11th MVP Award Rewarded

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I am actually on vacation, but as I sit here under the summer sun, toes in the pool and a cold drink within reach, I have been waiting for that email confirming that I’ve been awarded my 11th Microsoft MVP Award! As last year, I am being awarded in both the Teams and Copilot category. To say I’m humbled would be an understatement. Being part of the global Microsoft MVP community for over a decade now has been an incredible journey, filled with learning, sharing, speaking, and connecting with passionate technologists from every corner of the world. What is the Microsoft MVP Award? The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award is given to technology experts who share their knowledge and real-world expertise with communities. With fewer than 4,000 MVPs worldwide, it’s an honor to be part of such a vibrant and dedicated group. MVPs contribute through speaking engagements, writing, open-source contributions, and helping others online and offline. You can learn more about the progra...

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. This provides better tracking, lifecycle management, and control over guest access.
  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA) may be required. If your organization enforces MFA for guests, they will need to complete MFA before accessing shared content.
  • New sharing links will only work for registered guests. Anonymous access will no longer be supported in this model.

This means that external collaboration becomes more secure and auditable, but also requires a bit more setup and communication with your external partners. This change may have an impact on how you govern guest lifecycle management, from invitation to deactivation. Also verify your conditional access requirements for guests.

This update is a smart move by Microsoft to bring more control and visibility to external collaboration. While it may cause some short-term inconvenience, it’s a good opportunity to review and improve your sharing practices.