Swiss authorities have launched a pilot project to determine whether it is possible to replace Microsoft 365 with similar open-source services, RTS reports. This follows a proof-of-concept project in which 172 civil servants tested the German open-source platform openDesk.

According to Matthias Stürmer, a professor at the University of Bern, there are three main reasons for the switch: to reduce dependence on US services, to improve operational reliability, and to reduce costs.

In the first phase, the migration involves 3,000 computers, which corresponds to 7% of Switzerland’s federal workforce. The government has more than 54,000 workstations in operation. The pilot will prioritize employees who have access to highly sensitive data, according to RTS.

A move by the Swiss Armed Forces from Microsoft 365 to openDesk is already underway, with that migration expected to be completed in October, It’s FOSS reports.

Switzerland’s move is part of a larger ‘digital sovereignty’ effort in the European Union that aims to retain local control over data, applications, and infrastructure. In January, lawmakers directed the European Commission to map critical technology dependencies and then develop policies to reduce reliance on foreign providers.

This article originally appeared on Computer Sweden.

More on the EU’s digital sovereignty push:

• European tech leaders advise caution on tech sovereignty drive
• EuroStack: Europe’s path to digital independence?
• US orders diplomats to push back on data sovereignty

A phishing-as-a-service operation targeting Microsoft 365 users has harvested thousands of session cookies that could be used to hijack authenticated sessions after victims complete multifactor authentication, CloudSEK said.

The cybersecurity firm said in a report that it uncovered the operation, known as BigBear 2.0, in June after gaining access to its administrative panel.

The panel contained 5,137 credential records linked to 461 targeted organizations across more than 40 countries. CloudSEK also reported 4,148 captured session cookies and 1,032 plaintext passwords. The firm said 474 records showed completed logins in which attackers captured the authenticated session created after MFA.

BigBear 2.0 is built on Evilginx2, a framework that places an attacker-controlled reverse proxy between the victim and Microsoft’s legitimate authentication service. The victim signs in through the proxied page and completes MFA as usual. Once Microsoft issues an authenticated session cookie, the phishing infrastructure can intercept it and allow the attacker to reuse the session without completing the authentication process again.

The operation also uses residential proxies selected according to the victim’s country, which can make malicious authentication traffic appear geographically consistent with the user. CloudSEK said this technique can weaken location-based checks used in Conditional Access policies.

Researchers also found custom code designed to disable FIDO2/WebAuthn authentication on the phishing pages, potentially steering users toward weaker, phishable authentication methods.

CloudSEK described BigBear 2.0 as a multi-user service with at least five identified affiliate operators. The company said it observed 42 virtual private server (VPS) nodes over the campaign, with 26 deleted from the panel since late July.

IT services and managed service providers accounted for 151 of the organizations identified by CloudSEK, making them the most heavily represented sector in its data. Such organizations can present especially valuable targets because employees may hold privileged access to customer environments and administrative systems.

Session theft moves into the mainstream

The significance of BigBear 2.0 is not just its ability to capture authenticated sessions after MFA, but the way it packages techniques once associated with more skilled attackers into a service that can be used at scale, said Keith Prabhu, founder and CEO of Confidis.

The underlying technique is not new, said Akshat Tyagi, associate practice leader at HFS Research. “What BigBear 2.0 changes is accessibility and scale,” Tyagi said. “It packages AiTM phishing, residential proxies and automated cookie replay into a service that lowers the expertise needed to run these attacks.”

That shift means enterprises need to think beyond protecting the authentication event itself, he said, because a captured session may give an attacker access to Microsoft 365 without another password or MFA challenge.

Prabhu added that successful MFA should no longer be treated as proof that an account or session remains secure.

Session cookies and access and refresh tokens should be treated as high-value authentication material rather than technical artifacts behind the password, said Sakshi Grover, senior research manager for cybersecurity products and services at IDC Asia Pacific.

The risk, she said, is that many enterprise controls are still geared toward detecting credential theft rather than the hijacking of an already authenticated session.

Phishing-resistant authentication becomes critical

OTP, SMS, and push-based MFA should not be relied on as standalone defenses against this type of attack, Tyagi said, because the attacker can allow the legitimate user to complete authentication before stealing the resulting session.

Tyagi said enterprises should enforce phishing-resistant authentication such as FIDO2/WebAuthn passkeys rather than merely making it available alongside weaker alternatives. Prabhu pointed to Windows Hello for Business and certificate-based authentication as additional options, with stronger methods enforced through Conditional Access authentication strengths.

Grover said organizations should also use Continuous Access Evaluation and token protection where Microsoft 365 supports them, but cautioned against treating token protection as a complete solution because coverage varies across platforms, clients and workloads.

The problem is also operational, Grover said. Identity and access tools are not always sufficiently integrated with security operations or SIEM platforms, leaving potentially useful identity signals disconnected from the analysts responsible for detecting attacks.

Password resets are not enough

“Treat the event as an active session compromise, not merely a stolen-password incident,” Prabhu said.

He recommended disabling or containing the affected account, revoking Entra sign-in sessions and refresh tokens, and forcing reauthentication. Incident responders should then examine Microsoft 365 logs for evidence of mailbox access, malicious inbox rules, unusual OAuth consent, newly registered MFA devices, privilege changes, and access to other cloud applications.

Tyagi cautioned that IP location may provide limited reassurance in such investigations because residential proxies can make attacker activity appear geographically consistent with the legitimate user. Responders should instead focus on reconstructing what occurred during the compromised session, he said.

Investigators should also determine whether the stolen session was used to reach other employees, customers, or external contacts, Prabhu added.

Grover said organizations should also include session hijacking in tabletop exercises, testing how identity, security operations, messaging, and cloud teams would coordinate during an authenticated-session compromise. Such exercises can expose gaps that may not emerge in simulations centered on conventional credential theft or ransomware, she said.

The article originally appeared on CSO.

You might not know it from looking, but Gmail is jam-packed with time-saving tricks.

Some of ’em are right there in front of your face, if you know how to find ’em — while others require a teensy bit of under-the-hood tinkering to activate. But all of ’em are built right into Gmail and have the potential to make managing your email a heck of a lot easier.

Check out these 16 splendid Gmail tips and get ready to master your inbox once and for all.

(Note that unless otherwise specified, these tips are specific to Gmail’s web-based desktop version.)

Inbox step-savers

1. You can actually view attachments right from your Gmail inbox. Provided you haven’t switched away from the service’s “default” interface arrangement, you’ll see small tiles for every file associated with an email right below the message’s subject line. And you can click on any of those tiles to open or preview the file’s contents and get directly to the info you need.

2. It’s easy to miss, but take note: When you hover your mouse over a message in your inbox, Gmail gives you a series of quick-access actions at the far-right side of the line. You can archive the email, delete it, mark it as read or unread, snooze it, or even RSVP to a meeting request right then and there — without ever having to open the message.

3. A super-useful keyboard shortcut I always forget to use: While viewing a multi-email thread of messages — a conversation in which you have numerous back-and-forth replies under the same subject — hit the semicolon key (;) to expand the entire conversation and show every message in the thread. And then hit the colon key (:) to collapse it back down so you see only the most recent email.

Just make sure you enable keyboard shortcuts first, if you haven’t already: Click the gear icon in the website’s upper-right corner, then click “See all settings” and look for the “Keyboard shortcuts” option midway down the screen that comes up. Select the “Keyboard shortcuts on” setting and then be sure to click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

4. Some of Gmail’s best keyboard shortcuts are the ones you create yourself. Go back into the website’s settings and this time, click the Advanced tab. See the line labeled “Custom keyboard shortcuts”? Click “Enable” next to that, then click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

Once Gmail refreshes itself to apply the changes, go back to the Settings area again and look for the newly present Keyboard Shortcuts tab. There, you can adjust any of the default keyboard settings to make them simpler to activate or easier to remember.

One of my favorite adjustments, for instance — and one I rely on constantly — is adding in a second command for the “Go to inbox” shortcut, which is typically gi by default. In Google’s old Inbox service, that shortcut was simplified down to just i, and once you get used to that shorter sequence, you won’t want to go back.

