New Copilot Updates for Outlook Scheduling, Word Agent Mode, and PowerPoint Agent Mode

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Microsoft has announced Copilot enhancements across Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint that improve scheduling, document creation, and presentation building. Here is a summary of some of the features I think can come in handy. Be aware that timelines may change as deployments progress, some of these have already been pushed back a couple of months. All of the following features requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, and will be enabled by default for users with such a license. Automatic rescheduling of 1:1 meetings Automatic rescheduling of flexible 1:1 meetings and personal events in Outlook with Copilot, helping users resolve conflicts with minimal manual effort is coming soon. This will be in addition to the already released auto rescheduling of meeting rooms. Originally this feature was planned for mid‑November 2025 to mid‑January 2026, but is now hopefully coming between to mid‑February 2026 and the end of February 2026. A Microsoft Copilot license is required to use the capability....

Installing OCS 2007 R2 (Still fighting a bit)

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Once again, .NET 3.5 is a prerequisite for installing OCS 2007, and once again the installation for this failed. A tip for you might be to enable these things ahead of the installation of OCS. I do not remember having the same problem on OCS 2007 with Windows server 2003. It might be a 2008 issue as much as a R2 problem. If anyone do install this on Windows 2003, please let me know if you run into the same issues.

Now, off to the installation at hand. First of is the Back End server on which I just installed SQL.
If you are going to install everything on one box, you don't have to read much to install OCS (a basic understanding of the components involved is really helpful though). But if you are about to what I am, install an Enterprise installation with back ends, frontends and possibly balance loaders and several pools. Reading the docs is just for you! Also, make sure the right client tools are inplace, and server times are synchronized (I am using SQL 2008 on the back end, and the installation comes with 2005 client tools).

Installing BE is really just about "preparing" the environment. For those you who have not seen the wizard; This is a task of it's own. A few simple steps to complete.

Installing the FE is another matter. Again; If you are installing all on one box, there isn't too many pitfalls. But when you deploy to several servers, you need to keep your head straight when it comes to poolnames, servernames, sipdomains and certificates.... If you have a basic understanding, it should not be too hard, but still... whatch out for those pitfalls when assigning roles, names and certificates. My biggest obstacle was figuring out how to add the certificate to IIS. AS it turned out, the management tools were not installed (and are not by default).