Dear Microsoft, please stop updating admin centers

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OnMyOwn_HereWeGo@reddit

Best we can do is give you a whole different admin center. Sorry!

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vertisnow@reddit

How about a unified admin center? It has 1/2 the functionality of all the admin centers in one spot, but gives no indication of what might be hidden away in the other admin centers.

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Ziegelphilie@reddit

And it's called Microsoft Dingus now! Oh and we also renamed ~~Identity~~ Entra to "Blingy"

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chum-guzzling-shark@reddit

I wouldn't be surprised if Entra gets renamed to active directory

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Oh they would never go back, just more sideways. It'll be Entra Directory Services or some bloated crap. Then they'll try to put security and compliance under an Entra branded "umbrella" and do another unified dashboard.

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Ziegelphilie@reddit

"active directory one"

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ZealousidealFudge851@reddit

You mean azure active Entra 364.9 plus?

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Justsomedudeonthenet@reddit

Not to be confused with azure active Entra 364.9+, which is an entirely different feature and requires an add-on license.

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oneconfusedearthling@reddit

I’m holding out for Azure Series X

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reol7x@reddit

Series X? Would not surprise me the least if the next one is Azure 360.

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Bearded-Wacko@reddit

But will it have the red ring of death? As a 'feature'.

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PrintShinji@reddit

Do you know why its called Azure 360? Because you see the Azure admin screen and you turn 360 degrees and walk away.

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GremlinNZ@reddit

That's definitely Microsoft logic (you say that and walk into the screen)...

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Texkonc@reddit

ugh, if he buys Microsoft I might end up learning Linux.

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Ziegelphilie@reddit

Or Entra 365.25, which is the only version that takes in account leap years. $5 per user per month add-on, naturally.

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ZealousidealFudge851@reddit

It's included with E5 your good

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andpassword@reddit

Whoops, I misread that, you need an E7 now.

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alwayssonnyhere@reddit

We finally get E5 and now they add extra cost add ons.

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binaryboy87@reddit

Like the Intune Software catalog add on or GSA? We also have E5 and I’m bummed we don’t get this without extra $$$

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tankerkiller125real@reddit

I'm pretty pissed that E5 doesn't get Intune Suite, Teams Premium, etc. what the fuck is the point of E5 at this point if we're going to have to pay extra for a bunch of shit anyway?

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Morkai@reddit

we're going to have to pay extra for a bunch of shit anyway?

This is the point.

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DandaIf@reddit

This thread has delivered! Thank you for helping me feel seen sysbros

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vlaircoyant@reddit

You have a wonderful way with words.

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RandomSkratch@reddit

That only comes with E7 😏

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inbeforethelube@reddit

E8 the Ocho

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hasthisusernamegone@reddit

Well you've got to open the path for E7 licences somehow.

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Ams197624@reddit

No no, Entra 364.9 doesn't exsit. It's Entra 10SE+ now.

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thewrinklyninja@reddit

For business premium

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Zncon@reddit

You only get that version when you have the P4 EDS (Extra Double Special) license.

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purawesome@reddit

364.999999 gotta be six 9’s or it’s crap! 😝

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DelusionalSysAdmin@reddit

Which was renamed to Co-Clippy.

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TheRenewedValor@reddit

But they aren't going to update the documentation to reflect the changes or any of the learn materials.

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DavidCP94@reddit

Or worse yet they update the name of the admin center in the documentation, but don't update the screenshots or instructions on how to find the settings you need so you spend 30 minutes trying to find a page that no longer exists and has had its settings hidden 5 clicks deep in a different menu.

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Zncon@reddit

Hey on the bright side it's not just for us! They're also not updating their own support staff either. I often get ticket replies referencing items and workflows that no longer exist.

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o-o-o-o-1@reddit

The rate of employee burnout must be massive at MS, this is the kind of stuff that causes huge mental load

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Morkai@reddit

and most of the links are broken as well.

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FedUpWithEverything0@reddit

Again???

/s

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ElectroSpore@reddit

So you I see you use the "unified" security / defender portal.

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vertisnow@reddit

Lol, how did you know?

It's actually pretty good, joking aside.

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ElectroSpore@reddit

It’s not if you have used other products. The sophos cloud portal is much more intuitive and much easier to manage endpoints in.

We recently did a full POC of defender and we just couldn’t believe how hard basic things where to do and how slow policy changes where to apply.

That and finding logs for things all over that portal.

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vertisnow@reddit

It's pretty good compared to before where there like 6 security portals. I think they only actually dropped one (cloudapp), but the defender one has most of what you need day to day.

There is a bit of a learning curve for defender for sure. It's a beast.

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WhiskyTequilaFinance@reddit

Adobe? Is that you hiding under there?

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Ottleoos@reddit

I really think it is. They are different but at the same time alike

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digitaltransmutation@reddit

that's Lighthouse

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StaticR0ute@reddit

Yo dawg, I heard you like admin centers, so here's an admin center to administer your admin centers.

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Disastrous-Bad1431@reddit

That's what they tried to effect with compliance. Unifying all of the disjointed elements into one purview admin center. I tried using it and went back to the old interface.

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WhatsFairIsFair@reddit

Flashback to when I was trying to test our software product in teams but found no teams app in m365 admin, teams login gives an error telling me to contact Microsoft but no indication of how, teams admin center looks like everything is fine but no way to access teams. Endless loop of login and error and searching around admin centers for the answer. Turned out they got rid of free dev licenses and we lost access to teams and it wouldn't work unless we buy a dev license.

Just telling me that I don't have the right license is far too hard apparently.

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Maelefique@reddit

We can give you half of that. We won't change the functionality, but we are going to rename every single app, so they aren't in the same place, and we're going to move some to other places, because, deep down, we both know, you'd rather spend half your day looking for things, instead of doing your work, right?

And while it's not an admin center, ya, I'm still looking at you, Mr. "Add/Remove Programs", err, I mean, Mr. "Software and Applications", err, I mean Mr. "Programs", err, I mean Mr. "Apps", err, I mean, Mr. "Programs and Features". 🙄

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Doso777@reddit

Whatever Subscription Edition.

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Tarwins-Gap@reddit

Also the knowledge articles about where to find things are not going to have the new admin center on there and are not going to be updated so you're going to be given information about the old system and no way to find it in the new system.

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Doso777@reddit

Missing features are now in Powershell and marked as deprecated. Have fun.

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Komnos@reddit

And it'll prompt you every few days to take a survey.

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WhereRandomThingsAre@reddit

You have 14 administrator consoles.

"We're adding a unified admin center!"

You have 15 administrator consoles.

[ XKCD Parody ]

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broknbottle@reddit

Sounds like somebody is working on their promo doc!

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EnviousMinnow@reddit

Maybe the admin center was the friends we made along the way

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TheProle@reddit

This old admin center is deprecated and will be deleted soon

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BioshockEnthusiast@reddit

We've moved some shit, specifically the thing you're looking for, but we're not done so half of it is here and half of it is somewhere else, here's a broken link.

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SamTheSammich@reddit

We'll spend the next 5 years in a transition state where cmdlets will warn you about deprecation but won't actually stop working until it's the least convenient time. Oh, and every time you search for proper usage of this module, you'll find documentation for the previous version which had more functionality.

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Sad_Recommendation92@reddit

seriously, we had some developers still using AzureRM module in some inline scripts in Azure Devops, and it just prints multiple warnings that it's "going to be" deprecated in Feb 2021.

Also even when you use the latest version of their Azure PowerShell task and use the latest Az Cmdlets it still yells at your about AzureRM.

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Sure_Acadia_8808@reddit

They laid off the deprecation team, so the deprecation never got completed, lol

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Ottaruga@reddit

It's absolutely crazy that the stable release of the AzureAD powershell module can't be loaded in the most recent stable release of powershell.

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SoylentVerdigris@reddit

Also the powershell cmdlet that used to do this has been deprecated, please use Graph going forward. There's no equivalent function in Graph, but feel free to make a suggestion for the feature to be added at

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Morkai@reddit

The new admin center that replaced the old admin center will also be deprecated soon and will be replaced with a new new admin center that will also be deprected in the next twelve months.

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G8racingfool@reddit

And, just FYI, none of these admin centers are actually reflected in the documentation sites you're probably going to find while googling for where we put the setting you're looking for.

