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With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier

Microsoft Ignite 2021 recap: Teams gets new features, Outlook board, “next generation Windows” tease, Microsoft Mesh & more

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Published onMarch 4, 2021

published onMarch 4, 2021

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Microsoft’s annual IT and developer conference officially ended today on March 4, and it was a busy couple of days. Microsoft used the all-digital event as the stage to announce several updates for Teams, Outlook, and other Microsoft 365 apps and services. They even announced Mesh, a brand new social mixed reality platform. We’ve been keeping up with the news all week long, and here’s a look at what you might have missed.

New Teams features

We’ll begin our recap by starting with Microsoft Teams. Since Teams has been on the boom due to the pandemic, Microsoft is bolstering up the collaboration service with lots of new features. The first of those are improvements for Live Events in Teams, where Teams can now be used to create interactive webinars for up to 1,000 attendees. Teams Live Events will also support webinars with up to 20,000 attendees later this month. You can have a look below for the other new features coming to Teams, as announced at Ignite 2021.

The final of the new Teams feature is the ability to export webinar contacts, useful for Dynamics 365 marketing. Also coming to Teams aresome of the new Microsoft Viva modules,such as Viva Connections, which should be rolling out more broadly now.

Windows 10

Windows 10 usually gets a backseat at Microsoft Ignite, but this year, there was a bit of news about the operating system which we want to recap. First off, there’s the big news about Power Automate becoming free for Windows 10 users. This tool comes with 370 prebuilt actions that help you build flows across different applications. As our ownBenjamin Akhigbe explained, it “enables you to build your own scripts to automate time-consuming repetitive tasks.”

In addition to the Power Automate news, Microsoft also announced that Windows 10 in cloud configuration hasbeen integratedinto Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which will make it even easier to provide a secure device configuration tailored for worker needs. The news comes after Windows 10 in cloud configuration overview and setup guide was made available for download on Feb 2. That allows administrators to apply a uniform, secure and easy-to-manage cloud-based configuration of Windows10 Pro or Enterprise devices.

We’ll end the Windows 10 section with alook a what’s ahead for the operating system. Indeed, Surface and Windows Chief Panos Panay appeared to “tease” the upcoming versions of Windows. In a fireside chat session at Ignite, he hinted that he has not “talked about the next generation of Windows” and that he is “so pumped” for it. He even mentioned that “it’s going to be a massive year for Windows.”

To be fair, though, his session was mainly about current Windows features, but the exec did appear to slip his tongue about the future a bit, though not confirming any rumors we’ve heard so far about Sun Valley or Windows 10X.

Outlook

Next up are the changes for Outlook as announced at Ignite 2021. The first is the introduction of Outlook Board view in Outlook Calendar. This is designed to help make your calendar easier to manage. The feature is now available for everyone, and has a free-form view, combining calendars, files, reminders, and to-do lists in one place. Microsoft also rolled out what it is calling “suggested times” in Outlook for iOS and Android, too. The feature is all about AI and finding times for meetings. Finally, Outlook on Mac is getting support for more email account typesand shared calendars.

Microsoft Mesh

For most people, Microsoft Mesh was the biggest news out of Microsoft Ignite 2021. This was one of the more unique parts of Ignite, as this portion of the keynote could have been viewed in AltSpace VR in Mixed and Virtual Reality. Indeed, featuring Alex Kipman, Microsoft used Ignite 2021 as the stageto unveil Mesh. It is Microsoft’s new Mixed Reality Platform designed to allow people in different physical locations to join collaborative and shared holographic experiences across many kinds of devices.

Mesh is designed for companies and businesses to let their teams joined shared virtual spaces for collaborative meetings, where everyone will appear as virtual avatars. The target audience is enterprise and commercial users, too. Mesh is coming as a HoloLens app, but it can also be accessed through a new version of AltSpace VR, which is Microsoft’s VR platform. Alex Kipman detailed that solutions built through Mesh by developers could come to Windows Mixed Reality, PCs, Macs, Smart Phones, and Oculus, too.

Azure Power Platform, and more

Of course, Ignite is all about the Cloud and Azure, so there were several other news stories around these Microsoft products, too. With Power Platform,Microsoft announced Power Fx, which is their new first low-code programming language. They also announced new AI capabilities for Power Virtual Agents, updates for Power BI Premium, Power Automate Desktop. With Azure, Microsoft announceda new hardware and software platformcalled Azure Percept, which should make it easier for Microsoft’s customers to develop AI solutions.

Of course, we covered Ignite 2021 in-depth,so check out our hubfor all the other stories you might have missed! And be sure to watch the OnPodcast this Sunday, as we’ll be recapping Ignite once more!

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time).

For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web.

Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they’re looking for.

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With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low#

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app#

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities#

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount#

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier#

Microsoft Ignite 2021 recap: Teams gets new features, Outlook board, “next generation Windows” tease, Microsoft Mesh & more#

New Teams features#

Windows 10#

Outlook#

Microsoft Mesh#

Azure Power Platform, and more#