External Sharing in SharePoint and OneDrive is changing: What You Need to Know

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In an ongoing effort to create a more secure environment by default, Microsoft is introducing an important security update that will affect how external users access content shared through SharePoint and OneDrive. Starting July 1, 2025, any links shared with external users before your organization enabled Microsoft Entra B2B integration will no longer work. This change applies to all organizations that have already enabled or will enable SharePoint and OneDrive integration with Microsoft Entra B2B (Most organizations I have looked into so far). External users trying to use old links will see an error message saying the organization has updated its guest access settings. To regain access, the content must be reshared. Highlights of how the change affects organizations who have enabled B2B: All external sharing will require guest registration. External users must be added as guests in your Microsoft Entra directory. Access will be managed through Microsoft Entra B2B Invitation Manager. T...

A thought or two on the upcoming 74-322 exam

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I made the "mistake" of registring for the 74-322 Microsoft Lync Server 2010 – Advanced Design and Deployment exam this week. And I probably have to retake it when it is released. Yes, you heard me, I probably have to retake it. I am a bit disappointed in my test center, because I asked if it was in release code or still beta. The told me it was released, so I wasn't ready for the beta setting at all.

It was a very good exam, and I was under the impression it will measure the right kind of knowledge (which I thought I had) for Gold competency partnership with Microsoft unified communication.

So why did I fail, was it too hard? Was I not prepared? Well, to be honest, The latter might be the answer. The reason I think I failed was the sheer time pressure I was under during the test. The test is still under Beta, and it has obviously not been adjusted for the amount of questions, nor was I given the extra 30 minutes we usually get when the exam is not in our native language.

The exam is supposed to test your advanced understanding of a Lync deployment, and I was given a lot of questions with a lot to read. I just didn't have enough time to read absolutely everything thorough enough to get the proper understanding of the questions. Non of the questions were too hard, and in a real life scenario it would be easy to find the answers to the customers questions just by going through the Technet Library on Lync.

I am not going to break any NDA's so I won't go into any details, but be prepared to be tested in advanced and detailed understanding of your Lync deployments. Take a good look on the advanced configuration scenarios on Technet and understand them. Then you will be on your way to passing this exam as well.

There is a lesson or two I learned in this though: I will obviously think twice about taking a Beta exam again, and I also know which gaps to fill to pass the exam once it is released.