5. The panel at the right of Gmail’s web interface lets you pull up Google Calendar, Google Keep, Google Tasks, or Google Contacts right inside your inbox so you can manage info from each of those apps without having to switch tabs or open anything new. And here’s a handy hidden trick: With Tasks, you can drag messages directly from your inbox into the panel to create new tasks around them.

Unfortunately — and somewhat strangely — the same drag-and-drop behavior isn’t currently possible with Calendar or Keep, nor is it possible for Contacts.

6. Even with a miniature version of Contacts being available inside that handy side panel, you might sometimes want to pull up the full Google Contacts website for its complete set of features. Provided you’ve got Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts enabled now, commit this workaround to memory: Pressing g and then c will open up Contacts in a separate tab, no matter what else you’re doing in your inbox.

Composing shortcuts

Editor’s note: Assuming you’ve enabled keyboard shortcuts (see tip 3), the following keyboard shortcuts work in any browser on any desktop operating system. Mac users, just swap in the ⌘ key for “Ctrl” wherever you see it.

7. Ever like marking messages as unread after you’ve opened ’em? Gmail makes that incredibly easy to do: Anytime you have an email open, look for the envelope icon directly to the right of the trash can in the horizontal row of icons above your message (in the area directly beneath the search bar). That’ll let you mark the message as unread with a single click. Or, for a faster and more powerful one-two punch, just type an underscore (_) while viewing any message. That’ll mark it as unread and zap you back to your main inbox.

8. Speaking of combining multiple actions into a single command, simplify your inbox organization process by enabling Gmail’s convenient Send & Archive button. It places a second button alongside the regular Send button whenever you’re responding to an existing message, and clicking that button (or, even better yet, hitting Ctrl-Enter on your keyboard) will send your response and archive the thread in one fell swoop.

To enable it, look for the “Send and Archive” option within the General tab of Gmail’s settings. Click “Show ‘Send & Archive’ button in reply,” hit the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen, and then get ready to save yourself steps the next time you type a reply.

9. I don’t know about you, but I frequently start typing an email and then decide against sending it. (Rather fittingly, I started typing out a lengthy explanation of the reasons but then decided against including it.) If the same thing ever happens to you, remember this: Hitting Ctrl-Shift-D while you’re in the Gmail compose tool will close the compose window and discard your draft. And it works whether you’re writing a new email or a reply.

10. Another awesome time-saver: In addition to the obvious Ctrl-B for bold and Ctrl-I for italics email formatting shortcuts, Gmail has hotkeys for doing some advanced forms of text formatting — things that’d otherwise require multiple clicks and much menu-hunting to accomplish.

The ones I use the most:

• Ctrl-Shift-8 will add a bulleted list into your email (just like this list!), and Ctrl-Shift-7 will add a numbered one.
• Ctrl-Shift-9 will offset text in a blockquote style.
• Ctrl-] will indent text, while Ctrl-[ will remove any indentation.
• And Ctrl-\ will remove any formatting on your selected text and make it as plain as can be.

11. You’d never know it, but the Gmail compose tool itself can take on various forms, depending on your preferences. Make a mental note of these possibilities and the shortcuts to get to ’em:

• To start a new message in the default lower-right-corner-of-the-screen window view, hit c.
• To start a new message in a pop-up window totally separate from your main Gmail tab, hit Shift-C. You can do the same thing for a reply by hitting Shift-R while viewing a message thread — or Shift-A for reply-all.
• To start a new message in a full-screen compose window within your main Gmail tab, hit c — then click the little arrow icon in the compose tool’s upper-right corner. (You can also hit Shift while clicking that icon to pop the message out into a separate pop-up window form.)
• If you’d rather use that full-screen compose window all the time, by default, click the three-dot menu icon in the lower-right corner of the compose tool and look for the “Default to full-screen” option there. (If you ever change your mind, you’ll find the option to disable that preference in that very same spot.)
• If for some reason you like the idea of composing a message in a new tab instead of a pop-up window or within the main Gmail tab, just hit d while in your inbox. That’ll do the trick!

To see more keyboard shortcuts, just type ? while viewing any message list within Gmail.

Smarter snoozing

12. Don’t forget to take advantage of Gmail’s super-handy snoozing tool: Instead of letting messages linger in your inbox and pile up to an unmanageable point, use the snooze function to help yourself deal with everything as soon as you see it.

A good rule of thumb to maintain: If you can respond to something in less than a minute, do it. If something doesn’t require any action on your behalf, archive it immediately. And if something requires some sort of action but you don’t have the time to mess with it at that moment, snooze it to a day and time when you will be able to handle it.

You can snooze an email from your inbox by hovering over the message and selecting the clock-shaped Snooze icon, as noted in tip 2. You can also snooze an email while it’s open by clicking the three-dot menu icon to the right of the folder symbol directly above the email and then clicking “Snooze” within the menu that pops up. Or you can simply press b while you’re viewing a message or while you have it selected in your inbox.

13. Gmail even makes it possible to snooze multiple messages at the same time — in case you see more than one email that needs to be pushed back to the same point. From your inbox, simply click the boxes to the left of any messages you want to include, then click the three-dot menu icon within the row of icons toward the top of the screen and select “Snooze” from there.

14. Need to get back to something you snoozed — or change the day and time at which it’s set to reappear? You can always find all of your snoozed emails in Gmail’s Snoozed section, located beneath the “Inbox” line in the left-hand panel. Once you’re there, just hover over any email and click the clock-shaped icon to change its snooze settings or unsnooze it entirely.

15. You can snooze messages from the Gmail mobile apps, too, though the option is a bit buried. From the inbox view, press and hold a message to select it, then tap the three-dot menu icon at the top of the screen and look for “Snooze” in the list of options that appears. If you’ve already opened the message, tap the three-dot menu icon at the top of that screen; you should see “Snooze” show up as part of the options there as well.

16. Make snoozing even simpler in the Gmail mobile app by assigning it to one of your inbox swipe actions. Just open up the app, tap the three-line menu icon in its upper-left corner, then select “Settings.” On Android, tap “General settings” followed by “Swipe actions”; on iOS, you’ll tap “Inbox customizations” and then “Mail swipe actions.”

All that’s left is to set either your left swipe or right swipe to “Snooze,” and then, you can simply swipe any message in that direction from your inbox to snooze it — no wasted taps or menu diving required. (The Gmail Android app has several other similarly useful hidden features, by the way, most of which aren’t available on iOS.)

And with that, your Gmail time-saving toolbox is officially complete! The next logical step in your inbox improvement adventure is mastering the art of Gmail labels to fight back against email chaos — and I’ve got just the guide to get you started.

This story was originally published in May 2018 and most recently updated in September 2026.

Gmail is filled with hidden features and add-on possibilities, but one of the service’s most powerful organizational tools is sitting right in the heart of its regular settings.

As you may have guessed by now (especially if you read this story’s headline, you clever little cat), I’m talking about filters — Gmail’s long-standing system for automating your inbox with a series of custom-crafted rules. At a glance, filters can seem complicated. They can seem overwhelming. They can even seem unnecessary.

But don’t let yourself be fooled by the feature’s curiously crusty exterior. Gmail filters have the potential to completely reshape your inbox and the way your incoming messages are handled. They can help you keep your email in order with no ongoing thought or effort.

And, unlike Google’s new AI Inbox option (which notably still doesn’t seem to be available for most people as of this writing), filters (a) don’t require your personal messages to be processed by generative AI systems — and (b) give you complete control over exactly how your email is handled instead of forcing you to rely on inherently unreliable technology to figure out what you want for you (and then likely come up short at least some of the time).

Best of all? All it takes is a teensy touch of one-time planning to get Gmail filters set up to your exact specifications and working for you quietly and automatically from that moment onward.

Follow the filter-centric Gmail tips in this guide, and your inbox will be running like a well-oiled (but not too greasy) machine in no time.

Part 1: Figuring out your Gmail filters

Let’s start by thinking through some Gmail filter possibilities to get an idea for the sorts of setups you might want to consider — then, we’ll go step by step through the process of creating them.

