Episode 1000! Richard Campbell invites Paul Thurrott to join him to celebrate the milestone episode and answer questions from listeners. From the creation of the podcast to the role of Windows in the modern world, the impact of ARM, Cloud, and many other technologies - all addressed in this super-sized episode. And yes, artificial intelligence is part of the conversation—and will be part of the workflows that sysadmins utilize on a day-to-day basis. Thanks to all the folks who sent in questions for this special show - and thanks for listening!

Links

• Does Windows Still Matter
• Windows Server 2025
• ARM in Azure
• Azure FastTrack
• Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
• Microsoft Viva

Recorded August 31, 2025

What are common mistakes folks are making with their Azure tenant(s)? While at the Kansas City Developers Conference, Richard chatted with Scott Sauber to run down his top ten list of issues he checks on for all his customers using Azure. From tenant ownership to naming conventions, policies, identities, and cost controls - there are a lot of things you can do to make your Azure experience more reliable, cost-effective, and efficient. Check out the links for more details on each of the potential issues!

Links

• Azure Service Groups
• Azure Naming Conventions
• Azure Naming Tool
• Azure Tagging Strategy
• Azure Policy
• Managed Identities
• DefaultAzureCredential
• TLS in Azure App Service
• SSL Labs
• Federated Identity Credentials
• Budgets and Cost Alerts
• Azure Reservations
• Azure Savings Plan

Recorded August 14, 2025

How do you secure your organization's data to let AI technologies work safely? Richard chats with Martina Grom about her experiences helping sysadmins responsibly bring the power of Microsoft M365 Copilot into their organizations. Martina discusses setting up security and monitoring with tools like Microsoft Purview, enabling visibility into where copilots are working and who is using them. Once the measuring tools are in place, you can begin to establish limitations for the AI without compromising regular employee workflows. Check the show links for a list of great tools you can use to get M365 Copilot working for your organization safely!

Links

• Governance Toolkit 365
• EU AI Act
• Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Translating with Copilot
• Configuring SharePoint with Entra ID
• Microsoft Purview
• Data Loss Prevention
• Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager
• Data Security Posture Management for AI
• SharePoint Advanced Management
• Copilot in Microsoft 365 Admin Centers

Recorded July 16, 2025

Are you tapping the power of Microsoft Graph? Richard chats with Tony Redmond about his work teaching people to leverage Microsoft Graph and all the insights it can provide about their organization. Tony views Graph as one of the key skills a sysadmin needs to manage an M365 tenant, alongside Exchange Online, SharePoint, and Teams. Throw in some Entra ID skills with Graph and you're ready to take on the rest - and there's a lot! Tony is also responsible for the excellent Office 365 for IT Pros book, now in its 12th edition for 2026. These are the fundamentals that can help you embrace the Copilot future we're all facing - and there's a lot to learn!

Links

• Graph PowerShell SDK
• Azure Automation
• Office 365 for IT Pros 2026 Edition
• Maester
• Agent Governance in M365
• Secure Future Initiative
• Linkable Identifiers in Microsoft Entra

Recorded July 24, 2025

What can the financial services sector teach us about adopting Copilot in our organizations? Richard chats with Christina Wheeler about her work at Microsoft, where she helps companies leverage large language model technologies. Christina discusses data security, which is crucial in the financial services industry due to its numerous regulations. The data security mindset of using tools like Purview and Data Loss Prevention helps to carve out data sets that can be used with Copilot. The conversation also turns to the Power Platform arena and Dataverse, tools that make it easy to embrace Copilot. There's a progression of security and capability, from internal apps to assisting staff with online work, to ultimately providing a means for customers to interact with a Copilot. There's a lot to learn, but the tools are there to make it possible!

Links

• Microsoft Purview
• Power Platform Data Loss Prevention
• Power Virtual Agents
• Microsoft Dataverse
• Copilot Studio
• Azure AI Foundry

Recorded July 7, 2025

How do you get from ClickOps to DevOps? While at Build, Richard chatted with Steven Bucher about using Copilot in Azure to help build PowerShell scripts with Azure CLI to get you moving down the path of repeatable deployment. Steven talks about interacting with Copilot in Azure through the Portal, Azure CLI, and PowerShell. Using tools like GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code can help you start making Infrastructure as Code in Bicep or Terraform to move you along the path of automating reliable deployments!

Links

• Copilot in Azure
• Azure CLI
• Terraform
• AI Shell
• PowerShell 7.5
• Bicep
• GitHub Copilot on VS Code

Recorded May 19, 2025

How do you bring AI agents to your organization? Richard chats with April Dunnam about her experiences with Copilot Studio, Microsoft's tool for building various agents for your organization. April discusses the multiple approaches available today for utilizing generative AI and the benefits of leveraging template-driven and low-code solutions to capitalize on the latest features in agentic AI. The conversation also delves into the relationship between M365 Copilot and Copilot Studio for creating extensions and focused functionality. There's a significant amount of power here if you take the time to learn the tools!

Links

• Microsoft Copilot Studio
• Build your First Copilot Studio Agent in Minutes
• Playright MCP
• Testing Copilot Studio Agents
• Agent Flows
• Dataverse MCP
• April's Copilot Estimator

Recorded July 8, 2025

What's happening with Fabric in 2025? While at Build, Richard chatted with Arun Ulag about the fantastic progress Fabric has made in the past year. Arun discusses expanding the product line beyond analytics to include real-time intelligence and hosting primary data workloads. The goal is to make it incredibly easy to get your organization's "data estate in order"... not just for security and analytics, but also for your upcoming AI-related workloads. Arun also discusses the power of conversational interfaces to access data, helping leaders get answers quickly and allowing analysts in your organization to build resources that can answer those questions quickly.

Links

• Microsoft Fabric

Recorded May 20, 2025

How does a PowerApp become a fully-fledged software application? Richard chats with Luise Freese about her experience of taking a PowerApp built by an individual through the "onboarding process" of becoming a complete software application, including requirements, tests, deployment pipeline, security, user training, and more. It's easy to create a prototype of an application with PowerApps, but once you move beyond the basics, there's a significant amount of work that's essential to the long-term health of the app. Luise discusses how often PowerApps utilizes "free" data sources, such as SharePoint lists, rather than the underlying datasets that require a license. This hinders performance and reliability; it's better to work with the right APIs and data sources. It's also an accomplishment, as what started as an individual's automation is now a part of the suite of applications that a company depends on!

Links

• Power Apps and Power Automate
• Luise's Blog Post
• Microsoft Power Platform Center of Excellence Starter Kit
• Entra ID for Power Apps

Recorded June 27, 2025

How has Azure been innovating lately? While at Build Richard chatted with Azure CTO Mark Russinovich about some of the latest innovations in Azure, including some of the new hardware available. Mark talks about working with hardware manufacturers to build servers optimized to the workloads the largest Azure customers need. The conversation also explores the new innovations in AI and how Azure is being optimized to serve those workloads - and be shaped by them! Mark also talks about how material science is evolving with generative AI technologies leading to a discussion about the coming role of quantum computing - and how that will live in the cloud as well!

Links

• Scott and Mark Learn to...
• Azure F-Family VMs
• Hollow Core Fiber
• Majorana 1 Quantum Processor

Recorded May 20, 2025