Category Archives: PowerShell

Microsoft 365 for IT Pros (2027 Edition)

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It is that time of year again. The new edition of Microsoft 365 for IT Pros is out, and this one brings the biggest structural change we have made in years. What used to be one large book with a single companion volume has now grown into a bundle of four focused books. Splitting the content allows us to go deeper while keeping the main book maintainable. Together, they deliver more than 1,700 pages of practical guidance for people who run Microsoft 365 every day.

A bit of history

The series goes back to May 2015, when it started life as Office 365 for Exchange Professionals. Over time, the platform expanded, the audience broadened, and the book evolved with it. This year also marks the move from Office 365 for IT Pros to Microsoft 365 for IT Pros. The name changed, but the focus did not. We still cover the services and workloads administrators, architects, and technologists rely on.

I joined the writing team in 2024. What stood out to me from day one is that this is not a traditional technical book. Most books age the moment they are published. This one does not. We update it every month and keep tracking the constant stream of changes across Microsoft 365. That evergreen model, combined with real-world experience, is what makes this book stand out. It is written for people who manage Microsoft 365 daily and need the most up-to-date content.

What you get

The bundle now consists of four books, each focusing on a specific area:

  • Microsoft 365 for IT Pros is the core book. It covers the Microsoft 365 ecosystem from an administrative perspective, including identity, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Teams, OneDrive, and overall tenant management. This edition adds a dedicated AI and Agents chapter covering architecture, licensing, deployment, governance, monitoring, and cost control for Copilot and related technologies.
  • Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell is the PowerShell / automation book. It focuses on automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell and Microsoft Graph, providing practical examples you can apply in real-world environments.
  • Microsoft Purview for IT Pros is a new standalone book. It covers compliance and data governance, including data lifecycle management, eDiscovery, data loss prevention, information protection, and communication compliance.
  • Power Platform for IT Pros is the 2nd new standalone book. It focuses on the administration and governance of the Power Platform, including environments, Dataverse, solutions, application lifecycle management, and platform security through policies and controls. It also covers scenarios for Power Apps, Power Automate, AI Builder, and Copilot Studio.

Splitting the content into separate books allows for more depth and focus, while making the core book easier to consume and maintain. And for those who need it, each companion book is available separately, offering the same monthly updates for that book throughout the subscription.

Who this is for

Tenant administrators, consultants, architects, engineers, and technical leads will get the most value from this edition. If your job involves Exchange Online, Entra ID, SharePoint Online, Teams, OneDrive, Purview, Power Platform, Copilot, PowerShell, or Microsoft Graph, this set has been designed for you.

Availability

We use Gumroad.com to publish and distribute the books. All books are available in EPUB and PDF formats and can be converted for use on Kindle devices.

You can get the books here:

Practical PowerShell Series: Part 7

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Defining dynamic parameters in advanced functions or scripts significantly enhances user experience and functionality by making these functions or scripts more intuitive and user-friendly, primarily when used interactively. For instance, with tab completion, parameters are offered – or not – based on specified conditions, guiding users toward correct usage patterns. This reduces errors and improves overall script robustness by ensuring users are directed toward the appropriate options, making the script more flexible and easier to use.

The seventh part of the Practical PowerShell series covers using dynamic parameters to enhance advanced functions or scripts, discussing both Parameter Sets and DynamicParam script block.

Click here to read the full article on Practical 365.

Practical PowerShell Series: Part 6

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The practicalities of producing PowerShell output and generating logging are other essential scripting elements. No administrator likes to stare at a blank screen, wondering if the command just entered is functioning or not. Also, when performing bulk operations against multiple objects, it could be wise to register the success or failure of this operation in a manner that is useful for reporting. Depending on your use case, it can also be beneficial to log these failures so that they can easily be re-used for consecutive retries after remediation of the cause.

The sixth part of the Practical PowerShell series covers these topics, talking about output streams and logging.

Click here to read the full article on Practical 365.

Practical PowerShell Series: Part 5

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Writing PowerShell scripts can be a fulfilling task. After all, you write something to assist with a task or procedure so you can focus on the result, not the task itself. But what if your script tries to run an action and is unsuccessful, for example, when a user the script attempts to manipulate is invalid or the signed-in account has insufficient permissions to run a cmdlet? And do not forget the peculiarities of the online world, such as a network connection dropping or an authentication token expiring.

This is where one of the often-undervalued aspects of writing resilient and “a less optimistic version” of scripts comes into the picture: exception handling, the topic of the fifth part in the Practical PowerShell series.

Click here to read the full article on Practical 365.

Practical PowerShell Series: Part 4

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In the previous article on changing the flow of PowerShell code, I wrote on looping in PowerShell, providing scenarios for when to use what. In the fourth article in the Practical PowerShell series, I talk about code branching.

Topics discussed are the If-Then-Else, Switch (albeit briefly as its use cases are extensive), and stop cmdlets such as break-continue-return-exit. On the side, I will also touch briefly on unary operators.

Click here to read the full article on Practical 365.