With Gmail filters, you could:

• Ensure messages from specific high-priority senders always go into your inbox’s Primary tab, where you’re certain to see them
• Ensure specific sorts of lower-priority messages — like invoices, reports, or updates from different services you use — automatically get sorted into an out-of-the-way location and never even show up in your inbox
• Keep messages from annoying people out of your hair (but still available in case you need to find them) by automatically archiving them as soon as they arrive
• Forward messages from a specific address or with a specific phrase in their subjects to other members of your team or family
• Instantly respond to messages to or from a specific address with a prewritten template
• Label messages sent to a specific variation of your Gmail address (like youraddress+vip@gmail.com) or written with a specific word or phrase in the subject (like “urgent,” “important,” or “hey jerkwad, pay attention to this”) as “VIP” and then receive notifications only for messages with that designation
• Mark specific types of messages from yourself as reminders by giving them a bright yellow “REMINDER” label that makes them stand out in your inbox
• Get a snickerdoodle delivered to your desk every time your boss emails you

All right, so that last one isn’t really possible (not yet, anyway) — just wanted to make sure you were still paying attention. Everything else in that list, however, is absolutely doable and actually quite easy to set up with Gmail filters.

Got some ideas of your own? Good deal. Time to make ’em happen.

Part 2: Creating your Gmail filters

The simplest way to start a new Gmail filter is to click the control panel icon — the symbol showing three horizontal lines stacked on top of each other — within the big search box at the top of the Gmail website. (Filters can’t easily be managed on mobile, unfortunately, so you’ll need to do all of this in a desktop browser.)

That’ll pull up a form where you can fill in whatever you want to use as the basis for your filtering — a word or phase that might appear within an email’s subject or body, an address from which a message could originate, or any other variable or combination of variables you like.

Fill in the fields as appropriate, using however many variables you want — even employing quotation marks around multiword terms along with operators like “AND” and “OR” between terms, if you really want to get fancy — and then click “Create filter” at the bottom of the box.

One quick warning: By default, your filter will apply to any and all incoming messages — hence the “All Mail” setting that shows up next to the “Search” option in the filter creation pop-up. If you change that option to “Inbox,” you’re likely to see an error message informing you that the parameters you chose are not recommended and may not work properly. Leave that “Search” option set to “All Mail” — which is probably what you want, anyway — and you’ll steer clear of any errors and allow things to work the way they should.

Now it’s time for the fun part — the part where you decide exactly what happens when a message meeting your conditions arrives. You can select any combination of actions from the list and then configure them as needed. You can even tell Gmail to apply your filter retroactively to messages already in your account (as opposed to using it only for new messages that arrive from that point forward) by checking the “Also apply filter to matching conversations” option at the bottom of the box.

Once you’ve got that finished, click the blue “Create filter” button — and that’s it: Your new Gmail filter is officially in place and active. The next time any message comes in that meets the parameters you outlined, the actions you specified will automatically take place faster than you can say “I embrace Workspace in my workplace cyberspace.”

Part 3: Managing your Gmail filters

Last but not least, make yourself a mental note in case you ever need to adjust your filters in the future: If you want to edit, delete, or even just revisit a filter you created, just click the gear-shaped icon in the upper-right corner of the Gmail website, click “Settings,” then click the “Filters and Blocked Addresses” tab at the top of the settings screen. You’ll see every filter you’ve ever created there and can tweak or remove any of ’em with a couple quick clicks.

Now if only we could find a way to get the filters to deliver those blasted snickerdoodles for us. Hey, Google: Any chance you can make that happen?

This article was originally published in October 2019 and most recently updated in September 2026.

So, you’ve got email, you say? Lots of it? More than you can possibly manage without losing the few metaphorical marbles still sloshing around in that soggy ol’ brain of yours?

I hear ya. In fact, I think we all can relate (even those of us whose brains are, erm, slightly less soggy). And I’m here to tell you: It doesn’t have to be so difficult.

Gmail has a variety of built-in tools for making your messages more manageable. Some of ’em are a little bit different from what you might be accustomed to using in more traditional email clients (here’s lookin’ at you, Outlook) — but if you take the time to figure out how they work, you might just be surprised at how effective they can be.

There’s no better example than Gmail’s label system. It’s a strange concept to wrap your head around at first, especially if you’re used to the more typical folder-based method of inbox organization, but here’s a little secret: Labels actually are folders, in a sense. That, however, is just one small part of their inbox-organizing power.

Think through these nine label-centric possibilities and get ready to see Gmail’s labels in a whole new light.

1. Use Gmail labels like super-folders for categorizing your email

First, the most basic Gmail label mindset to master: You can think of a label like a folder — but with an important twist: Instead of a message being placed into a label, the label is placed onto the message.

That subtle-seeming distinction is actually quite significant. What it means is that a message doesn’t have to be associated with only one label, as is typically the case with folders; rather, you can apply as many labels as you want to any message, and each one ends up acting like a sticker — a label, one might even say! — that sits atop the email along with any other labels you’ve applied.

So, for instance, if you keep tabs on stats for your company’s website, you might label all incoming emails from Google Analytics as “Web Reports.” But maybe you also have your own personal website for which you receive Analytics updates. You could label the reports from your personal website as “Web Reports,” too, and then add a second label of either “Work” or “Personal” onto every message to create a distinction between the two types.

On the Gmail desktop website, the easiest way to create a label is to click the label icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen when you’re viewing a message or when you’ve selected something from a message list — then start typing whatever name you want to use for the label. Once you’re done, simply hit Enter, and Gmail will create the label for you and apply it to the message.

The next time you click the label command, you’ll see your newly created label as an option.

You can also perform the same action by using the keyboard shortcut L while an email is open or selected, provided you’ve enabled Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts system.

On the mobile front, you can create a new label within the Gmail app for Android or iOS by tapping the three-line menu icon in the upper-left corner of the screen and then looking for the “Create label” option before the list of existing labels (on Android) or the “Create new” option directly after that list. You can apply an existing label onto a message, meanwhile, by looking for the “Label” (on Android) or “Label as” (on iOS) option in the main three-dot menu anytime an email is open or selected.

2. Save yourself a step and label while archiving

Here’s a handy command to remember: If you want to add a label to a message and simultaneously dismiss the message from your inbox, use Gmail’s “Move to” option.

On the desktop website, that’s the icon showing an arrow inside a folder, directly to the left of the regular label icon. On both Android and iOS, you can find the same command within the three-dot menu icon while any email is open or selected. You’ll see a list of options that include your labels; just select the label you want to assign to the message.

Whatever platform you’re using, that’ll handle all the steps for you in one fell swoop. And if you’re a fan of shortcuts like this, by the way, I’ve got a whole story dedicated to time-saving Gmail tips just like ’em.

3. Apply labels while you’re composing an email

Gmail labels aren’t only for incoming messages; you can also proactively apply them to a new message you’re composing and then know that that email and any replies associated with it will remain properly organized and present in all the right places.

On the Gmail desktop website, all you’ve gotta do is hit the three-dot menu icon in the service’s compose window and look for the “Label” option in the list that appears — then create a new label right then and there or select any existing label to apply it.

The mid-composing label-adding option isn’t present in the Gmail mobile apps, unfortunately, but you can accomplish the same thing in a roundabout way by heading into your Sent messages (from the app’s main three-line menu) and then selecting or opening an email to add a label onto it right after you’ve sent it.

4. Organize your label lists

All right, so you’ve got your messages labeled — now what? Well, first, you can always browse through your labels to find something you need. Gmail keeps your list of labels (in alphabetical order) in its left sidebar, on the desktop website. You can collapse or expand that sidebar by clicking the three-line menu icon in the upper-left corner of the screen, and you can click on any label in the list to see all of the messages associated with it.

