Copilot prompt, you can hand off multi-step workflows and watch the results unfold. For example, it can pull marketing reports from a SharePoint folder, review and compare data, or build complete PowerPoint decks. In terms of licensing, you’ll need a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence and consumption-based billing configured.

This uses the familiar currency of Copilot Credits, consuming varied amounts based on the task complexity. To assist with understanding potential costs, Microsoft encourage you to categorise likely tasks as Light, Medium, or Heavy, and provide a useful Customer Cowork Estimator spreadsheet. Here you can supply the numbers of users and amount of Light/Medium/Heavy tasks to generate an estimated average price per user per month. Find that spreadsheet here: https://bit.ly/4uLQQIF.

For further resources, check out the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4oSBp0l, some examples of what Cowork can do here: https://bit.ly/43LK8rf, and a Partner Launch Kit here: https://bit.ly/4xBcT7w.

Minor pricing precision updates for EEA currencies

Microsoft have announced pricing adjustments for certain Microsoft 365 and Office 365 SKUs across European Economic Area (EEA) currencies from 1 July 2026.

This minor price update is required for EU settlement compliance and affects CSP, MCA-E, and Web Direct customers purchasing in EUR, DKK, NOK, SEK, and CHF. You might see small tweaks to the prices of the Frontline, Business, and Enterprise licenses (including the flavours both with and without Teams). This adjustment is completely separate from the wider July 2026 Microsoft 365 and Office 365 price changes also taking effect in July, which you can read about in our blog post here: https://bit.ly/4eNcnL7.

Check out the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4uYZG5Z.

We help subscribers track all price changes with our Exchange Rate Price Plotter: https://bit.ly/ExchangeRatePlotter. Use our Product Price Plotter to jog your memory on the July product price changes: https://bit.ly/ProductPricePlotter.

Azure Savings Plans Inspector

If FinOps is your thing, you might find this “Azure Savings Plan Inspector” article useful.

It’s a set of instructions for pulling data out of the Cost Management REST API to give you more insight on the right figure to choose for an Azure Savings Plan hourly commitment.

The article is here: https://bit.ly/4uFSkUY, with a worked example.

Microsoft Scout

Microsoft announce Microsoft Scout, the first in a brand-new category of always-on autonomous Agents known as Autopilots.

Rather than solely relying on user prompts, this installable desktop AI application leverages Work IQ to learn your work habits and preferences over time. It works independently in the background, interacting with your Microsoft 365 data to do things like proactively flagging important meetings, or keeping an eye on your inbox and Teams for any outstanding decisions that are waiting on you.

Whilst an always-on Agent might sound like a privacy risk, Microsoft emphasise the security and compliance controls available. Scout has its own Entra identity, ensuring that any actions it takes remain within your organisational permissions. It can only view sensitive files or perform actions that you’ve explicitly approved, and its activities are fully auditable.

Licensing wise, you’ll need to be licensed for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Intune, as well as GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise for additional token-based billing based on usage. Installation also requires specific system prerequisites and enrollment in the Frontier Preview Program, which is Microsoft’s early-access platform for experimental software.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/43Biayu and check out the Learn documentation for installation details: https://bit.ly/4xw3zBQ.

Modern Work Plan Comparison documents

The Modern Work Plan Comparison documents are updated for June 2026.

Both the Enterprise and SMB flavours feature a handful of small adjustments this month. The change logs point out the addition of the Entra Suite, which reinforces its inclusion in Microsoft 365 E7. However, since it was already in the comparison matrix, this introduces duplication and some conflicting guidance on what you can add it to. The Government documents are untouched for June, and there’s no new release of the Education flavour.

Don’t forget that we help you navigate the (increasingly frequent) errors in these documents every month with our Cautionary Notes. You’ll find these using the one-click “Microsoft 365” filter in our subscriber-exclusive Licensing Guides Gallery, along with quick access to the documents and full change details: https://bit.ly/GuidesGallery. Non-subscribers can find the documents here: https://bit.ly/4hn2hS2. If you’re a partner and prefer the Excel version, contact us from your work email address and we’ll send it right over: info@licensingschool.co.uk.