What’s New in the Hybrid Data Center & Microsoft | October 2026

Microsoft Agent 365 is expanding administrative controls for discovering, organizing, recovering, and securing enterprise AI agents across connected platforms.

• Deleted agents now have a dedicated view. Agents deleted in the last 30 days can be restored to return to the registry or deleted permanently. 
• Agents can now be classified using custom tags. This allows administrators to group agents via metadata that aligns with their organizational terms and definitions. 
• The agent registry map has been reorganized for easier browsing. The filters are now a vertical control and include additional search, cluster and filter capabilities. 
• Microsoft 365 now supports Microsoft Agent 365 agents using the Agent2 Agent protocol as connected agents in declarative agents. 
• The platforms available in the Shadow AI (Frontier) and Registry Sync Platform Connectors continues to grow. There are now 19 Shadow AI platforms and seven platform connectors, the latter allowing you to view registered agents inside of Agent 365 and extend Microsoft security protections to those agents. 

Microsoft 365 Copilot is evolving into a broader enterprise work platform with advanced models, persistent agents, business data grounding, and new administration and consumption controls.

Models & Platform

• Grok models are now available as a Copilot model choice. Eligible Frontier customers can use the models in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint after an admin enables the SpaceXAI subprocessor. 
• GPT-6 Sol and Claude Opus 5.5 are available in Copilot. The models expand the choices available for Copilot work. 

User Experience & Surfaces

• Copilot Home is the new starting point in the Copilot app. Users can reach Chat, Cowork, recent work, and suggested actions from one place. 
• Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are now available in the Copilot app. Users can create or update editable files beside the Copilot conversation and keep changes in sync with the Office apps. 
• Code enables apps, trackers, dashboards, automations, and workflows to be built through conversation. Microsoft began the Frontier rollout at the end of September and hosts the work in a protected tenant environment. 
• Autopilot now serves as a persistent agent for recurring and long-running work. Autopilot has its own identity, memory, computer, and workspace inside the customer tenant.  
• Power Point’s new Copilot skill “Create interactive slide” enables users on Windows, Mac, and web to easily create interactive, full-slide visuals for complex concepts, timelines, and data. 
• Shared Copilot context in Teams is entering private preview. Teams participants can use @Copilot with the context and permissions of a channel, group chat, or meeting. 

Data Access & Grounding

• New Microsoft 365 Copilot Pages and Notebooks are stored in One Drive for Business, enabling existing One Drive governance, compliance, data protection, retention, and lifecycle management features to apply. 
• Copilot grounding now includes Fabric IQ and business data from Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Fabric IQ reached general availability in Chat and Cowork, while business data grounding entered a public preview rollout. 
• Users can now insert Agents and Skills directly into prompts via the Context IQ menu or by typing / or @, enhancing discovery and productivity.  
• New Dynamics 365 CRM skills are now available in Copilot and agent workflows. The October 8 release introduced 30 skills for sales and service work across Copilot, Power Automate, and Copilot Studio. 

Governance & Administration

• Copilot pricing now separates fixed-price Copilot use from usage-based agent work. Chat and Office app experiences stay under user subscription licenses (USL), while Cowork, Code, Autopilot, and frontier models use Copilot Credits via usage-based billing (UBB). 
• Microsoft 365 admins can control who uploads advanced Copilot agents and plugins, limiting access to specific users or Entra ID groups. 
• A shared plugin registry is coming across Copilot experiences. Admins can approve plugins in one catalog, while developers can publish a plugin once for supported Copilot surfaces. 

Analytics & Optimization

• Cost controls for Copilot and agents have expanded. Admins can set spending policies, connect credit requests to approval workflows, and choose the model families available to user groups. 
• A new Value tab for Copilot Cowork provides dashboards on credit use, estimated assisted employee hours, active users, and task categories.  
• A new Copilot connectors usage report is coming to the admin center. It provides insights on connector usage across Copilot Chat, Search, and agents, and requires a Copilot Premium license. 