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nimbusfool@reddit

You have succinctly described my epic burnout. I am feeling very depreciated old admin center today. The org will rely on me after repeated warnings til one day.. I'm gone. One step closer to becoming a goat farmer.

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Lakeside3521@reddit

I am 4 years from retirement and I'm not sure I'm going to make it.

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WilfredGrundlesnatch@reddit

We're also deprecating the old one even though the new one is missing half the features or straight up doesn't work half the time.

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Vzylexy@reddit

Have you heard of our Lord and Savior Graph API?! - Microsoft, probably

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tankerkiller125real@reddit

At this point I have built many a tool in C# using the Graph API, actually WAY easier than trying to deal with the Graph API in PowerShell.

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Alaknar@reddit

WAY easier than trying to deal with the Graph API in PowerShell

What do you mean? You don't love trying to figure out which particular implementation of the -filter parameter you're dealing with in a specific cmdlet?

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Lv_InSaNe_vL@reddit

Yeah but didn't you forget that the parameter you're using has actually been deprecated and it's been replaced with this nearly identical version with a slightly different name

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JohnGoodman_69@reddit

I feel seen

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isanameaname@reddit

Dealing with the graph API in curl is easier than dealing with it in Power shell.

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dragery@reddit

How is dealing directly with the API using curl easier than dealing with it directly in PowerShell? Genuinely curious.

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isanameaname@reddit

Well, part of this is just me. I've been doing this stuff for a long time, and cURL is a tool that I've been using longer than Power sell has existed, and certainly since it's been cross-platform.

But part of it is the API. The graph API is an HTTP/JSON native API. When you deal with it directly using an HTTP tool like cURL and a JSON tool like jq, then you're guaranteed to have unfettered access to all of its features, and will learn what it really does.

Powershell wraps everything in an Object layer, which is sometimes convenient, but at other times makes things more complex. If you run a search you get a list of objects rather than a JSON response. Well that's cool if the module implementor has abstracted away stuff like pages and limits. But if they haven't done that for you then it can just make things worse.

And then when you need to use a feature which hasn't made it into the module version you have yet then you still have to get the JSON response somehow and parse it, which totally defeats the point of a language binding.

I suppose one of the main reasons to use the Powershell module is to abstract away authN and authZ. But I spent most of the 00s designing Auth systems so I find that stuff easy. You might have a different experience.

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dragery@reddit

Oh okay, so it was just speaking against the official Graph Module. I write all my functions in PowerShell for the Graph API wrapped around Invoke-Webrequest, which is equivalent to curl, and returns JSON which can be converted to objects.

I was just curious if there was something detrimental in something like PowerShell compared to curl. Seems it comes down to language familiarity/comfort for you then.

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isanameaname@reddit

Pretty much, yeah. Whatever toolset works for you is the one that works for you. I think your approach is a good one, and I would support it in an architecture meeting.

For personal projects and proofs of concept I'll just use cURL and jq because of my own way of understanding stuff.i might wind up having to translate that to some other framework later, and that's fine.

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isanameaname@reddit

I should have mentioned, that's a good question. Thank you!

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dathar@reddit

I'm using Graph API via Invoke-Restmethod/Invoke-Webrequest, not the Graph API module. Removed most of the headaches...

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NGL_ItsGood@reddit

I've seen a few engineers give up on projects because graph API simply doesn't do what they need. Granted, this was a few years ago, so maybe it's changed and it's far more robust.. But I doubt it.

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PoopingWhilePosting@reddit

Until they completely revamp the API which will render all your previously built tools inoperable. You know it WILL happen.

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Vzylexy@reddit

That's honestly what I have felt when dealing with the PS Module, guess it's time to brush up on my C#!

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tankerkiller125real@reddit

C# has a proper SDK with all the type hinting you could possible want or need. Which is what makes it so much better compared to PowerShell.

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Mr_ToDo@reddit

I'm sorry but we've decided to deprecate Graph API for WMI V2

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deltashmelta@reddit

"...now featuring "some" of the functions of the modules being deprecated!"

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0o0o0o0o0o0z@reddit

Best we can do is give you a whole different admin center. Sorry!

I'm sorry, but the best we can do is give you 5-6 all-new and different admin centers. Included is our new feature of rebranding half of our products every two years or so!

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reilogix@reddit

Beginning April 2, 2025, administrators will need to log onto umass.admin.microsoft.com in order to use the features and services available in the new Ultra Mega Admin Services Situation (UM-ASS.) The previous Admin Center functionality will be available until some random future day when we decide to remove it from legacy.admin.microsoft.com.

Please note that you will need to reenable multifactor authentication for all administrators on the new UM-ASS. Please note that the new UM-ASS Admin Centers for Teams and for Exchange will not be available at launch.

Please do not respond to this email as this mailbox is unmonitored.

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ArgonWilde@reddit

And then next year, they'll rebrand and re-skin it as the Digital Unified Microsoft Admin Services Solution, and call it 'DUM-ASS' with a straight face.

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HonestPaper9640@reddit

Reminds me of when rebranded their customer services reps and "Customer Service Account Managers" and rolled out the resulting acronym in a press release.

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ZataH@reddit

And also change the name to something completely unrelated

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BlackV@reddit

Feck, why is this so accurate

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Sad_Recommendation92@reddit

I have a theory about why this keeps happening, it's not just MS but MS is the most noticeable.

post pandemic when all the big Tech firms went on hiring sprees. then in the last 2 years they laid a ton of people off.

Now what you have is a bunch of front-end devs, that should just be "maintaining" the codebase, but instead I think there's a lot of hurry up and look busy and we're just getting death by 1000 ~~paper cuts~~ UI changes while they try to justify their paycheck.

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deltashmelta@reddit

https://xkcd.com/927/

"standards"

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LumaSlaver@reddit

I actually would love an admin center for Microsoft Forms and Bookings...

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Lavatherm@reddit

Next to the wish for a separate yammer admin sight so I can play some Zuckerberg

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sonic10158@reddit

Microsoft: “how about updating your 365 certification🥺?”

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Lavatherm@reddit

Like all the other times? Yeah… Fuck off ms! I ain’t paying no more for some bullshit refresher course.

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randomquote4u@reddit

MS sent me a survey once. I told them I'll take the MCSE tests again if they're all willing go back to college for 4 years again. Jagoffs.

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jlaine@reddit

With half the features, half working - so you can bounce between them for extra fun while we try to retire the old one for 3 years or more...

I do love when a MS rep starts spewing out 'the single pane of glass' speech though.

Sprinkle a little rebranding over the rebranding of the rebrand... And off we go!

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Vicus_92@reddit

There are 17 standards.

"There are too many standards. I'm going to make one single standard to rule them all"

There are now 18 standards.

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Morkai@reddit

There's always a /r/RelevantXKCD

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countryinfotech@reddit

This made me laugh pretty hard

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DanAdamsKJLC@reddit

AMEN!!!

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planedrop@reddit

I'm at the point where I'm just trying to get away from using as many MSFT services as I can. Obviously you can't avoid them all, and there aren't good alternatives to some, but things like this are just starting to get so annoying.

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ReputationNo8889@reddit

For most companies there are enough tools to do 98% of what needs to be done, but implementing them will require a sizable IT staff because you need people keeping it up to date and running. Most companies rather pay MS to do it for them. But many are already moving off MS because they cant afford 10% price spikes per year

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planedrop@reddit

Not just the price hikes but also their terrible security culture there.

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ReputationNo8889@reddit

Oh yes 100%. Even the sentiment of "they can provide better security and availability" is breaking apart with the frequent outages and security mishaps they swept under the rug ...

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planedrop@reddit

Completely with you yeah, seems like they are mostly just marketing that they'll "do better" but no real action is being taken.

I guess one could say they are huge ship and turning it around might be super time consuming, but still feels like we should have seen something by now.

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ReputationNo8889@reddit

In my opinion, if the ship is to big to stear, it might be time so have more smaller ships. I really hate the argument that it somehow provides a benefit to customers that MS is this big, because "Integration" and stuff. No company that i know of actually got better for customers with size. It's always the same, they provide good products, they grow because of it, they provide the same products but not with more shit attached to it and then claim it's for the benefit of everyone using their product. Oh and dont forget to ask for feedback but never actually listen to critical feedback and instead pick out the feedback thats pats you back the best.

