Proof we're not bluffing

Jay Simmons, a software engineer on Microsoft’s Active Directory team, walks through what’s new in Windows LAPS—focused on the updates landing in Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2025. He digs into automatic account management (create and manage a custom local admin account in-policy, keep it enabled or disabled by design, and even randomize the account name on each password rotation), expanded protections that prevent tampering with automatically managed accounts, and Sysprep cleanup so generalized images don’t carry leftover LAPS state. He also introduces passphrase support with new password complexity options and a configurable passphrase length, using curated word lists (including the EFF lists) to generate readable-but-strong secrets. Other improvements include a more readable monospace font for LAPS passwords in Active Directory Users and Computers, a new post-authentication action that terminates lingering processes that used LAPS credentials (including “runas” scenarios), updated flexibility for DSRM authorized decryptors beyond Domain Admins, a preview on-premises disaster recovery feature that can decrypt LAPS-encrypted passwords directly from AD database backups using recovery mode, and a preview Windows Admin Center extension for viewing and rotating LAPS passwords from WAC.

We produced this as a pre-recorded streamed session with the pacing, polish, and clarity you’d expect from a live broadcast—without asking the subject matter expert to also be the audio engineer, graphics operator, and streaming magician. We built the show flow, created the graphics package, coached the speaker for crisp delivery, captured the footage, and shaped it in post so every demo beat lands cleanly. Then we streamed it reliably to multiple social channels using our remote studio and streaming platform—turning complex technical content into a smooth, confidently on-air experience (and a replay-ready asset that keeps working after the stream ends).

Harjit Dhaliwal (senior product marketing manager, Cloud Endpoints) kicks off the Microsoft Technical Takeoff for Windows and Intune with a rapid panel conversation about what IT pros are asking for right now—and what Microsoft is building in response. Sangeetha Visweswaran (engineering director, Microsoft Intune) talks about managing endpoints at scale with Intune, while Aria Hanson (updates and commercial AI, Windows) highlights the nonstop pressure of monthly security updates and the move from Windows 10 to Windows 11—including a hotpatching preview designed to apply security fixes faster without waiting on a reboot. Jalleen Ringer (product leader, Windows 365 Link) and Bhavya Chopra (group product manager, Windows Cloud—Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop) dig into secure-by-default cloud endpoints, Windows 365 Link in public preview, and the appeal of managing Cloud PCs with the same Intune controls used for physical devices. Across the discussion, the throughline is clear: better security, simpler management, and practical AI (hello, Copilot) that makes daily work less tedious and more effective.

We built this pre-recorded streamed kickoff to feel like a live, high-energy opener—without asking the speakers to juggle talking points, timing, and technology at the same time. We shaped the flow, designed the graphics package, coached the panel so the conversation stayed natural and sharp, captured the footage, and polished it in post so the pacing stays crisp and the message lands cleanly. Then we delivered a smooth multi-channel stream using our remote studio and streaming platform—giving the clienta confident on-air moment and a ready-to-replay asset that keeps earning attention after the event is over.

Harjit Dhaliwal decamps to London to talk cybersecurity with the London Stock Exchange Group, calmly discussing detection, remediation, data exfiltration, and why things should be caught before they start chewing on your infrastructure. Along the way, the conversation wanders—purposefully—through Microsoft security tooling, operational resilience, and the fine art of spotting trouble early, fixing it fast, and sleeping slightly better at night because of it.

We turned that conversation into a polished digital event by handling everything from show development and guest prep to graphics, production, editing, and multi-channel streaming. We wrangled schedules, networks, and pixels so the ideas could shine, then packaged the whole thing for on-demand viewing—smooth, friendly, and entirely free of last-minute chaos, which is our favorite production trick.

Jeremy Chapman (Microsoft 365 team) and Samson Chan (Microsoft Purview team) walk through what it actually takes to roll out Copilot for Microsoft 365 without accidentally turning your file shares into an improv comedy stage. Jeremy breaks down how Copilot works under the hood—prompts get “grounded” with the data you allow, pulling context from Microsoft Graph sources like SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, calendar, and email, plus optional plug-ins, Graph connectors, Dataverse, and Power Platform connectors (even the copilot.microsoft.com experience gets a mention). Then Samson shifts to the guardrails: using Microsoft Purview compliance controls like sensitivity labels, data loss prevention policies, audit, retention, eDiscovery, and communication compliance—illustrated with a Contoso Electronics scenario where labeled SharePoint content (hello, secret project Obsidian) determines what different users can and can’t surface through Copilot.

We produced this as a pre-recorded, streamed event built to feel smooth, human, and confidently on-air—while keeping the behind-the-scenes complexity safely muzzled. We handled show development, designed the graphics package, prepared the guests, produced the footage, edited it into a clean, easy-to-follow episode, and streamed it to multiple social channels. The result: a polished experience that protects your brand, keeps presenters relaxed, and gives you an on-demand asset that continues earning attention long after the stream wraps.

