Bill Baer /bɛːr/

We’re excited to announce new improvements to the SharePoint Migration Tool for the month of February. Designed to be used for migrations ranging from the smallest set of files to a large scale enterprise migration, the SharePoint Migration Tool will let you bring your information to the cloud and take advantage of the latest collaboration, intelligence, and security solutions with Office 365. Over the past several months we’ve been continually working to add features to the SharePoint Migration Tool to help you accelerate your journey to Microsoft 365, from support for full site migrations, to incremental improvements to the user experience – the SharePoint Migration Tool is designed to support migrations of all sizes.

We’re excited to announce new improvements to the SharePoint Migration Tool for the month of January. Designed to be used for migrations ranging from the smallest set of files to a large scale enterprise migration, the SharePoint Migration Tool will let you bring your information to the cloud and take advantage of the latest collaboration, intelligence, and security solutions with Office 365. Improvements this month include: A new, updated UI aligned with the Office 365 user experience This release of the SharePoint Migration Tool includes improvements to the user interface with a new, simplified control service more aligned to the visual themes of SharePoint Online.

The SharePoint Migration Tool lets you migrate lists or files from your SharePoint on-premises document libraries or from your on-premises file shares and easily move them to either SharePoint, OneDrive or Microsoft Teams in Office 365. It is available to Office 365 users. Designed to be used for migrations ranging from the smallest set of files to a large scale enterprise migration, the SharePoint Migration Tool will let you bring your information to the cloud and take advantage of the latest collaboration, intelligence, and security solutions with Office 365.

What’s new and what’s coming with SharePoint & OneDrive Security, Compliance, and Administration – October 2018 Edition In today’s complex and regulated environment, businesses need to focus on building more secure solutions that deliver value to their customers, partners, and shareholders—both in the cloud and on-premises. Microsoft has been building enterprise software for decades and running some of the largest online services in the world. We draw from this experience to keep making SharePoint and OneDrive more secure for users, by implementing and continuously improving security-aware software development, operational management, and threat-mitigation practices that are essential to the strong protection of your services and data.

Join us at the SharePoint Virtual Summit, for the live-stream coverage of the opening keynote at SharePoint Conference North America on May 21, 2018. At this free online event, you will hear from Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jeff Teper and General Manager Seth Patton as they share the latest product innovations and roadmap across SharePoint, OneDrive, Yammer, Microsoft Teams, and Office 365. See live demos illustrating how you can transform your workplace and learn how to tap into rich experiences across your intranet to inform and engage people.

In March 2017 we introduced device-based policies for SharePoint and OneDrive, that enable administrators to configure Tenant-level policies. Device-based access policies for SharePoint and OneDrive help administrators ensure corporate data is not leaked onto unmanaged devices such as non-domain joined or non-compliant devices by limiting access to the content to the browser, preventing files from being taken offline, printed, or synchronized with OneDrive. On September 1st, 2017 we continued to evolve our conditional access investments to address the ever-changing security landscape and business needs by introducing new levels of granularity with conditional access that allow administrators to scope device-based policies at the site collection level.

Security is at the heart of what we do… Microsoft has been building enterprise software for decades and running some of the largest online services in the world. We draw from this experience to keep making SharePoint and OneDrive more secure for users, implementing and continuously improving security-aware software development, operational management, and threat-mitigation practices that are essential to the strong protection of your services and data. Today we’re pleased to announce a new resource center where you can get the latest news on our security and compliance investments for SharePoint and OneDrive in addition to presentations, free training, eBooks and more.

This summer we introduced a consistent, coherent sharing experience across the Web and desktop – these improvements allow you to share Office 365 files directly from File Explorer on PC and Finder on Mac, in addition to the latest versions of Office on the desktop and Office 365 web experiences. The updates we made provide a simplified sharing experience, so you can share files and folders easily with partners both internal and external, while retaining the right level of security – so whether you share on the web, in Explorer on Windows 10 and Windows 7, or Finder or the Mac, the sharing experience is secure, consistent and simple.

In this post: SharePoint Admin Center Updates SharePoint Migration Tool Updates OneDrive Files Restore Microsoft has been building enterprise software for decades and running some of the largest online services in the world. We draw from this experience to keep making SharePoint and OneDrive more secure for users, implementing and continuously improving security-aware software development, operational management, and threat-mitigation practices that are essential to the strong protection of your services and data.

GENERAL AVAILABILITY TODAY Taking advantage of cloud services doesn’t have to be difficult or a long-phased migration project. Today we’re excited to announce General Availability of the SharePoint Migration Tool, a simple, and fast migration solution to help you migrate content from on-premises SharePoint sites and file shares to SharePoint or OneDrive in Office 365. Based on the learning and experience from Microsoft FastTrack, the SharePoint Migration Tool from Microsoft was designed to help you bring your information to the cloud and take advantage of the latest collaboration, intelligence, and security solutions with Office 365.

