GoKawiil
Tech News
Microsoft is piloting an Excel update that lets a single cell hold lists and arrays instead of just one value, breaking from the spreadsheet's traditional one-cell, one-value design. The feature is available to Microsoft 365 Insiders in the Excel Beta Channel on Windows and Mac, letting users create lists via Insert > List or Ctrl+J, and reference or filter individual items within them using formulas.
Microsoft has paused rollout of KB5002907, an update meant for outdated Microsoft 365 Apps installations, after users reported it deactivated or removed perpetual Office 2016 and Office 2019 installs. Belgian MSP owner Christian Van Hautte said five unrelated clients contacted him within about ten minutes on September 24, with dozens of PCs showing an 'Unlicensed Product' error. He found that re-entering original product keys restored activation, and said the update installed automatically despite being labeled optional.
Microsoft has rolled out a unified Copilot client that replaces its previously fragmented consumer and business apps, following a mobile-first rollout last month. The new release adds Code and Autopilot tabs and is described by Copilot Executive VP Jacob Andreou as faster and more capable than earlier versions. Microsoft says its pricing model for the app is still 'evolving,' with usage-based billing planned for some key features.
Microsoft launched an updated Copilot app on Friday that combines coding and productivity features previously split between 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot, organized into Cowork, Code and Autopilot components. Instead of the standard $30-per-user monthly subscription, customers will pay based on usage, echoing pricing models used by rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic. Fewer than 7% of Microsoft's 450 million-plus commercial Office 365 seats currently hold Copilot AI licenses.
Proofpoint researchers presented findings at Protect 2026 describing a threat actor, tracked as UNK_CondorFiltration, that has been targeting Microsoft 365 environments in Chile since July 21. Using the open-source TeamFiltration toolkit and credential spraying, the attacker did not compromise any human employee accounts but instead broke in through neglected non-human machine and service accounts, gaining access to sensitive data.
Microsoft and partner organizations dismantled EvilTokens, a phishing-as-a-service operation that used AI tools and device code phishing to compromise over 12,000 inboxes across more than 10,000 organizations. Following a US court-enabled legal action, Microsoft seized 50 websites and disabled over 150 additional domains linked to the operators, tracked as Storm-2992. The UK's Metropolitan Police also arrested two men connected to the scheme this month; both were released on bail pending further investigation.
Microsoft has reissued a reminder to enterprise IT admins that IE Mode, the legacy compatibility feature in Edge that runs sites using Internet Explorer's old Trident/MSHTML engine, will be discontinued by the end of 2029. The notice, sent via the Microsoft 365 admin center, reaffirms a 2021 commitment and asks organizations to begin planning now to migrate old applications away from IE dependencies.
Microsoft announced it is retiring its Microsoft 365 companion apps—Calendar, People, and Files—effective December 16, 2026, after which they will stop functioning and lose support. The company is telling IT administrators to uninstall the apps from managed devices before that date. The move comes roughly a year after Microsoft began automatically pushing these taskbar-integrated apps to Windows 11 enterprise devices running Microsoft 365 desktop clients.
A Wire survey found that 61% of security leaders say access to shared files in Microsoft 365 often stays active far longer than intended, while more than a third struggle to even identify who currently has access to sensitive shared content. The report points to routine sharing habits—like adding freelancers to SharePoint folders or inviting new members into Teams channels—as common ways access quietly persists beyond its original purpose.
Microsoft plans to update Teams' Weaponizable File Protection feature so administrators can customize which file types get blocked in chats and channels, rather than relying solely on Microsoft's default list. The change is listed on the Microsoft 365 roadmap and is expected to roll out starting November 2026 across Android, desktop, iOS, macOS and web.
Switzerland's Federal Chancellery and its Armed Forces Cyber Command are separately moving away from Microsoft 365 toward openDesk, a German-built open-source workplace suite covering email, calendars, documents and video conferencing. The Chancellery plans to run openDesk alongside Microsoft 365 for about 3,000 of 47,000 federal employees by the end of 2027, at an estimated cost of 9 million Swiss francs, while the military is proceeding faster on sensitive systems.
Microsoft has detailed a social engineering campaign, active since May 2026, in which attackers tied to groups like ShinyHunters and Helix pose as corporate IT help desks and warn employees their passkey, MFA, or SSO settings need urgent updating. Victims are steered to convincing fake Microsoft login pages—often via SMS to personal phones—where attackers harvest credentials and session tokens using adversary-in-the-middle and device-code phishing techniques, rather than actually registering new passkeys.