Microsoft Teams

13 years of blogging and 2 000 000 views

Ståle Hansen Leave a comment

Today, January 26th 2023, I hit a huge milestone. 2 000 000 views since I started blogging in 2009. msunified.net has been the home for me to share technical nuggets about Exchange, OCS, Lync, Skype for Business, Teams and Microsoft 365 for over 13 years. I have even shared productivity tips which has culminated in to my Digital Wellbeing thinking. I want to reflect and share my 10 all time most visited blogposts, my 5 favorited blogposts, some external articles I have written and share what I am working on these days.

If you have found any of my articles useful at some point, give this article or the social media post you found this through a like 👍 :)

10 all time most viewed blogposts

My 5 favorite blogposts which I often use today

External articles I have written for other sites and Tech Community

Office 365 for IT Pros

For four years, between 2018 and 2022, I contributed to the calling and meetings chapter for Office 365 for IT Pros. I strongly believe in that format, because it gets updated monthly😱 Tony Redmond heads up that book and the author team does a fantastic job of keeping you up do date on best practices and technical facts in Office 365. Blogposts are seldom kept up to date and that is why you have seen less blogposts here these years, since they get outdated faster than you can type :) I recommend you go and buy a subscribtion to Office 365 for IT Pros right now👍

msunified.net moving forward and what I am currently working on

Do I think blogposts are still worth it today? yes and no. No for “how to” blogposts because learn.microsoft.com is so much better than Microsoft documentation has ever been. Maybe you would rather suggest a change to the learn article if you find information missing. Yes when you want to share a routine, script, your understanding and design principles. I would say no to opinion pieces on a personal blog, maybe you want to share those on LinkedIn or a third party blogsite

These days I work mainly in two areas

  • Digital Wellbeing and working smart with Microsoft 365 combined with Microsoft Viva
    • I published 8 hours of deep dive training for free on YouTube which are indexed here
    • I recently rebranded as a Digital Wellbeing coach delivering inspiration talks, keynotes, leadership training and organizational training based on my Digital Wellbeing thinking :)
    • I run workshops, proof of concepts and talk at conferences about Microsoft Viva
    • I am part of the #VivaExplorers an enthusiastic gang of over 60 MVPs who bring their own angle in to the broad world of Microsoft Viva thought leadership and understanding.
  • Complex hybrid deployment for Exchange/Skype for Business/Teams
    • I see larger more complex and risk averse companies stretching or migrating to Microsoft 365
    • In those more locked down environments we need to be more precise in knowing what works and how
    • These past years i have spent a lot of time as advisor and hands-on with hybrid Exchange solving problems like free/busy, Autodiscover, oauth, hybrid modern auth, Outlook Mobile and making sure nothing is more open than it should be, some of it resulted in this blogpost and I might blog more about troubleshooting these scenarios
    • Same for hybrid Skype for Business, but that is easier than hybrid Exchange, if you have gone down the route and set up a proper Edge server topology :)
  • Make sure you check out my YouTube channel to get my latest videos and talks I do that other channels shares

Thanks to everyone who visits my blog on a daily basis and I think I struck a nerve when blogging about Set the custom Focusing status in Microsoft Teams from PowerShell using Power Automate which is daily the most visited blogpost on my site :)

Digital Wellbeing and working smart in Microsoft 365

Ståle Hansen Leave a comment

Digital Wellbeing in Microsoft 365 is about working smart with the tools you have at your disposal. There is a difference between having access to the tools and using them as intended. With the introduction of Microsoft Viva and specifically Viva Insights, we now see where Microsoft is headed. They are now all about using the tools and building good collaboration cultures. Viva Insights can measure meeting culture, chat culture and how much off hours working is done. But it is not enough to just tell people to use less internal emails, move away from chat and over to channels and work less in evenings. It is difficult to envision how to work in a different way when the change that needs to happen must happen in the individual and in the group.

This is where Digital Wellbeing comes in to the picture. The four modules I have defined as part of Digital Wellbeing is the HOW and WHAT when culture shows you WHY you need to change. The four modules are

  • Capture
  • Process & Execute
  • Teams Culture
  • Notifications

Full workshop for free on YouTube

During March 2022 I recorded everything I know about Digital Wellbeing and you get the all four modules for free. This ended up as 8 hours and 30 minutes of insights, demos and how to’s. You can view the full index with timestamps under each video in this blogpost.

Watch the explainer video

To get started, watch the video explaining the four modules in 14 minutes

Module 1 – Capture

Capture is all about storing your thoughts, ideas, dreams and tips in to Microsoft To Do. Meeting notes and deeper notes are captured in OneNote. The goal is to create stash-zones for your content so that you find them again. Why exactly To Do and OneNote? Watch my deep dive video explaining everything you need to know to get started with capture.