By default, though, that list is probably quite the unruly mess. So let’s get it organized:

• First, if you see a line in the list of labels that says “More,” with a downward-facing arrow alongside it, click it to expand your full list of existing labels.
• Now, click the three-dot menu icon next to each one of your labels. (The three-dot icon appears only when you hover over a label.) Assign each label a color, if you’d like; that’ll make it more visually distinctive and give it more or less emphasis (depending on the color you choose) when it appears in your inbox.
• In that same three-dot menu, look at the “In label list” section and consider if you want the label to always appear in your label list, to remain permanently hidden beneath that “More” divider, or to appear in the list only when unread messages are present within it. The less unnecessary clutter you have visible, the easier it’ll be to find the labels you actually use often.
• Next, look at the “In message list” section and think about whether you want the label to show up as an option when you’re adding a label onto a message. If it isn’t a label you ever actively apply to messages, you might consider hiding it to reduce clutter and increase your efficiency in that area.

On Android or iOS, you can find your labels and browse through any of ’em by looking inside the Gmail app’s main three-line menu. On Android, a third-party app called eLabels can also let you make more advanced label modifications from your phone or tablet — but in general, those sorts of adjustments are most easily managed from the Gmail desktop website.

5. Combine related labels into groups

While we’re getting your labels organized, take a moment to mull over whether any of your labels would make more sense as sublabels within a broader category. Maybe, for instance, you’d have one label called “Expense Reports” and then sublabels within it for “Staff,” “Freelancers,” and “Travel.”

This is an adjustment you’ll absolutely want to make on the Gmail desktop website, where the full selection of label customization commands is readily available. You can find the option to create a sublabel by clicking the three-dot menu icon next to any label name within the site and then selecting “Add sublabel” from the list that appears.

Just note: Somewhat confusingly, sublabels and parent labels are treated as separate but related entities — so if you were to add a message to “Staff” in our previous example, its label would show up as being “Expense Reports/Staff.” The message wouldn’t, however, show up when you click “Expense Reports” in the left-of-screen label list; it’d appear only when you clicked “Staff” in that same section. If you wanted it to appear within the results for both the parent label and the sublabel, you’d have to add both of them onto the message.

6. Use labels for smarter searches

Gmail’s labels aren’t just for browsing; you can also use them as variables to narrow down a search and make it faster to find a message you need. To include a label as a variable in a search, just click or tap the Gmail search box at the top of the website or mobile app, type label:work (using the name of your actual label name in place of “work,” of course), and then type in any other term or variable you want.

If you were trying to find a travel-related expense report from Tim Cook’s trip to Chicago, for instance, you could type label:travel from:tim@apple.com chicago into the search box. Including the label would narrow down your search considerably — skipping over messages from Tim Cook that might’ve just mentioned Chicago in some other context — and let you get to what you need more efficiently.

You can even narrow down your search further and search for messages that contain multiple specific labels — like label:travel label:work, which would show you a list of all messages that have both of those labels in place.

And on the mobile front, you can make your life easier yet by tapping the “Labels” dropdown within the app’s search area. That’ll let you simply select from a list of available options and save yourself the trouble of manually typing anything in.

Gmail actually treats many of its own built-in message designations as labels, too — so in addition to searching for your own custom labels, you can search for (and in some cases also find within the mobile app dropdown menu) things like:

• label:inbox
• label:unread
• label:promotions
• label:social
• label:starred
• label:muted

Beyond that, you’d never know it, but Google also supports a hidden series of advanced Gmail labels for automatically identifying emails related to areas like travel, purchases, and finance.

And finally, any recent past searches you’ve conducted will show up as suggestions whenever you tap or click in the search box, which makes it especially convenient to revisit any frequently accessed label-related explorations in the future.

7. Let Gmail apply labels for you

Here’s where things really start to get interesting: In addition to manually applying labels to messages as you see fit, you can train Gmail to automatically categorize and process messages for you.

The first step is to think about what factors would make an incoming message fit into a particular label — whether it’s the sender’s email address or domain name, a specific word or phrase in the subject line, or maybe even the address to which the message was sent.

In my own inbox, for example, Gmail applies a red “VIP” label to emails that arrive from editors or other contacts whose messages tend to be timely and important. And it applies a green “Invoices” label to messages that come in from a specific address and with certain subject lines that my accounting software uses for carbon copies of new invoices.

In some cases, like with the “VIP” label, the messages remain in my primary inbox. But in others, they end up moving to less attention-demanding places — like the invoice copies, which skip over my inbox entirely (since I’m keeping them mostly as records and don’t need to be bothered dealing with them every time they come in).

Once you decide what factors should apply to what label — and what else should happen once the label is applied — a Gmail filter is the key to making the magic happen. I outlined the exact steps to setting one up in my separate Gmail filters guide. Go have at it!

8. Let your labels limit your notifications

Last but not least, instead of getting distracting alerts for every new message that lands in your inbox — or going to the opposite extreme and not getting any email notifications whatsoever — use your Gmail labels as a way to control which messages alert you.

You can pick any label that seems notification-worthy and then limit your notifications only to messages with that label attached. You can even set up label-driven notifications to function on your desktop computer and on your mobile device. (Provided you use Android, that is. Sorry, iPhone folks, but Apple’s garden doesn’t allow this level of customization to fly.)

That’s exactly what I do with my aforementioned “VIP” label, in fact. And it’s actually quite easy to set up. I put together a step-by-step guide here.

And with that, my inbox-dwelling comrade, your label education is complete. Go ahead: Label yourself organized. You’ve earned it.

This article was originally published in November 2019 and most recently updated in September 2026.

An “AI worm” can spread through Microsoft Word documents using Copilot as a vector, a prominent Norwegian AI researcher reported on Tuesday.

The report from Håkon Måløy, later confirmed by Microsoft, said that an attacker can conceal instructions in a document that is later used as source material for Copilot-generated or Copilot-edited Word documents, for example, as input to a financial report. Those malicious instructions could potentially alter figures in the document being created. They then copy themselves into the new document, causing it to become a carrier of the attack when used in another Copilot-assisted workflow.

Måløy noted: “To my knowledge, this is among the first public demonstrations of document-borne AI-worm self-propagation through normal workflows in a mainstream commercial productivity suite.”

Microsoft on Thursday emailed a statement to CSOonline discussing the report’s revelations. 

“We have addressed the findings reported by the researcher and thank them for working with us through coordinated vulnerability disclosure. To address this class of risk, we use a defense-in-depth strategy with safeguards that block malicious instructions at multiple points and help keep tasks aligned with users’ requests,” Microsoft said.

“We are continuously strengthening these safeguards as the technology and threat landscape evolve,” it added. “We encourage customers to install the latest updates, use multiple layers of security protection, treat content from unknown sources with caution, and review AI-generated content before using or sharing it.” 

Sidesteps defenses

Aman Mahapatra, chief strategy officer for Tribeca Softtech, a New York City-based technology consulting firm, has reviewed the mechanisms used in this vulnerability and says that it is much worse than it might seem, because it will sidestep just about every defensive mechanism enterprises have in place today.

“This is a worm, a self-propagating malware pattern that uses Copilot as the transmission mechanism and legitimate corporate collaboration as the delivery channel. It bypasses every traditional email security control because the document is not malicious on delivery and it becomes malicious when Copilot processes it. That means that it bypasses DLP because the exfiltration happens through the user’s own authenticated Copilot session,” Mahapatra said. “It then bypasses endpoint protection because no code executes, only instructions get followed by an AI service the enterprise has explicitly authorized.”

He also noted that researchers have been warning about this class of attack for two years.

Microsoft’s involvement

Måløy said that he has been working with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) since March 3 and Microsoft  subsequently implemented and distributed multiple small focused mitigations, but the core vulnerability has yet to be fixed.

He said he was hesitant to disclose an active vulnerability, but felt that it was now time to publish. 

“My reasoning is that defenders cannot reduce exposure to a risk they are unaware of,” Måløy wrote, “and the propagation mechanism described here affects ordinary document workflows that many organizations already rely on.”

In an email interview, Måløy noted that the tweaks Microsoft has implemented were helpful, nonetheless. 

“The coordinated disclosure process showed that mitigations can meaningfully reduce the demonstrated attack surface, making attacks less reliable and limiting their reach, even without completely eliminating the underlying problem,” he said. 

Måløy also addressed the resolution that many analysts and consultants suggested, which is to change the nature of LLMs to fully isolate instructions from the data they operate on. 

