Teams updates to watch: malicious link warnings, blocked risky files, and a new private backroom chat

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Microsoft has announced three Teams updates the past months. Two that strengthen security and one that will improve how organizers coordinate events: Malicious URL Protection, Weaponizable file type protection and Private chat for organizers, co‑organizers, and presenters. Please note that timelines can shift, so treat the dates as guidance rather than guarantees. Malicious URL Protection (Roadmap ID 499893 ) Microsoft has announced link‑scanning in Teams chats and channels that warns senders and recipients about unsafe URLs. The feature reached general availability rollout by the end of November 2025, while the separate change to make it ON by default, originally planned as part of that release, has been postponed to early 2026.  If you don't want to wait for it to be on by default, or feel the need to configure it, you can do so in the Teams admins center: "Teams admin center → Messaging settings → Scan messages for unsafe URLs”. Or you can mange the configuration with Power...

Python in excel and copilot is coming soon.

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The integration of Python in Excel for the web marks a significant enhancement for data analysis and automation, especially when it is added to Copilot. I think this is the one feature I hear my customers ask for the most when I do demos on Copilot in Excel.

Python in Excel with standard compute became generally available to all eligible users with access to Excel for Windows. But now, there is an upcoming rollout that will extend this availability to Microsoft Excel for the web, allowing all eligible users to utilize Python formulas in their workbooks without any installation. These formulas will be executed in a secure container on the Microsoft Cloud, ensuring enterprise-level security.

With this release, users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license will also be able to leverage the Copilot in Excel with Python feature. This integration enables deeper data analysis by combining AI and Python capabilities within Excel. There will be a premium sku available, offering premium compute for faster calculations.

This update is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 471001, and hopefully it will be available for all by the end of March.