Modul 2 – Process & Execute

Taking capture to the next level is to reflect, process and organize your captured material. A task in To Do which you have captured could be a link to an article you want to read, reference material for your project, it could be someone asking you for more information or the start of a project. Organizing this unstructured information and breaking the tasks in to goals and actions will help “future you” make sense of the captures. The execute component of this module is about prioritizing the most important tasks for you that day, reserving time in your calendar using focus time in Viva Insights and using the Pomodoro technique to focus on one task for at least 25 minutes without distracting yourself. At the end of the day, you reflect on how the day went by using Viva Insights Virtual Commute. This is much harder than it sounds so we need to talk about this. Watch my deep dive video explaining all the details for this module

  • Digital Wellbeing: 0:00
  • Agenda: 5:40
  • Lists and List groups in ToDo: 7:47
  • Sorting and prioritizing tasks: 18:09
  • Recurring tasks: 28:19
  • Section Groups in OneNote: 36:21
  • Reflecting on your career: 41:28
  • Sorting to OneNote: 52:29
  • Organizing meeting notes: 55:01
  • Sorting to Microsoft Lists? 1:02:04
  • Planning time for focus: 1:16:17
  • Get started with My Day: 1:27:19
  • Breaking tasks into actions: 1:41:19
  • Executing on your tasks: 1:48:18
  • Reflecting on your day: 2:21:16
  • End note: 2:39:40

Module 3 – Teams Culture

For you to have a good day in Teams three things needs to happen

  1. Conversations about processes needs to move from chats to channel conversations so that you get the ability to mute parts of the conversation.
  2. We want larger Teams with more channels, rather than many teams with fewer channels and we want people to tag a person, a tag or the channel when reaching out. Never tag the Team (unless you are the Team owner or administrator) because there is no way of muting those notifications.
  3. Meetings should start and end in channel conversations, or chats if they are ad-hoc meetings. In that way we may save a number of meetings that are meetings about the meetings you are going to have and meetings about the meetings you just had. That is just a waste of time, respect yours and your colleagues time.

These are the topics we cover in the Teams culture module, watch the deep dive session here

Module 4 – Notifications

Notifications is the #1 skill everyone needs to master the next decade. Why? Work is not a place it is a mindset. The moment you see a notification about work, you instantly get pulled in to work mode. What more is that a timer seems to go off in your head and you feel you need to respond within 30 minutes. This is the challenge we are living in today, that you get notifications about not important information at the wrong time. There are three questions you need to ask yourself when you get a notification on your computer or mobile

  1. Why did you get the notification?
  2. Was it useful?
  3. How can you tune it so you get it not at all or at the correct time

This is what we dive in to in the module 4 video and we take is far as going through how to disconnect during vacation. Read my Microsoft TechCommunity article on notifications to get a jump start.

  • Digital Wellbeing 0:00
  • The challenge with notifications 5:02
  • Notifications in Teams 18:41
  • Quiet time in Teams mobile 32:37
  • Notifications in social media 47:48
  • Digital Wellbeing on Android 1:08:33
  • How to vacation 1:21:01
  • How to vacation Book time 1:28:05
  • How to vacation Inbox Zero and Brain dump 1:34:48
  • How to vacation Plan your first week getting back 1:40:34
  • How to vacation Quiet Time 1:43:30
  • End Note 1:47:23

End note

Digital Wellbeing can help you get your head above the water, perform better at work and at home and it will just make you happier in your life. Happiness comes from you feeling you are mastering your busy day and using the tools in smart way and removing stress from your life. That is what Digital Wellbeing is all about.

Set the custom Focusing status in Microsoft Teams from To Do using Power Automate

Ståle Hansen 5 Comments

I am happy to announce that I have a free NoCode alternative for setting the Focusing status in Microsoft Teams! This is a follow up post to one of my most popular blog posts in 2020, Set the custom Focusing status in Microsoft Teams using Power Automate invoked through PowerShell.

Update 06.10.20: Updated the flow to better handle expected failure, should now exit as success if the task has no number. Download and import the Power Automate flow from GitHub. Found a logical issue 08.10.20, the Flow is now updated👍

The Focusing custom Teams status can only be set by MyAnalytics via a calendar event called ‘Focus time‘. I have not been able to recreate this calendar event type manually, so it must be something in the header. During a ‘Focus time‘ calendar event, the Teams client sets the status to Do Not Disturb with a custom name called Focusing. Personally, I don’t like the current way MyAnalytics schedules this event since it is two hours long and weeks in advance. I need a way to set this status at the time I am focusing, to mute distractions and tell my peers that I am in a focus, deep work, flow Pomodoro sprint. This is why I created this routine.

Here is how to get started with Focusing custom Teams status

  • Create the ‘Focus time‘ calendar event in MyAnalytics
  • Navigate to your personal dashboard at https://myanalytics.microsoft.com/
    • See prerequisites further down in the blogpost
  • Click on Focus in the left menu
  • Click book now to get a ‘Focus time‘ event in your calendar which will set your Teams client in Focusing status for the duration of the calendar event
  • When this is done, it is possible to leave the plan under plan configuration or by using the below link, to avoid getting future calendar events like this.

