GitHub Copilot CLI—GitHub’s AI assistant for the terminal—introduced an experimental feature called Rubber Duck that pairs your primary AI model with an independent reviewer from a completely different AI vendor. The goal is to catch early planning mistakes before they compound into harder-to-fix downstream errors, a known weakness of single-model AI agents. In performance testing on real-world coding problems, combining Claude Sonnet with Rubber Duck closed 74.7% of the performance gap between Sonnet and the more capable Opus tier.

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Microsoft announced a breaking change to the Microsoft Graph API affecting Exchange Online: from December 31, 2026, applications that modify sensitive email properties — such as the subject, body, or recipients — on delivered messages must hold elevated Mail-Advanced.ReadWrite permissions. Until now, the standard Mail.ReadWrite permission was sufficient for these operations. The new permissions require explicit approval from the tenant administrator (“admin consent”). If you operate Microsoft 365 and have custom applications or third-party tools that interact with email via the Graph API, you need to audit and potentially update these apps before the enforcement date.

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VS Code transitioned to a weekly Stable release schedule starting with version 1.111 in March 2026, moving away from its previous monthly cadence. Versions 1.112 and 1.113 are the second and third releases under this new schedule, introducing integrated browser debugging, MCP (Model Context Protocol) server sandboxing, Copilot CLI agent permissions, and chat workflow improvements. This article details the most significant technical changes in both releases.

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PowerShell 7.6 introduces several new features as part of Microsoft’s latest Long-Term Support (LTS) release. With three years of support, it’s a strong choice for production servers. Among the key new features in PowerShell 7.6 are improvements that address long-standing annoyances with autocomplete and enhance reliability for common administrative tasks. If you’ve ever been frustrated by tab completion not working in certain situations or noticed that PowerShell is missing obvious suggestions, this release addresses many of those issues. This article also covers installing PowerShell 7.6 on Windows and upgrading from earlier versions using winget or the MSI installer.

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Microsoft’s original Secure Boot certificates from 2011 begin expiring in June 2026. Windows devices that still rely on these certificates will no longer receive security updates for boot components, leaving them out of compliance. To address this, Microsoft is rolling out new 2023 certificates for the UEFI Secure Boot Signature Database (DB). Administrators can deploy these certificates to domain-joined machines using Group Policy, PowerShell, or the Windows Configuration System (WinCS). This article covers the technical background, the registry-based deployment mechanism, and Microsoft’s sample automation framework for enterprise rollouts.

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Windows Terminal Preview 1.25 was released in March, after a brief pause in the quarterly release cycle to focus on reliability and performance. The update introduces a Settings search UI, a rewritten Actions editor for key binding configuration, built-in support for Kitty’s Keyboard protocol, two new community translations, and several miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes. You can install it from the Microsoft Store, the GitHub releases page, or via winget.

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Windows 11 Insider Preview builds introduce a new secure processing mode for batch files and CMD scripts. IT administrators can enable it via a registry value named LockBatchFilesWhenInUse, which prevents batch files from being altered while they execute. The feature also improves performance when Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) code integrity policies are active. It is currently available in the Dev Channel build 26300.7939, and the Beta Channel build 26220.7934.

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Microsoft Secure Boot certificates issued by the 2011 Certificate Authorities (CAs) are expiring starting June 2026. Every Windows device with Secure Boot enabled must be updated to trust the 2023 certificates before expiration to retain security update support. Microsoft provides a monitoring-only approach using Intune Remediations that runs a PowerShell detection script on enrolled devices and reports Secure Boot and certificate status back to the Intune admin center — without making any changes to devices. This article explains the prerequisites, deployment steps, data collected, and how to read the results.

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Library management is a new feature in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint that provides security operations teams with a centralized interface for uploading, organizing, and reviewing scripts and files before a live response session begins. Previously, analysts had to upload tools during an active investigation, which delayed response times. The feature is now generally available for enterprise customers and integrates with Microsoft Security Copilot for automated script analysis.

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Microsoft has published its planned team investments for PowerShell 7.7, Windows OpenSSH, and Desired State Configuration (DSC) v3.2. The roadmap for PowerShell 7.7 includes relocating PSUserContentPath, non-profile-based module loading, Bash-style aliases, and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. For Windows OpenSSH, the primary addition under evaluation is support for Entra ID authentication. Desired State Configuration (DSC) v3.2 will include a new Python adapter to enable the creation of DSC resources on Linux.