In this Copilot for Microsoft 365 Tech Accelerator kickoff, Mary David Pasch (engineering team for the Copilot for Microsoft 365 platform, building the orchestration engine behind Copilot experiences) sits down with Bobby Kishore (Vice President of Office AI) to demystify how Copilot rewires everyday work without turning it into a sci-fi experiment. They dig into real “remove the tedium” scenarios across Teams, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint—meeting summaries and transcript Q&A, email thread summaries with suggested replies, drafting help for the dreaded blank page, rephrasing/shortening copy, document summaries, and even turning a Word doc into a PowerPoint in minutes. Bobby also shares adoption tips: start with high-value commands, build new habits in Teams meetings, use Copilot Labs starter prompts, and lean on M365 Chat’s built-in prompt suggestions. Then they hit the big questions—security, privacy, and responsible AI—covering Microsoft’s commitments around customer data (not selling it, not using it to train models), compliance foundations, data sovereignty, and why Copilot may sometimes “over-block” as it errs on the side of caution (including current limitations like encrypted files not yet supporting Q&A/summaries in some cases).

We produced this as a pre-recorded streamed session to feel effortless and human on-screen—while the technical complexity stays safely behind the curtain where it can’t bother your speakers. We handled show development, designed the graphics package, prepared the guests so they sounded natural and confident, produced the footage, and streamed it to multiple social channels. The result: a polished digital event that keeps your presenters calm, your message sharp, and your on-demand version working long after the stream ends.

In this Copilot for Microsoft 365 Tech Accelerator session, Mary David Pasch (principal product manager on the Copilot engineering team) opens the hood and walks through how Copilot actually works—without requiring you to wear a hard hat or pretend “orchestration” is a normal word. She breaks down the Copilot architecture and flow: your prompt goes to the Copilot orchestration engine, gets grounded in your context and data via Microsoft Graph, then the orchestrator retrieves the right content in real time using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) before sending a unified prompt to Microsoft 365’s large language model. She emphasizes three guardrails throughout: your data stays yours, Microsoft doesn’t use your tenant data to train the models, and enterprise-grade security/compliance/privacy policies apply end-to-end. Along the way she covers data residency concepts (geo-based storage, data at rest vs data in transit, and encryption), citations and validation in post-processing, and how Copilot can translate responses into commands inside apps like Teams, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint (including drafting an entire PowerPoint deck from a file). She also explains how Copilot inherits Microsoft Graph security trimming and how you can extend Copilot with plug-ins (API skills that can add grounding data or take actions) and Microsoft Graph Connectors (bringing third-party data into Graph so it can be used as a Copilot data source), with admin controls for optional access to public web data.

We produced this pre-recorded streamed session designed to feel crisp, confident, and wonderfully free of “can you hear me now?” energy. We handled show development, designed a cohesive graphics package, prepped the speaker so the delivery stayed natural and sharp, produced the footage, edited it into a clean, easy-to-follow episode, and streamed it to multiple social channels with calm direction and reliable execution. The result: a polished digital event that makes complex topics land clearly, keeps presenters relaxed, and leaves you with an on-demand asset that continues to earn attention long after the stream ends.

Angela Robertson walks small and medium-sized businesses through getting ready for Copilot for Microsoft 365—starting with the practical “Copilot Pro vs Copilot for Microsoft 365” question, then moving into the stuff that keeps leaders blissfully employed. She explains how Copilot for Microsoft 365 shows up inside Microsoft 365 Apps (like Word and Teams), why your Microsoft Entra ID tenant matters (and what a tenant actually is), and how MFA and Conditional Access (Entra ID P1) help protect users and admin accounts. From there, she dives into data privacy principles, data residency basics, and a sane approach to sensitive data: create three to five sensitivity labels (public, internal, confidential, highly confidential), apply them consistently, and use Data Loss Prevention to monitor, report, and reduce leak risk. She also covers controlling access by device and authentication context, how retention policies apply to Teams chats and Copilot interactions (including prompts and responses in Microsoft 365 Chat), and wraps with the Copilot for Microsoft 365 User Onboarding Toolkit you can download and customize.

We produced this pre-recorded, streamed session to feel calm, clear, and confidently “live”—while all the complicated bits stayed in our edit bay, safely supervised by well-trained pixels. We handled show development, built the graphics package, prepared the speaker, produced the footage, edited it into a clean, watchable episode, and streamed it to multiple social channels. The result: a polished digital event that protects your message, keeps presenters relaxed, and gives you an on-demand asset that keeps delivering value long after the stream ends.