How it works and watch the YouTube explainer video

Watch the YouTube video where I demonstrate how the routine works and how to get started

Instead of using the premium HTTP request trigger, I now use the free NoCode Microsoft To Do trigger. When a new task is created, the Power Automate flow runs, finds your default calendar, finds an existing Focus time calendar event in your language and sets the time for your Pomodoro sprint duration. It even has an option to use IFTTT to mute your phone during the sprint.

Background

I am a Pomodoro Technique enthusiast. During a Pomodoro sprint it is important to mute distractions. This worked fine with custom presence states in Skype for Business, which is one of my most popular blog posts to date. I also published a very popular blog post on a routine to use HTTP request trigger in Power Automate to set the Focusing custom mode in Microsoft Teams. The problem with that routine is that it required coding and you needed to trigger it in PowerShell using a premium trigger. To Do triggers are included in most Office 365 SKU’s. Download and import the Power Automate flow from GitHub to see how the flow is built.

  • Make sure all prerequisites are met as the described below
  • Open Microsoft To Do
  • In any list, you create a new task and in the subject you put the time interval you want to do a Pomodoro sprint to achieve deep work/flow state/focus time
    • This technique even works from mobile and web!
    • I recommend you create a Pomodoro list in To Do to keep them all in the same place and so they don’t clutter your actual Tasks
  • Up to 3 minutes later, the Power Automate flow will trigger
    • I have tuned the timers in such a way that both the calendar event and the IFTTT trigger will start at the time you created the To Do task, and not when the flow is triggered
  • The flow will then access your primary calendar and create a copy of the current Focus time event and call it “Old Focus time” for historical purposes
    • This works regardless of language of the calendar and the Focus time calendar event, I check for primary calendar and use criteria to find the correct calendar event
  • Then the flow will get the latest Focus time event and update it with the time your To Do task was created and end the event using the number you put in the To Do task subject
  • When the calendar event is created, Teams will almost instantly update it’s status and put you in to the custom Focusing status, which has the same capabilities as if you set yourself to Do Not Disturb
  • When the calendar event is done, you will revert back to the correct status for your current time, busy if you are busy in calendar or available if you do not have anything else in your calendar
  • Now you can go to your meeting or evaluate which task is most important for you and trigger a new Pomodoro sprint :)

Prerequisites

  • Calendar must be in Exchange Online
  • You must have MyAnalytics as part of your license and enabled
    • Schedule 1 period with MyAnalytics to get the calendar event
    • Available in Enterprise SKU’s
    • I recommend to turn it off again after the first run, so that you calendar does not get flooded with weekly Focusing time events
  • Download and import the Power Automate flow from GitHub
    • Go to Power Automate in https://portal.office.com
    • Navigate to My flows and click Import
    • No changes are needed in the actual flow after import is finished
  • Find one of your Focus time calendar event and set priority to low
    • This can only be done in Outlook desktop client
  • In order to find the correct calendar entry we are checking for the following
    • Priority low
    • Category: Green Category
      • In my tests the category will be named Green even though you are using a different language
    • We find the first one and edit that event, to make sure we are not editing all events
      • The flow stops after one event is edited
  • Optional bonus, not required
    • If you install the flow app on your mobile, you can get a notification on you mobile when the Pomodoro sprint starts and when it stops
    • You an use that notification to trigger an IFTTT action on Android and iOS to set them to do not disturb at the start and turn it off again
    • I even use the IFTTT trigger to control a hue light in my office, set it to red during the Pomodoro sprint and green when finishing :)
    • Read more about IFTTT triggers for pomodoro sprint here
    • In order to enable the IFTTT part of the flow, you need to go in and edit it and set the IFTTTIntegration variable to 1. It is set to 0, disabled, by default

Power Automate techniques I used to accomplish this flow

In the coming weeks I will publish separate blog posts on how I created a universal flow which works out of the box in any environment. In the meantime you can download the flow from GitHub and take a look

  • How to find the default Outlook calendar for a person regardless of language
  • How to find the default Microsoft To Do tasks list for a person regardless of language
  • How to find a specific calendar event based on category
  • How I used ticks() to find time difference in Power Automate and what I used it for
  • Substring() techniques in Power Automate
  • If() in Power Automate
  • Math is hard in Power Automate, here is how i used sub(), div(), addminutes() and length()
  • Named variables and comments in Power Automate

Use Power Automate to send Teams messages to To Do #NoCode

Ståle Hansen 6 Comments

I am a productivity enthusiast. I use Microsoft To Do for my individual task management. When someone has a task for me in Microsoft Teams I need to get them in to To Do. MVP Vesa Nopanen created a Power Automate routine for doing this which works great. In his blog post, he talks about how to create it and how to share it with select users within your organization. I have tuned this routine to make it universally available so that no changes to the code is need for it to run in your organization. How? Read on

I created the universal routine which you can download from GitHub and try for yourself. Just import it, authorize access to Microsoft Teams and Microsoft To Do and you are good to go. Check out Vesa’s blogpost for how to share it in the organization

Originally the routine checked for the name of your tasks folder, but I found a way to do that programmatically, since the name of the folder is different depending on your language. The flow will look up the lists in user context and from there we can check which is the default one. Tasks is always the default one.