Personalization

• “Today” in Copilot Home is entering private preview. Today brings mail, calendar, Teams threads, meetings, and tasks into a personal command center with prepared follow-up work. 
• Copilot in PowerPoint introduces Strict Brand Adherence and Notes Steering settings, enabling Brand Managers to ensure presentations follow approved templates and embed guidance in speaker notes. Brand managers can upload custom presentation skills as Markdown files to Brand Kit for use with Copilot in Power Point Web, enabling consistent, reusable guidance for presentations. 

Microsoft Copilot Studio is adding conversational application development, managed execution environments, and new administrative settings for AI workloads.

• Apps can now be built through conversation in Copilot Studio and Copilot Cowork. Makers can describe an app, connect it to business data, review the code, and publish it under existing identity and connector policies. 
• Copilot Managed Runtime is now in public preview. Microsoft hosts apps built in Copilot Studio, Copilot Cowork, Copilot Code, and supported third-party tools inside the Microsoft 365 tenant boundary. 
• Beginning October 31, the GPT-5.5 Chat model will reach end of support in Microsoft Copilot Studio and will no longer be available for selection as a model option. Agents still configured to use the GPT-5.5 Chat model will move to the supported model through a Microsoft migration. 
• The Copilot Studio Authors tenant setting is now named Copilot Studio pay-as-you-go users. This feature controls who can use pay-as-you-go (paygo or PAYG) billing to create items in Copilot studio. 

Microsoft Defender continues expanding integrated security capabilities across email, collaboration, cloud infrastructure, endpoints, and identity systems. The latest updates strengthen threat detection and investigation, simplify security operations through the Defender portal, and introduce important changes to protection policies, workload visibility, and licensing that administrators should review.

Defender for Office 365

• Defender for Office 365 users can report suspicious Teams content to improve threat detection. 
• MDO will tag promotional emails as “promotions” and can auto-move them to a Promotions folder, learning from user actions. Users can customize via message moves. 
• MDO extends Teams URL protection to detect malicious URLs in QR codes post-delivery, warning users and enabling security teams to investigate via Advanced Hunting. Also, admins will see an enhanced Teams message entity flyout to submit messages to Microsoft and block senders or domains in one workflow.  

Defender For Cloud Apps

• Windows desktop devices such as Windows 10 and Windows 11 will no longer be billed as servers under Defender for Servers Plan 1. Microsoft is also changing how billable servers are identified across Plans 1 and 2, which could change reported server counts. Customers using Defender for Servers should review their current inventory and billing impacts before the change takes effect. 
• Defender for Storage can now run on-demand malware scans against a specific blob, file, container, file share, or path rather than scanning an entire storage account. This makes targeted incident response and application-driven scanning more practical and avoid scanning of unnecessary data. 
• A public preview brings Defender for Servers and Defender for Endpoint data together in the Microsoft Defender portal. Analysts can review a unified server inventory, investigate through incidents and the attack graph, hunt related events, and manage access through role-based controls and cloud scopes. 

Defender XDR

• Microsoft’s new Integrated Security Operations Center (ISOC) is in preview for eligible Microsoft 365 E5 and E7 customers that do not have an active Sentinel workspace. It brings SIEM, threat protection, automation, threat intelligence, and AI capabilities together in the Defender portal. Sentinel is not being replaced, but some customers can now begin their security operations journey directly in Defender and expand into broader SIEM capabilities as requirements grow. 
• The Identity Security dashboard and Coverage and Maturity experience are generally available. The new views centralize identity posture across on-premises, cloud, SaaS, identity providers, and partner technologies. They are designed to expose coverage gaps and prioritize the next protection steps. 
• Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps ended creation of new file policies. Existing file policies retire on January 6, 2027, so organizations should migrate required data loss prevention controls to Microsoft Purview before then.  

Defender For Identity

• Defender for Identity is beginning to automatically activate sensor v3.x and Windows auditing in eligible environments. Microsoft has also added preview support for activating v3.x directly on eligible domain controllers and expanded support to AD FS, AD CS, and Entra Connect servers. Review eligible servers and existing sensor configurations so automatic deployment does not come as a surprise. 

