Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Some Microsoft UC old timers may recall Microsoft Lync used to have a ‘lurker’ feature hidden that enabled the end user to “appear offline”.  The same feature currently exists for Microsoft Teams.

ACCESSING THE TEAMS CLIENT EXTENDED DIAGNOSTICS MENU
Setting a Teams client to “appear offline” requires going to the Microsoft Teams client for Windows and opening a hidden diagnostic menu.

The systray icon for Teams usually has a pretty spartan menu however if you do the following, a much larger menu is revealed:

1. 1. Click on the Teams icon in the client Systray 5 times.
   2. Right click on the Teams icon. This should reveal the hidden “Extended Diagnostics” menu for the Teams client.  There’s a couple interesting items that should show up including “Open chrome://page”, “Update rollback” and one called “Status Indicator”
   3. Click on “Status Indicator”. This enables you to access a secondary menu that has a number entries in it.
      

• Click on “statusIndicatorState:offline”.  You’ll notice that the status indicator icon on the Teams systray icon is an “empty circle” indicating you’re now presenting yourself as “offline”

To be clear, despite looking to the outside world like you’re not logged in, you are still very much logged into Microsoft Teams.  You can see chats/IMs & access Teams resources.  You can also see who is currently online while appearing to be offline.  (Hence the term, “Lurker” mode is often used for this)

UPDATE 3/16/20:
A message from the event team:

The health and safety of our community is top priority. In light of global health concerns due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), we will deliver Microsoft Business Applications Summit as a digital event, in lieu of an in-person experience. Refunds will be issued to all event registrants.

We look forward to bringing together our community of business applications power users and business decision makers in this new digital format to learn, connect, and grow together. Please watch for additional information coming soon. Sign up to receive updates on our digital event.

Virtual Event registration continues to be available here:
https://info.microsoft.com/Business_Applications_Summit_2020_Sign_Up.html

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ORIGINAL POST:

Are you a PowerBI, PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, or Dynamic 365 user?

Start planning to attend the Microsoft Business Applications Summit 2020 – April 20-21, in Anaheim, CA.

Sign up for the latest event updates today:

• Stay Updated – Microsoft Business Applications Summit 2020 – Anaheim, CA, April 20-21, 2020:
  https://info.microsoft.com/Business_Applications_Summit_2020_Sign_Up.html

Check out the on-demand sessions posted from this year’s Microsoft Business Applications Summit 2019 here!

• Power BI BizApps Summit 2019 Recordings:
  https://aka.ms/mbas2019PBI
• Microsoft Flow BizApps Summit 2019 Recordings:
  https://aka.ms/mbas2019FL
• Power Apps BizApps Summit 2019 Recordings:
  https://aka.ms/mbas2019PA
• Dynamics BizApps Summit 2019 Recordings:
  https://aka.ms/mbas2019DYN

Have you registered for SharePoint Fest Seattle? Join us at the Washington State Convention Center, August 19-23!

SharePoint Fest brings to you the world’s leading experts in SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Teams and Azure. Whether you are new to SharePoint or an experienced power user, admin or developer, SharePoint Fest has content designed to fit your experience level and area of interest. Our workshops and sessions are taught by Microsoft Certified Trainers, Microsoft MVPs, Microsoft Regional Directors and Microsoft engineers.

At SharePoint Fest, subject matter is divided into tracks and each session is designated for beginner, intermediate or advanced. Tracks are offered for the following subjects: Office 365, Azure, Teams, OneDrive, Search, Content Management, Power Users, Business Value, Implementation/Administration, Workflow, Business Intelligence, SharePoint Development, and more.

Visit the info below to register:

• Date:
  August 19-23, 2019
• Location:
  Washington State Convention Center
  Seattle, WA
• Registration:
  https://www.sharepointfest.com/Seattle/

The Microsoft Teams desktop app is coming to existing installs of Office 365 ProPlus and Microsoft/Office 365 Business/Business Premium.

Starting on July 9, 2019, Click-to-Run will install the Teams client for all PCs on the monthly channel, and the client will update itself regularly from that point onward. This will be a gradual rollout over several weeks, so not all existing installations will immediately get Teams added when Office is updated.

Read the announcement here:

• BLOG: Teams is coming to Office 365 Business & Office 365 ProPlus monthly
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-365-Blog/Teams-is-coming-to-Office-365-Business-amp-Office-365-ProPlus/ba-p/725481

Are you a heavy user of Microsoft Teams?  Tired of having to use the mouse for things?

Hit “Ctrl-.” while in the Microsoft Teams client in order to get a list of keyboard shortcuts.

Note: One of my favorite keyboard shortcuts is “CTRL-ENTER” to “SEND MESSAGE” when you respond to an instant message that appears as a pop up or “toast” in the bottom right hand corner.

