Kurt Shintaku's Blog

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.

Read more at:
Claude and Codex now available for Copilot Business & Pro users – GitHub Changelog

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

This week Microsoft 365 Archive was made available in the Microsoft 365 GCC cloud.

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)

This is a follow on from the Microsoft 365 GCC Message Center message, MC1256304 (https://admin.microsoft.com/AdminPortal/Home?ref=MessageCenter/:/messages/MC1256304) and the following is a copypasta of the Message Center message as of 7/14/2026:

(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).

How this affects your organization:

Who is affected:

• GCC tenants
• SharePoint administrators managing SharePoint Online storage

What will happen:

• Admins can archive inactive SharePoint sites to reduce storage consumption.
• Archived sites are removed from active collaboration and Copilot experiences.
• Admins can reactivate archived sites at any time when access is required.
• Archived content remains compliant with Microsoft 365 security, compliance, and eDiscovery capabilities.
• No changes are required to existing retention policies or legal holds.
• This feature is off by default and requires admin configuration, including pay-as-you-go billing setup.

What you can do to prepare:

If you want to start using Microsoft 365 Archive in your GCC tenant:

• Review your SharePoint Online storage usage and identify inactive sites.
• Set up pay-as-you-go billing and enable Microsoft 365 Archive in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
• Archive eligible SharePoint sites based on your organization’s site lifecycle requirements.
• Update internal documentation and inform helpdesk staff about site reactivation behavior.

Learn more:

• Set up pay-as-you-go billing
• Microsoft 365 Archive overview

Compliance considerations:

Area	Explanation
Does the change alter how existing customer data is stored or accessed?	Inactive SharePoint sites are moved to a long-term archive storage tier and removed from active collaboration experiences until reactivated.
Does the change modify, interrupt, or disable Purview capabilities?	Archived sites remain fully supported by eDiscovery, retention policies, legal holds, audit logging, and compliance features.
Does the change include an admin control?	Archiving and reactivation are admin-controlled through the SharePoint admin center and require pay-as-you-go billing to be enabled.

(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.

• https://aka.ms/SAF

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).

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”.

1. Create the Outlook meeting from the Outlook Web/New Outlook Calendar.  (Again, you cannot do this from “Classic Outlook”)
2. Turn on the “Teams Meeting” switch.
3. Enter in the attendee names in the Attendee field
4. 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.

HIDE ATTENDEES NAMES DURING TEAMS MEETING
(Hide attendee names in Microsoft Teams meetings and webinars)

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.

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).

Read the note online at:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/update-manager/manage-hot-patching-arc-machines?tabs=manage-scale%2Chotpatch-scale#billing-considerations

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.

• REGISTRATION: Pure Virtual C++ Conference 2026
  21 July, 2026 | 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
  https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/27359/

• ANNOUNCEMENT: Save the Date: Pure Virtual C++ 2026
  https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/save-the-date-pure-virtual-cpp-2026/

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.

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.

Space is limited, so register today:
https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/home

Time to change the way you build your Power Apps Canvas Apps. Low-code development can no longer be the Wild West.

• Drag & drop apps thrown together without structure just don’t cut it anymore.
• Development without architecture leads to technical debt, inconsistency, and maintenance nightmares.
• And the worst part? The hidden waste in your apps.
  • Duplicated logic
  • Repeated controls
  • Poorly managed state

The result? Apps that are hard to maintain, slow to evolve, and frustrating to adapt to growing complexity.

That’s exactly why Nicolo Ferranti, Microsoft Power Platform MVP, wrote this new, free guide:

• User Defined Functions (UDFs) and User Defined Types (UDTs)
  → to write cleaner, reusable, and more maintainable code
• Centralised state management
  → for clear, predictable app behaviour
• A structured architectural approach
  → to prevent chaos before it starts

If you’re building with Power Apps and ready to move beyond copy-paste development, this guide is for you. This guide aims to demonstrate how these new features can help you build Power Apps Canvas applications with greater accuracy and architectural discipline.

Download the full eBook by Microsoft Power Platform MVP, Nicolo Ferranti, here:

• Power Platform Guide: Power Apps Canvas Next Level – Modern State Management with UDFs, UDTs and Advanced Components

The National Health Service of England is rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot to 505,000 clinicians & support staff.

More than half a million NHS staff are being given access to new artificial intelligence (AI) tools that could free up an average of 2 days every month from admin duties, freeing up more time for the duties that matter most for patients and staff.

NHS England announced today that it is significantly accelerating AI adoption across healthcare services by providing 505,000 clinicians and support staff with access to Microsoft 365 Copilot.

The AI personal assistant helps clinicians to draft documents and analyse data more efficiently to focus more time on patient care.

The agreement follows the largest AI trial of its kind globally in healthcare, which provided more than 30,000 NHS workers across 90 NHS organisations with access to Microsoft 365 Copilot.

It found that AI-powered administrative support could save an average of 43 minutes per staff member per day or more, which equates to 5 weeks of time per person annually.

Results from the trial showed that a full rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot could save millions of hours of staff time per month.

For more, visit:

• 500,000 NHS staff to get new artificial intelligence tools to help free up more time for patients
  https://www.england.nhs.uk/2026/06/500000-nhs-staff-to-get-new-artificial-intelligence-tools-to-help-free-up-more-time-for-patients
• NHS prescribes half a million Copilot licenses for its paperwork headache
  https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/06/08/nhs-prescribes-half-a-million-copilot-licenses-for-its-paperwork-headache/5252214

KPMG and Microsoft are expanding their partnership to help clients manage, monitor and securely deploy AI at scale across their own organisations with Agent 365 and Copilot. At the same time, KPMG’s member firms will roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot to 276,000 employees worldwide.

The expansion is the latest move to embed Microsoft technology into KPMG’s global client service delivery platforms and enable organisations to monitor, govern and control AI agents from a central location. The deal enables KPMG to use Microsoft Agent 365 to enhance how services are delivered in its audit, tax and advisory services, including smart audit platform KPMG Clara, while helping clients build agent-powered operating models to securely deploy AI agents across their own organisations. 

Read more here:

• KPMG and Microsoft scale trusted, enterprise AI agents globally through deployment of Agent 365 and Copilot
  https://news.microsoft.com/source/2026/06/09/kpmg-and-microsoft-scale-trusted-enterprise-ai-agents-globally-through-deployment-of-agent-365-and-copilot/
• KPMG deploys Microsoft Agent 365 and Copilot across its global workforce
  https://www.technologyrecord.com/article/kpmg-deploys-microsoft-agent-365-and-copilot-across-its-global-workforce