“Separating instructions from data may be part of the solution, but I think the distinction between data and instructions is not always clear in real-world workflows. For example, a user may ask an agent to arrange a business trip, requiring the agent to retrieve an email specifying the approved itinerary and a document containing the booking procedure,” Måløy said.

“My view is that the broader challenge is therefore not simply to prevent systems from interpreting external content as instructions, but to evaluate whether those instructions align with the user’s goals and the context in which the system is operating,” he added.

Problem hard to overstate

Mike Wilkes, enterprise CISO at Aikido Security, said it would be difficult to overstate the potential problems from this situation. 

“This is a significant issue because it moves prompt injection from a single compromised interaction into a potentially self-propagating document integrity attack,” he said, noting that it is not a conventional worm that spreads automatically. A user or Copilot workflow must still bring an infected document into the model’s context. “But once that happens, the malicious instructions can reportedly alter business information, conceal themselves inside the resulting Word document and turn a legitimate internal file into the next carrier,” he said.

That, he pointed out, creates “a dangerous enterprise supply chain in which financial reports, contracts, policies and partner documents may inherit malicious behavior while retaining the trust associated with their legitimate authors and Microsoft 365 accounts.”

Not a new issue

The key issue behind this flaw is the fact that genAI tends to struggle with telling the difference between data that a user offers as input and the instructions the AI is to execute.

Flavio Villanustre, CISO for the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group, observed that the same problem with mixed data and instructions occurred in databases decades ago, and turned into what we know as SQL injection attacks today. But, he noted, a few years later, parametrized binding for the database access layers was developed, which separates instructions, which are handled internally and safely, from data, which can come from untrusted sources. “The same needs to happen with LLMs and other AI,” he said.

Mike Leone, a VP/principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, agreed.

“It’s hard not to chuckle a bit with this one. People have been asking whether data can give orders since SQL injections. We fixed that one by giving the database a way to tell an instruction from a value,” Leone said. “Thirty years later, we’ve built an entire category of software that can’t tell the difference at all.”

Tom Findling, CEO at Conifers.ai, also said he sees the data-vs-instructions issue as the biggest problem. 

“Separating data from instructions is still unsolved at the model layer. The labs are making real progress, but not enough to be your only control,” he said, and stressed, “Microsoft doesn’t need to wait for that. It can slow propagation inside Copilot: stop hidden content from being written into new documents, surface hidden text before it’s used, preserve the trust level of what Copilot read and show all AI-generated changes.”

Fix needs industry agreement

However, Frank Dickson, group VP for security at IDC, argued that a fix needs industry agreement. 

“A fundamental fix requires the industry to converge on the same architectural change, which isn’t happening anytime soon given the incentives and the fact that the major players are far from besties,” he said, pointing out that Instruction-data separation would need to be baked in at the model or platform level across every major vendor. “None of them are rewarding that work commercially right now, so treat that as a multi-year research problem, not something a CISO should wait on.”

Leone disagreed, arguing that a single vendor can do quite a bit, at least for its own customers. 

“Microsoft has said publicly since last year that indirect prompt injection can’t be fully prevented, and I give them credit for saying it out loud rather than pretending otherwise,” Leone said, noting that the industry doesn’t have to move in lockstep. “This attack lives inside one product,” he said. “If Microsoft hardens the Copilot document path, Copilot customers get safer whether or not anyone else moves.”

Dickson added that another critical problem with this vulnerability is that the carrier documents are created by legitimate employees using legitimate tools, “so there’s no obvious point of origin once the payload starts moving; an organization could be laundering corrupted financial figures through its own workflow for weeks before anyone notices.”

Tactics that might help

That said, experts had some specific suggestions for CISOs trying to negate this problem. 

IDC’s Dickson said, “the most useful lever right now sits outside the model entirely, in how much untrusted content Copilot is allowed to pull into a session without a human choosing it.” He noted that enterprises can turn Copilot’s auto-discovery behavior off or restrict it, and require humans to explicitly select the documents they feed it. “That alone closes off one of the two ways the attack gets a foothold,” he said.

IDC also suggested a visible diff or redline of anything Copilot changes in a financial or otherwise consequential document, and the requirement for a human to approve the changes. “That’s not a technical fix, it’s a workflow one, and it’s available today,” Dickson said.

He said that IT should also track where content came from and what was touched by an AI system, in metadata that travels with the document. “It doesn’t stop the injection, but it means when something does get through, an organization can actually trace how far it spread instead of discovering a corrupted number three reports later with no way to reconstruct the chain,” he said.

However, one expert, Tyler Reguly, Fortra’s associate director of security R&D, said that he didn’t see this vulnerability having a meaningful impact because it feels like what he called a “laboratory vulnerability.”

Normal enterprise workflows don’t encompass a number of the necessary steps for compromise, he said, pointing out that, if anything, people are trained not to download Word documents. Plus, he noted, looking at the blurred example in the report, the malicious document contained an additional apparently blank page which held the concealed prompts in white text.

“That page is going to send up warning signs for me if someone even managed to convince me to download an external Word document,” he said. So, overall, “this feels like it requires a perfect storm.”

This article originally appeared on CSOonline.

Traveling enterprise employees beware: Think twice before you log onto that oh-so-convenient public Wi-Fi.

Since at least June, threat actors have been compromising “captive” Wi-Fi gateways and other portal appliances at hotels, conference centers, and similar shared venues to hijack users’ Microsoft 365 accounts, according to the ReliaQuest Threat Research team.

Once a threat actor controls a gateway, they can silently redirect a user’s traffic to their own infrastructure and steal their Microsoft 365 credentials without ever touching the user’s device, compromising endpoints, or sending phishing links or malicious attachments.

“The most dangerous element is that it operates at the network gateway, which sits beneath most of the trust assumptions users and devices make,” ReliaQuest told CSO Online. “It’s not necessarily an enterprise breach level event on its own, but it’s a very real risk to individual accounts.”

Exploiting a ‘fundamental trust’

Domain Name System (DNS) poisoning, in which false data is injected to redirect regular web traffic to fraudulent domains, has previously been observed on small office routers, but attackers are now expanding the technique to higher-level targets, the ReliaQuest researchers explained in a blog post.

Attackers likely gain access to the gateways through weak or reused admin credentials in combination with exposed interfaces like Secure Shell (SSH), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), and other web consoles, they pointed out.

Admin access to the gateway is all that malicious actors need, because devices are designed to inherently trust DNS, which translates domain names like login.microsoftonline[.]com into IP addresses to route them. Therefore, a single gateway compromise gives the attacker the ability to redirect traffic for every guest logging into the network, providing IP addresses it controls in response to DNS requests, rather than the legitimate ones, without touching a single endpoint.

“Captive portal appliances sit at the network perimeter for every guest on that network,” the researchers wrote. “Detection is inherently difficult because the attack happens gateway-side, outside the endpoint’s visibility.”

In the campaign tracked by ReliaQuest, four attacker-registered domains, m365-owa[.]com, owa-ms365[.]com, ms365-device[.]com, and ms365-live[.]com, were used for Microsoft-impersonation lures.

The compromised Wi-Fi gateways were discovered across multiple US cities as well as in India and Saudi Arabia, and impacted users were from companies in professional and financial services, legal, retail, health care, and energy, indicating that the method isn’t sector-specific.

“We’ve seen enough SharePoint exfiltration cases to know that a single popped account can cascade into meaningful data loss,” ReliaQuest noted. Meanwhile, for the network operators, there’s a “reputational dimension”; user compromise is a “serious trust and brand problem, regardless of how sophisticated’ the underlying attack is.”

Safe services, DNSSEC not enough

Locking network configurations to a ‘safe’ DNS provider such as Google (8.8.8.8), Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), or the cloud-based OpenDNS isn’t a sufficient tactic, because it doesn’t change the path that queries actually travel over, ReliaQuest contended.

By default, devices send DNS queries as unencrypted protocol traffic, and those packets still have to traverse the hotel’s network to reach Google, Cloudflare, or OpenDNS, the company explained. Since the gateway sits directly in that path, it can inspect, block, or redirect the query before it ever reaches the chosen resolver.