I did one more thing. When capturing the text to go in the task, I wanted to limit the length of the subject to 150 characters.

  1. I had to convert the output from Teams to plain text
  2. Then I checked the length of the body
    • if it was short than 150 characters, I used that as length,
    • if the body was more than 150 characters I limited it to 150.
    • if(lessOrEquals(length(outputs(‘Html_to_text’)?[‘body’]),150),length(outputs(‘Html_to_text’)?[‘body’]),150)
  3. Finally I created a string variable which is no longer than 150 characters and used it in the subject.
    • substring(outputs(‘Html_to_text’)?[‘body’],0,outputs(‘Compose’))

That’s it, simple and effective. You can download the flow from GitHub, make sure you read the original blog post for full details. MVP Yannick Reekmans has a different take to accomplish this using a graph approach. You still need the above routine to get the default task list.

When importing the flow, you need to have these connectors available so that you can complete the import. All connectors are part of your Office 365 subscription

Set the custom Focusing status in Microsoft Teams from PowerShell using Power Automate

Ståle Hansen 8 Comments

I am a Pomodoro Technique enthusiast. During a Pomodoro sprint it is important to mute distractions. This worked fine with custom presence states in Skype for Business, which is one of my most popular blog posts to date, on a daily basis. With Microsoft Teams, this has been a challenge, until now.

The Focusing custom Teams status can only be set by MyAnalytics via a calendar event called ‘Focus time‘. I have not been able to recreate this calendar event type manually, so it must be something in the header. During a ‘Focus time‘ calendar event, the Teams client sets the status to Do Not Disturb with a custom name called Focusing.

Here is how to get started with Focusing custom Teams status

You can schedule such a calendar event at will using PowerShell and PowerAutomate

Personally, I prefer to manually control when my Teams client gets set to Focusing state. MyAnalytics schedules the calendar event as two hours long when calendar is open and weeks in advance. I needed a way to set this status at the time I am of my choosing when I was actually focusing, to mute distractions and tell my peers that I am in a focus, deep work, flow Pomodoro sprint. I found a way to use Power Automate to control set the Focusing status at will.

The Teams Focusing status fits well with the PowerShell Pomodoro Timer. Update 05.10.20: the status updates instantly after the calendar event is added to your Outlook

Watch the 3 first minutes showing the focusing status in action!

How I solved it

I trigger a Power Automate flow using a HTTP request trigger using Invoke-WebRequest in PowerShell. The flow takes two inputs, duration and a secret. If the secret is correct, to make sure the flow can’t be easily hacked, it gets my calendar and searches for calendar event with subject ‘Focus time’. It takes the first entry and changes start time and stop time for the event using the duration I have set, usually 25 minutes. Now I have a ‘Focus time’ calendar event that is set at the same time as my Pomodoro sprint with the same duration. After 1-3 minutes, my status will be updated to Focusing. After 25 minutes, plus 1-3 minutes, my status will be reset. BOOM, how cool is that!?

Prerequisites

Update 05.10.20: I have created a free way to do this using Microsoft To Do task as a trigger. No need for code adjustment, just download and use it. Read more here! If you want to use premium Power Automate trigger and PowerShell to set the status keep on reading :)

Update 08.01.21: Together with MVPs Dux Raymond Sy and Loryan Strant, I have created a Pomodoro YouTube series where we discuss the Teams custom focusing status and multiple ways to solve this. Check it out!

  • Calendar must be in Exchange Online
  • You must have MyAnalytics as part of your license and enabled
    • Schedule 1 period with MyAnalytics to get the calendar event
    • Available in Enterprise SKU’s
  • You must have Power Automate license and ability to use Premium triggers
    • The trigger used is HTTP request and is a Premium trigger
    • You may find that you can use other free triggers as well
    • Premium triggers are included in Dynamics 365 SKU’s
    • Premium triggers are not included in Microsoft 365 SKU’s
    • The standalone $15 Per User plan can run Premium triggers
  • If you want to use a trigger included in your Office 365 plan, check out my other method, using Microsoft To Do task as trigger

Creating the calendar event and importing the Power Automate flow

  • Create the calendar event in MyAnalytics
  • Import the flow in your Power Automate
    • Watch the full walkthrough of the import of the flow at 3:39 in the YouTube video
    • Download the HTTPSTriggerUniversalPomodoroFocustime.zip file here
    • Navigate to your personal Power Automate dashboard at https://flow.microsoft.com/
    • Go to My flows in the left menu and click Import
    • Click Upload and choose the zip file
    • To be able to complete the import you must click the wrench in the first line and choose Create as new under Setup
    • Next you must create the Outlook connector by clicking on the wrench in the second line for Related resources
      • Click Create new
      • Scroll down to Office 365 Outlook, click Create and authenticate as your user
      • Now you have created the Outlook connector, go back to the flow import website and select you new connector and Save
      • Import the flow by clicking Import
      • The import should be successful, navigate to My flows
    • Edit your new flow called HTTPSTriggerUniversalPomodoroFocustime.
    • Now, let’s go through it and update the flow for your environment