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segagamer@reddit

I'd argue that this issue is industry wide and not just specific to MSFT. In fact they're the ones that change the least of the bunch lol

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planedrop@reddit

Yeah there is some truth to that, but I feel like they make objectively awful changes more often than other vendors lol.

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segagamer@reddit

That is also very debatable lol

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planedrop@reddit

Suppose so lol.

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AstralVenture@reddit

The admin centers are an unfinished product.

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ReputationNo8889@reddit

You mean, they continously improve, right? RIGHT?

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AstralVenture@reddit

No, I mean it’s an incomplete product, just like Windows 11.

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ReputationNo8889@reddit

Yes i know, was just taking a jab at marketing departments trying to spin "selling an unfinished product" as "Continuous improvement" :D

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Fuzilumpkinz@reddit

CIPP helps

I agree with this statement as a whole though

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ReputationNo8889@reddit

I have to laugh, that MS is sponsoring this. Cant build it themselves so just pay other people to do it for them

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EraYaN@reddit

Honestly given how enterprise politics work… it might just be the only way. And it’s not a technical challenge

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ReputationNo8889@reddit

I hate seeing this happen. Big companies make everything shitty, new companies spring up to provide better options, then big company buys them up, and the circle continues

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accidental-poet@reddit

CIPP is the solution.

Check out the User Offboarding Page. A single pane to handle all the tasks, with scheduling options as well?!
There are dozens and dozens of other features which make managing 365 so much easier.

We've been using in for almost a year now, and it's replaced Lighthouse and the 365 Admin pages. Easily.

Free if you self-host as we do, last I checked, $100/mo for hosted.

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Jackie_Behr@reddit

One of the most infuriating aspects of Azure

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anomaly0617@reddit

Know what hasn’t changed in 20 years?

Active Directory Users and Computers

Active Directory Sites and Services

Pretty much, local Active Directory. This is why those of us who have been around for a while keep telling the new generation of IT people to learn these tools and not the Admin Center, which is on version 58 after 10 years.

It turns out the cloud isn’t the answer, it’s the problem.

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x-TheMysticGoose-x@reddit

I opened a GitHub ticket 2 years ago asking MS to update their doco to match their new UI. They recently just closed it without reason and haven’t done it.

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bobmlord1@reddit

I remember trying to get an idea of the foundations of the ~~365 Admin center, Azure Admin Center~~ Entra Admin Center and watching a linkedin learning on it.

The tutorial was using UI in place that is now at least 2 versions out of date now and even in that video the teacher mentioned that 'this is where this is found now but it was somewhere else only a few months ago and will probably change again shortly' and recommended using something a classic interface to keep things consistent and I don't think that options exists anymore.

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dan-theman@reddit

Also: “this feature only works when the UI is in Dark Mode”. WTF? I’m using it anyways but that’s fucking bonkers.

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IsilZha@reddit

https://m365maps.com/renames.htm

My favorite was April 2020 when they renamed:

Office 365 Business Premium to Microsoft 365 Business Standard

and

Microsoft 365 Business to Microsoft 365 Business Premium

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BatemansChainsaw@reddit

I really disliked Microsoft since it was "cool" to hate on them in the 90s, but shit like this has me actually hating them.

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thortgot@reddit

Memorizing UI isn't a useful approach. I get that people need to start somewhere but that should be understanding the mechanics of the system rather than the screens used to manage it.

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patmorgan235@reddit

It's not about not understanding. It's about knowing what you want to do, but not being able to find the button because it's moved for the nth time.

No amount of "understanding the mechanics" will help you find the button faster.

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thortgot@reddit

Sure it will.

Microsoft doesn't move things entirely at random, though it can seem that way at times.

If you are regularly using a portal they have quite a lot of breadcrumbs

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RockChalk80@reddit

Yea, you don't know what you're talking about.

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thortgot@reddit

I don't use the portal as often as my admins but I definitely get all the breadcrumbs (new portal is coming, old portal is leaving etc.).

Entra, O365, Azure, Defender for Cloud, compliance etc.

I keep up on the changes and proposed road map changes though so maybe that's what helps?

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PoopTimeThoughts@reddit

Or maybe you’re full of shit and don’t actually have as good of insight into the day to day as you think you do.

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Sure_Acadia_8808@reddit

Some folks are a broken record who thinks Microsoft can do nothing wrong.

Guy probably owns stock.

MCSE's seem to breed a special kind of person who defends MS's trash as if they work for the vendor. It's a culture problem when they get these guys into management and then they think they know everything. Their claim to competence is carefully never noticing that Microsoft's software is an actual trash fire.

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htmlcoderexe@reddit

Well they do have the manager flair...

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BioshockEnthusiast@reddit

Breadcrumbs don't help when I'm trying to resolve an MFA issue or whatever, MS moved the half of the interface I need to a different portal, and then gives me a link that's either broken or just leads to another link that leads me back in a circle. Telling me you renamed Identity to Entra and then burying meaningful UI changes in the fine print that I don't have time to read doesn't help me.

It's not crazy frequent but this kind of shit happening even once is too many times.

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thesharptoast@reddit

“Microsoft doesn’t move things entirely at random”

Sure they don’t pal, sure they don’t…

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Ozmorty@reddit

“New Outlook” has entered the chat.

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chillyhellion@reddit

They don't move things at random. But that doesn't guarantee they are moving things in a way that improves organization.

Let's be real for a second. Microsoft often moves functions to whatever project or platform they want to promote at the time.

[-]

machstem@reddit

I use it every day and I was gone for 5 weeks and now ally menus aren't directly viewable and all nested. It'll take me a few hours to get used to new UI things.

Don't get me started on GraphAPI

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RikiWardOG@reddit

Graph is a half baked bag of trash imo.

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machstem@reddit

It had a lot of promise and the more recent AzureAD libraries are a lot easier to work with. I couldn't work on it all the time and any time I'd come close to finish some function for myself, they'd have some limitations or new method of getting something

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thefpspower@reddit

For them it's not random, for us they should have made it right the first time, not move everything around 3 fucking times for it to make any sense.

Especially Exchange crap, they made the new interface be absolutely useless initially, now they're moving everything back to it, just do it right the first time!

They asked for feedback on the new Exchange admin center, everyone shat on them saying it's crap, released it anyways still crap, now they're fixing it on the fly!

It's fukin annoying having documentation that no longer works and even their documentation is completely wrong so not even Google knows so you have to check on forums for the real answer.

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ajscott@reddit

So no documentation in your environment?

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thortgot@reddit

Documentation of our config yes. Most importantly the why.

Step by step instructions on how to use an interface? No. You use vendor docs for that.

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Justsomedudeonthenet@reddit

That'd be great, if all the vendor docs were perfectly updated. They aren't.

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Kershek@reddit

Muscle memory is a thing.

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HoustonBOFH@reddit

This is why so many schools have moved students over to Chromebooks. And are now looking at moving staff...

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memepasgame@reddit

365 admin center is a different admin portal than entra.

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vertisnow@reddit

And the old aad one is still there too. I've been using that all along. I'm in there daily and I only found out about the entra admin center a month ago.

[-]

deramirez25@reddit

We had a call with an expert to go over some features for in tune a couple of years ago, and even he was confused on the layout on a couple of the websites. This guy even called over another MS expert to help him out because things got moved around lol.

[-]

mbkitmgr@reddit

Or as of a few days ago, clients unable to access their M365 admin portal again - and of course its my fault - I totally recall telling MSFT change something and lock them out.

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AbleAmazing@reddit

Just use powershell...

Oh wait, the cmdlets change all the time too. And, Graph Powershell is about as unwelcoming of a module that I've ever worked with. I consider myself a powershell expert but the Graph module makes me feel like a novice again.

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joerice1979@reddit

I'm a poweshell noob, always have been and always will be, it just never sinks in.

Umpteen years later I'm still wont to have four windows open, old powershell, new powershell and the same two as local admin, in the hope that one permutation actually chuffing well works.without forty-five lines of red admonishment.

Skill issue? Yes. But I still consider poweshell a clusterchuff.

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paul_33@reddit

I'm just never going to memorize all the syntax. It will never ever set in.

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joerice1979@reddit

I think the syntax might be alright for me, it's get/set > do something with it, that I usually need.

My main problem is usually the first step, you'd think by now I'd have figured out how to *reliably* connect to MSOnline (or whatever it is called this week), it *never* twigs outside of referring to my notes or googling.

