Ignite 2024 Top 20 Highlights
Nick Ross ·
Today i am going to be recapping the M365 highlights from Microsoft Ignite, a conference you can spend 5 thousand dollars to attend to listen to Microsoft aggressively shove Copilot down your throat for 3 days in a row. With that being said, still some pretty cool announcements so lets dive in. These announcements are listed in no particular order.
1. Microsoft 365 App Icons are being rebranded with Copilot
How this will affect your organization
We are going to kick off with some of those Copilot highlights including Microsoft’s dedicated focus on confusing the entire world with their branding and licensing by now converting the office 365 app logos to a central M365 Copilot logo, even if you don’t have copilot licensing. So no not only are we getting that sweet copilot logo on our hardware, our desktop icons, but now we also have to talk to our customers about why the word application has a copilot badge in the corner. Fun times ahead
When will this happen:
“In the coming months” was the quote from Microsoft.
2. AI Agents
How this will affect your organization
We’re introducing agents in Microsoft 365 (opens in new tab) designed to help scale individual impact and transform business processes.
- We’re announcing that every SharePoint site now has an agent, so every employee can quickly tap into this massive knowledge base. You can use agents in SharePoint (opens in new tab)to quickly pull project details from a workback schedule, summarize a recent product memo, or find a document in seconds.
- The Employee Self-Service Agent in Business Chat quickly answers common policy questions and makes it easy to complete key tasks, starting with HR and IT. It can help employees understand their benefits, for instance, or request a new laptop. And it can be customized in Copilot Studio to meet the unique needs of your organization. In private preview.
- Other agents include Facilitator, which takes real-time notes in Teams meetings and chats, and Project Manager, which automates plan creation and even completes tasks in Microsoft Planner. In public preview.
Article: Introducing new agents in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Community Hub (opens in new tab)
Agents in SharePoint: Microsoft 365 Copilot l Introducing agents in SharePoint – YouTube (opens in new tab)
Snippet from Ignite: https://youtu.be/_4qsQ6OWZsM?si=41SQXGV-bv3nV_V7&t=177 (opens in new tab)
3. Teams Interpreter
How this will affect your organization
The Interpreter agent in Teams provides real-time speech-to-speech interpretation during meetings, and you can opt to have it simulate your speaking voice for a more personal and engaging experience. Public preview coming in early 2025.
Article: Use language interpretation in Microsoft Teams meetings – Microsoft Support (opens in new tab)
4. Copilot Actions
How this will affect your organization
New Copilot Actions automate everyday tasks with simple, fill-in-the-blank prompts that you can set and forget. For example, you can automatically receive a summary of your most important action items at the end of each workday, create an action to gather inputs from your team for a weekly newsletter you send each Thursday, or automate customer meeting prep with a recurring action that summarizes your last few interactions ahead of your next sync. In private preview.
Snippet from Ignite: https://youtu.be/_4qsQ6OWZsM?si=BMuayFnAjyTBn1l-&t=117 (opens in new tab)
5. Copilot Analytics
How this will affect your organization
Copilot Analytics is designed to empower every IT and business leader to measure adoption and business impact of Copilot and agents — with out-of-the-box experiences (Copilot Dashboard & Microsoft admin center) and customizable reporting for deeper analysis against your KPIs.
Snippet from Ignite: https://youtu.be/_4qsQ6OWZsM?si=mfIyoprdbKmku9Vg&t=292 (opens in new tab)
6. Improved windows search
Finding the right files, including documents, settings or photos, on Copilot+ PCs just got easier. Using your own words, like “BBQ party” you can now describe things to find what you’re looking for on Windows. You no longer need to remember file names, settings locations or even worry about spelling – just type what’s in your mind to find it on a Copilot+ PC.