Configuring the Power Automate flow

Click Edit on the flow and expand When a HTTP request is received and copy the HTTP POST URL and save it for later

Expand Condition and change MySecret to your own and take note of it

If no is there to trigger if the secret is wrong, it is a small security measure so that people not easily can steal you flow URL, but they also need the secret, or you can change it if it does get lost

That is the only change you need to make to the flow because the flow will find your default calendar. Since the name of your primary calendar may be different in your language, we are looking for the calendar for your user with isRemovable=False

But there is one more thing, we want to edit one of the calendar ‘Focus Time’ calendar events created by MyAnalytics. We want to set the event to workingElswhere or has priority of low. In this way we have more control over which event we are manipulating.

That’s it! You are now ready to invoke your flow. In PowerShell you need to run the following code

[int]$Minutes = 25 #Duration of your Pomodoro Session, default is 25 minutes
[string]$Secret = "MySecret" #Secret for the flow trigger
[string]$AutomateURI = "YourFlowTriggerURI" #The URI used in the webrequest to your flow


#Invoking PowerAutomate to change set current time on your Focus time calendar event, default length is 25 minutes
    $body = @()
    $body = @"
        { 
            "Duration":$Minutes,
            "Secret":"$Secret"
        }
"@
Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Body $Body -Uri $AutomateURI -ContentType "application/json"

Go back to Power Automate and validate that the flow ran, check your Outlook calendar that the ‘Focus time’ event was moved to now the status should change almost instantly. When the calendar time is over, your status will be reset and you are available again.

The practical approach with the Pomodoro PowerShell timer

With the ability to control the status in Teams, I believe the Pomodoro PowerShell timer is feature complete. One thing is to be unavailable and reduce distractions, but it is very important to automatically become available again. The reason for WHY you would use this kind of timer and automation is to avoid getting distracted which breaks your flow and deep work. Research shows that it takes between 7-30 minutes to get back in to flow after you have seen just one email or message. Here is what the script does

  • Starts presentation mode to block popups on your computer
  • Hides badges on taskbar so that you do not get distracted by seeing that you have a new mail, task or chat
  • Opens you favorite flow and deep work Spotify playlist so that you do not spend time figuring out what to listen to
  • Uses IFTTT to mute your phone, works with Android and iOS
  • Finally set your status in Teams to Focusing
  • After the Pomodoro sprint is over, everything will be turned back on again
  • Watch my demo (and live commentary) of the script in the YouTube video :)

Below is a sample code to run the Start-SimplePmodoro.ps1 script which you can download from GitHub

Start-SimplePomodoro `
-SpotifyPlayList spotify:playlist:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX `
-IFTTTMuteTrigger pomodoro_start `
-IFTTTUnMuteTrigger pomodoro_stop `
-IFTTTWebhookKey XXXXXXXXX `
-Secret YourFlowSecret  `
-AutomateURI YourAutomateURI `

Watch how to get started with the Pomodoro PowerShell script at 3:39 in the YouTube video

Why is it important to automatically become available?

You have been gone for 25 minutes, use the pause to check if anyone has been trying to reach you, re-prioritize your tasks, get more coffee and then dive in to a new Pomodoro sprint. After 25 minutes it is OK to get distracted, but if nothing happens, just stay in the flow you jump started and get stuff done. Download the Pomodoro PowerShell timer from GitHub

Discover all headsets used in #MicrosoftTeams PowerBI report

Ståle Hansen 2 Comments

Part of succeeding with Microsoft Teams in the organization is to use certified for Microsoft Teams devices. I wrote about this in my article Why certified for Microsoft Teams devices are important. To succeed with this we need visibility and knowledge about what is being used in our environment.

I have created a simple PowerBI report for this. Download it here. The report will find which devices are used within your organization. The report uses the CQD connector for PowerBI and you can publish it and add it as a tab in Teams.

The report connects directly to the CQD database which is the only supported way. Because of this, the user who accesses the report in Teams needs one of the following admin roles assigned.

  • Global Administrator
  • Global Reader
  • Skype for Business Administrator
  • Teams Service Administrator
  • Teams Communications Administrator
  • Teams Communications Support Engineer
  • Teams Communications Support Specialist
  • Reports Reader

To just see the devices used without getting the UPNs of the users, you can use the Reports Reader or Teams Communications Support Specialist roles.

The report

By specifying the Second UPN you can see what kind of devices individuals in your organization are using. You will find that there are multiple entries of the same devices because Second Capture Dev name is different. There is currently no way of using regex to mitigate this. Second Capture Dev is the microphone used in the audio conversations and is an indication of device used regardless of PSTN, Teams call, or conference.

