Thanks to the Office 365 for IT Pros Subscribers

In a time when some question the value of books, we deeply appreciate the support of the folks who subscribe to the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook. AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot can find and synthesize information scoured from across the internet to respond to questions, but so far generative AI cannot provide the context or insight that understanding technology often needs.

An ecosystem like Microsoft 365 can become terribly complicated through different combinations of products, licenses, and configurations. Throw in hybrid organizations and there’s enough to melt an administrator’s mind. We don’t pretend that we have more answers than AI can generate; we do say that our answers are based on hard-won experience and a ton of research into why Microsoft 365 works the way that it does. In other words, we ask “why” when AI just accepts what something is.

Heading for a July 1 Release

It’s just seven days to go before we release Office 365 for IT Pros (2026 edition), including Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell (2^nd edition). The writing team is still heads-down to make sure that the content is compelling, informative, and up to date, and that any of the issues raised by technical editor Vasil Michev are addressed.

We’ve received some questions about how we will release the 2026 edition. Thankfully, people want to know when they can subscribe to the new edition. With that in mind, here’s our plan.

The Release Plan

The first task is to complete all the updates to the chapters, resolve any open issues, chase down the last-minute glitches, and have a coffee. We can then proceed to do the following:

• Generate the PDF and EPUB files for the two books, check that everything is OK, and if all checks out, upload the new files to Gumroad.com. We then switch the shortcut URL for the current version from the 2025 edition to the 2026 edition.
• The 2025 edition files will remain online to allow subscribers to that edition to download the final updates. We made some small tweaks to the Office 365 for IT Pros (2025 edition) files since releasing update #120 on June 1. The current update number for the 2025 edition is 120.4, dated 21 June 2025. We will start the 2026 edition at update 121.0.
• We will send an offer to current subscribers to allow them to extend their subscription to cover the 2026 edition and receive monthly updates for the next year. To reward the folks who renew subscriptions immediately a new edition is available, the price to extend a subscription in July 2025 is $18.95. After August 1, 2025, the price to extend a subscription increases to $24.95.
• Anyone who bought a full-price ($49.95) copy of the 2025 edition in June 2025 will receive a full discount code to extend their subscription for the 2026 edition.
• The update offer and codes are distributed via email to the addresses registered when people subscribed to the 2025 edition. If an email address is incorrect, you won’t receive anything from us. In this case, send email to contact@office365itpros.com to tell us what’s going on. If we can find you on our subscriber list, we’ll respond with the code.
• Some tenants consider email from Gumroad.com as spam. Our email isn’t and we have experimented with sending email using the Exchange HVE and Azure ECS solutions during the last year. HVE is now out of the picture because Microsoft has decided that it will only handle internal email, but anyway, mass mailings about new versions are always sent from Gumroad.
• New subscriptions for the 2026 edition cost $59.95. This is our first price increase since 2015. According to Copilot, the price should be $67.73, but accepting an AI recommendation without question is never a good idea. We believe that the increase is more than justified by the massive amount of information contained in the two books, which can be reasoned over by a Copilot agent if you want.
• The Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell eBook is bundled with Office 365 for IT Pros and doesn’t have to be bought separately. People who subscribed to the first edition of the PowerShell book can download the second edition free of charge. It’s our way of saying thanks to those who bought the first edition while we built out the content.
• For those who like paper books, a version of Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell is available in paperback from Amazon.com. This is the same text as the electronic version, except that hyperlinks are converted to footnotes. The paperback also has an index because it’s harder to search through paper. Regretfully, we haven’t found a way to update a paperback remotely, so buying a paper copy of the PowerShell book is like buying any other paperback.
• Anyone who received a free copy of the 2025 edition from us or another source (companies commonly buy multiple copies to give to customers) can use the code to extend their subscription for $18.95. Alternatively, ask the source for the free copy – maybe they have free copies of the 2026 edition to distribute.

2026 or Twelfth?

Some ask us why we name the book after the year ahead. We do so because we match Microsoft’s fiscal year. Their FY26 begins on July 1, 2025. We could call this release Office 365 for IT Pros (12^th edition). Maybe that would be clearer, but the date does help in terms of telling people how recent the content is.

Enjoy the 2026 edition!

All the Latest News in the World’s Only Constantly Updated Book About Office 365

The Office 365 for IT Pros eBook team is delighted to announce the availability of the October 2021 update. Subscribers for the EPUB/PDF version can download the updated files from Gumroad.com. We have updated the Kindle file on Amazon, but if you bought the book there, you’ll have to ask Amazon support to make the file available. See our FAQ for more details about how to access updates.

September Changes

Demonstrating once again that Microsoft 365 changes constantly, September was a busy time for Office 365 for IT Pros. Apart from doing a ton of work to review and check text to improve flow and remove obsolete material in several chapters, we dealt with a steady flow of changes announced by Microsoft. Some of the changes were big and required a substantial alteration in a chapter. Many others were at the detail level and required changes to only a few words or sentences. Tracking down where to apply and update and what to say in an update often takes as long for a small change as it does for a big one, especially in a book covering so many workloads.

Taking Exchange Online as an example, we learned that Microsoft plans to block basic authentication for a range of email connectivity protocols from October 1, 2022 (SMTP AUTH is an exception), and that Microsoft will impose a new 1.5 TB limit on auto-expanding archive mailboxes on November 1, 2021. Throw in the retirement notice for the old Exchange admin center and a hotly-disputed report by a security researcher into a purported problem with Autodiscover, and there was plenty to think about.

Teams is in a state of perpetual evolution, or so it seems. A new Whiteboard app is available for Teams (along with Android and browser clients). Teams desktop clients running in preview mode now sport a P beside the user photo. You can now send quoted replies in Teams chat (but not channel messages). Customization for together mode background scenes is generally available. Fixing a real annoyance, Teams now updates the underlying folder in SharePoint when a channel is renamed. We also investigated the artifacts gathered for Teams webinars (like attendee lists) and documented how Teams makes these objects available for eDiscovery. Another search capability now available is looking for spoken words in Teams meetings. This isn’t yet available for eDiscovery, but you can look for words with SharePoint search now.

Change Log

A complete change log covering all chapters in Office 365 for IT Pros is available online.

Thanks to our subscribers for their ongoing support for the Office 365 for IT Pros project. We couldn’t continue to track and document changes across all apps without this support.

Please download the new files at your earliest convenience. We wouldn’t like you to manage tenants based on obsolete information! We updated the companion book in September, and those updated files are also available for downloading.