“Specifying a trusted DNS server changes the intended destination, not who controls the road to get there,” ReliaQuest noted.

Further, Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSECs), which use digital signatures and public-key cryptography, only “partially” address the problem. DNSSEC provides authentication and integrity for signed domains, which means a validating resolver can detect and reject forged or tampered responses.

“What it does not do is provide confidentiality or availability,” the company said. “It does not encrypt DNS traffic or stop an attacker from intercepting, blocking, or redirecting requests.”

So while DNSSEC can defeat certain response-forgery attacks against signed zones, an on-path gateway can still see queries, drop them, or force fallback behavior. However, this protection layer only helps when domains are actually signed, and then only when the client or resolver performs validation, which “many stub resolvers do not,” according to ReliaQuest.

Full-tunnel VPNs required

To combat the problem, enterprises should require all corporate devices to use a full-tunnel VPN for network connection. Controls should prevent internet access until a tunnel is active, ReliaQuest advised.

This will route all of a device’s traffic, including DNS, through an encrypted connection to a trusted VPN server before it travels anywhere else, the company explained, thus preventing local networks like hotel gateways from seeing or modifying DNS and internet traffic.

“In effect, it takes the untrusted network out of the trust equation,” ReliaQuest noted.

However, full-tunnel configuration is not the default for VPNs, because it comes with “real trade-offs,” the researchers noted: It adds cost, latency, and bandwidth demands, since every packet has to travel through company infrastructure. Thus, forcing all traffic through the corporate backbone is “not always practical” for distributed or bandwidth-heavy workforces.

Enterprises should also enforce conditional access in Entra ID to block device-code authentication flow, which has few legitimate use cases for most users in most environments, ReliaQuest noted.

Additional precautions

The company also advised:

• Restricting Proxy Auto-Configuration (PAC) file retrieval to approved internal hosts;
• Disabling automatic Web Proxy Auto-Discovery (WPAD) via Group Policy to (this is often enabled by default in Windows);
• Deploying encrypted DNS such as DoH or DoT in strict mode as a “complement or alternative” to full-tunnel VPN. This is particularly important for organizations where always-on VPN is not feasible.
• Training employees to verify the URL and certificate of any page requesting credentials before entering them, particularly on public Wi-Fi networks.

Prevention is more important than detection here, ReliaQuest pointed out: while in tools like Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, ‘DnsConnectionInspected’ events showing queries to attacker-controlled domains are a primary endpoint-level signal, “by the time those events fire, the redirect has typically already occurred. In other words, endpoint telemetry confirms what happened more than it prevents it.”

This is exactly why methods like encrypted transport, Conditional Access, and WPAD and PAC hardening matter more than detection alone, the researchers emphasized.

This article originally appeared on CSOonline.

Building a presentation can take lots of time. There are design choices to figure out: the slide layouts, fonts, theme colors, and so on. You can use a template to skip this hassle, but you still have to paste your text and other content into the slides and edit it all so that the results are visually appealing.

In PowerPoint, Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant can now automate the heavy lifting of presentation creation. It can generate a first-draft presentation in minutes, then help you edit it. You can also prompt Copilot to help you quickly understand the contents of a presentation and glean insights from it. Use the tips in this guide to save oodles of time as you create and work with presentations.

Who can use Copilot in PowerPoint

Individuals with a Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Premium subscription have access to Copilot from within PowerPoint and other Microsoft 365 apps. Users with a Premium plan have higher Copilot usage allowances and access to advanced AI features.

For business users, it’s more complicated. Organizations with more than 2,000 users must pay for Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses for their users in addition to their regular Microsoft 365 licenses. Users at organizations with fewer than 2,000 users can use Copilot within M365 apps even without the M365 Copilot add-on licenses, but there are limitations in usage, speed, and feature availability.

To see what kind of access you have, log in to Microsoft’s Copilot Chat web hub and look for your name in the lower left corner. If you see “M365 Copilot (Premium)” under your name, you can use Copilot in M365 apps with priority access and advanced features. “M365 Copilot (Basic)” means you can use Copilot in M365 apps with lower-priority access and limited features. If you see “Copilot Chat (Basic)” or nothing below your name, you can’t use Copilot in M365 apps.

(Copilot Chat Basic users do get some Copilot functionality, including the ability to generate presentations, via the Copilot Chat hub. See our Copilot Chat tutorial for details.)

In this article:

• Working with Copilot in PowerPoint
• Create a presentation template
• Create a presentation from a document
• Add content from a document to a slide
• Refine your slide text
• Find or create an image
• Expand your presentation with relevant slides
• Summarize a presentation
• Answer questions about a presentation
• Help you navigate a large presentation
• Generate speaker notes and/or an FAQ

Working with Copilot in PowerPoint

First, let’s quickly go over the notable settings of the Copilot sidebar.

When you have a presentation open in PowerPoint, click the Copilot icon; it may be floating at the lower-right corner of your PowerPoint window or parked at the right end of the Ribbon toolbar. The Copilot sidebar will open along the right of the page. You’ll type your prompts to Copilot inside the chat window in this pane.

Agent mode: By default, Copilot can build a new presentation or make changes to an existing one in the main PowerPoint window. This is known as “agent mode.” To change this so that Copilot can’t take direct action on a presentation (all its responses appear in the sidebar), click the Allow editing button above the chat window and change it to Chat only.

The tips in this guide require that Copilot be in agent mode, so make sure you see Allow editing above the chat window.

Choice of AI model: Behind the scenes, Copilot has access to various genAI models, including different versions of Anthropic Claude and OpenAI GPT.  By default, it decides which model to use based on your prompt. You can set it to use a particular model: click Auto at the upper right of the Copilot pane and select a model from the dropdown that opens.

The tips in this guide should work fine on the default Auto setting. But feel free to experiment switching to specific models to see which give you the best results for particular tasks.

Important: Remember that generative AI output often includes errors, so always check Copilot’s output for accuracy. (Also see our tips for reducing hallucinations in Copilot.) You’ll likely want to rewrite it in your own voice as you’re reviewing it.

1. Create a presentation template

For many people, the hardest part of creating a presentation is getting started. What types of information should be included on the slides, and in what order? Copilot can give you a leg up by creating the type of presentation you need, with placeholder data that you can later replace with your own.

Start a new presentation, open the Copilot sidebar, and type your prompt into the chat window. It’s best to provide very specific details in your prompt. The more context or details you provide, the more likely Copilot will generate a presentation template that suits your needs.

A good prompt should contain the slide count, subject, audience, and tone. Example:

• Create a 6-slide presentation for a sales meeting focusing on Q1 revenue. The audience is the sales team, so keep the tone professional and focused on the sales data.

Copilot may ask a series of follow-up questions, such as your preferred visual style and desired level of detail. Then it will generate a presentation template.

You can optionally prompt Copilot for revisions, and when you’re happy with the template, swap in your own data.

2. Create a presentation from a document

You can attach a document (such as a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PDF) and prompt Copilot to generate a presentation based on its contents. This works best with a structured-format document (such as a business plan, project proposal, or summary report) that contains sections with headings.

Copilot can extract the document’s text and structure to generate the slide content for the new presentation. This can especially be useful for quickly turning a long report into a visually appealing presentation.

In the Copilot pane, click the + icon at the bottom of the chat window. A list of documents that you’ve recently accessed appears. Select the one that you want Copilot to use. Alternatively, click the magnifying glass icon and inside its search box, type a few letters of the filename for the document you want. (Business users with an M365 Copilot license can select up to five files for Copilot to pull from when creating a presentation.)

Then in the chat window, you can enter a prompt that’s as simple as “Create a presentation,” although as always, providing more details and context is better. This is especially important for corporate users who reference multiple source files. It’s useful to tell Copilot what data to pull from each document.

Answer any follow-up questions that Copilot asks, and it will then generate the presentation.

Note: Your marketing department may have created one or more branded company templates for Copilot to work from. If that’s the case at your organization, simply open the appropriate company template as your first step. Then you can upload docs and type a prompt as described above. Copilot will create a presentation using the branded template.

3. Add content from a document to a slide

Manually copying text or other content from a document and pasting it into a new slide is a chore. Instead, you can prompt Copilot to extract information directly from a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PDF to create new slides.

