Tech Talk 365

Today, I'd like to share a real-world workaround that solves a common issue in Microsoft 365: giving users the ability to manage Distribution List (DL) members through Outlook on the Web (OWA) without giving them permission to create or delete DLs. This is a frequent request for organizations focused on strict governance and efficient delegation. The Challenge A client recently encountered a problem where a user was unable to manage Distribution Group (DG) members via OWA. After some investigation, we discovered that the MyDistributionGroups role was not included in their role assignment policy. While enabling this role would solve the immediate issue, it comes with a significant drawback: it also grants the user the ability to create and delete DLs. For organizations with strict governance policies or those that prefer centralized DL creation, this isn't an ideal scenario. The Goal Our objective was clear: Allow users to manage existing Dist...

Welcome back to our PowerShell Basics series! In the previous episodes, we've covered connecting to Office 365 services (now primarily using Microsoft Graph), using cmdlets to retrieve and manage objects, and understanding variables and the pipeline. You now have the tools to interact with your environment. However, administration tasks often involve dealing with many objects (users, mailboxes, licenses) or performing actions only when certain conditions are met. Manually running commands for each item or decision is tedious and prone to errors. This is where the true power of scripting comes in, using conditional logic to make decisions and looping structures to process multiple items efficiently. A Note on Modules: As the MSOnline and AzureAD PowerShell modules are being retired, it's crucial to transition to the Microsoft.Graph PowerShell module. All examples in this episode will use Graph PowerShell for user and group management. For Exchange Online examples, we ...

At its core, PowerShell is designed around the concept of objects. Unlike traditional command-line interfaces that often work with text streams, PowerShell processes structured data in the form of objects. Understanding how objects, properties, and methods function, how variables store and manage this data, and how the pipeline enables seamless command chaining is fundamental to effective Office 365 administration. Understanding Objects, Properties, and Methods In the world of PowerShell, virtually everything you interact with is an object. An object is a structured data entity representing specific items, whether it's a user account, a mailbox, a group, or a system service. These objects possess two primary characteristics: Properties: These are the attributes or characteristics that describe the object. For example, a mailbox object might have properties like DisplayName , EmailAddresses , or RecipientTypeDetails . Methods: These represent the actions or functions that the ob...