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A practical guide for IT directors and SharePoint farm administrators planning around the July 2026 end-of-support deadline. With SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 reaching end of support on July 14, 2026, organizations running on-premises SharePoint face a decision they cannot defer indefinitely: upgrade to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition (SE), migrate to Microsoft 365, or continue running an unsupported version. Whichever path you choose, calendar functionality remains a baseline requirement for project teams, executive offices, and operational schedules across the enterprise. ...

Microsoft 365 calendar sharing requires recipients to have a Microsoft or Exchange account. If your external clients, vendors, or contractors use Gmail, a non-Microsoft email, or simply don’t have an M365 license, they can’t access your shared calendar — unless you use a tool that supports anonymous link-based access. This is one of the most common collaboration walls teams hit when working across organizations. You set up a project calendar in Outlook or a Microsoft 365 Group, you invite your client, and a day later they email back: “I can’t open this.” Behind the scenes, Microsoft is checking whether their address belongs to a tenant, has a guest record, or is licensed. If the answer is “no” to all three, the door stays closed. ...

Introduction When you start using retention policies in Microsoft 365, one of the first surprises many admins encounter is the sudden appearance of a mysterious Preservation Hold Library in SharePoint sites and OneDrive accounts. This hidden library sparks immediate questions and concerns—especially around unexpected storage spikes or frustrating attempts to delete files that just won’t go away. A Preservation Hold Library is automatically created in SharePoint and OneDrive whenever retention policies or legal holds are applied to content there. It works by silently preserving copies of deleted or edited files, protecting your data from accidental or intentional removal to ensure compliance during audits or investigations. When items are changed or removed, SharePoint uses a copy‑on‑write process to store earlier versions in the Preservation Hold Library—behavior that can noticeably increase storage consumption over time. ...

Office 365 connectors used to be the quick bridge that piped updates from Outlook groups, SharePoint, Planner and third-party services straight into a Teams channel. That model is now being phased out. Connectors for Microsoft 365 Groups in Outlook were retired in August–September 2024, and Microsoft is retiring Office 365 connectors in Teams in favor of the Workflows app powered by Power Automate. Microsoft has since extended the migration deadline—currently set for March 31, 2026—and recommends moving new and existing scenarios to Workflows. ...

Microsoft Outlook has grown from an email client into a daily control panel. Most people open it first thing to check mail, accept calendar invites, scan deadlines, and act on notifications. Because so much work already flows through Outlook, it makes sense to let it pull in updates from other tools and push timely actions back out—without constant copying, pasting, or app-switching. That’s where “Outlook connectors” come in. In Microsoft’s current terminology, this usually means Power Automate connectors for Outlook: prebuilt building blocks that let you create automated workflows using Office 365 Outlook (work or school) or Outlook.com (personal). You set them up in Power Automate or in Teams Workflows, not inside Outlook’s settings. Each connector exposes triggers (events like “when a new email arrives” or “when an event is created”) and actions (do something, such as “create a calendar event,” “send an email,” or “update a contact”), so information can move between Outlook and your other apps with clear, predictable rules. ...

Introduction Microsoft 365 Copilot is one of the most talked-about innovations from Microsoft, capturing the attention of both users and corporate clients. As organizations worldwide search for ways to improve productivity, this AI-powered assistant has positioned itself at the forefront of the workplace revolution. M365 Copilot represents Microsoft’s strategic commitment to embedding AI capabilities into everyday work tools. Rather than introducing a standalone app, Copilot seamlessly integrates with familiar applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. ...

Introduction Artificial intelligence has become a central focus in the evolution of Microsoft 365 products — and SharePoint is no exception. Today, SharePoint AI is transforming the way organizations collaborate, and automate everyday workflows. Built-in AI capabilities already help users find information faster and process documents intelligently. This article will explore how AI works within SharePoint, what smart features are already available to users, what new possibilities Microsoft Copilot opens up, and how those capabilities can be extended even further with additional solutions from Virtosoftware. ...

Creating SharePoint workspaces one item at a time sounds simple—until you have to do it at scale. In medium-sized and large organizations, teams need new collaboration spaces constantly: project sites, client workspaces, department hubs, and ad-hoc areas for initiatives. Manually building each site, library, and list is slow, inconsistent, and easy to get wrong. Naming drifts. Permissions vary from team to team. Required columns get missed. A month later, you’re fixing broken navigation and cleaning up oversharing. Multiply that by dozens or hundreds of workspaces and the cost becomes obvious. ...

SharePoint is best known as a place to store files and collaborate on pages, lists, and libraries. But one of its most useful—and often overlooked—capabilities is creating and using forms. Forms turn a site from a simple repository into a system that captures requests, routes approvals, and centralizes data for reporting. In SharePoint, forms let you collect, structure, and process information of many kinds—requests, surveys, questionnaires, incident reports, sign-offs, you name it. Submissions can create items in a list, attach files into a library, and trigger automated steps like notifications or approvals. ...

PowerShell is Microsoft’s universal command-line shell and scripting language. It gives administrators a single, consistent way to automate tasks and manage systems across the Microsoft ecosystem: Windows servers and clients, Azure resources, Microsoft 365 services, and SharePoint. Instead of clicking through multiple admin portals, you can express the same work as commands and scripts that are repeatable, auditable, and easy to share with your team. Within that universe, the SharePoint Online Management Shell is a specialized PowerShell module built specifically for administering SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365. You load the module into PowerShell and gain access to SharePoint-focused cmdlets (commands) that let you create sites, set policies, manage users and permissions, tune sharing and storage settings, and handle day-to-day operations at tenant and site levels. ...