Microsoft Edge for Business is introducing deeper Copilot integration while maintaining administrative controls for enterprise browsing and information access.

• Edge for Business supports M365 Copilot Chat for summarizing and contextualizing multiple browser tabs, You Tube videos, and Microsoft 365 documents. The feature is off by default, respects DLP and policy settings, and requires Entra ID sign-in and proper licensing.  
• Edge’s Copilot is updated with a new icon, simplified UX, and enhanced features like Voice and Vision. Users with Copilot enabled will see these changes automatically. 

Microsoft Entra ID is strengthening phishing-resistant authentication and identity governance while retiring older authentication methods, synchronization versions, and dynamic membership capabilities.

• Microsoft advised customers that opted out of automatic upgrades, or whose automatic upgrade failed, to move to Microsoft Entra Connect 2.6.84.0 or later and Entra Connect Health agents 4.5.2466.0 or later. Older builds can lose synchronization and health alert functionality. Administrators should validate every synchronization server and health agent, including systems where automatic upgrade was disabled or unsuccessful. 
• Administrators should plan for application-based authentication before April 7, 2027, when legacy authentication is retired. 
• Microsoft is ending the preview of the MemberOf dynamic membership operator on November 3, 2026. Dynamic groups, administrative units, and entitlement-management policies using it will stop updating and remain in their last known state, potentially leaving stale access, Conditional Access targeting, licensing, or access-package assignments. Customers using MemberOf should identify and replace those rules before the deadline. 
• Passkeys became the default Microsoft Entra authentication on September 1. Microsoft-provided SMS and voice authentication will retire February 1, 2027, requiring customers to use telecom providers from the Microsoft Security Store. Transition to passkeys for stronger, phishing-resistant security.  
• Entra is enhancing passkey registration campaigns to optimize user experience and increase phishing-resistant authentication adoption. Eligible users will be automatically prompted based on qualifying passkey profiles.  
• Entra ID will support passkey registration and sign-in for B2B users, enabling phishing-resistant MFA in resource tenants starting late October. Internal guest users get Microsoft Authenticator app passkeys; external users do not.  
• Microsoft is retiring SMS first-factor sign-in for Microsoft Entra ID workforce tenants worldwide starting February 1, 2027. Organizations must identify affected users, migrate them to phishing-resistant methods like passkeys, and update policies to avoid sign-in disruptions.  
• Microsoft Entra will enable users to change passwords after secure sign-in using strong credentials (passkey, FIDO2, Windows Hello) without knowing the current password or using SSPR. This feature, disabled by default, requires admin activation and will roll out globally through November.  
• Microsoft Entra ID will enhance sign-in security by enforcing a Content Security Policy blocking external script injection starting mid-October. Only trusted Microsoft scripts will run, affecting organizations using script-injecting tools on login.microsoftonline.com. No action needed if such tools aren’t used.  
• SharePoint One-Time Passcode (SPO OTP) authentication will retire starting mid-October, transitioning external sharing and authentication to Microsoft Entra B2B. This change requires guest accounts for external users and enabling consistent Conditional Access across Share Point and One Drive.  

Exchange Online is continuing its transition away from Exchange Web Services, requiring administrators to review integrations and cross-tenant collaboration dependencies.

• Exchange Web Services (EWS) deprecation has started, affecting cross-tenant Free/Busy, Mail Tips, and Calendar Sharing. Migration to Microsoft 365 Cross-Tenant Access Policy is required to avoid service disruption. Gov rollout is paused; updates will be shared via Message center.  
• Microsoft has updated how EWSAllowed App IDs is applied in Exchange Online as part of EWS retirement. Organizations using EWS must review and configure their EWSAllowed App IDs list to avoid disruption. Microsoft may generate a list if none exists but won’t overwrite tenant-configured lists.  

Microsoft Fabric is adding application development capabilities, migration tooling, and expanded data integration features to support consolidated enterprise analytics platforms.