Also the architecture of local powershell, modules import/install/whatever - I just don't understand it and it seems messy to me. Again, skill/time issue probably, also I've taken against its ludicrous error messages.

[-]

theHonkiforium@reddit

You install-module to download/install a new module into the system.

You import-module to make the commands available to the current script/session.

PowerShell auto-imports when you use a command from and installed module, since like version 3 I think, so it's less obvious what it's for. :)

[-]

corree@reddit

Connect-MgGraph -Scopes *ms learn docs usually state the required scopes Connect-msonline connect-exchangeonline connect-azuread

Once you have the connect functions down, make a script that connects to everything in order.

I personally have my own scripts loaded in my $profile along with other setup stuff, like my connect commands, so that i dont have to bother entering them everyday. I’ll try to remember sending you a link that guides the profile setup.

For Microsoft administration in powershell, all you truthfully need is: -MS learn docs (unless we’re talking about Graph, in which case you gotta get good at googling lmfao) -Graph API explorer -ChatGPT for basic boilerplate code that SOMETIMES works right away, chances are its done in a fairly inefficient or outdated way. Premium might be slightly better but not worth it if you know your way around mostly IMO. -A burning desire to avoid using Microsoft’s horribly designed and slow GUIs -Pseudocode/planning of some kind for larger projects and/or any script you aren’t able to mentally map out and implement within an hour or so

Graph is by far the most incoherently setup module/powershell tool to learn/work with, and I’ve spent the last two years immersed in PoSH. Did I mention the MgGraph has lots of case sensitivities in its syntax? Yeah, I don’t understand how they managed to make that module worse than the one they’re deprecating/discontinuing even with open source support and plenty of highly paid engineers. I personally blame the excruciating Capitalism to cope.

[-]

joerice1979@reddit

Wow, MS have introduced case-sensitivity? That's not fun as it's also my eternal Linux stumbling block.

Thanks for the tips, I do sometimes dig into the MS Learn things, but I think whichever outfit makes those has a different wavelength to me and my "All I want to do is X" mindset. Knuckling down is the answer, I know.

Glad you mentioned how slow MS GUI's are and that I'm not the only one to notice. How, in 2024, can using a webpage (or Win11) feel like waiting for MSPaint to appear, piece by piece on my 386 in the early 90's. Truly, something has gone awry but hey, that's why there's powershell. Oh, wait...

[-]

Thotaz@reddit

https://forums.tapas.io/uploads/default/original/3X/f/8/f8a6706fa48aad7b13fe992ec3b435ed72713850.jpg
The PowerShell syntax is quite simple, and unless you have some sort of learning disability you can learn it if you put in the time and effort. Your problem is most likely that you only use it when you absolutely have to and when you do that you just find the most simple code you need on the internet and just run it without trying to fully understand the code.

[-]

segagamer@reddit

Everything is either Get or Set lol

[-]

AbleAmazing@reddit

Have you tried Learn Powershell in a Month of Lunches? This is what broke me through the glass ceiling, so to speak. I struggled for about two years to learn powershell and this book just unlocked it for me. From there, I moved onto Python.

[-]

trapped_outta_town2@reddit

Is this a joke about how terrible powershell is?

“I learnt powershell but then moved on to python and go”

[-]

Won7ders@reddit

I don’t know anyone who thinks Powershell is terrible. They really did a terrific job with that one.

[-]

NGL_ItsGood@reddit

Agreed. Powershell is great, and can open so many doors into engineering and automation that you simply can't do through the guim.

[-]

AbleAmazing@reddit

Lol, no. Unfortunately, I can't take credit for making that joke. I like powershell.

[-]

joerice1979@reddit

It's a good tip, thanks.

I generally use powershell for short stabs of things like changing a non-gui setting, or attempt to get some list of mailbox attachees out of Exchange, never actually living in there and solving problems or following a structured guide, which I think might be key for me.

If Bart Simpson can learn French by living there, I'm sure I can get something useful from Powershell in under 12 hours, which is how long it usually feels.

[-]

derpman86@reddit

I am glad I am not the only one, I think my big issue is I am really visual in how I deal with stuff, I like seeing what is in place and lines of code and text just don't click for me.

I know logically it can be miles faster but nah I need to see if that check box is checked with my eyes.

[-]

corree@reddit

You can visualize more with out-gridview / ogv / export-csv / format-list / select-object.

And/or learn how to conditionally color code your output with the write-commands.

Personally I started excelling by doing the stuff above. making my own color coded lists for stuff like commonly overlooked errors in AD objects made me understand various comp sci concepts that many teachers and online classes never managed to accomplish! :-)

Another thing is, you can ignore writing the BEST code possible and focus purely on writing code that YOU can read. Need 5 lines of white space and comments above / in-line on every block of code? Fuck it, go ahead. If someone actually takes the time to read it, chances are they will either: be happy to help you OR they will have no fucking clue what’s going on and never think about it again. Either way, you shouldn’t worry about it. (at some point you should be improving tho lol,

I’ve been fortunate enough to not have to fix any terribly implemented scripts, although truthfully I’d enjoy helping someone who clearly sucked at writing powershell.

[-]

commiecat@reddit

And, Graph Powershell is about as unwelcoming of a module that I've ever worked with.

Save yourself the headache and just learn the Graph API, then run all of your PowerShell using Invoke-WebRequest or Invoke-RestMethod.

[-]

766972@reddit

I just load the schemas into Postman lol

[-]

Fragrant-Hamster-325@reddit

I like the cut of your jib.

[-]

YellowOnline@reddit

I, too, consider myself a Powershell expert. Until recently I needed to use Graph to do some Sharepoint stuff.

[-]

thewrinklyninja@reddit

Don't forget that the Azure Ad v1 cmdlets are super deprecated but still have more functionality that the following two modules they published.

[-]

skipITjob@reddit

I just about managed to figure out the old PowerShell modules, they've changed them.

[-]

Renegade_Roo@reddit

Azure pisses me off to no end...

Does course on azure / reads doc on something. Microsoft move the location of it...

[-]

PCLOAD_LETTER@reddit

Goes like this: * MS does a ¢newthing in one of their products * User whines about $newthing * Admin turns $newthing off * Loop a few thousand times and MS gets sick of it * MS decides "fuck these dudes, always turning $newthing off * MS develops a strategy of renaming something every month and deprecating an API or console every month months to wear us down * MS does $newthing * User whines about $newthing * Admins spirit is too broken to even attempt look up which console or API they'd have to look in to disable $newthing * User decides to use $newthing because when they whine, their admin just cries and starts tying a noose out of cat6

[-]

thisbenzenering@reddit

then the senior admin starts yelling at the junior admin because the cat6 is still usable and we have all that cat5 waiting to be surplussed, could you please use it before you break out the newer cat6

[-]

PCLOAD_LETTER@reddit

Old admin grubling Friggin young admins out there thinking they need MGig for everything. Acting like they are too good to "upload to the cloud" at GBit speeds.

[-]

Ill-Advance2516@reddit

I couldn't agree more. I've only been working in a 365 environment for about 1.5 years (only working IT for a bit over 2 now) and was tasked with designing and leading an AutoPilot project. Just as I get used to finding controls, they move. It's a nightmare.

[-]

reevesjeremy@reddit

eDiscovery just got weird. I promptly went back after looking at the new UI.

[-]

Bearded-Wacko@reddit

And how about the 35 different popups telling me the following: "How awesome the product is!" "Here's a tour of all the features" "Hey there, would you like to click 20 times before you can even use this browser?"

I would pay MONEY to be able to login to a Microsoft web portal and have it remember that I ALREADY answered all the damn popups yesterday on my old computer.

[-]

Heavy_Dirt_3453@reddit

"Would you recommend the Azure Portal to a friend?"

NO BECAUSE IM FUCKING NORMAL

[-]

bartonski@reddit

I have a theory that whoever wrote that also asks strangers if they have heard of their lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

Unironically.

[-]

htmlcoderexe@reddit

"you need to understand that people don't casually recommend software platforms to each other in everyday conversations"

Also, this sounds like a weird question to me, as it's not something that even makes sense to recommend, as it is used to do a specific set of tasks within a specific software ecosystem, more or less, the only alternative as far as I know being PowerShell utilities (and maybe whatever someone built on them).