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Microsoft announced on February 12, 2026, a significant change to its Exchange Online PowerShell module: the deprecation of the -Credential parameter for the Connect-ExchangeOnline cmdlet. This change represents part of a broader initiative to enhance security across Microsoft 365 administrative interfaces by eliminating authentication methods that do not support multifactor authentication.

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Visual Studio Code version 1.109 introduces agent orchestrations — a feature that transforms the IDE into a multi-agent development platform. You can now create custom agents that collaborate, delegate tasks to specialized subagents, and execute complex workflows autonomously. This article explains the concept and demonstrates agent orchestration with a simple example. I’ll also share my opinion on Microsoft’s concept of agent orchestrations. It’s not particularly favorable.

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Microsoft Intune’s January 2026 updates deliver enhancements to endpoint management, including PowerShell script installers for Win32 apps, improved Endpoint Privilege Management, unified admin task workflows, enhanced Apple device enrollment with ACME protocol support, and critical updates to the mobile application management service. These updates streamline application deployment, strengthen security controls, and improve administrative efficiency across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android platforms.

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Microsoft has introduced the Microsoft Graph User Configuration API that enables you to manage custom settings and configuration data for user mailboxes in Exchange Online. This preview API provides full CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations for user configuration objects, allowing you to store application state, settings, and metadata associated with specific mail folders. This guide shows you how to access and use this API with PowerShell.

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Microsoft released version 1.2.0 of the Microsoft Entra PowerShell module, introducing production-ready support for Agent Identity Blueprints, enhanced application configuration parameters, and modernized invitation APIs. This update consolidates Agent Identity functionality into the main module and delivers new cmdlets for automated identity management across Microsoft Entra ID environments.

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Microsoft introduced a new PowerShell parameter, ExcludeFromAllHolds, that simplifies removing multiple retention holds from inactive mailboxes in Exchange Online. This capability enables you to remove various retention holds from inactive mailboxes while preserving essential compliance protections such as eDiscovery holds and litigation holds.

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Microsoft is increasingly adopting Anthropic’s Claude Code, favoring it over its own GitHub Copilot for internal use. This shift is aimed at empowering employees, including non-developers, to use AI for coding and prototyping projects. Since its initial integration in June of the previous year, Claude Code has gained traction across major divisions such as Experiences + Devices, which oversees several key Microsoft applications.

The CoreAI team has been actively testing Claude Code, with feedback from engineers…Read more

Jeffrey Snover, renowned for his role in developing PowerShell, has announced his retirement after a significant career in the tech industry. Snover’s journey began with Microsoft near the end of the 1990s when he recognized the need for a command-line interface tailored for server management, moving away from the prevailing focus on graphical user interfaces. He authored the Monad Manifesto in 2002, advocating for automation in administration, although he initially faced resistance and was even…Read more

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The Azure Developer CLI (azd) December 2025 release delivers substantial improvements centered on extension capabilities and developer workflow enhancements. The update introduces a powerful extension framework with custom configuration properties, support for interactive mode via Text User Interfaces, and distributed tracing for improved observability. User experience improvements include an interactive environment selector, faster provisioning progress updates with polling reduced from 10 seconds to 3 seconds, and clearer error messages for configuration issues. The release also adds flexible configuration options, such as support for azure.yml as an alternative filename and integrated access to the template gallery within initialization commands. Additionally, the update includes comprehensive bug fixes for Container Apps, Azure Pipelines, and deployment workflows, along with Microsoft Foundry rebranding throughout the platform.

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Windows 11 includes a command-line tool, Store CLI, that lets you search for, install, list, and update Microsoft Store applications directly from Command Prompt or PowerShell. The Store CLI provides an alternative to the graphical Microsoft Store interface and offers distinct capabilities compared to the Windows Package Manager (winget).

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The release of PowerShell version 7.6.0-preview.6 has been announced, but it is currently unavailable on both NuGet and the Linux package repositories provided by Microsoft. Users are encouraged to check the documentation for all available qualifiers related to this release. Feedback from users is valued and considered seriously by the development team.