• FFabric Apps is available in preview for building data driven applications inside Fabric. Developers can define data models in TypeScript while Fabric generates schemas and GraphQL endpoints, provides authentication and hosting, and connects to lakehouses, warehouses, SQL databases, and semantic models. Tenant administrators must enable the workload. 
• Guided migration paths are now available from Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse into Fabric. Migration assistants cover Data Factory assets, Spark workloads, and dedicated SQL pool artifacts while customers choose the timing of each move. 
• Fabric Data Factory has expanded support for mirroring, multicloud movement, and orchestration. The update covers new mirroring sources, Copy job destinations, Dataflow Gen2 destinations, pipeline maintenance, retry controls, identity support, and migration tools. 
• The September on premises data gateway release is version 3000.334. Microsoft recommends updating gateways used by Fabric so current features, known issue fixes, performance improvements, reliability changes, and security improvements can reach connected workloads 

Microsoft Intune is expanding managed application protection, controlled deployments, and device compliance capabilities while preparing for changes to Apple management and Windows attestation.

• Claude for Intune is now on the App Store… a managed version of Claude for iOS for organizations that use Microsoft Intune. IT teams can apply Intune app-protection policies to Claude on employee-owned iPhones and iPads, not just company-issued ones. Sign-in is through Microsoft only, and the app supports Microsoft Entra Conditional Access. It’s available on Claude Enterprise, so contact Claude support. 
• Intune now supports deployment plans, allowing Windows apps, Settings Catalog policies, and Endpoint Security policies to move through controlled rollout rings with defined timing and Multi-Admin Approval support. Windows devices can also request compliance reevaluation when security signals such as BitLocker, Defender, firewall, Secure Boot, or OS change, reducing reliance on the normal check-in cycle. 
• Intune now delivers Win32 app changes faster through push notifications. Managed Windows devices can check in sooner after an administrator or service change instead of waiting for the normal polling interval. This improves deployment responsiveness without changing the administrator workflow. 
• Intune will move Windows Health Attestation from Device Health Attestation to Microsoft Azure Attestation by early 2027. Organizations should allow access to the Azure Attestation endpoints so Windows 11 devices that use health-based compliance policies continue to evaluate correctly.  
• Starting early 2027, web-based device enrollment will be the default for new iOS/iPad OS enrollment profiles in Intune. Existing profiles remain unchanged. Admins must deploy the SSO extension policy for just-in-time registration.  
• Apple has ended support for legacy MDM software update commands with OS 27. Intune will remove the legacy update UI in its October release. Admins must switch to declarative device management (DDM) for Apple software updates to ensure devices continue updating properly.  
• Microsoft Cloud PKI is now available in GCC High. Government customers can issue, renew, and revoke device certificates for Windows, Android, iOS, iPadOS, and macOS without deploying an on premises certification authority or certificate connector. Department of Defense tenants are not included in this release. 

Microsoft Loop is improving everyday task tracking for teams coordinating work across collaborative documents and meeting workflows.

• Loop task list components now provide more control over everyday work tracking. The updated task list experience adds filtering, sorting, expanded and collapsed views, row height controls, and other usability improvements. Teams that use Loop for meeting actions and lightweight project coordination can organize larger task lists without moving to another application. 

Microsoft is updating release management and retiring select companion applications as it consolidates productivity experiences.

• Microsoft 365 Targeted Release will retire in January 2027, replaced by Frontier, Standard, and Deferred release options. 
• Microsoft 365 companion apps (Calendar, People, Files) will retire on December 16, 2026, ceasing support and functionality. Core Microsoft 365 features remain unaffected, accessible via Outlook, Teams, and other tools.  

Microsoft OneDrive is adding a flexible storage billing model intended to help organizations accommodate accounts that exceed licensed capacity.

• Microsoft is introducing a pay-as-you-go billing option for additional One Drive storage, allowing admins to let selected accounts exceed licensed quotas with automatic usage-based billing. 

Microsoft Outlook is introducing interface refinements designed to reduce repetitive actions and improve email, calendar, and contact administration.

• New Outlook now groups multiple new mail notifications into one summary alert to reduce notification noise while still showing the number of new messages. Users can also resize the pinned Favorites area and preserve Markdown formatting when pasting content into a draft. 
• Meeting responses and category administration are faster in new Outlook since users can respond to meeting invitations from the message list context menu, and the People experience supports editing or deleting multiple categories at once.  

