A fun little Easter Egg: When you see “Mico”, the avatar from the consumerversion of Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence app “Copilot” (https://copilot.microsoft.com) while:
logged into a Microsoft account (hotmail.com, outlook.com, live.com, msn.com, etc.)
voice mode is active
…you can tap on Mico’s image rapidly about 12 times & it’ll turn into Clippy. 🤪
Before & after tapping Mico 12 times or so…
ALSO WORKS ON MOBILE This also works on the consumer “Copilot Mobile app” as well if you turn on “voice mode”. Note that even if you have “voice mode” on, Mico needs to be displayed for this to work. If you don’t see Mico on the screen, click the “gear” icon to open the Setting for Copilot and turn on “Show Mico”. #clippysrevenge
NOT AVAILABLE FOR BUSINESS This is exclusive to the consumer version of Copilot & does not work for “Microsoft 365 Copilot”, the business version of Copilot.
Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) licensed users in GCC will have access to Anthropic Claude models directly within the Microsoft 365 Copilot app & web app.
Model choice — Claude Sonnet and Opus 5 become available alongside OpenAI models, so users can pick the best model for the task. (Claude is especially strong at deep reasoning and long-context analysis)
Broad reach — availability spans Copilot experiences including Copilot Chat in GCC with Researcher & Microsoft 365 Apps availability is coming soon after.
Enterprise-grade protection — Anthropic operates as a Microsoft subprocessor, covered under Microsoft’s Product Terms, Data Protection Addendum, and Enterprise Data Protection. The Microsoft Customer Copyright Commitment applies to covered products.
No additional cost – “Model choice” is included for Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) users, allowing them to use OpenAI GPT & Anthropic Claude models (and any other models offered in the future) within Copilot Chat & M365 Apps at no additional cost.
Use of Anthropic Claude models for Copilot Chat within Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) is not consumption-based & do not consume “tokens”.
Copilot Chat (Basic) are not eligible to use Anthropic Claude models.
What you need to do:
This is an admin-controlled, opt-in setting. No end-user action is required, and existing data protections are unchanged.
ORIGINAL: 7/24/26 Entra-based SMS/Voice Two-factor Authentication is being retired & will no longer be available as of February 1, 2027. Customers still using SMS/Voice for two-factor authentication need to move to either Passkey/FIDO2/Authenticator or subscribe to a 3rd party SMS/Voice MFA solution. Starting September 1st, all users enabled for SMS/Voice multi-factor authentication will, by default, be auto-enabled for passkeys and prompted to register one during MFA sign-in.
WHY? Since 2020, Microsoft has been alerting customers that SMS/Voice multi-factor authentication is inherently vulnerable to attack & puts customers & other users of Microsoft services at risk. It’s specifically called out as being 40% less effective in stopping bad actors compared to other forms of MFA such as the Microsoft Authenticator app.
Nov 10, 2020 – It’s Time to Hang Up on Phone Transports for Authentication | Microsoft Community Hub “Today, I want to do what I can to convince you that it’s time to start your move away from the SMS and voice Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) mechanisms. These mechanisms are based on publicly switched telephone networks (PSTN), and I believe they’re the least secure of the MFA methods available today. That gap will only widen as MFA adoption increases attackers’ interest in breaking these methods and purpose-built authenticators extend their security and usability advantages. Plan your move to passwordless strong auth now – the authenticator app provides an immediate and evolving option.”
PLANNING FOR SMS/VOICE MFA RETIREMENT For organizations still using SMS/Voice, they may plan appropriately by reading the following:
Microsoft Entra ID security updates: Passkeys are the default authentication method in Entra ID | M… “On February 1, 2027, Microsoft will retire Microsoft-provided telecom delivery for SMS and voice authentication and will no longer offer SMS and voice as a native Microsoft Entra capability. Organizations that still require SMS or voice authentication methods will have the option to choose one of our telecom partners through the Microsoft Security Store. Customers will be responsible for any associated telecom-related costs charged by the telecom partners.”
Prepare for transition to passkeys “Microsoft Entra ID is making passkeys the default sign-in experience, so every organization gets phishing-resistant security by default. SMS and voice are no longer positioned as secure authentication methods and will no longer be provided natively in Entra ID. Starting September 1, 2026, passkeys become the default authentication experience and will be automatically enabled for users enabled for SMS or voice. From February 1, 2027, Microsoft-provided telecom delivery for SMS and voice will be retired; customers who still require these methods should configure customer-managed providers through the Microsoft Security Store. More information on customer-managed telecoms coming September 18th, 2026. Users who already sign in with passkeys, Windows Hello for Business, or another phishing-resistant method can continue using those methods. However, users who remain enabled for SMS or voice may still receive prompts to register passkeys on eligible devices. To check who in your tenant still uses SMS or Voice, see Find active SMS or Voice users in your tenant.”