That's like asking "would you recommend the butter knife to a friend?" or "would you recommend the Allen key to a friend?" (Taped to the plastic baggy with the screws and the hex key inside an IKEA furniture box).

[-]

RegistryRat@reddit

Just got one of those from Sophos today "How likely are you to recommend Sophos to a friend or peer?"

Well all my peers use it, and normal people don't talk about EDR solutions casually.

[-]

m9832@reddit

How likely would you be to recommend the Entra ID portal to a friend or colleague?

[-]

toyberg90@reddit

I recommend the Entra ID portal to all my friends.

[-]

PrintShinji@reddit

Whenever a friend cries about breaking up with someone, I recommend them the Entra ID portal.

[-]

htmlcoderexe@reddit

Which won't be many soon as people don't tend to stay friends with someone casually recommending software platforms during everyday conversations.

[-]

PrintShinji@reddit

But how would they manage to do their groceries without using Entra ID!? And that weird mole problem, yeah that could be cancer but what about using the microsoft entra ID portal? Wouldn't that be fun?

[-]

joerice1979@reddit

OMFG yes.

Had occasion to be in one without a mouse the other day. Maybe I'm missing something but they're invulnerable to tabbing through as well; had the pissing thing stuck in the top left for all the job.

Even when you've got a mouse, the f**kers move!

A pox upon them, verily.

[-]

ReputationNo8889@reddit

Microsoft doesnt give to shits about accessability ... Its so frustrating when seeing Xbox doing it right and Azure no really doing it. But hey we now have darkmode, thats not really a darkmode, because almost everything opens in lightmode to flashbang you before turning dark.

[-]

joerice1979@reddit

Yep, its people in the "middle", like me that they really don't seem to cater for.

The ever-changing GUI portals can do the surface stuff, and the 733t haxx0r who is quite happy to bash out a 45 line script to set AAD attributes on the fly are fine, but little old me trying to dip beneath the surface every now and then, nope.

Always seems like a huge time investment to just reliably get a list of mailboxes and their forwarding addresses. I think I should try harder but I just haven't the mental energy.

Also, whoever in Powershell-land decided to truncate every piece of information I seem to ever get out of powrshell - I hope you stub your toe.

[-]

corree@reddit

Lol if you genuinely need help getting a list of mailboxes and their forwarding addresses, shoot me a DM. I can try running you through the process I’d follow, at least.

[-]

joerice1979@reddit

Thanks for the offer. I grumble about it mainly as an example of a time I lost hours to this, but think I have a script now that works at least 70% of the time (which feels like 60% in 365 money).

It's the downside to assembling copy/paste stuff from google instead of truly understanding what I'm doing.

My next job is to figure out how to list 365 shared mailboxes and all their sharees. Perhaps I'll waint until nightfall, pour a glass of something and dig in properly, like I should have in 2007.

Thanks!

[-]

toast4ya@reddit

I always vote 1 star and write caps: WORST SITE EU

[-]

Mr_ToDo@reddit

Oh no, you won't get me with that again.

Last time I gave a star rating to a vendors product they called, yes called, my boss to ask why they didn't get a perfect rating. And no they didn't have any feedback box for me to do that just a 1-10 in which they got something like a six or seven.

Then I got a meeting where I had to explain what had happened. It was just the dumbest thing ever.(I don't blame the boss, they had no real clue. The vendor gave the impression I had gone out of my way to contact them and complain about the software)

So no more feedback on software if I'm at all logged in or identified.

[-]

ReputationNo8889@reddit

If they want feedback they are gonna get it

[-]

Sad_Recommendation92@reddit

litereally this morning, I was trying to check entra audit logs to see who messed with an app registristration and without asking me it's like "Here's the new audit log experience...."

The only thing new about it seems to be that when you try to filter the results and type keys on your keyboard nothing going in the text box, and I tried FF, Chrome and even Edge.

So back to the "legacy" experience until they just decide to arbitrarily kill that.

[-]

segagamer@reddit

I have this complaint with every single Web service, but especially with Google.

Our meeting room PC cleans up inactive users every 90 days, and whenever someone "new" logs in, it's painful.

Open Chrome and sign into Google Account - you've signed in! You you're syncing things, please set your advertising preferences!

Open Calendar to join the meeting link - here's how you make appointments! Here's where you change layouts!

Open the meeting link and join it - while you're trying to say your greetings and hello's you have Google harassing you with: Here is where you can blur your background! Here is where your sound settings are! Set your notification preferences please! More settings here! Invite people here!

They're trying to be user friendly but it's the most painful, awkward shit in the world. This shit should only be happening on personal accounts, not business accounts where the staff member has either already been trained or has IT Support around.

[-]

ReputationNo8889@reddit

Worst part is, users never learn anything from this. They will still ask support how to share their screen ...

[-]

UncleDrewFoo@reddit

Protip: F5

[-]

LongStoryShrt@reddit

Hey there, would you like to click 20 times before you can even use this browser?"

God yes.........so F'n irritating, and desperate.

[-]

kearkan@reddit

Even copilot can't keep up with the changes, you ask it where something is now and it tells you, with references from MS docs, the wrong place.

[-]

Rude_Strawberry@reddit

Had this issue today. Copilot keeps forcing itself into my 365 apps as I'm testing the licence, and it doesn't fkin know anything.

[-]

kearkan@reddit

That's not at all the copilot I'm talking about. I actually like copilot in the apps, I think it has a lot of potential for office folk.

My point was MS can't even keep their own tools and documentation up to date with the constant admin panel changes

[-]

Rude_Strawberry@reddit

Oh right, well, the app copilot didn't know about word and excel earlier for me. Useless and it costs a fortune.

[-]

kearkan@reddit

Do you mean you were asking it about copilot in those apps?

You have to refer to it as copilot for ms365, if you just say copilot it thinks you mean copilot for GitHub.

[-]

Rude_Strawberry@reddit

Huh, no.

I mean the copilot inside word, excel, outlook, etc. even the web versions.

I'm asking the copilot how to do a specific task in word on the web and it is literally telling me incorrect information.

[-]

kearkan@reddit

That's because the sidebar in word is designed for asking questions about the document you're on. You should get different results if you ask it in edge.

[-]

SomeoneRandom007@reddit

Microsoft's penchant for rearranging everything for no good reason is deeply irritating.

[-]

wild-hectare@reddit

using and being dependent on the UI was your first mistake

[-]

Apprehensive_Ad5398@reddit

Agile though.

[-]

Ravenlas@reddit

How about we only let you open a max of one at once? Would that help?

[-]

MLCarter1976@reddit

How about filter and sorting a-z? Why can't I see a view of active accounts or guest accounts starting with A?

[-]

lethrowaway4me@reddit

Or just sorting based on the columns? Only some of them allow it... why???

[-]

skipITjob@reddit

Dear user, you can now filter from A to Z.... but only the 50 or so we load randomly on page load. You're welcome!

[-]

Happy_Kale888@reddit

the list goes on...

Administrator Portals | MSPortals.io - Microsoft Portals

[-]

jrl1500@reddit

Yep, happened overnight, I get a call the next morning about an incident, log in...everything's gone/moved. Irritating and pointless.

[-]

Charming-Tomato-4455@reddit

Lol and stop updating Teams every week.

[-]

Generico300@reddit

Nope, can't possibly stop. Something something agile...something something continuous delivery.

[-]

sliverednuts@reddit

Microsoft milking us all, with unsupervised changes. Bust a nut would be appropriate it would seem

[-]

bitanalyst@reddit

Every time I visit the admin center “this page is being retired”.

[-]

IntelJoe@reddit

Dude, who do I have to have a dozen different bookmarks to make simple changes to users or devices depending on what kind of change. I just want to go to one link that never changes and lets me do everything. Sheesh.

[-]

wirtnix_wolf@reddit

Isnt it only x362 nowadays? Because of downtimes...

[-]

MaritimeStar@reddit

I've had this problem with not just Microsoft, but other programs too. Cisco WebEx has completely "upgraded" their back end and in the process completely fucked the ability to manage user accounts and made a ton of small changes to the user experience that they didn't communicate in the announcements. You can't even change a user's password anymore in the admin. Love "updates" that remove core features and make the product harder to use!