When moving your organization to cloud services, security concerns add another layer of consideration; one of trust. Security and compliance is an ongoing process, not a steady state. It is constantly maintained, enhanced, and verified by highly-skilled, experienced and trained personnel. We strive to keep software and hardware technologies up to date through robust processes. To help keep Office 365 security at the top of the industry, we use processes such as the Security Development Lifecycle; we also employ techniques that throttle traffic and prevent, detect, and mitigate breaches.

There’s a new culture of work; one that is increasingly diverse, geographically distributed, and mobile. Connectivity is ubiquitous and the ability to work remotely has become an ingrained part of the work practice. People have come to expect to be able to access email and documents from anywhere on any device - and for that experience to be seamless, among these trends includes the increasing use of shared systems, such as kiosks to access and work with corporate data.

Last week we announced Office 365 Data Loss Prevention Block Access (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Security-Privacy-and-Compliance/Policy-Tips-in-SharePoint-Online-and-OneDrive-for-Business-at/ba-p/116158) with SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. Office 365 Data Loss Prevention Block Access prevents the potential for overexposure of sensitive information by allowing a Tenant administrator to configure Data Loss Prevention Policies limiting how and with whom sensitive information can be shared. For example, if a document is determined to contain sensitive information, for example U.S. Financial Data, a DLP policy can prevent that information from being shared externally or with guests while providing real-time policy information to the user attempting to initiate the share.

Governments around the world are strengthening laws and regulations to protect citizens’ data, preserve national security, and protect business interests. Last week at Microsoft Ignite we announced new Multi-Geo Capabilities in Office 365 to help ensure you remain compliant with services to include SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange. The new Multi-Geo Capabilities in Microsoft 365 with SharePoint and OneDrive provide global organizations a solution to maximizing the value of Office 365, including SharePoint and OneDrive, while meeting data residency and compliance requirements.

Last week at Microsoft Ignite we shared our investments, our vision, and strategy for addressing today’s most challenging business and technology trends that are ever broadening the threat landscape. From meeting complex corporate and governmental regulatory compliance, to addressing a more mobile and connected workforce, SharePoint and OneDrive and uniquely positioned to address your business needs. Stay ahead of data residency requirements with Multi-Geo capabilities in Microsoft 365 Governments around the world are strengthening laws and regulations to protect citizens’ data, preserve national security, and protect business interests.

Join myself, Neil Hodgkinson, Spence Harbar, Bob Fox, and other industry experts for a Microsoft Ignite pre-day training on implementing hybrid scenarios with SharePoint and Office 365. Cloud computing has become a popular way to reduce capital and operational expenditures, renew IT innovation, and gain the advantage of more rapid software delivery to meet the needs of business. However, compliance, data sovereignty, sensitivity concerns, or a significant investment in customization may limit your organization’s ability to take advantage of this.

Today at the SharePoint Virtual Summit, we unveiled the latest innovations for SharePoint and OneDrive, including powerful integrations across Office 365, Windows and Azure - and while we continue to drive forward with a cloud-first, mobile-first vision - security and compliance are at the foundation of everything we do. Microsoft has been building enterprise software for decades and running some of the largest online services in the world. We draw from this experience to keep making SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business more secure for users, implementing and continuously improving security-aware software development, operational management, and threat-mitigation practices that are essential to the strong protection of your services and data.

Last month we announced support for # and % across SharePoint and OneDrive (https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/wbaer/2017/04/06/new-support-for-and-in-sharepoint-online-and-onedrive-for-business/) and now in addition to adding support for # and % we’re also increasing MAXPATH or otherwise SharePoint and OneDrive’s Url path length restrictions from 256 Unicode code units to 400. This new limit section applies to the total length of the URL path to a folder or a file in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business but not to the length of any parameters.

Know before you go… If you’re considering migrating file shares or other file-centric containers to OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online it’s useful to understand if the source files are supported for storage or synchronization. This code sample at https://github.com/wbaer/FileChecker helps to identify illegal characters, length restrictions, and more in one or more file names that can potentially prevent proper synchronization with Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive for Business or fail to render through the Microsoft SharePoint or OneDrive for Business Web UX.

As William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Files are as unique as the people who create them and we’re constantly working in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business to support a broad array of types and naming conventions. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll be shipping support for # and % as supported characters in file and folder names across document libraries in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business.

I want to sync SharePoint and OneDrive for Business libraries on-premises To sync on-premises instances of OneDrive for Business or SharePoint site libraries (when you don’t have an Office 365 business or 21 Vianet subscription), you need to use the previous OneDrive for Business sync client (Groove.exe). If you’re not sure which version of OneDrive you’re using, or which version of OneDrive you need, see also Which version of OneDrive am I using?

