Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dragon Copilot

Microsoft announce that Dragon Copilot is available in the US from May 1, 2025 and will be available in Canada on June 1, 2025, with the exception of the province of Quebec. It’ll then come to the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Quebec in the months after that. It’s also added to the May 2025 Product Terms (https://bit.ly/3GCH48E) where we see there’s a Dragon Copilot User licence and a Dragon Copilot Flex User licence.

There’s a new licensing guidance document which explains all – the regular licence gives you access to all services as well as ambient and GenAI features, and the Flex licence gives you access to core features with the ambient and GenAI features billed on a consumption basis.

You can find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3Ez36IQ, and the licensing guidance document here: https://bit.ly/4cYNpqP.

Computer use in Copilot Studio

Microsoft announce “Computer Use” – a capability that will enable Agents to interact with websites and desktop apps by clicking buttons, selecting menus, and typing into fields on the screen. It’s due to come to Copilot Studio soon through an early access research preview program.

You can find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/3GgperF with a link to apply to participate in the preview program, and why not register for a demo session at Build in May 2025: https://bit.ly/4jV3EYl.

Azure AD External Identities end of sale

1 May 2025 marks the end of sale for new customers of Azure AD External Identities Plan 2 and Azure AD B2C – Microsoft Entra External ID is Microsoft’s latest Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) solution for managing identity, authentication and authorisation of external users.

This site gives information about required actions for existing customers of the older solutions (https://bit.ly/42E3i1d), and there’s a useful FAQ here: https://bit.ly/4jNr2Yl.

Updated pricing for server products and suites

Microsoft announce that when Exchange Server SE and Skype for Business Server SE become available in July 2025 there will be some price increases. These two products, along with SharePoint Server SE will increase by 10%, and the Core CAL Suite and Enterprise CAL Suite will increase by 15% and 20% respectively.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3RwWtJU.

Windows Autopatch

Windows Autopatch, a cloud service to automate updates, was originally available only to Windows 10/11Enterprise E3/E5 or VDA licensed customers. Microsoft announce that from April 2025 it’s also available to Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Microsoft 10/11 Education A3/A5 customers.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/42WQ0OI, and confirmation of the licensing requirements here: https://bit.ly/4lHweOw.

GA of Hotpatch for Windows client

Microsoft announce that Hotpatching is now available for Windows 11 Enterprise. It’s designed to help protect organisations from cyberattacks, while minimising user disruptions since Hotpatch updates don’t require a PC to be restarted.

Find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/4jfQPrC, along with details on how the technology works and how to get started.

Purview Data Security Investigations

Microsoft announce Purview Data Security Investigations (DSI). This is a solution that enables organisations to rapidly identify and mitigate risks from sensitive data exposure. DSI will be in public preview in late April 2025 and administrators will need to activate Purview PAYG billing and provision Security Compute Units.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/42X9KSk.

Purview Pay-As-You-Go meters

Microsoft introduce new Pay-As-You-Go meters for Purview to help customers effectively secure and govern data as it moves into and through AI apps and agents. The meters are available from 1 May, 2025 and billed, as usual, through an Azure Subscription. If you don’t have an Azure Subscription linked to your tenant on 30 June, 2025, then these metered capabilities will stop working.

Find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/42U3HwH.

Windows 10 Cloud Enabled ESUs

Microsoft add Windows 10 ESU Cloud Managed licenses to the April 2025 Product Terms. As a reminder, these are aimed at organisations who are managing updates using Intune or Windows Autopatch and will be offered at a 25% discount from the regular ESUs. If you want a refresher on Windows lifecycle management, then this Windows IT Pro video is worth a watch: https://bit.ly/4jIyXFC.

Windows 11 QOS requirements licensing guidance

There’s an updated (March 2025) Windows 11 Qualifying Operating System requirements licensing guidance document from Microsoft. It’s an update to a November 2021 document and has a couple of new FAQs: one around the QOS requirements for the new Windows 365 Link device, and another around macOS devices.

Find this updated document here: https://bit.ly/42ufOkZ.