A WORD ON WHO IS IMPACTED This change will only impact Entra Public – not Entra Government. For clarity:
Microsoft 365 Commercial, Microsoft 365 GCC & Azure Global/Commercial use Entra Public & WILL have SMS/Voice MFA retired on February 1, 2027.
Microsoft 365 GCC High, Microsoft 365 DoD & Azure Government use Entra Government & WILL NOT have SMS/Voice MFA retired on February 1, 2027.
Microsoft FastTrack Services – For remote guidance around planning & high-level implementation, contact your FastTrack Manager to access a Phishing Resistant Authentication deployment engineer. (Please note that FastTrack does not do problem resolution/break fix.) All Microsoft 365 E3/G3 customers with 150 licenses or more have access to Fasttrack Services at no additional cost. If you are a customer of mine & do not know who your FastTrack Manager is, contact me.
Microsoft Unified Services – For assistance with both planning, implementation as well as break/fix for issues, if you have a Unified Services contract, work with your Customer Success Account Manager in obtaining a Cloud Solutions Architect – a subject matter expert to assist you.  If you are a customer of mine & don’t know who your CSAM is for your organization, contact me.
Microsoft Partners – For formal professional services consulting & hands on assistance, if you are a customer of mine, contact me for the information for qualified Microsoft Identity & Security partners with experience working in State & Local Government.
Want to use Claude for coding? Stop changing your billing implementation & use your Github Copilot subscription to access any model including Opus 4.8, Sonnet 4.6, GPT-5.4-Codex, Gemini 3.1 Pro. All are now available as coding agents for GitHub Copilot Business, GitHub Copilot Pro, GitHub Copilot Enterprise and GitHub Copilot Pro+ customers.
You can also run Claude, Codex, and Copilot directly inside github.com, GitHub Mobile, and VS Code, all within your existing GitHub workflows. Whether you’re reviewing code on the web, triaging issues on your phone, or iterating in the editor, you can stay within GitHub and use the same agents across surfaces with shared history and context. And most importantly:
No additional subscriptions are required. Access to Claude and Codex is fully included with your existing GitHub Copilot subscription.
For a quick review from Microsoft Build 2026, watch Tyler Leonhardt’s demo:
LIVE168: Claude Is in Copilot. Here’s What That Actually Means Claude runs as a coding agent inside GitHub Copilot in VS Code. But what does that actually look like at the code level? How is context assembled? What tools does Claude have access to? What happens when you pick Claude in the model picker versus letting Copilot run? Tyler Leonhardt goes inside the integration so you know exactly what you are working with. http://aka.ms/githubcopilotclaude Third-party agents in Visual Studio Code
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Microsoft 365 Archive is designed to help organizations manage their inactive data efficiently. It allows you to move inactive SharePoint sites into a cold storage tier, which reduces storage costs while maintaining the same searchability, security, and compliance standards as active data. This feature is already available in Production and is now being released to GCC-L cloud. (Roadmap 545013: SharePoint: Microsoft 365 Archive in GCC-L)
(Updated) Microsoft 365 Archive coming to Government Community Cloud MC1256304 · Published Mar 19, 2026 · Last updated Apr 24, 2026
Message Summary
Updated April 24, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.
Introduction
Microsoft 365 Archive helps organizations reduce SharePoint Online storage costs by moving inactive SharePoint sites to a low-cost, long-term storage tier while keeping data within the Microsoft 365 compliance boundary.
Once archived, content is removed from active collaboration and Copilot experiences. This helps administrators focus on the most relevant data while maintaining compliance, retention, and discoverability.
With this release, Government Community Cloud (GCC) SharePoint administrators can manage site archiving directly from the SharePoint admin center using a pay-as-you-go billing model.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 545013.
When this will happen:
General Availability (GCC): Rollout will begin in mid-June 2026 (previously mid-April) and is expected to complete by end of June 2026 (previously late April).
(courtesy of Mark Simos, Microsoft Lead Cybersecurity Architect) The SAF documentation site and June 2026 MCRA just went live on Microsoft Learn! Check it out and let us know what you think! Note: This is the first release and we will be continuing to add to it. Send us your feedback, requests, and ideas.
Microsoft just released 200+ pages of documentation for the Microsoft Security Adoption Framework (SAF) that includes and is built on the MCRA, CISO Workshop, and other SAF workshops.