It’s important to note that an error occurred while trying to load certain information, prompting users to reload the page. This issue is indicative of…Read more

Microsoft released Visual Studio Code version 1.107 with new features focused on Agent HQ, a multi-agent orchestration interface introduced in version 1.106. In version 1.107, background agents are promoted beyond pure CLI-based sessions: they run as named background tasks with isolated worktrees and richer context attachment, and appear as manageable sessions in the Agent HQ experience (the integrated Chat + sessions UI), rather than existing only as Copilot CLI or cloud sessions.

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Microsoft Entra PowerShell is a module that lets administrators manage and automate Microsoft Entra ID resources—such as users, groups, applications, and policies—via PowerShell, built on and interoperable with the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. ​Microsoft released version 1.1.0 of the Entra PowerShell module, introducing compatibility improvements and new filtering parameters for device and service principal management. The update removes version restrictions for Microsoft Graph PowerShell and adds functionality for administrators managing identity resources.

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A comparison between versions v7.6.0-preview.4 and v7.6.0-preview.5 of PowerShell is intended to be provided, but several errors occurred during the loading process. Users are experiencing issues that prevent the comparison from rendering effectively, which may be due to the size of the repository or other technical problems. As a workaround, users are advised to execute the command “git diff v7.6.0-preview.4…v7.6.0-preview.5” locally on their machines to view the differences between the two…Read more

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Microsoft has released Windows Terminal version 1.23 as a stable update, and version 1.24 as the latest preview, both bringing major improvements to the popular command-line tool. These versions introduce a completely new windowing architecture, expanded settings in the user interface, and other powerful enhancements for productivity and customization. In this article, we’ll explore what’s new in these updates and to how to install the latest stable and preview builds through Microsoft Store, winget, choco, and scoop.

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The key new feature in the just-released AI Shell Preview 6 is run_command_in_terminal, among several new built-in tools that allow the AI model to run commands and review outputs directly in your PowerShell terminal. Additionally, AI Shell now supports local and remote MCP servers, transforming it into a versatile AI assistant across Windows, Mac, and Linux.

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Microsoft is removing PowerShell 2.0 from Windows 11 in the upcoming version 24H2 update, as well as from Windows Server 2025 next month. This legacy component, which dates back to Windows 7, was deprecated in 2017. The decision to remove it aims to eliminate outdated code, reduce ecosystem complexity, and enhance security.

Most users are unlikely to notice this change, as the removal does not impact PowerShell 5.1 or PowerShell 7.x. However, those who rely on scripts or applications that use…Read more

If you are working with PowerShell, you will often face the question: “Under which user is my script running?” In other words, you want to know who is logged in. Many admins use the whoami command on the Command Prompt (cmd). However, PowerShell provides native alternatives to whoami that give you the username and domain.

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Microsoft has released Microsoft.PowerShell.PlatyPS v1.0.0, marking its general availability. This tool is crucial for creating PowerShell content accessed through the Get-Help command and features in Microsofts PowerShell documentation on Microsoft Learn. Unlike its predecessor, which required authors to utilize Microsoft Assistance Markup Language (MAML), PlatyPS allows users to write help files in Markdown, simplifying the process with a format that is widely supported by various editors like Visual Studio…Read more

The Network File System (NFS) is a widely used file-sharing protocol in Linux environments. However, many Windows administrators may not know you can mount an NFS share easily on Windows 11 and Windows Server. This guide shows you step-by-step instructions on activating NFS for Windows and mounting a share using PowerShell.

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Migrating a Hyper-V host from Windows Server 2019 Core to Windows Server 2025 requires attention beyond just the virtual machines. The host’s configuration is equally essential and includes network cards, vSwitches, and default paths, all of which need to be transferred accurately. Using Windows PowerShell, you can export key settings and restore them on a new server.

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Microsoft has released AI Shell v1.0.0‑preview.5, which provides a Windows-only security patch, while Preview 4 delivered substantial improvements—enhanced macOS side‑pane support in iTerm2, Entra ID authentication, expanded Invoke‑AIShell functionality (with new -PostCode, -CopyCode, and -Exit flags)—all based on community feedback to improve workflows across Azure OpenAI, macOS, and PowerShell. This article also explains how to install Microsoft AI Shell on macOS.