Here’s some good ones you may not know:

General

• VIEW COMMANDS (Used from Search/Command bar)
  Ctrl+/
• GO TO SEARCH/COMMAND BAR
  Ctrl+E
• CALL SOMEONE
  /call [person’s name]

Meetings/Calls

• GO FULL SCREEN IN A MEETING
  Ctrl+Shift+F
• TOGGLE MUTE
  Ctrl+Shift+M
• TOGGLE VIDEO
  Ctrl+Shift+O

If you’d like to see the same content online, check out this URL:

• https://support.office.com/en-us/f1/topic/2e8e2a70-e8d8-4a19-949b-4c36dd5292d2?showContactUsNav=False

The tools in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack are generally supported online.

Documentation & Overview:

• AGPM Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack/agpm/
• AGPM Downloadable Reference: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13975
• VIDEO: Tech·Ed North America 2011 Manage Group Policy with Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management AGPM
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZdcLlQMTJc
• VIDEO: AGPM 4.0 – Manage a Modernized Desktop with AGPM 4.0 (1:13)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfbIywAhPs4

Support & Questions are answered here:

• Technet Forums: Advanced Group Policy Management
  https://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-us/home?forum=mdopagpm&filter=alltypes&sort=lastpostdesc

There’s also a course available online for free:

• AGPM Administration Course – Microsoft Curriculum
• AGPM – Advanced Group Policy Management – Part 0 Overview
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjBgmuA91DU
• AGPM – Advanced Group Policy Management – Part 1 Installing AGPM
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUSATYoXyXk
• AGPM – Advanced Group Policy Management – Part 2 Delegation
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS8LqsUUeXM
• AGPM – Advanced Group Policy Management – Part 3 Concepts
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzkMgD5_LX4
• AGPM – Advanced Group Policy Management – Part 4 Workflow
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t0mksgwON4

Explore five principles that will help you successfully deploy and manage Linux in the cloud with Azure.

Migrating to the cloud can have a positive impact on the cost, maintenance, scalability, elasticity, and versatility of your IT infrastructure.

In this O’Reilly e-book, author Sam Alapati examines five principles for successfully deploying and managing Linux in the cloud. Review examples from Azure and other cloud service providers. Explore best practices for moving your system out of your data center and into the cloud. Get a detailed overview of various types of cloud services and deployments. By better understanding cloud migration principles, your team will be ready to:

• Assess and identify which Linux virtual machines (VMs) are adaptable in the cloud.
• Determine and plan for your workload’s level of availability for new deployments.
• Monitor your applications running on Linux across the entire stack.
• Ensure your Linux VMs are secure and backed up.
• Govern your cloud environment with policy management best practices.

Download the eBook here:

• DOWNLOAD: eBook, “Five Principles for Deploying and Managing Linux in The Cloud with Azure” (92pgs, .PDF, 2.4MB)
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/five-principles-deploying-linux-in-cloud/

We’ve released two additional interactive guides, both loaded with content, downloadables, and videos for IT professionals and decision makers and their adoption of either Microsoft 365’s security capabilities or Microsoft Teams for Government.

Check them out now:

• Security & Compliance Adoption Guide for Microsoft 365
  https://teamworktools.azurewebsites.net/sec/
• Teams Adoption Guide for Government
  https://teamworktools.azurewebsites.net/gov/

Take a look at our Teams Toolkit – an adoption guide designed to better understand business outcomes and use cases for Microsoft Teams.

The guide is a 12 page online-only document that includes multimedia that provides more background around maximizing your usage of Teams with business functions.

• Video overviews to better understand Teams as a deployer
• Presentations & downloadable worksheets for Teams
• Downloadable flyers to distribute to users
• Guides for Help Desk and other roles

Check it out at:

• INFO: Teams Toolkit
  http://aka.ms/teamstoolkit.

(For a text version, visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/adopt-microsoft-teams-landing-page)

As announced on June 18. 2019:

Azure and Office 365 generally available today, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform available by end of 2019

Today, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Office 365 are taking a major step together to help support the digital transformation of our customers. Both Azure and Office 365 are now generally available from our first cloud datacenter regions in the Middle East, located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, offering the next generation of intelligent business applications and tools, are anticipated to be available from the cloud regions in UAE by the end of 2019.

The opening of the new cloud regions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai marks the first time Microsoft will deliver cloud services directly from datacenter locations in UAE and expands upon Microsoft’s existing investments in the Gulf and the wider Middle East region. By delivering the complete Microsoft cloud – Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics 365 – from datacenters in a given geography, we offer scalable, highly available, and resilient cloud services for organizations while helping them meet their data residency, security, and compliance needs.

…

Read the rest of the announcement here:

BLOG: First Microsoft cloud regions in Middle East now available
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/first-microsoft-cloud-regions-in-middle-east-now-available/