Article: New experiences coming to Copilot+ PCs and Windows 11 | Windows Experience Blog (opens in new tab)
7. Click to Do
How this will affect your organization
Click to Do is designed to help simplify your workflow by magically placing an interactive overlay on top of your PC screen, enabling suggested quick actions to appear over images or text. At your request, Click to Do seamlessly connects you to tools and actions to accomplish tasks, like suggesting help with Visual Search with Bing, background blur or erasing objects in Photos, removing backgrounds with Paint, and more.
8. Recall-Now Off by Default
How this will affect your organization
“We have taken the time to make Recall even more secure by default, ensuring our customers feel confident that their data is safe and secure, right from the start. Customers will now have the choice to opt-in to saving snapshots and if they do opt-in, they will use Windows Hello to confirm presence and securely unlock the Recall experience. And with the sensitive information filter, Recall will apply filters over sensitive information when highly confidential data, like credit card details or personal identification numbers, needs to stay just that – confidential.” (OKKKKKKKK)
9. Teams super resolution
How this will affect your organization
Teams Super Resolution enhances the quality of incoming video, improving visibility of colleagues even with weak internet connections.
Video: Copilot+ PCs: Ready for the new AI era at work (opens in new tab)
10. Windows 365 Link
How this will affect your organization
One of the most popular releases was Microsoft’s introduction of a new PC called Windows 365 link which is a new device dedicated to Windows 365 Cloud PC connections. It is meant to act as a new thin client and is locked down by default. This device is certainly gaining a lot of initial scrutiny but can be very useful for specific workloads like hot desks and dedicated workflows that just use Microsoft 365 apps, given no other apps may be installed on the device.
Hot take:
11. Windows 365 Frontline shared mode
How this will affect your organization
Windows 365 Frontline is expanding its capabilities with the public preview of “shared mode.” The new mode offers organizations even more options by providing Cloud PC access to multiple users with a non-personalized desktop experience, while simplifying the management experience for IT admins and improving end-user productivity.
Article: Windows 365 Frontline shared mode now in public preview – Windows IT Pro Blog (opens in new tab)Windows 365 Frontline shared mode now in public preview – Windows IT Pro Blog (opens in new tab)
12. MAM for Windows 365 and AVD
How this will affect your organization
Windows App now supports Mobile application management (MAM) for iOS and Android. Now in preview, MAM enhances device redirection and strengthens security on unmanaged or externally managed devices. It allows organizations to define device security criteria and customize access, supporting BYOD scenarios.
13. Windows Resiliency Initiative
How this will affect your organization
This comes as a targeted response to the Crowdstrike incident earlier this year that took down over 8.5 million Windows PCs and servers.
TLDR on the proposed changes with this initiative:
Quick Machine Recovery ❤️ => Enables IT admins to execute targets fixes from Windows Update on PCs, even when machines are unable to boot and without needing physical access to the PC.
Microsoft Virus Initiative (MVI) evolving partnership ⏲ => Partners in this initiative (including crowdsrike) will adopt Safe Deployment Practices, which means that all security product updates must be gradual, leverage deployment rings, as well as monitoring to ensure any negative impact from updates is kept to a minimum.
Running anti-virus processing outside kernel mode 🐞 => will enable anti-virus products on Windows to provide a high level of security while minimizing reliability risks, as crashes outside kernel mode will only affect the anti-virus application, and not all of Windows. AV solutions can run in user mode just as apps do
Check out more info here: https://lnkd.in/gbEP2GFd (opens in new tab)
Video: https://youtu.be/3YiB2OvK6sY?si=8cXMdt1_RPsFSAg2&t=2165 (opens in new tab)
14. Hot Patch in Windows
How this will affect your organization
Today we announce the public preview of hotpatch updates for Windows 11 Enterprise, version 24H2. With hotpatch updates, you can quickly take measures to help protect your organization from the evolving landscape of cyberattacks, while minimizing user disruptions. Hotpatching represents a significant advancement in our journey to help make you and everyone who uses Windows more secure and productive.