The collaboration landscape has changed, people expect to work across both boundaries and devices, to bring content with them versus bringing themselves to content. Location, location, location is the best choice when buying or selling a home, but introduces new challenges when it comes to securing that content. Ubiquitous connectivity and the proliferation of devices means responding to new security challenges. SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business are uniquely positioned to help you address these challenges… Over the past several weeks we’ve introduced a variety of policies, to include location-based policies, that provide contextual controls at the user, location, device, and app levels and we’re excited to share you can now explore new device-based policies in First Release.

When choosing a cloud collaboration platform, the most important consideration is trust in your provider. Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive for Business are covered by the core tenets of earning and maintaining trust: security, privacy, compliance, and transparency. With SharePoint and OneDrive, they’re your files. You own them and control them. The Microsoft approach to securing your files involves: A set of customer-managed tools that adapt to your organization and its security needs.

The days of the corporate boundary beginning at the firewall are over, today’s corporate boundary is the end user. Connectivity is ubiquitous and with an endless number of devices available, people have an increasing number of options for staying connected at anytime, anywhere. The freedom to work fluidly, independent of location has become an expectation as has the freedom to access email and documents from anywhere on any device—and that experience is expected to be seamless.

Microsoft Ignite will open the window to our vision, strategy, and future for SharePoint and provide a first look at most recent developments with SharePoint Server 2016. From the business value for organizations looking to modernize their workplace and infrastructure to the technical value it will deliver to IT Professionals and Developers as well as new hybrid investments for those customers looking to enrich their existing investments with cloud innovation. With Microsoft Ignite just around the corner, it’s time to look back and provide a little historical SharePoint information.

The English philosopher Alan Watts once said “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance”. A recent #CollabTalk topic was that of the changing role of SharePoint IT…as the cloud becomes mainstream, this conversation will inevitably thrive as a broader topic that transcends SharePoint. And while change may be to exist, opportunity continues to rise – the cloud has given way to capabilities previous impossible behind the firewall, from predictive analytics to machine learning, to infinite storage, and on-demand access to content and conversations.

Overview OneDrive for Business is cloud storage for business similar to the personal experience provided by OneDrive. It’s the place where employees can store, sync, and share their files across multiple devices with ease and security. Built through the evolution of personal sites, OneDrive for Business provides the ability for an organization to provide their users enterprise grade data mobility across devices and screens and includes both a synchronization client for offline availability and simple upload experience and a Web UX to manage content through the rich capabilities of SharePoint.

Machine Translation Services is a powerful Shared Service Application in SharePoint Server 2013 that provides automation synchronous and asynchronous translation of documents, folders, and sites. The code samples in this post provide simple examples of synchronous document translation using the Client Side Object Model in managed (C#) applications and Windows PowerShell in addition to accessing Machine Translation Services via REST. CSOM The Client Side Object Model (CSOM) provides a rich alternative to earlier Web Services in providing an object-oriented system for interoperating with SharePoint data from a remote (client) machine.

Updated 8/12/2014 – Removed & as an illegal character. & character is now supported with OneDrive for Business sync client and Web UX. Updated 8/22/2014 – Updated to include prohibited types per http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-sharepoint-online-small-business-help/types-of-files-that-cannot-be-added-to-a-list-or-library-HA101907868.aspx. Updated 8/23/2014 – Updated to include optional UI-based scanning (FileCheckerUI.exe). Updated 8/31/2014 – Updated FileChecker.exe (integrated desktop and command line application). Updated 12/10/2014 – Updated to remove prohibited characters {, }, [, ], ~, and .. Updated FileChecker.

Over the past several weeks since we’ve released Service Pack 1 for SharePoint Server 2013 I’ve configured several PoC and demo environments with OneDrive for Business redirection to Office 365 with an outbound hybrid search topology. Over the course of configuring these environments I found it to be easier to programmatically configure the more complex aspect (outbound infrastructure) and hopefully will be able to share the solution soon… The solution I put together is a Windows Form (makes it easy to redistribute and iterate upon), simplifies the configuration and scripting of outbound infrastructure (example below).

Recently we introduced a number of new coexistence scenarios in Service Pack 1 including redirection of OneDrive for Business and Yammer. Redirection of OneDrive for Business enables IT to provision cloud storage for users OneDrive for Business document libraries; however, in a hybrid scenario the content in that storage should be discoverable both on-premises and online. The most common configuration to support OneDrive for Business redirection is an outbound search topology where users can return results from both on-premises and online within the on-premises search portal.

At the 2014 SharePoint Conference we announced the new OneDrive for Business SKU in addition to changes in Service Pack 1 functionality that enable IT administrators to selectively redirect their users to OneDrive for Business in Office 365 from SharePoint Server 2013. Planning The initial prerequisite steps to implementing OneDrive for Business redirection to Office 365 in Service Pack 1 is choosing the most effective identity management/federation options to suit your business needs.