SAF also ties together all of Microsoft’s historical guidance (SDL, IR playbooks, Immutable laws of security, etc.) into a single organized framework that guides your security modernization journey.
This is based on the workshops we deliver to Microsoft Unified customers (SecOps/SOC, Data Security, Infrastructure and Development, Access and Identity, and more).
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When emailing out Outlook Meeting Invites to groups of people who don’t know each other, you may not want their email addresses exposed on the To: line of the Outlook invite to maintain the privacy of those you’ve invited – especially if the invitees are from different organizations.
Additionally, for Teams Meetings, you may want to hide the identities of the people that have joined so others can’t see their names or email addresses.
Both of these privacy-protecting features are available through Microsoft 365.
HIDE ATTENDEE LIST IN OUTLOOK MEETING INVITE
To “Hide Attendee List” for an Outlook Meeting Invite to protect customer privacy, you MUST first use “Outlook Web Access” or the “New Outlook”.
Create the Outlook meeting from the Outlook Web/New Outlook Calendar. (Again, you cannot do this from “Classic Outlook”)
Turn on the “Teams Meeting” switch.
Enter in the attendee names in the Attendee field
Click the dropdown next to the Attendees field and select “Hide attendee list”
Now customers will only see their email address in the To: line when they receive the invite.
Before you SEND, you should also “Hide attendee names” in the actual Teams Meeting options for customer privacy during the meeting.
1. Go the Outlook meeting from the Calendar from “Outlook Web Access” or the “New Outlook”. (You cannot do this from “Classic Outlook”)
2. Go to the Click the “Options” button for the Teams Meeting.
3. Under “Roles”, set “Who can present” to “Only organizers and co-organizers”
4. Under “Participation”, turn on “Hide attendee names”
Now customers will not see other attendee’s email addresses/identities. They will only see their own email address & the identities of the Presenters/Organizers.
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Hotpatching, the ability to patch a Windows OS without requiring a reboot for the patch/update to take effect, is now available at no cost for Azure Arc-enabled machines running Windows Server 2025.
<taken from Azure Update Manager docs>
As of May 19, 2026, Hotpatch on Azure Arc-enabled machines running Windows Server 2025 Standard or Datacenter is available at no additional cost. There is no per-core meter, no hourly charge, and no separate Hotpatch line item on your invoice.
Existing enrolled servers: Billing has been stopped for all servers previously enrolled in Hotpatch. No action is required. These machines remain enrolled and continue to receive hotpatch updates when available.
New enrollments: Enabling Hotpatch on eligible Windows Server 2025 Arc-enabled machines incurs no Hotpatch charges, regardless of the underlying environment (VMware, Hyper-V, AWS, GCP, or other on-premises and multicloud environments) or edition (Standard or Datacenter).
Pure Virtual C++ is back! For the 7th year running, we’re hosting a free, one-day virtual conference for the whole C++ community. Whether you joined us back in 2020 when we first launched or you’re discovering the event for the first time, we’d love to have you.
Mark your calendar: Tuesday, July 21, 2026, starting at 16:00 UTC (9:00 AM in Seattle/Los Angeles, 1:00 PM in Buenos Aires, 12:00 AM in Hong Kong). The conference runs approximately 2 hours and will be streamed live on both YouTube and Twitch, so you can watch from anywhere in the world.
The full speaker lineup and detailed schedule will be announced in follow-up posts — stay tuned.
The conference is completely free. Register here to save your spot and get notified when the schedule goes live. Can’t make it live? All sessions will be available on-demand on the Visual Studio YouTube channel after the event.
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Great news! Registration is officially open to Microsoft Ignite 2026. Secure your spot at Microsoft’s flagship event of the year.
At Microsoft Ignite, you’ll discover the latest innovations, practical insights, and build skills you can apply immediately. Join business and IT professionals, developers, and partners to explore important announcements and learn from real-world implementations.
Hear directly from Microsoft leaders shaping the future of cloud and AI:
Arun Ulag, Executive Vice President, Azure Data, Microsoft
Nicole Herskowitz, CVP, Microsoft 365 and Copilot
Omar Shahine, CVP, Microsoft Scout
Bryan Goode, CVP, Business Applications
Vasu Jakkal, CVP, Marketing Security
Jared Spataro, CMO, AI at Work
Mark Russinovich, CTO, Deputy CISO, and Technical Fellow, Microsoft Azure
Cyril Belikoff, Vice President Cloud and AI
Nitasha Chopra, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Copilot Studio
Seth Juarez, Staff Developer Advocate
From expert-led sessions and hands-on learning to immersive Hub experiences and valuable community connections, Microsoft Ignite is designed to help you turn discovery into action and move forward with confidence.
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