Check out more info here: Hotpatch for client comes to Windows 11 – Windows IT Pro Blog (opens in new tab)
Video: https://youtu.be/3YiB2OvK6sY?si=fW31ilT1FE3TtEAc&t=2192 (opens in new tab)
15. Administrator Protection
How this will affect your organization
Currently in preview, is a new solution where users have the security of standard user permissions by default, but can still easily make system changes, including app installation, on their PCs when needed. With administrator protection, if a system change requires administrator rights, like some app installations, the user is prompted to securely authorize the change using Windows Hello. Windows creates a temporary isolated admin token to get the job done. This temporary token is immediately destroyed once the task is complete, ensuring that admin privileges do not persist.
Check out more info here: Windows security and resiliency: Protecting your business | Windows Experience Blog (opens in new tab)
16. Zero Day Quest-new in-person hacking event
How this will affect your organization
Microsoft announced that it’s expanding its bug bounty programs with Zero Day Quest, a new hacking event focusing on cloud and AI products and platforms. This new hacking event will be the largest of its kind, with an additional $4 million in potential awards
Check out more info here: Microsoft launches Zero Day Quest hacking event with $4 million in rewards (opens in new tab)
Ignite Snippet: https://youtu.be/3YiB2OvK6sY?si=kvRaYsHxMduM9fiu&t=595 (opens in new tab)
17. Personal Data Encryption
How this will affect your organization
Personal Data Encryption for known folders is a new Windows 11 Enterprise capability using Windows Hello authentication to help protect files stored in the Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders. Protection is indicated by the lock icon on the file. With Personal Data Encryption enabled, a device administrator won’t be able to view file content, as the files remain encrypted until you authenticate with Windows Hello. An IT admin, using Microsoft Intune (or another management tool) can select all or a subset of these folders to apply Personal Data Encryption. It integrates with OneDrive and SharePoint on Microsoft 365 to allow for easy collaboration.
Only available for Windows 11 Enterprise OS currently.
Check out more info here: Personal Data Encryption | Microsoft Learn (opens in new tab)
18. New Edge Management Policies in Lighthouse
How this will affect your organization
We’re excited to announce that additional Edge for Business policies will be coming to Lighthouse, making it even easier for partners to manage and secure their customers’ web browsers.
These new policies include customization abilities, such as adding organization branding; enhanced security features, such as password monitoring and generation; and other configurations, such as allowing Copilot to access page content and allowing single sign-on.
Check out more info here: Ignite 2024: Transform your workday with the latest Edge for Business features – Microsoft Edge Blog (opens in new tab)
19. Edge: Scareware Blocker
How this will affect your organization
Scareware is a type of scam that takes over the entire browser screen, creating a sense of urgency and panic that pressures people to act quickly, potentially granting the scammer remote access to their computer. To combat such scams, Edge is introducing new, no-cost capabilities to help identify scareware in real-time to help make the internet a safer place both inside and outside of work. Scareware blocker uses machine learning (ML) to identify these scams. Upon finding a potential danger, it displays a warning to alert users. If the user identifies the website as safe, they are still in control and can continue to the page.
Check out more info here: Ignite 2024: Transform your workday with the latest Edge for Business features – Microsoft Edge Blog (opens in new tab)
20. Edge: Deploy encrypted shared passwords
How this will affect your organization
There’s a known security gap that you may have been tolerating out of necessity—a common password shared across a set of users. Whether it’s a team accessing the same data repository or managing common social media accounts, passwords are often passed around in emails, chats, and even on paper. This risky practice can lead to unapproved users gaining access and serious downstream consequences.
Secure password deployment in the Edge management service can help put an end to this. It enables you to deploy encrypted shared passwords to a set of users, allowing them to log into websites seamlessly without ever seeing the actual passwords, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and enhancing your organization’s overall security posture.
Secure password deployment will be available in preview in the coming months for Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3, and E5 subscriptions.
Check out more info here: Ignite 2024: Transform your workday with the latest Edge for Business features – Microsoft Edge Blog (opens in new tab)
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