Category Archives: Microsoft

HOW TO: Schedule a Teams meeting with someone external to your company or a Guest user

If you have the Microsoft Teams Desktop client installed, Outlook automatically enables the Microsoft Teams add-in. To schedule a meeting click New Appointment from the Outlook Calendar view In the ‘New Appointment’ window select Teams Meeting from the ribbon bar As you can see from the screen shot below the meeting invite has the link… Read More »

Microsoft Cloud Services

With the increase in remote and home working over the past few weeks, many companies, including Microsoft, are now taking steps to ensure their services remain accessible despite huge spikes in user activity. Microsoft has recently released the below stats…. 775% increase in cloud services in regions that are enforcing social distancing. 900 million minutes… Read More »

Office 365 becomes Microsoft 365

Microsoft has announced changes to the names of Office 365 subscriptions for small and medium-sized businesses. Going forward, all products will use the Microsoft 365 brand. The new product names go into effect on April 21, 2020. This is a change to the product name only, and there are no pricing or feature changes currently. … Read More »

Skype for Business Online is retiring

As Microsoft Teams has become the core communications client for Office 365, we are announcing that Skype for Business Online will retire on 31 July 2021. After that time, the Skype for Business Online service will no longer be accessible or supported. What is the Skype for Business Retirement plan? Skype for Business Online will be retired on July 31, 2021,… Read More »

Office 365 issues

We have seen a few customers experiencing issues with Office 365 today, primarily gaining access to Exchange online mailboxes. Microsoft are currently not showing any issues, although Down Detector is showing a different picture…. Update…

Microsoft will continue Skype ‘classic’ support after negative customer feedback

Microsoft originally announced the classic Skype would be discontinued on 1st September 2018 and encouraged users to upgrade to version 8. Skype 8, first introduced last year, features a total design overhaul that has not been popular with some customers, which led some Skype users to be unhappy with Microsoft’s announcement. Microsoft has changed its… Read More »

Microsoft Office – Installer compatibility ‘Click-to-Run’ and ‘Windows Installer’

Unfortunately, you can’t have Office products of the same version (like 2013 or 2016) that use two different installation technologies installed on the same computer. This also applies to standalone applications like Access, Visio, Project, Skype for Business, or OneDrive for Business. https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-installed-with-Click-to-Run-and-Windows-Installer-on-same-computer-isn-t-supported-30775ef4-fa77-4f47-98fb-c5826a6926cd?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US   In some cases, you also can’t have two different versions of… Read More »

Microsoft stops selling Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 to computer makers/manufacturers

Microsoft yesterday stopped providing Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1 licenses to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including its PC partners and systems builders. The end of sales for Windows 7 Professional comes a full two years after sales ended for Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate. Windows 8 sales ended a few months… Read More »

Microsoft becomes the first global provider to deliver complete cloud from UK data centres

  The Microsoft Cloud in the UK provides  Azure and Office 365  from multiple data centre locations in the UK.   Microsoft  Dynamics CRM Online will join the line-up in the first half of 2017.  The local offering brings world-class reliability and performance combined with data residency to government departments, regulated industries and other businesses alike. … Read More »

Manually updating SharePoint databases with PSconfig

In order to update the SharePoint databases, you must manually run the PSconfig utility. 1. Open an Administrative command prompt. 2. Change directory to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\%VERSION%\BIN 3. Run PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures