Tag Archives: Microsoft

Windows 365 connection methods

The options for accessing a Windows 365 Cloud PC have somewhat evolved over time, with an array of choices available! A relatively new offering is Windows 365 Link, a purpose-built hardware device optimised for Windows 365. Windows 365 Boot is a feature that lets you boot directly into your Cloud PC, bypassing the local experience entirely. For hybrid environments, Windows 365 Switch lets you move seamlessly between your local and Cloud PC. Finally, with The Windows App, you gain cross-platform access from virtually any device.

This useful update in the Windows blog provides a helpful summary with more detail: https://bit.ly/49K3Ojg.

Modern Work Plan Comparison documents

The Modern Work Plan Comparison documents for November 2025 have been released. These documents now fully reflect the updated names for the Defender and Purview Add-ons and show the reintroduced Office and Microsoft 365 licenses with Teams included. In the SMB comparison, a new footnote confirms a maximum of 300 User SLs across all Business plans combined. Separate PDF files are available for the Enterprise, SMB, US Government, and Education sectors which you can find here: https://bit.ly/4hn2hS2. If you’re a partner, an Excel version of these files is also available.

If you’d like a copy, drop us an email from your work email address to info@licensingschool.co.uk, and we’ll send it on.

Launch of RHEL Software Reservations

Microsoft announce that Software Reservations for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are generally available. There are now 32 members of the Reservations family where you can receive a discount on an Azure service by making a duration-based commitment. For an RHEL Software Reservation you need to commit for a year, and you can expect discounts of up to 24% when you run RHEL software on Azure virtual machines. As we expect with Reservations, this Software Reservation is applied automatically to any deployed RHEL VMs that match the Reservation, and there’s also instance size flexibility which means that the discount is applied even when you deploy a VM with a different virtual core count from the Reservation.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4hNBq1W, and some useful Learn documentation here: https://bit.ly/3JKKqrT.

Azure VM vCore customisation

Microsoft announce the preview of Azure virtual machine vCore customisation, with two features that give you greater control over the CPU resources of a VM. Firstly, you can disable Simultaneous Multi-Threading allowing you to run a VM with only one thread per physical core which can improve performance for certain workloads. Secondly, and more interesting from a licensing perspective, you can choose a custom number of virtual cores for a new VM which is lower than the default count for that VM size. Now, this doesn’t reduce the price of the VM, but it can reduce the licensing costs for software billed by virtual core – SQL Server for example.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/47609uA, and some useful Learn documentation here: https://bit.ly/4oRzSWU.

LicenseVerse Glossary

Craving clarity on licensing lingo? Bamboozled by an abbreviation? We have a comprehensive glossary with more than 1,000 short, clear definitions, covering a whole range of licensing topics. Best of all, it’s free, so why not take a look?

Find it here: https://bit.ly/LVGlossary.

Azure Customer Solution Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (September 2025) Azure Customer Solution Licensing Guide – a document which is designed to explain some of the rules and scenarios around creating and selling a solution in Azure. Historically it’s been targeted at organisations that Microsoft call ISVs, but that term’s been updated to SDC – a Software Development Company – and that’s probably the most significant edit in this updated document.

Keep your Licensing Guide stash up to date by grabbing this guide here: https://bit.ly/46LkFzk.

Business Central price and capacity November changes

The expected changes for Dynamics 365 Business Central are live as of November 1, 2025. The ERP software aimed at small businesses now has increased pricing and accrued database storage capacity, in line with Microsoft’s announcement back in May. Essentials licences are now $80/month with 3 GB storage (up from $70/month and 2 GB), Premium licences are $110/month with 5 GB storage (up from $100/month and 3 GB), and Device licences are $45/month with 1.5 GB storage (up from $40/month and 1 GB). There are no changes to the 80 GB default capacity or the Team Members licence.

The original announcement is here: https://bit.ly/4nCglZy and you can see the new prices here: https://bit.ly/4oWE7Ax. Details are also listed in our new Product price adjustments page in LicenseVerse, providing subscribers a really useful reference and record of price changes across all products.

AI Builder credits transition to Copilot Credits

Microsoft announce a progressive end to AI Builder credits which are consumed by AI Builder features in Power Apps and Power Automate. In Copilot Studio, AI Builder features consume Copilot Credits and this will be the case for Power Apps and Power Automate from 1 November, 2025. If you’ve previously purchased AI Builder credit packs those credits will still work, and as an existing customer you can buy more credit packs and renew the licences until 1 November, 2026. If you’ve got licences that include AI Builder credits then those credits will still be available until 1 November, 2026. Mixed environments are supported too; AI Builder features in Power Apps and Power Automate will consume AI Builder credits first, and then Copilot Credits if there are no AI Builder credits available.

Find a summary page with a useful timeline and FAQ here: https://bit.ly/47vLeZu.

Microsoft 365 suites with Teams included return

The Microsoft 365 suites with Teams have returned as expected, which means customers once again have the option of Teams included from November 1, 2025. It reflects the promised price changes, with reductions on the (no Teams) suites and an increase for the Teams Enterprise license, creating the agreed delta between the offerings with and without Teams. LicenseVerse is updated with all the details of the somewhat complicated relationship history between Microsoft 365 and Teams.

The original announcement article from Microsoft can be found here: https://bit.ly/3WccCXc, the updated availability shows here: https://bit.ly/4oqmvNE, and if you’re a subscriber, launch LicenseVerse for the lowdown!

Microsoft Agent Usage Estimator tool

Microsoft’s Agent Usage Estimator tool was launched in preview in June 2025. It’s now out of preview and works in largely the same way – you answer some questions about your use of internal or external Agents and you’re given a breakdown of your likely Copilot Credit consumption. Now, however, as well as seeing the results in the tool, you can download a PDF of the estimate too.

Find the estimator here: https://bit.ly/4jMS2pM.