TOP STORIES #61

Some big news is that Microsoft has announced MTO capabilities (explained below), and CoPilot prerequisites have been expanded to include the "F" and "E" base licenses (more on that below as well).

Last Week's TOP STORIES #60 is here.

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Hardware

Intel Panther Lake on Track for Mid 2025

Panther Lake is the culmination of three generations of Intel processors. It looks like Panther Lake remains on track and marks Intel's ability to deliver CPU on the 18A process. Read more about the roadmap here. A LOT is going to happen in the next 12 to 18 months!

Microsoft

Prerequisites for CoPilot expanded to F1/F3/E1/E3 licenses.

Microsoft has updated the Product Terms for May 2024 to include additional eligible licences for purchasing Copilot for Microsoft 365. Now, users holding Microsoft Business Basic, Microsoft 365 F1/F3, and Office 365 F3/E1 licences can also acquire this product.

The updated product terms are here.

Microsoft Outlook for mobile apps gets CoPilot

Microsoft has announced some new features for Outlook, but one of the biggest additions is support for CoPilot. You can read more about this here.

How to get Office 2024, but maybe don't bother.

Microsoft has released a preview of Office 2024 LTSC which you can read all about how to download and install here (not for the faint-hearted),

Unless you have very specific requirements to be running Office completely offline, it may be a good idea to give this a miss - and all your efforts should go into ensuring that you are able to deploy and support O365. This edition is practically identical to Office 2021, and is really just a new release to give you 5 years of support if you buy a new 2024 license.

Multi-Tenant Organisation capabilities for M365 announced

Microsoft has announced the general availability of Multi-Tenant Organization (MTO) features in Microsoft 365, designed to improve collaboration and communication across various tenants through Teams and Viva Engage. For licensing, each employee in a multi-tenant setup needs just one Microsoft Entra ID Plan 1 license, and access to MTO capabilities in Viva Engage requires a Viva Suite or an Employee Communications & Communities User SL.

The announcement from Microsoft is here and a good explanation on how to implement different options is here.

This is a really big deal for companies that have different divisions each on their own tenants, as this can help divisions communicate more effectively with each other without compromising security. There are some licensing requirements, namely Entra ID P1, so please reach out to your First Tech Account manager to understand the implications (if any) for your agreement and get assistance from our engineering teams to enable this for you.

TinyBuilder - de-bloating Windows 11

This utility lets you build a specific version of Windows 11, stripping out components you do not need and allowing you to get more out of your PC's resources. It has been around for a while but is now getting updates that make it worthy of some serious attention.

It must be noted that this utility helps users automate the creation of debloated and streamlined Windows 11 images using Microsoft's own DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) command-line interface and can now support ESD files as well.

If you would like assistance with creating these images that align with the services you require at the endpoint while eliminating unnecessary features, please contact your FTG account manager, who will connect you with our engineers.

OneDrive Offline mode

Microsoft is rolling out new capabilities for OneDrive for the web, the biggest of which is offline mode. You can read more about this new capability here.

Cloud & AI

If you want Premium AI - choose NVIDIA

The war for AI dollars is now underway with NVIDIA claiming that the 45 TOPS specification by Microsoft for the AI PC is only good enough for the most basic of tasks (NVIDIA is probably right). NVIDIA showcased at an event that even current version NVIDIA powered laptops can pretty much handle any AI task that you can throw at them. Read here about how NVIDIA makes the case for their GPU's for AI. Of course this means if you want a PREMIUM AI PC, you need one with an NVIDIA GPU in it - read here.

Chat with RTX gets a major upgrade

This ties in with NVIDIA's announcement about premium AI PC's where this new update to ChatRTX really shows off what can be done with the RTX GPU in your notebook. You can read more about the impressive capabilities here.

Security

Microsoft Officially makes security it's top priority

In a new post, Microsoft's VP for security said the company will cover 6 categories in it's new security initiative. Microsoft also says that this is already making a difference which includes enforcing MFA. You can read more about Microsoft's new-found mission here.

There is no SHEIN in this box!

If you receive an email about a SHEIN mystery box, DO NOT OPEN IT!

This is a trick that may very well be tried using Temu, Amazon, Alibaba and Takealot as reasons to trick you into opening the mail.

As always, this is a reminder you can never drop your guard. You can read more here.

What's up at FTG

Sophos Security Technical Masterclass on Sophos Intercept X

This is an in-person event in Umhlanga, Durban

When

Wednesday 8 May 2024 @ 9:00am - Register here.

Where

Holiday Inn Express Umhlanga, 2 Ncondo Place Crn Ncondo Place &, Ntusi Rd, Off Umhlanga Rocks Dr.

CoPilot Readiness FTG is offering a M365 CoPilot Readiness Workshop to help you get ready. You can register here

Copilot for Security You and your team are invited to a one-on-one demo session we are hosting featuring Microsoft Security Copilot. It's a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase this cutting-edge technology to you. Sign up here.

Movies

Now Playing: Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace (re-release)

Now Playing: Breathe

Now Playing: Challengers

Now Playing: Just Now Jeffrey

Now Playing: Snake

10 May: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

10 May: Tarot