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A new study by METR got a lot of attention online. It claims that developers often overestimate the productivity boost from AI tools. In a coding test, the researchers found that AI caused a 19% “slowdown” for developers. In my opinion, it’s not AI coding that’s overhyped, but rather the study’s findings.

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Google’s new Gemini CLI allows up to 60 model requests per minute and 1,000 daily requests. Professional developers might hit these limits quickly, but many IT admins will find the free plan sufficient. Compared to Anthropic Claude Code and OpenAI Codex CLI, I find Google’s open-source AI-powered terminal more useful for the AI-augmented admin.

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The release of PowerShell v7.5.2 includes several updates and improvements aimed at enhancing user experience and functionality. Key updates have been made to upgrade the .NET SDK to version 9.0.301, which is essential for leveraging the latest features and fixes. Users are encouraged to provide feedback, which is carefully considered to inform future updates.

This version addresses various bugs and introduces new capabilities that streamline processes for developers and system administrators. The documentation…Read more

AI development is heavily concentrated in a handful of countries, primarily the United States, China, and the European Union, which benefits from a limited number of specialized AI data centers. A study reveals that only 32 countries have such facilities, while over 150 nations lack necessary computing power for training AI models. This disparity exacerbates the digital divide, impacting scientific progress, economic growth, and geopolitical relationships, particularly leaving African and…Read more

Microsoft’s chief scientist, Eric Horvitz, has expressed concerns that Donald Trump’s proposed ban on state-level regulations of artificial intelligence (AI) could hinder technological advancement. Horvitz contends that the absence of state guardrails may prevent meaningful progress in both research and practical applications of AI. The Trump administration’s plan, driven by competition with China and pressure from tech investors, seeks to…Read more

OpenAI has removed all content related to its collaboration with Jony Ive due to a court order stemming from a trademark dispute with the company iyO. Originally, OpenAI announced a partnership involving a wearable device but has since made the associated video private and taken down the announcement page. The removal was necessitated by a complaint from iyO regarding the use of the name io, which they allege could confuse consumers.

OpenAI, however, disputes the claim and is considering its legal…Read more

Barracuda’s findings indicate that the volume of AI-generated spam has grown dramatically, with a 200%…Read more

The rapid adoption of AI technologies has led many organizations, particularly in Europe, to grapple with the complexities of compliance under the EU AI Act. A report reveals that 68% of European businesses struggle to understand their obligations, with significant portions of IT budgets directed towards compliance. The EU AI Act, which came into effect on August 1, 2024, establishes a risk-based regulatory framework aimed at protecting fundamental rights and safety in AI use.

AWS aims to assist…Read more

Elon Musk intends to significantly revamp his AI chatbot, Grok, following dissatisfaction with its output. The chatbot, part of the xAI program, has been generating responses containing incorrect information and facts that contradict Musks strongly held views. Musk announced plans to use Grok 3.5 or possibly 4, which he claims will incorporate advanced reasoning to correct known errors and enhance the knowledge base.

He criticized the existing models for containing “far too much…Read more

Microsoft has officially released Desired State Configuration (DSC) version 3.1.0, enhancing cloud-native configuration management for cross-platform environments. This version features key improvements and updates based on feedback from partners and the community, demonstrating a collaborative effort to advance the platform. Significant enhancements include updates driven by real-world use, improvements in resource authoring, increased cross-platform reliability, and overall performance and quality…Read more

Rebooting a Windows PC via PowerShell is a routine administrative task. This guide will teach you how to use the PowerShell cmdlet Restart-Computer to reboot a local Windows PC, restart a remote computer, and automate the reboot process for multiple systems.

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The VS Code May 2025 update (version 1.101), released a few days ago, introduces a range of new features primarily focused on GitHub Copilot. My favorite addition is the custom chat mode, which lets you create a personalized mode alongside the built-in options: Ask, Edit, and Agent. In this post, I’ll also explore the new chat tool sets and the undoing edits feature. While the Simple Browser feature was included in the previous release, it deserves discussion. Furthermore, I will briefly summarize the MCP enhancements.

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