[-]

National_Asparagus_2@reddit

We hear you and we will stop

[-]

simple1689@reddit

Even their documentation can get up to date. Thank god for the search bar. Looking at you new Teams Admin dashboard

[-]

shifty_new_user@reddit

Goes to do a message trace.

"So where is Message Trace today, I wonder?"

[-]

Adept-Midnight9185@reddit

Would you like to use our PowerShell API instead?

Ope! Just kidding. That old thing? Please transition all your scripts to our new and different PowerShell API! About half of the functions are present! And we're also deprecating the old one in 6 months. And the new one in three months! Byeee!

[-]

RockChalk80@reddit

"please use ~~Msgraph ~~Mggraph~~ Mggraph.beta

[-]

SensitiveFirefly@reddit

Unless you’re doing anything with SharePoint!

[-]

PM-ME-DAT-ASS-PIC@reddit

Or Teams dialing plans!

[-]

G8racingfool@reddit

Or just Teams in general...

[-]

OutsidePerson5@reddit

Urgh. PnP and SPO and each has different syntax and can do things the other can't and JFC. And they're ALL slow, clunky, and have weird ass distinctions between things that shouldn't have to be distinct.

[-]

Doso777@reddit

stsadm, anyone?

[-]

Haplo12345@reddit

Too real. That crap is annoying.

[-]

gihutgishuiruv@reddit

Then use PnP, but also don’t

[-]

ReputationNo8889@reddit

I love how micorsoft taunts everyone with "This is not production ready" yet uses it in almost every production workload possible. The whole Intune portal RUNS on the beta graph. I cant even do half the shit in regular graph that im "supposed" to use. Its like they wont break the v1.0 compatability and instead of releasing a v2.0 or something else they use the beta because they can change and move stuff around as they please ...

[-]

ShipwreckWill@reddit

This right here has been very frustrating.

[-]

fatalicus@reddit

Oh yeah, and we didn't bother putting anyone on actually making all the cmdlets for that new Powershell module, and just automated the whole fucking thing, so hope you don't mind cmdlets like

Remove-MgIdentityAuthenticationEventFlowAsOnGraphAPretributeCollectionExternalUserSelfServiceSignUpAttributeIdentityUserFlowAttributeByRef

[-]

CanaveseForevah@reddit

there is also a ByVal variant?

[-]

Interesting-Yellow-4@reddit

This fucking sucks worse than the GUI changes, you expect your scripts to work for years/decades even, not months or weeks.

God I hate cloud so much.

[-]

NGL_ItsGood@reddit

Gonna be honest, I moved to a dod contractor and my environment is entirely on prem. I feel like I'm actually learning some deep fundamental windows stuff now that I can focus on the tools and OS instead of chasing down every new button and feature that's released or trying to figure out something that's not fully developed yet but still being pushed as a replacement. Cloud has its merits, but man it's a nice feeling to gain real deep knowledge on windows internals.

[-]

StaticVoidMain2018@reddit

Was going to suggest just to use pwsh but forgot about the stupid chamges and overhauls that thing has been though

[-]

fresh-dork@reddit

and people wonder why banks are still on cobol

[-]

Just-one-more-Dad@reddit

What we need here is clippy

[-]

HoustonBOFH@reddit

You know at some point the "Admin Console" will just be an AI prompt. Probably soon.

[-]

RikiWardOG@reddit

We have that. It's called copilot

[-]

ReputationNo8889@reddit

But clippy was actually usefull

[-]

DropDMic@reddit

or Better yet start documenting all the fucking changes.

[-]

myutnybrtve@reddit

It's seems pretty clear to me what Microsoft is doing. The more complex, obtuse, and ever-changing your software products are the more you can make money on training and certifications. Maybe I was diumber years ago, but it didn't used to seem so obvious. Now that I know the type of organization in dealing with I feel like I can make better decisions about how to spend my time.

[-]

isoaclue@reddit

Just manage everything in powershell...er graph...hmm I guess that's not safe either.

[-]

CeC-P@reddit

Every single time they ask me for feedback, I tell them exactly this. I'm a grown ass adult, let alone an IT expert. I don't need them to Fisher Price my interfaces like it's some ipad made for morons.

[-]

similaraleatorio@reddit

But without new admin center there's no need for new certification exams 🧐🤡

[-]

SolidKnight@reddit

How are they supposed to change or improve anything if they can't change the admin centers? It sucks having to bounce between new and old sometimes but I do appreciate them moving things to places that make more sense. Real improvements are made.

[-]

Asphodelmercenary@reddit

My best advice would be that developers of any stripe don’t do one change a week to update but just limit themselves to a UI change no more than once a year. At most. Make all the changes in a closed beta that isn’t rolled out each update. Then when all the kinks are ironed out they can roll out a polished one time update with corresponding user guide to help navigate. Once a year max. Maybe once every two years.

[-]

Asphodelmercenary@reddit

I firmly believe someone has the job title “UI editor” and their job security is changing the UI very few updates just to be the only ones who can fix the problems discovered through customer feedback. After a dozen UI changes there is a guaranteed pipeline of problems and fixes and each fix creates new problems. Whereas the original UI was fine for years. It seems more and more developers are hiring this type of clown. No offense to real clowns intended.

[-]

eulynn34@reddit

The best is when they move tools from one admin center to another one seemingly at random because they can't decide what to put where

[-]

dinominant@reddit

One more straw added to the camels back.

Maybe Copilot AI can navigate the new UI while providing a legacy front-end for people to actually use /s

MVCH -> Model-View-Controller-Hollucination.

Hey Cortanta, tell me how this particular workflow can be accomplished with open source tools that have enterprise support.

[-]

THEoMADoPROPHET@reddit

I get the frustration. It feels like every time I get comfortable with the Admin Center, Microsoft decides it’s time for a redesign. Sometimes it feels like they’re not listening to the actual users who are just trying to get work done.

[-]

idiopathicpain@reddit

Dear Microsoft,

Cease.

Thanks.

[-]

Casty_McBoozer@reddit

Microsoft's response:
Have you tried sfc /scannow and clean boot?

[-]

Polar_Ted@reddit

I'm kind of happy I can now do licenses and sub licensing from the main Admin console instead of going into Entra or whatever the hell it's called this week.

[-]

dgraysportrait@reddit

Don’t forget about Azure AD Powershell module which you needed to decommission and replace it with Graph API calls… to come up later with Entra ID powershell module… which is more or less the same as Azure AD module, just renamed

[-]

t3ch-supp0rt@reddit

And the headache involved in authenticating a session… “global” admin rights that kick back 403 errors… grrrrrrr don’t get me started.

[-]

DarkAlman@reddit

Dear Microsoft, please stop overhauling UIs for the sake of overhauling UIs.

PS: There's nothing wrong with the Control Panel, leave it alone

[-]

AverageMuggle99@reddit

Also stop changing the name of everything. Especially Azure. Stop trying to make Entra ID happen Gretchen.

[-]

Kuipyr@reddit

And then continue to reference the old name in multiple places for a decade because it will break something when they change it.

[-]

-Steets-@reddit

Media Player, formerly Groove Music, formerly Xbox Music, available on the Microsoft Store, formerly the Windows Store, formerly the Metro App Store, still internally refers to itself as Microsoft.ZuneMusic.
ZuneMusic.
Unfortunately, the odds are not in our favor here.

[-]

segagamer@reddit

It's interesting to see Skydrive still referenced in tucked away areas.

[-]

Alaknar@reddit

Skydrive? Now, that is a name I haven't heard in a long time! A long time...

[-]

segagamer@reddit

Yeah my personal camera backup still automatically goes to Skydrive Camera Roll. I'm not sure where else I've seen it but, it's around :)

[-]

edit-grammar@reddit

Ive wanted them to change Program Files to just Programs for like 30 years.

[-]

thewrinklyninja@reddit

It's like when they renamed Intune to Microsoft Endpoint Manager and everyone just ignored them and they eventually changed it back.

[-]

skipITjob@reddit

I understand why they don't want azure in the name, but they could have used a better name...

[-]

ReputationNo8889@reddit

By that point Entra has lost their Identity already, so just call it Entra

[-]

ropsu25@reddit

At this point it feels like MS devs are doing just about anything to keep their jobs. -So it finally works the way it should and most people are used to it? -Yes? -Parkour! -So we made the changes and don't need as many devs. -Sorry, but we need to keep people on their toes. Parkour! Parkour!