Default input device, Audio and Realtek High Definition Audio are typically indications of using jack based or laptop speakers as the mic. In the picture below you see that CloudWay are mostly using certified devices👍

The report is based on Audio Call Count and Second Capture Dev from the CQD database

Requirements

  • Download the CQD PowerBI reports created by Microsoft
    • Read more about them and get the reports here
  • Download and install PowerBI desktop
  • Download the GetDeviceReport from GitHub
  • Assign PowerBI PRO license, to be able to publish the report online
  • Assign at least Teams Communications Support Specialist admin role to be able to connect and read the CQD database

Setting up the report, publish it to PowerBI and adding it as a tab in Teams

  • Make sure you have or create the folder
    • [Documents]\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors
  • Copy the MicrosoftCallQuality.pqx to the above folder
    • This file is in the zip package you downloaded called CQD-Power-BI-query-templates.zip
    • This gives you the Microsoft Call Quality (Beta) connector in the PowerBI desktop app
  • To build a report and run queries, you will first need to connect to the CQD data source.
  • Follow the steps below to connect:
    • In the Home tab of Power BI Desktop, click on Get Data.
    • The Get Data window should appear at this point. Navigate to Online Services, then select Microsoft Call Quality (Beta) and hit Connect.
    • You will be prompted to log in
    • The next prompt will give you the option between two Data Connectivity modes.
      • Select DirectQuery, which is the only supported way to connect to CQD, and hit OK
    • Finally, you will be given a final prompt showing you the entire data model for CQD.
      • No data will be visible at this point, only the data model for CQD.
      • Select Load to complete the setup process.
    • At this point, Power BI will load the data model onto the right side of the window.
      • The page will remain otherwise blank, and no queries will be loaded by default.
      • Proceed to Building Queries below to build a query and return data.
    • Now you are ready to open the PowerBI report you downloaded from GitHub
      • Open GetDevice.pbix, see it load in PowerBI desktop
      • Next, we need to publish the report by clicking Publish in the top menu to the left
      • In the Publish to PowerBI window, you should see the Teams you are an owner of as workspaces
      • Choose one and click Select
    • When it is finished publishing you can go the Team, find a channel and add PowerBI report as a tab
      • In the workspace, you have published to, find the report and click Save
    • You have now imported one of the CQD PowerBI reports
    • Everyone that wants to see the report in Teams needs to have one of the admin roles mentioned previously
    • The report may take some time to load and this is because it is getting the data in real time. There is no supported way to pre-load the data at the moment

Need more Microsoft Teams insights like this? Check out the monthly updated book Office 365 for IT Pros where I write the calling and meetings chapter.

Updated my #Pomodoro #PowerShell timer

Ståle Hansen Leave a comment

Ever been so busy you can’t get anything done? What do I do during those times? Spend time optimizing my productivity routine of course. June 2020 was super busy period for me and I found that my PowerShell Pomodoro timer needed some tuning to be easier to use. Download the updated script from GitHub. I have done the following changes

  • Hide Badges on taskbar buttons
  • Create a shortcut to start it in a fast and simple way
  • Fixed so that presentationsettings.exe works in 64bit PowerShell
  • Read my original post about this script
  • Pomodoro is a technique to induce flow in a busy workday through single tasking. Read more at the end of this blogpost

Hide badges on taskbar buttons

Instead of stopping Microsoft Teams, I hide the badges on taskbar buttons such as Outlook, Teams and Microsoft To Do. You must have access to changing the registry for this to work which was the best approach I could find.

#Hide badge or stop Teams
if ($Teamsmode -notmatch "HideBadge"){
    #Stop Microsoft Teams
    Write-Host "Closing Microsoft Teams" -ForegroundColor Green
    Get-Process -Name Teams -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
else{
    #Hiding badges on taskbar buttons such as Outlook, Teams and ToDo
    Write-Host "Hiding badges on taskbar buttons" -ForegroundColor Green
    Set-Itemproperty -path 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced' -Name 'TaskbarBadges' -value '0'
    Stop-Process -ProcessName explorer
}

During hide badge you will not see status in the taskbar icons, which helps you keep focus during the Pomodoro sprint.

When the Pomodoro sprint is finished, it will show badges again

Showing badge on taskbar app is new in Microsoft To Do and can be turned on or off under settings, I prefer to turn it off

Create a shortcut to start it in a fast and simple way

In order to start the script in an fast and simple way, you can create a shortcut to the script.