In this Tech Accelerator “Ask Me Anything” session for Copilot for Microsoft 365, host Mary David Pasch is joined by product experts Samer Baroudi, Jack Rowbotham, Alyson Ginesta, and Brian T. Jackett to tackle the questions admins actually ask when nobody’s trying to sell them a dream. They dig into how Copilot handles authentication and authorization for LLM calls, how Microsoft Graph permissions and security trimming keep Copilot from “helpfully” wandering into data you can’t access, and how you can extend Copilot with plug-ins and Graph connectors (including what “cached” or pre-indexed external data really means). The panel also covers Copilot Studio licensing, prompt history and what users can (and can’t) see or delete, what counts as “usage,” and practical integration questions—from SharePoint access and on-prem file shares to Exchange Server public folders, plus guidance on Copilot Lab for onboarding, Copilot Dashboard/Viva Insights access, Microsoft Fabric scenarios, and where data is processed and stored when connectors are involved.

We produced this pre-recorded, streamed event to feel relaxed and confidently live—while the complicated bits stayed safely in the edit bay, supervised by well-trained pixels. We handled show development, designed the graphics package, prepared the guests, produced the footage, edited it into a crisp, easy-to-follow episode, and streamed it to multiple social channels with calm direction and zero-drama execution. The result: a polished show that protects your message, keeps speakers comfortable, and leaves you with an on-demand asset that keeps doing its job long after the stream ends.

Jeremy Chapman hosts the day 1 AMA for the Tech Accelerator “Copilot for Microsoft 365,” joined by Karuana Gatimu, Josh Leporati, and Angela Robertson for 25 minutes of rapid-fire, admin-grade Q&A. They dig into how to measure Copilot impact (Adoption Manager’s Persona Kit and the growing scenario library, plus the evolving Copilot dashboard), how Copilot reduces hallucinations through filtering and grounding (including Microsoft Graph, plug-ins, and Graph connectors), and why user feedback via thumbs up/down matters. The panel also tackles Teams realities—like whether you should default recording/transcription on (spoiler: ask your humans first), how Teams Premium meeting policies fit in, and how meeting habits affect Copilot outcomes. On the governance side, they cover Entra ID, managed devices, and visibility of Copilot activity in Microsoft Purview, including how prompts are stored like Teams messages in Exchange Online and can be filtered by interaction type. They wrap with “which Copilot is which,” spanning copilot.microsoft.com personal experiences, Copilot Pro (Office app integration, priority access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo, enhanced image creation), commercial data protections with work sign-in, and forward-looking questions like voice enablement (with nods to Azure OpenAI services and Azure Communication Services).

We produced this as a pre-recorded, streamed event without the frantic backstage energy that usually comes free with streaming. We handled show development, built the graphics package, prepped the guests so the answers stayed sharp and human, produced the footage, edited it into a tight, watchable AMA, then streamed it to multiple social channels with calm direction and reliable delivery. The final outcome is a polished experience that protects your brand, reduces speaker stress, and leaves you with an on-demand asset that keeps earning attention after the chat window closes.

This brief animation gets straight to the point (and then gently elbows you in the ribs): cybercriminals love weak passwords and delayed updates. It urges viewers to use Microsoft 365 Business Premium to help keep phones and laptops more secure, ending with the resource link aka.ms/ProtectMyDevices.

We produced it as a compact, message-first animation designed to land in seconds. We boiled the idea down to one clean warning and one clear next step, then built visuals that make the takeaway impossible to miss. Professional voiceover, upbeat music, and crisp motion keep it lively without getting noisy—plus careful sound finishing so it feels polished on everything from studio monitors to phone speakers. Delivered with closed captions, audio description, and thumbnails.

This animation makes a productivity-friendly security promise: give employees faster, more secure access to the tools they need with Microsoft 365 Business Premium. It highlights reducing risk through simple, unified security controls across iOS, Android, Mac, Linux, and Windows devices, then points viewers to aka.ms/protectmydevices.

We produced this one to feel like a confident “yes, you can have both” moment—speed and security, without the dramatic sigh. We shaped the script to emphasize outcomes, paced the visuals so each platform callout is easy to absorb, and used clean motion to keep the energy moving forward. Voiceover stays warm and direct, music supports the rhythm, and sound design makes the whole thing click. Final delivery included closed captions, audio description, and thumbnails.

This brief animation warns that the wrong security strategy can actually increase risk—usually by either slowing everyone to a crawl or leaving the door propped open “just for a second.” It encourages striking the balance between protection and productivity with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, ending with aka.ms/ProtectMyDevices.

We produced it to feel calm, clear, and slightly reassuring—like a seatbelt that doesn’t lecture you. Bright, gentle music sets the tone, while the animation keeps the message moving without feeling rushed. We focused on tight pacing, clean transitions, and sound polish that makes the short runtime feel complete and confident. Final delivery included closed captions, audio description, and thumbnails.