[-]

Lakeside3521@reddit

And let's make half the functionality accessible via power shell only but you gotta figure out which is which. For added goodness let's leave up all the old documentation that's not relevant anymore.

[-]

spacemarine3@reddit

For every one person that can create something new, useful of improve on an existing design, there's 4 other people on payroll that have to looks busy so they don't get fired. So I hope you like shuffle option because that's all they know how to do. Well, that and re-skins.

[-]

peoplepersonmanguy@reddit

Azure AD, Entra, Identity

Soon it will be called Directory

then Active Directory and the circle will be complete.

[-]

runozemlo@reddit (OP)

AI... as in Azure Identity

[-]

EngineDapper1555@reddit

Azure Identity Directory Sercvices - sounds about right...

sorry i had to. truly sorry.

[-]

FlatusGiganticus@reddit

Something about that name is infectious.

[-]

justlurking777@reddit

and the next version Microsoft Identity Azure System Services.....

[-]

Devar0@reddit

Why can I hear Rich Evans yelling in my head?

[-]

runozemlo@reddit (OP)

Careful, don't go too crazy, a Microsoft HR rep may hire you.

[-]

devloz1996@reddit

Here at Contoso, we give AIDS to every department...

[-]

FuzzyKaos@reddit

Now powered by Bing and CoPilot!

[-]

FlaccidRazor@reddit

If they don't change the admin centers they can't justify new certifications. You're Azure AD certified? Cool, how about Entra? Was their really a need to hide most of the useful right click items under "see more options" or make you shift-click to see all of them at once? No. Microsoft does things because fuck you! always have.

[-]

Any-Fly5966@reddit

Introducing Microsoft Blade! You can access the Blade admin center by opening the admin blades in a teams team and clicking the blade blade

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darkangelstorm@reddit

every 6 months or so... sometimes even sooner... every big tech has to change stuff and mess with our day-to-day. Its mostly young developers itching to "mess with stuff" not thinking that maybe, just maybe they shouldn't try to fix what isn't broken. :=

Anyone remember a few months ago when site X changed every. last. control. and. menu. option. on. their. site? Yeah happens too much. Way too much. New developers: we wan't to do our jobs like we were able to yesterday. How about this instead, why not go and actually fix some of the issues we are having instead? :T

But no...we still have the same exact issues 10 years later. Because that would involve actual work! :3

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shenan@reddit

No. Also now this is available in a Teams app with AI-integrated admin job performance KPIs. Just winget it from the Microsoft Store. Oops, I mean Windows 365. #windowsphoneforeverman

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XanII@reddit

Just yesterday tried to migrate a complex O365 enviro that had tons of issues and what do you know: A critical Azure element was missing. Like we didnt already have a lot on our plate but now we got expensive people hunting down some really simple function 'that was just there and can be seen in the docs'

I hate this constant change with a vengeance. I also just recently messed up access granting with 'Eligible grants'. I am sure there exists some really great and cool reason to have that but it was lost to me completely why that suddenly appeared there.

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MushroomBright5159@reddit

And 1/3 of the settings do not work..yet.

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MFKDGAF@reddit

What did they update? I have noticed.

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cyberbro256@reddit

I agree! Think you are an expert? Oh you know this stuff inside and out? Just click right here and….. wait they changed it. Let me dig around on here. 🤦🏼‍♂️ . I liked app-based stuff because the apps would not change like the wind like cloud stuff does.

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ultranoobian@reddit

I feel for my IT Team, We accept traineeships at my company and I used to help out even when transitioned to Data.

Now I probably won't be able to help with teaching the next batch.

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ninjaschoolprofessor@reddit

This is why I started using PowerShell and Azure CLI commands years ago.

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BeastleeUK@reddit

Definitely not the shield we'd all love it to be :D

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BeastleeUK@reddit

Don't forget that when you're in one of the portals, I'm looking at you Exchange Admin, and you go off to check with the user that the change worked, it will refresh back to the home page after 30s so you have to dig back through. That's assuming it's not sat at a VLCesque traffic cone with a token error!

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The_TesserekT@reddit

I believe there are whole departments within Microsoft that are dedicated just to moving features around and renaming products and licenses.

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LUHG_HANI@reddit

I think they hire Google staff and then Google hire them back. It's a circle they are moving in.

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ReputationNo8889@reddit

I truly believe that the engineers comp is based on the amount of new lines of code they write and lines of code they can delete. So they move arnoud stuff that fits that incentive. Removing a feature from one Admin portal and adding it to another? 2 KPI's statsified. Written more lines of "new" code and removed "old" code.

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bensode@reddit

Powershell is your friend!

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patmorgan235@reddit

Until they deprecate the PowerShell module with our proving a replacement module that lacks the functionality present in the old one.

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Ros3ttaSt0ned@reddit

I've just started using the APIs directly in PowerShell scripts now instead of using the half-assed modules they provide.

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SGG@reddit

Given how MS have been handling PowerShell modules for 365, as far as I am concerned "ready for use" and "depreciated but still works" are the same thing at this point.

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meikyoushisui@reddit

In February 2020, Reddit announced that they would be updating the API within a few months to check for subreddit-specific requirements when submitting posts.

As of September 2024, they still do not check for these.

"Deprecated" just means "we are going to forget about this feature for years until either we break it and our users demand we fix it or until no one uses this product anymore so it doesn't matter"

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vemundveien@reddit

I'm sorry, you seem to have a depreciated version of the post to reddit module so you have to rewrite your script.

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skipITjob@reddit

deprecated

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fedexmess@reddit

I'm a visual person and it's much easier for me to memorize locations/layout vs long strings of text. I can't be alone in this?

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derpman86@reddit

This is me!

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bensode@reddit

That’s part of the problem OP presented, though. Faux innovation by new UI and moving things around, renaming, repurposing and playing a shell game with menus.

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fedexmess@reddit

Imagine if the Admin Center UI team were responsible for the Windows GUI back in the 90's.

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Terrible-Thanks1477@reddit

Active Directory Users and Computers (2000)

https://networkencyclopedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/active-directory-users-and-computers.jpg

Active Directory Users and Computers (2024)

<12 separate biblically accurate user interfaces that take 5-10 seconds to load in fully on the web>

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iB83gbRo@reddit

There are dozens of us!

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fedexmess@reddit

Right damned comforting 🤣

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patmorgan235@reddit

Humans are pretty visual creatures. Memorizing layouts is a very similar skill to memorizing where things are in the physical world.

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chillyhellion@reddit

But PowerShell is definitely no friend of Microsoft!

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Cutriss@reddit

More Graph it is!

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vast1983@reddit

This is the answer. Doesn't matter how the gui changes when WMI stays the same. Now if they could stop changing power shell commands.... :)

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bensode@reddit

Indeed but MUCH easier to web search for those minor changes in syntax or arguments. Helpdesk hates when I can look something up in AD or M365 in about 15 seconds of key slapping and while they’re still looking for which portal to fumble through. I mentor but this batch of newbies mostly wants a GUI.

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prog-no-sys@reddit

The Graph modules are abysmal for direct translation from their AzureAD counterparts, UGH

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thortgot@reddit

Graph is really based around a transactional REST process, it's a different approach and takes some adjustment in how you think about solving problems

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greyfox199@reddit

doesnt mean their implemention isn't terrible. i dont even bother with it anymore, opting to use invoke restmethod directly against the endpoints instead.

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TwinkleTwinkie@reddit

it's ok it'll be deprecated by the time you get the hang of it anyway.

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GhoastTypist@reddit

Microsoft is just making sure we're not complacent with our learning. By constantly changing their dashboards it keeps us admins on our toes and forces us to always be weary of change.

I'm still trying to figure out where to go for things (recently upgraded our licenses so I have a bunch of new admin features to figure out).

This post is /s Microsoft's admin dashboards are always wonky for me because its always changing. Sometimes dashboards won't load properly.

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PoopingWhilePosting@reddit

Then how are they going to sell you training and certification courses every year?

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alpha_tonic@reddit

But the UI has to be pretty to be efficient. herp derp

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skipITjob@reddit

Also, can we agree on a standard way of creating urls? why can't it be serviceName.admin.microsoft.com ?

Thinking of admin.exchange.microsoft.com ...

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Hjarg@reddit

Sorry, team responsible for UI overhauls is also just trying to their jobs and if it entails making your life a living hell, that's the price they're willing to pay.