  1. On you desktop, right click and select new shortcut
  2. In the shortcut target box, type the following:
    • powershell.exe -noexit -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File
  3. File is the path where you stored the Start-SimplePomodoro.ps1
    • “C:\Users\UserName\OneDrive – CloudWay\Dokumenter\GitHub\MyScripts\Start-SimplePomodoro\Start-MySimplePomodoro.ps1”
  4. I have crated an Icon you can use for the shortcut which you can find on GitHub
  5. If you pin it to you taskbar, you can easily start your Pomodoro sprint

Fixed so that presentationsettings.exe works in 64bit PowerShell

I use presentationsettings.exe to put the computer in presentation mode which supresses popups from all you applications and Windows 10. This is an 32bit application. I found that 64bit PowerShell could not find this due to the feature, File System Redirector. I found a workaround and incorporated it in the script so that it works wherever you are running it

Write-Host "Starting presentation mode" -ForegroundColor Green
if (Test-Path "C:\Windows\sysnative\PresentationSettings.exe"){Start-Process "C:\Windows\sysnative\PresentationSettings.exe" /start -NoNewWindow}
else {presentationsettings /start}

By pointing 64bit PowerShell to the path C:\Windows\sysnative\ I was able to run 32bit apps like PresentationSettings.

The result

Download the script from GitHub

The goal is to induce the flow state in a busy workday

Multitasking is a myth. The goal is to reach the flow state by focusing on one task at a time. Have you ever started writing an email, thought you sent it and eagerly waiting for a response, only to find it incomplete and unsent at the end of the day? This is one of the perils of multitasking.

The Pomodoro Technique is a great methodology to induce flow in a busy workday. It is all about avoiding distractions for 15-25 minutes and focus on one task at a time. This is a short enough period in the day that you can squeeze it in before a meeting. It is incredible what you can get done 15-25 minutes. The goal is to not get distracted and it takes about 7 minutes of focus before you reach your flow state.

If you want to succeed with Pomodoro, you need to make yourself unavailable. Equally important, you need to make yourself available again when those 25 minutes have passed. That is why we created the Pomodoro PowerShell tool, and why I love the simplicity of this approach.

Watch an outtake from my session at Microsoft Ignite 2017 on single-tasking

Learn more on my thinking around single-tasking and tools available to succeed with the flow state, from this outtake of my OneNote LifeHacks talk at Microsoft Ignite 2017

Happy deep work!

Why certified for #MicrosoftTeams devices are important

Ståle Hansen Leave a comment

Part of succeeding with Microsoft Teams in the organization is to use certified for Microsoft Teams devices. There is a difference between consumer devices and business headsets. The major difference for headsets is noise cancelling in the microphone and cameras support the Teams video codec.

A consumer headset is prone to amplify the sounds around you, business headsets focus on your voice and work better in noisy environments. Most importantly, headsets certified for Microsoft Teams support wideband audio with the SILK codec used in all Teams clients, which means you sound better for your audience than with a consumer headset. All certified for Teams devices will be updated to support the new SATIN codec coming in Q2 2020.

Devices certified for Microsoft Teams are all listed and updated at https://aka.ms/TeamsDevices. Some of the advantages for the end-users are:

For an administrator the advantages are:

What about certified for Skype for Business devices?

They support the SILK codec too, so all good, but they may not have newer functionality like the Teams button found on certified for Teams devices. You can even use certified for Lync 2013 devices. Everything older than that is not OK, like Lync 2010 and OCS 2007 certified devices. Reason? No support for wideband SILK codec. Keep this in mind if you have upgraded from OCS and Lync to Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams.

It is common to find consumer devices in business environments, because the awareness of the the above features are low. But this is important, because if we have done all the network optimization and made sure users are adopting Teams, the last mile with a proper device is where we fail too often. Use my CQD PowerBI report to identify devices used in your environment and correlate the findings with devices listed at https://aka.ms/TeamsDevices.

Want a PRO headset for focus while working and travelling that is certified? Check out this video where I run 5 stress tests on two high end focus headset which are certified for Microsoft Teams

Need more Microsoft Teams insights like this? Check out the monthly updated book Office 365 for IT Pros where I write the calling and meetings chapter.

Did you know that you can control notifications from #MicrosoftTeams channel @mentions? 

Ståle Hansen 2 Comments

Yep, it’s true, here is the scenario

  1. You are joined to a lot of teams with high activity and people are @mentioning the Teams and channels because internal emails are moved to Teams, which they should!
  2. Every day you get back to work, you have a huge amount of notifications to go through in your activity feed because people are @mentioning everything all the time to get attention
  3. You are starting to wonder if Teams is a fad and are longing back the thousands of unread internal email messages in Outlook instead

Here is the solution

  1. To avoid getting a notification when someone is @mentioning a channel
    • Go and unfavorite itUnfavorite
    • You still get a notification when someone @mentions your name
    • You cannot unfavorite the General channel, this is why it should be only used for off-topic discussions, wins or general announcements
    • Want to go the other way and get notified whenever someone is talking in a channel? Go and follow the channelFollow
  2. To avoid getting a notification when someone is @mentioning a team
    • There is no way to avoid getting a notification
    • This is why you should refrain from mentioning a team unless it is at the utmost importance
    • You can actually turn off that people can mention either a team or a channel as owner under Manage Team -> Settingsmentions

That’s it really. Now you know it is a huge difference in @mentioning a Team vs channel. #LifeHack

Post a #MicrosoftTeams channel chat message from #PowerShell using Graph API

Ståle Hansen 3 Comments

Implementing Microsoft Teams is 10% IT, 10% governance and the rest is a cultural change. As part of the governance process, I have long seen the need to post the first chat message in a Team channel reminding the members of some cultural etiquette scenarios as part of a governance process. Up until now, December 2018, this was not possible unless you created an Incoming Webhook which required an administrator to log in to a Team which meant it was not something you could do during an automated creation.

