Tag Archives: Microsoft

Visual Studio 2026 Licensing Guide

The general availability of Visual Studio 2026 is accompanied by an updated Licensing Guide. There aren’t big changes to the licensing so there are just a couple of small corresponding updates to the guide. For example, the Visual Studio Cloud subscriptions that you pay for through an Azure Subscription were previously called Cloud subscriptions, and now they’re known as Monthly subscriptions. Other changes include clarification where you’re not allowed to use Listed Providers’ infrastructure, and the removal of references to Team Explorer Everywhere since it’s no longer maintained by Microsoft.

You can help yourself to this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/4pan1PY.

Retirement of Office Online Server

Microsoft announce the end of support for Office Online Server, effective December 31, 2026. The software, which lets an organisation use browser-based Office applications from an on-premises server host, won’t receive any more security updates, bug fixes, or technical support from this date. The recommended alternative is, of course, Microsoft 365, for its collaboration, security, and integration with other Microsoft services.

Read the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3JTnTJK.

Copilot Studio Licensing Guide

There’s a new (November 2025) Copilot Studio Licensing Guide available. Some key changes include Code Interpreter now being generally available, and the renaming of AI Builder capabilities. However, the rather useful section on Computer Use has also been removed, and the guide erroneously states that it’s now generally available.

Find the guide here: https://bit.ly/47MOQ9Y.

Dynamics 365 Guides and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist retirement

Dynamics 365 Guides and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist are no longer available to order and will reach end of support without further updates on December 31, 2026. Microsoft recommend customers explore the mixed reality solutions available on the Microsoft Marketplace instead or, for certain Remote Assist scenarios, use the spatial annotation feature within Microsoft Teams Mobile.

You can find more details in this article: https://bit.ly/4piGga0.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium for GCC-High

Microsoft introduce Microsoft 365 Business Premium for GCC-High. This offering, aimed at suppliers to US government organisations, provides robust security and compliance features for up to 500 (not 300!) users. It helps meet complex compliance requirements like the CMMC, providing essential enterprise-grade capabilities for smaller organisations in regulated environments.

Find out more here: https://bit.ly/4r4Y6is.

Sentinel promotional pricing

Commitment Tiers in Microsoft Sentinel are well named: if you commit to a certain amount of ingestion capacity every day then there are different tiers of discounted pricing. Historically, the lowest tier has been a commitment of 100 GB a day, but there’s a new 50 GB tier in public preview with promotional pricing until March 31, 2026. Customers who sign up during this period will lock in promotional pricing until March 31, 2027.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/49j7GrB, and the Sentinel pricing page here: https://bit.ly/4oGz6wr.

Dynamics 365 licensing resources

There are updated (November 2025) Dynamics 365 licensing resources now available. The Licensing Guide has a few changes, reflecting the adjustments to Business Central storage and pricing. You can read about these on our blog here: https://bit.ly/4p1TuYp. References to Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service and Sales are gone, as these are now licensed via a Microsoft 365 Copilot User SL. There’s a new Appendix added for Dynamics 365 Agents in Paid Public Preview – moved from the Copilot Studio Licensing Guide. There’s also extra detail added to the Team Members Use Rights table in Appendix D.

Read the Licensing Guide for more information here: https://bit.ly/49zYhfc, or find the Licensing Deck here: https://bit.ly/4nIXvjv.

Visual Studio 2026 now GA!

Visual Studio 2026 is now generally available! This new release of the IDE software brings enhancements to speed and the user interface, and it’s fully compatible with projects and extensions from Visual Studio 2022. Naturally, the AI features are a major highlight! It incorporates integrated AI capabilities, like the Debugger Agent, which resolves code right before your eyes.

The Product Terms and SPUR have been updated for this release, and you can explore the Microsoft announcement here: https://bit.ly/3WNsHmK.

November 2025 Power Platform resources

There are updated (November 2025) Power Platform licensing resources now available. References to AI Builder Capacity Packs have been removed, as part of the transition to Copilot Credits, which you can read more about in our blog here: https://bit.ly/4hOxpdw. On page 21, there’s an updated table that shows the changes to the default capacity entitlements in Dataverse, ahead of the anticipated changes on December 1, 2025.

You’ll find details in the Licensing Guide here: https://bit.ly/48XHjat, and the supplementary Licensing Deck here: https://bit.ly/4olptmm.

Finance Solution in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft announce that the Finance Solution in Microsoft 365 Copilot is now generally available. You might have heard of it by a different name since it’s a product that’s already undergone a series of name changes – Copilot for Finance and Finance Agents to name a couple. Now it’s essentially a set of Agents designed to automate various financial tasks across apps like Excel and Outlook, connecting to ERP systems such as Dynamics 365 and SAP. From a licensing perspective, you need to be licensed for Microsoft 365 Copilot and the relevant ERP system.

Find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/43o2r66.