Microsoft Planner is expanding embedded AI assistance and improving task editing to simplify coordination across team plans.

• Planner Agent is now built directly into basic plans. Users can ask questions about a plan, create and update tasks, and focus the view on top priorities without leaving Planner. Microsoft also improved responses for large and complex plans, which should make the agent more useful for program and portfolio work. 
• A new Task Details Side Pane keeps the plan visible while work is updated. Assignments, dates, notes, and checklists can be edited beside Board, Grid, and My Tasks views. Planner also remembers the preferred details layout, reducing context switching during review and triage. 

Microsoft Power Platform continues modernizing application experiences and expanding agent-assisted development across canvas apps, model-driven apps, and connected enterprise data.

• Fluent screen templates are now available for canvas apps. Makers can start with responsive layouts and editable controls, then connect data and change the design. 
• Modern controls and bulk control updates have expanded in canvas apps. Makers can update eligible controls across a screen and use new progress bar, avatar, and spinner controls. 
• The refreshed model-driven app header and navigation are now generally available. Microsoft also put display density in preview with comfortable, cozy, and compact settings. 
• The canvas authoring agent plugin is now generally available. Makers can create, inspect, and update canvas apps through supported coding agents while retaining control of each change. 
• The model app-builder skill is now generally available. The skill turns plain-language requirements into a reviewed plan before it creates or changes Power Apps and Dataverse components. 
• Generative pages are now available inside model-driven app forms. A form can pass its record identifier to the page so the generated experience opens with the correct record context. 
• Power Platform connector support for generative pages is now in public preview. Makers can use data from services such as SharePoint and SQL instead of limiting the page to Dataverse tables. 

Microsoft Purview is expanding network-level data protection, content lifecycle administration, and compliance controls while retiring legacy experiences.

• Global Secure Access DLP Integration Reaches General Availability. The integration between Microsoft Purview and Entra Global Secure Access is now generally available, allowing DLP policies to inspect and block sensitive text, files, and AI interactions at the network layer. This extends protection beyond Microsoft 365 and managed endpoints to browsers, applications, APIs, and unsanctioned generative AI services, making Global Secure Access increasingly relevant to data-security and Entra Suite discussions. 
• Microsoft Purview introduces a priority cleanup workflow enabling admins to hard delete specific One Drive and Share Point content, even under retention or holds, with required e Discovery approval.  
• Microsoft will retire the Microsoft Purview DSPM classic and DSPM for AI classic experiences by December 31, unifying capabilities into a single current DSPM experience.  
• Organizations must have migrated applications from EWS to Microsoft Graph APIs by October 2026 to maintain archive mailbox access, compliance, e Discovery, and data lifecycle management.  
• Microsoft Purview data loss prevention is expanding to calendar events in Outlook for Mac, iOS, and Android.  
• Purview Data Lifecycle Management will enable admins to archive inactive Share Point files under retention policies, moving them to Microsoft 365 Archive to reduce storage costs while maintaining compliance. Archived content is excluded from Copilot indexing.  
• Purview increases auto-expanding archive capacity for eligible Exchange Online mailboxes from 1.5 TB to 3 TB. No extra configuration or charges apply.  

Microsoft Sentinel is deepening integration with the Defender portal and Microsoft Fabric while improving options for security data management and analysis.

• Microsoft has updated Sentinel onboarding to more tightly integrate the SIEM, Sentinel data lake, and Defender portal, with additional options to mirror Sentinel data into Fabric OneLake and use Fabric for federation and custom security analytics. Managed customers are also being automatically moved toward the unified Defender experience, so organizations with multiple Sentinel workspaces should validate their primary workspace, analytics, automation, playbooks, and RBAC before migration. 

SharePoint continues its move away from classic publishing while introducing AI-assisted authoring, usage analytics, and new storage billing options.