Good news, you can now use the Graph API to post messages to channels without the webhook. This is still part of the beta API as of December 2018 and is not intended for production, yet. Here is what you need to do

Prerequisite: you need to create an Azure AD App registration with the correct permissions

  1. Log on to https://portal.azure.com with a GA administrator
  2. Navigate to Azure Active Directory
  3. go to App registration (Preview)
  4. Click + New registration
  5. Call it PowerShelltoTeamsGraphAPI
  6. Leave Redirect URI blank
  7. Go to Authentication and under Redirect URIs choose urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob
  8. Click Save
  9. Go to API permissions to grant the required group read and write permissions
  10. Click + Add a permission
  11. Choose Microsoft Graph, Delegated permissions and choose Group.Read.All and ReadWrite.All (remember you need to expand Group)
  12. Click Grant admin Consent from  and click Yes
  13. You now have admin consent granted for your tenant
  14. Navigate to Overview
  15. Copy the Application (client) ID
  16. we are going to use it in the next step when logging on
  17. Check out the references pictures below

You are now ready to connect to the Graph API via PowerShell. The connection code is from a more thorough blog post by my MVP colleague Alexander Holmeset. $clientId is the client ID you copied in the prerequisites

#Connect Graph, use the client ID we created earlier in the lab called PowerShelltoTeamsGraphAPI in Azure AD under app registrations
#Source: https://alexholmeset.blog/2018/10/10/getting-started-with-graph-api-and-powershell/
$clientId = "bb808f16-b6ef-44aa-8218-2520aaff461e"
$redirectUri = "urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob"
$resourceURI = "https://graph.microsoft.com"
$authority = "https://login.microsoftonline.com/common"
$AadModule = Import-Module -Name AzureADpreview -ErrorAction Stop -PassThru
$adal = Join-Path $AadModule.ModuleBase "Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory.dll"
$adalforms = Join-Path $AadModule.ModuleBase "Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory.Platform.dll"
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom($adal) | Out-Null
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom($adalforms) | Out-Null
$authContext = New-Object "Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory.AuthenticationContext" -ArgumentList $authority
# Get token by prompting login window.
$platformParameters = New-Object "Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory.PlatformParameters" -ArgumentList "Always"
$authResult = $authContext.AcquireTokenAsync($resourceURI, $ClientID, $RedirectUri, $platformParameters)
$accessToken = $authResult.result.AccessToken

#Validate that you have access by getting a list of all Office 365 Groups in your tenant
$apiUrl = 'https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/Groups/'
$Data = Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{Authorization = "Bearer $accessToken"} -Uri $apiUrl -Method Get
($Data | select-object Value).Value

Then you need to get the group ID and Id of the channel you want to post to. In this example, I use the Microsoft Teams PowerShell module and I want to post to a Team called TMDemo in the General channel. This can, of course, be done as part of a governance creation process

Connect-MicrosoftTeams

#I assume you only have one TMDemoXX Group
$TeamGroupID = (Get-Team | Where-Object {$_.displayname -match "TMDemo"}).GroupId
$TeamChannelID = (Get-TeamChannel -GroupId $TeamGroupID | Where-Object {$_.displayname -match "general"}).Id

Now you are ready to post to the channel, you are connected without errors, we have the Team you are posting to and have chosen a channel. There is one more thing, you also need to be a member of the Team in order to post. Make sure you get added, and then remove the admin user when you are finished posting. “content” is HTML text so you can format it nicely with bulletpoints and stuff.

#connect to teams channels and post a message
$apiUrl = "https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/teams/$TeamGroupID/channels/$TeamChannelID/chatThreads"
#add your admin user as member of the team
Add-TeamUser -User $UserName -GroupId $TeamGroupID
$body = @{
"rootMessage" = @{
    "body" = @{
        "contentType" = 1;
        "content" = '<h1>Welcome to this project. All project related discussions happen in the respective channels in our Team. We look forward to working with you and remember, General channel is used for announcements, wins and off-topic discussion</h1>'
        }
      }
}
$bodyJSON = $body | ConvertTo-Json
$Data = Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{Authorization = "Bearer $accessToken"} -Uri $apiUrl -Method Post -Body $bodyJSON -ContentType 'application/json'
#remove your admin user from the team
Remove-TeamUser -User $UserName -GroupId $TeamGroupID

You have now successfully posted to a channel directly from PowerShell. Congratulations! Log in to your Team an see the result. I think this is great stuff and will definitely be part of my governance processes moving forward graph1