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BirdLawyer1984@reddit

I do love how they have added upsell spam to their admin centres.

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0RGASMIK@reddit

I’ve been inside the admin center when they pushed out an update. What happened was they pushed out a security policy update. So tenant by tenant Microsoft policies were getting pushed out over the course of a month. We manage quite a few tenants so I had to go in and turn off the policy because it conflicted with the policies we’re already working towards for all our clients but a month was a much too accelerated timeline for our shop to handle the helpdesk flood it was creating.

The worst part is they provided no KBs for how to disable it so I had to learn how to disable it myself and then push out that change to all of our clients. Halfway through in the middle of unsetting the policy entras design changed. It was very subtle I couldn’t even tell you what changed but I can tell you I had to relearn the whole process over again because some key buttons moved around.

Pretty sure they did it because everyone was turning off the policies. I remember the IT subreddits were fuming that day. Everyone was brainstorming how they were going to approach this new change and sharing what they could on how to temporarily stop the change so they could plan it out themselves.

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different_tan@reddit

I’m seriously frustrated by the loss of the exchange admin reports recently.

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LittleEarBigEar@reddit

We would like to introduce you to the new xbox admin page for your business. Now you can find such tools as mfa settings and identity a few clicks under the xbox page. But dont worry, the page will look identical except you will need to login with powershell sessions to change mfa settings. View this page for details....

Thats no longer supported Redirecting to... Microsoft.com/learnpowershell

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BrianKronberg@reddit

A better ask. Don’t change the admin center until all the documentation, including, all training materials and certification exams reflect the updated admin center.

We need to update our documentation and processes but for some reason they get a pass and don’t do it.

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runozemlo@reddit (OP)

Microsoft: “How could we forget? Introducing Microsoft Learn, formerly Microsoft Docs, formerly Microsoft TechNet”

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dreadfulwater@reddit

It’s like they took all the UX controls, turned them into wooden blocks, and then gave them to toddlers to put wherever. Seriously it was FINE. Stop fucking with my workday.

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deltashmelta@reddit

"I'm in the pizzahut, I'm in the tacbobell. I'm in the combination current/preview pizzahut and tacobell."

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Mister_V3@reddit

Is that why the search box has disappeared at the top centre of the page? That's annoying me so much. It was so useful.

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wanderinggoat@reddit

I can see job interviews where they ask which menu you would find a specific function, or knowledgebase articles that reference a menu that does not exist.

and of course no microsoft documentation on where to find that feature you know exists but has disapeared from where it used to be.

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Interesting-Yellow-4@reddit

They need to claw back unearned power from their PR / marketing or replace those people, they're actively damaging their product.

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Interesting-Yellow-4@reddit

cmd.ms

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samfr3ak@reddit

Also stop renaming!

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peekeend@reddit

Dear Microsoft users please stop using it /s

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Trabbi1999@reddit

Have you tried Rooms Pro Management Portal? Horrible! Especially with MTR on Android devices

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glethro@reddit

I like to think of it as job security :D

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schnarkle@reddit

and while you're at it, quit renaming things also!

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derpman86@reddit

This has got to be one of my most recent gripes!

I work for an MSP so I am not 100% inside all the various nooks inside the Admin centre so some settings I wont touch for months or longer but when I need to get there I get greeted with "the awesome function is now moved to the derp portal" there is no link to get you straight there but some half arsed article from Microsoft that also doesn't link there.

The fun thing is when something goes wrong and all the information about the awesome function was when it was still in the herp portal and nothing about it now being in the derp portal.

This is why I miss on prem server installs that shit just stayed in place and the same until you outright replaced everything and not at the whims of Microsoft.

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flimspringfield@reddit

C'mon man! It's not Azure AD anymore...it's Entra!

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BK_Rich@reddit

I think there’s literally one guy whose sole job is to change the UI of admins centers every 3 months and he’s getting raises and promotions each time.

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runozemlo@reddit (OP)

Let me guess, he also has a side gig at Contoso

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Haplo12345@reddit

If they could slow down the changes and messages about every fucking thing else too, that'd be greeaaatt

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nme_@reddit

Yall not use search?

I don’t give a fuck where anything is on the ui, just hit the search button

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tehdang@reddit

Microsoft: I'll fuckin' do it again.

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E-werd@reddit

Don't forget about the tour! Even if you've done it before, do it again! Because fuck you, everybody loves pop-ups!

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BonerDeploymentDude@reddit

User voice, give feedback. Imagine if you gave feedback every time they asked instead of closing the alert… I started doing this, so it’s my fault

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TheDawiWhisperer@reddit

"where is Message Tracking this week"

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50YearsofFailure@reddit

It's now called "Missive Query" and is paywalled beyond a 1 minute timeframe.

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Phyxiis@reddit

Or when they break the Update plugin which then reboots servers mid day

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klxz79@reddit

The developers gotta do something to justify their paycheck. It's busy work for them

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Late_Nectarine_7377@reddit

Dear user, Microsoft doesn't give a fuck.

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DoctorSlipalot@reddit

It's called Adventure now, because you have to go on a full arse adventure now to find anything.... But when you do find something it will teleport you to a different Castle where your princess isn't at.

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Opening_Career_9869@reddit

to the cloud eh, just remember... you all did it to yourselves.

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uptimefordays@reddit

It’s an elaborate rouse to make you learn PowerShell!

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ChiefBroady@reddit

Once you did, they’ll remove 90% of the functionality and put it behind a subscription. It will be called Powershell Power+.

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uptimefordays@reddit

Hasn’t happened yet and PowerShell has been around for what 17 years old?

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ChiefBroady@reddit

Financially viable adoption rate not met yet. They’re playing the long game.

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uptimefordays@reddit

Eh they already have folks hooked on licensing. But pwsh is open source and cross platform so harder to reign in.

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supercamlabs@reddit

doing you're job ain't enough in this day age

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jptechjunkie@reddit

Oh you finally got use to where that setting was? Psych….

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UltraEngine60@reddit

At least they don't fully migrate all the functionality to the new admin interface so sometimes you still get the nostalgia of an old interface popping up from time to time.

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Random_Hyena3396@reddit

I think it's funny being on a support call with Microsoft and they can't navigate it either.

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flammenschwein@reddit

For a while, I had a bookmark that took user's right to the group management page so they could update distribution groups they owned. MS keeps changing the link (and even how to navigate to the link) and it's maddening.

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MrHarryReems@reddit

They've been playing hide and seek with the important controls in every version since win95

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InvisibleTextArea@reddit

I think this is just general 'devops' mentality seeping into the MS ecosystem. Lets make a new dashboard. Oh that dashboard is terrible. No we can't fix it because xyz. Lets build a replacement instead, it'll be quicker than trying to fix the old one. Ad nauseum.

I see the other side of this whenever I have to do anything with our cloud hosted app and whatever the new hotness is. At least I don't have to deal with coding for the stack, merely maintain the 8 million moving parts the developers want to use this week.

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Kuipyr@reddit

Sorry, the best we can do is create duplicate functions across portals and then randomly at will deprecate the best functioning one.

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ghostmomo517@reddit

I simply use the search function if I do not see my desired things in 10 seconds.

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InevitableOk5017@reddit

They change the name so much I don’t even know what to search for most of the time.

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avjayarathne@reddit

Hi, I'm a senior PM at Microsoft. I see that you don't like the current UI of the admin centers. Since you didn't mention which admin center you talking about, we're going to update every one admin centers out there. Perhaps you'd like some different different copilots too

thank you

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Imdoody@reddit

I'm so glad I've been able to hand off this responsibility to another team member. So incredibly frustrating, everytime I login to O365/azure admin it's different, things in dif places, things named something different, so searching doesn't work... Ya killing me smalls!

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scatteringlargesse@reddit

It wouldn't be so infuriating if they changed it to something good, but they are nearly all complete garbage!

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Loudergood@reddit

We're just going to add another dashboard to highlight how badly you need all those features you aren't paying for yet

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scootscoot@reddit

How will you know they haven't abandoned it if they aren't actively enshitifying it?

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vemundveien@reddit

This is why I learn how to admin everything through powershell modules, because then I can update modules and rewrite scripts every week instead of trying to remember what they renamed their admin center every week.

But at least I can ask copilot who will tell me what the previous syntax was.

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