In the Copilot pane, attach the document using the same steps described in tip 2, then tell Copilot to create a slide from the document. As always, it helps to provide details such as the new slide’s focus or what data to include:

• Add a slide based on the attached document.
• Use the attached file to add a slide about the project budget that focuses on Q1 projections.
• Summarize only the financial section of the attached document as a slide.

4. Refine your slide text

A presentation should be visual and display only the core message. Conciseness and proper writing tone are essential for your slides, so that they don’t lose the attention of your audience.

You can prompt Copilot to refine text on an individual slide in various ways, such as rewriting it in a more professional tone or making it more concise. Highlight the text inside a text box on the slide. On the toolbar that appears over the highlighted text, click Edit with Copilot.

On the menu that opens, you can select a preset prompt to refine the text, such as Condense or Make professional. Or, at the top of this menu, you can type a prompt to rewrite the highlighted text.

Note that this feature affects all the text inside the text box. To rewrite only a portion of text inside a text box, you must split that portion out into a separate text box.

Alternatively, you can prompt Copilot to analyze your entire presentation and tighten up the wording throughout all of its slides. For example:

• Make these slides more visual and use less text.

5. Find or create an image

If you have Copilot generate a presentation from an existing Word document that contains images, it will incorporate those images into the presentation. If there are no images in the source document, you can ask Copilot to find or create one and add it to a slide.

To add a stock image or an image from your organization’s brand library, tell Copilot what you’re looking for:

• Add a stock photo of young adults in a cafe drinking boba tea.
• Add a photo from our asset library of young adults in a cafe drinking boba tea.

To have Copilot create an image using Microsoft’s Designer image generation tool, describe your desired image. As always, specificity is helpful:

• Create a photorealistic image of a diverse group of 5 or 6 fashionable young adults sitting in a cafe drinking boba tea. They’re smiling or laughing, and some are looking at their phones.

Just as you need to review any text output from Copilot, take a close look at generated images to be sure nothing looks off.

Also note that Copilot image generation isn’t always reliable in PowerPoint. For some time during our testing for this story, Copilot said it couldn’t create an image because “the image generation service is returning a server error on every attempt.” After about a day and a half, the service began working again.

6. Expand your presentation with relevant slides

As you’re building your presentation, you may find that it’s become text heavy. Or perhaps it could use more visually oriented slides to break things up and make its progression flow better. Copilot can generate and insert new slides that are based on the content of the slides already in the presentation.

In the Copilot pane, specify exactly where you want the new slide to go. This helps Copilot to analyze the content of the slides before and after where you want the new slide. Then it can generate a slide to bridge between the two slides. Examples:

• Add a slide after slide 3 about our competitive advantages.
• Add a slide after slide 11 that transitions to slide 12.

7. Summarize a presentation

Maybe you need a quick refresh of your presentation before an important meeting. Or maybe a co-worker has sent you a presentation that’s packed with lots of slides. You can prompt Copilot to generate a summary of the presentation’s overall messaging.

In the Copilot pane, just type “summarize this presentation.” You can also have Copilot flag key slides that contain important information: “show me key slides.”

8. Answer questions about a presentation

As you’re reviewing a presentation, especially one that you didn’t create and are not familiar with, you can get Copilot to pull key data points from its slides.

In the Copilot pane, type specific informational questions. Examples:

• What are the action items in this deck?
• What is the proposed budget mentioned here?

If Copilot can’t find the exact answer to the question you ask, it will provide related information from the presentation.

This method can also help you validate that your presentation includes everything you want it to. If you ask Copilot about the action items in a presentation and it can’t find any, you know you need to add them. (Copilot will likely offer to generate them for you based on the rest of the slides.)

You can even take this tactic a step further and ask Copilot if the presentation is missing any important data, if any slides are weak or confusing, if there are any awkward transitions, if there are key points that should be better emphasized, and so on.

9. Help you navigate a large presentation

In the business world, presentations with dozens of slides are not uncommon, such as for financial reports or project documentation. Trying to find a specific slide or multiple slides can be tough. Copilot can help you navigate such a presentation.

In the Copilot pane, prompt Copilot to find slides based on specific topics. Example:

• Show me the slides about the project timeline.

Copilot will analyze the presentation and reply with a list of links to the relevant slides. Click one of these to jump directly to that slide.

10. Generate speaker notes and/or an FAQ

Here’s a great timesaver when you’re preparing to show your presentation to an audience: Copilot can automatically generate suggested speaker notes for you, based on the content of your slides. Example prompt:

• Write speaker notes for every slide with one talking point per slide.

In a related feature, Copilot can create a frequently asked questions list (FAQ) for you to consult in your speaker notes or to present as a slide:

• Write an FAQ for these slides.

Copilot will ask where you want the questions and answers added — as a new slide at the end, integrated into the speaker notes of relevant slides, or somewhere else that you designate. Make a selection, and Copilot will generate the FAQ based on the content of your presentation.

Related reading:

• 11 cool things Copilot can do in Excel
• 9 ways Copilot can turbocharge OneNote
• PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 cheat sheet
• Copilot Chat: Your hub for document creation and analysis
• How to curb hallucinations in Copilot (and other genAI tools)
• Microsoft Copilot can boost your writing in Word, Outlook, and OneNote — here’s how
• More Microsoft tips and tutorials

Long before Taco Tuesday became part of the pop-culture vernacular, Tuesdays were synonymous with security — and for anyone in the tech world, they still are.  Patch Tuesday, as you most likely know, refers to the day each month when Microsoft releases security updates and patches for its software products — everything from Windows to Office to SQL Server, developer tools to browsers.

The practice, which happens on the second Tuesday of the month, was initiated to streamline the patch distribution process and make it easier for users and IT system administrators to manage updates.  Like tacos, Patch Tuesday is here to stay.

In a blog post celebrating the 20th anniversary of Patch Tuesday, the Microsoft Security Response Center wrote: “The concept of Patch Tuesday was conceived and implemented in 2003. Before this unified approach, our security updates were sporadic, posing significant challenges for IT professionals and organizations in deploying critical patches in a timely manner.”

Patch Tuesday will continue to be an “important part of our strategy to keep users secure,” Microsoft said, adding that it’s now an important part of the cybersecurity industry.  As a case in point, Adobe, among others, follows a similar patch cadence.

Patch Tuesday coverage has also long been a staple of Computerworld’s commitment to provide critical information to the IT industry. That’s why we’ve gathered together this collection of recent patches, a rolling list we’ll keep updated each month.

In case you missed a recent Patch Tuesday announcement, here are the latest six months of updates.

July’s Patch Tuesday sees an end-of-support collision amidst a massive, record-setting patch wave

Microsoft addressed 722 CVEs this month once the 427 Chromium upstream relays are set aside — roughly three times a normal cycle and one of the largest single months in recent memory. Two vulnerabilities arrive under active exploitation: an elevation of privilege in Active Directory Federation Services (CVE-2026-56155), and an elevation of privilege in SharePoint Server (CVE-2026-56164). A third, a BitLocker security feature bypass (CVE-2026-50661) is publicly disclosed but not yet exploited.

The July 2026 Patch Tuesday earns Patch Now recommendations for Windows, Office, Exchange, and SQL Server. SharePoint has two critical RCEs on top of its exploited zero-day, and Exchange Server returns with a critical on-premises spoofing flaw. Adding to our (dear) administrator’s efforts, SharePoint Server 2016/2019 and SQL Server 2016 all reach end of support today. The Readiness team has provided a handy infographic of the expected risk profile of this month’s Patch Tuesday updates.

More info is available here on Microsoft Security updates for July 2026.

For June, Patch Tuesday means an IT scramble

Microsoft this month released 206 updates affecting Windows, Office, Exchange Server, and its developer tools — including three Windows vulnerabilities already publicly disclosed. That trio includes an elevation of privilege in the Collaborative Translation Framework (CVE-2026-45586), a denial of service in HTTP.sys (CVE-2026-49160), and a BitLocker security feature bypass (CVE-2026-50507). At the moment, none appear to be under active exploitation, but all three are rated “Exploitation More Likely.” 