• Copilot in SharePoint began general availability rollout on September 30. The October release adds practical content operations inside SharePoint, including splitting, merging, inserting, and reordering PDF pages, plus conversational review of version history and restoration of earlier file versions. Most capabilities require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. 
• AI-Assisted Charts Web Part Is Coming. Share Point will introduce an AI-assisted Charts web part, enabling page authors with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license to create and edit interactive charts using plain-language prompts.  
• AI-Powered Page Authoring Expands. SharePoint page editors with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license can now use an AI-powered authoring panel to create and edit pages via natural language prompts.  
• HTML Page Support Expands Publishing Options. Share Point will support creating, uploading, editing, and publishing HTML pages, including Copilot-assisted page creation.  
• The SharePoint mobile app for iOS and Android is redesigned around a personalized Discover experience. It features improved site browsing, file previews, refreshed news, search, dark mode, and better performance.  

• Third-Party App and Agent Recommendations Expand. Teams administrators will be able to discover and recommend applications and agents associated with third-party services used within their organizations. The feature requires administrator activation and uses sign-in signals to generate suggestions without automatically changing installed applications.

• External Chat File Sharing Expands. Users can now share files in external chats using attachments and drag-and-drop.  
• Personal Reminders and Notification Pausing Are Coming. Teams is adding personal reminders for chat and channel messages and the ability to pause notifications. 
• Teams will blur QR code images from external users by default to reduce phishing risks. Users can reveal images if trusted. 
• Teams will introduce two new chat sections-Muted chats (enabled by default) and Meeting chats (disabled by default)-to organize conversations. Users can enable, disable, and reorder these sections; 

• Teams is updating meeting controls and the share panel to simplify use, reduce accidental actions, and improve sharing confidence. Changes include center-aligned controls, a separated Leave button, customizable controls, and a redesigned share panel with live previews and two-step sharing. 
• Teams Panels can now hide meeting organizer names, and Teams Rooms on Windows support local pan, tilt, and zoom camera controls from the room console. 
• Teams will detect and label external meeting assistant bots joining meetings, giving organizers control to approve, deny, or remove them. A new admin policy will manage bot handling. 
• Teams for Web will introduce a Picture-in-Picture Call Monitor, allowing users to manage meetings in a separate window while multitasking in other browser tabs. 
• Teams will soon support sharing video directly from OneDrive during Teams events. Organizers and producers using Manage what attendees see can load videos from OneDrive and present them on stage without screen sharing a local media player or embedding videos in PowerPoint, for smoother, higher-quality video playback.  

• Teams device management is in its final stage of moving to the Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal, and the decommission of legacy Android device management capabilities inside the Microsoft Teams Admin Center (TAC) is completing.  
• Teams Rooms on Android, Teams phones, and Teams panels must be updated to at least the February app release before Exchange Web Services retires.  
• Microsoft Teams Pro Management portal will add desk utilization analytics, showing usage, reservations, occupancy, and peak patterns. 

• Call history is increasing to up to 3,000 records with missed calls and voicemail shown in a streamlined experience. Multi-line users will receive separate tabs for each phone line. 
• Teams Phone Agent is now generally available as an AI powered receptionist. The service can answer incoming calls and handle common customer requests, helping organizations absorb routine call volume and provide more consistent first line service. PAYG credits are used via Copilot credits. 

• Teams Events Licensing Changes. Teams Events capabilities are being separated into foundational and advanced feature sets, and Teams Premium will no longer include Teams Events functionality. 

Microsoft is updating the Windows endpoint platform while preparing to retire legacy deployment infrastructure in a future Windows Server release.

• Windows 11 Version 26H2 Reaches General Availability. Windows 11 version 26 H2, the Windows 11 2026 Update, is generally available for eligible devices.  
• Windows Settings Backup Defaults Change. Windows settings backup is enabled by default on eligible Windows 11 version 26 H2 devices unless an administrator has explicitly configured the policy. Existing settings continue to take precedence.  
• Windows Deployment Services Deprecation Planned. Microsoft plans to deprecate the Windows Deployment Services server role, services, management tools, interfaces, and built-in PXE boot functionality in the next Windows Server release.