Even without an exploited zero-day, the June 2026 Patch Tuesday release requires Patch Now recommendations for Windows, Office, and Exchange. The latter is back in the patch picture with a consolidated security update that Microsoft recommends installing “as soon as possible.”

More info is available here on Microsoft Security updates for June 2026.

For May, Patch Tuesday means 139 updates — but no zero-days

Microsoft this month released 139 updates affecting Windows, Office, .NET, and SQL Server (though there were no updates for Microsoft Exchange Server). Despite the absence of zero-days, the May Patch Tuesday update still requires Patch Now recommendations for Windows and Office. 

The combination of three unauthenticated network RCEs (Netlogon, DNS Client, and SSO Plugin for Jira and Confluence), four Word Preview Pane RCEs, the large TCP/IP vulnerability cluster, and the carry-over BitLocker recovery condition (still active on Windows 10 and Windows Server) warrants an accelerated deployment release schedule. 

More info is available here on Microsoft Security updates for May 2026.

Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday release for April is a whopper

Windows admins are going to be busy this month, dealing with the largest Patch Tuesday cycle in memory. The April release involves 165 updates and roughly 340 unique CVEs from Microsoft — including two zero-days, one of which is already being actively exploited in the wild. 

The Readiness team recommends “Patch Now” schedules for nearly every major product family: Windows, Office (with a zero-day), Microsoft Edge (Chromium), SQL Server, and Microsoft Developer Tools (.NET). April also brings Phase 2 of Microsoft’s Kerberos RC4 hardening with full enforcement set for July. There is a lot to cover, so here’s a useful infographic mapping the deployment risk for each platform.

More info is available here on Microsoft Security updates for April 2026.

For March, Patch Tuesday delivers fixes for 83 vulnerabilities

Microsoft’s March Patch Tuesday release addresses 83 vulnerabilities across Windows, Office, SQL Server, Azure, and .NET — with two publicly disclosed zero-days affecting SQL Server and .NET (though neither is being actively exploited in the wild.) Six additional vulnerabilities spanning the Windows Kernel, Graphics Component, SMB Server, Accessibility Infrastructure, and Winlogon are flagged as “Exploitation More Likely.”

The most significant change this month is the introduction of Common Log File System (CLFS) hardening with signature verification, which will affect how Windows handles log files across the operating system. More info on Microsoft Security updates for March 2026.

February’s Patch Tuesday release fixes 59 flaws, including 6 being exploited

The company’s Patch Tuesday release for February addresses 59 CVEs across the company’s product family — roughly half the volume of January’s 159 patches. Six vulnerabilities, affecting Windows Shell, MSHTML, Desktop Window Manager, Remote Desktop, Remote Access, and Microsoft Word, are already being actively exploited. (All five Critical-rated CVEs target Azureservices rather than Windows, however.) 

Both Windows and Office get a “Patch Now” recommendation, with CISA setting a March 3 enforcement deadline for all six exploited vulnerabilities. Two new enforcement timelines also take effect in April: Kerberos RC4 deprecation (CVE-2026-20833) and Windows Deployment Services hardening (CVE-2026-0386). More info on Microsoft Security updates for February 2026.

A newly documented phishing-as-a-service platform distributed through Telegram is lowering the technical barrier to Microsoft 365 account takeovers by giving less-skilled attackers automated tools to evade some authentication controls and retain access after compromise.

The platform, called Forg365, uses AI-assisted lure creation alongside device-code abuse and adversary-in-the-middle techniques, according to research published by security company ZeroBEC.

Forg365 was offered with a five-day free trial, followed by subscriptions priced at $400 per month or $3,800 per year, the researchers said.

Customers can build phishing lures and control email delivery through a single operator panel. They can also manage captured account data and monitor compromised Microsoft 365 mailboxes. The service includes templates that impersonate widely used business platforms such as DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign, SharePoint, and OneDrive.

“Phishing-as-a-service has been around for quite a few years,” said Jonathan Ong, senior analyst for managed security services at Omdia. “But the degree to which AI is integrated into Forg365 and enables users is what makes it concerning.”

Forg365’s significance lies in the industrialization and productization of the operator workflow, according to Devashri Datta, a cybersecurity researcher. “It integrates AI-assisted lure creation, evasion, and post-compromise mailbox operations into a subscription service distributed through Telegram,” Datta said.

How Forg365 works

ZeroBEC said the campaign it investigated began with an email built around a business-document and remittance-approval pretext. The message relied on legitimate cloud and email services before sending the recipient through several redirects.

Forg365 classified visitors before deciding whether to display a device-code phishing page, an adversary-in-the-middle flow, or a harmless decoy.

In the device-code attack, the victim is directed to a legitimate Microsoft authentication process and persuaded to enter a code that authorizes a session controlled by the attacker. The involvement of genuine Microsoft infrastructure can make the request appear credible.

The platform can also relay authentication through an adversary-in-the-middle attack and capture session information. ZeroBEC said suspicious visitors were diverted to a benign page, helping the operators conceal the phishing flow from researchers and automated security tools.

Complicating incident response

A browser extension called ForgCookie allows attackers to generate and refresh Microsoft single sign-on cookies from their own browsers, ZeroBEC said.

Forg365 also advertises tools for keeping sessions active and monitoring a compromised inbox. Read-only access to the mailbox can then be shared through a password-protected link.

As a result, resetting a password may not remove the attacker. Stolen refresh-token material or an attacker-controlled session could remain usable after the password is changed. Any devices registered during the compromise must also be investigated.

“CISOs should treat two controls as co-equal priorities rather than sequential ones,” Datta said, referring to tightly restricting device-code authentication and deploying phishing-resistant MFA such as FIDO2 or WebAuthn passkeys.

Organizations that do not require device-code authentication should consider blocking it in Microsoft Entra ID, said Keith Prabhu, founder and CEO of Confidis. This can disrupt the device-code component of a Forg365 campaign, although it would not stop attacks that rely on adversary-in-the-middle techniques or stolen session cookies.

Companies that still depend on device-code authentication should identify legitimate uses before imposing a broader restriction. Exceptions may be needed for some command-line tools, conference-room systems or other devices with limited input capabilities.

Deploying phishing-resistant authentication may also require hardware security keys or managed smartphones and could increase support requests during the transition, Datta said.

After detecting a compromise, response teams should revoke active refresh tokens and terminate existing sessions. Prabhu also recommended reviewing and revoking unauthorized OAuth permissions. Because ForgCookie runs in the attacker’s browser, defenders should look for repeated silent sign-ins and non-interactive Microsoft Graph activity from unfamiliar addresses, according to ZeroBEC.

Mailbox forwarding rules and delegated access should be reviewed for unauthorized changes, Prabhu said. Such changes could allow attackers to monitor communications or retain access after a password reset.

“IR teams should audit newly registered devices and remove any that cannot be attributed to the user,” Datta said. Teams should also check whether an attacker enrolled an unauthorized authenticator application or passkey during the compromise, she added.

ZeroBEC found that some devices registered during its investigation had names beginning with “Forg365,” giving defenders a possible indicator of compromise.

The article originally appeared on CSO.

Nearly five decades after the launch of VisiCalc, AI is reshaping one of the world’s most familiar productivity tools — the humble spreadsheet.

While a lot of knowledge workers interact with spreadsheets on a regular basis, many lack the skills and confidence to access more advanced functions.

“For a very long time, spreadsheets forced you to learn spreadsheet syntax and spreadsheet ways of working,” said Eric Birnbaum, director of product management for Google Sheets. “But think about how many people need to use spreadsheets at work and don’t have the skill set to create the kinds of spreadsheets that can be really helpful for them.”

The addition of artificial intelligence can help handle that issue, he said, making the software more accessible to a wide range of office workers. “AI is unlocking the power of spreadsheets, taking on a lot of the difficult work that’s required to use them. That can be incredibly empowering for users,” said Birnbaum.

Google has steadily expanded generative AI (genAI) capabilities in Sheets since launching Duet AI — now Gemini — for Workspace in 2023.

Gemini in Sheets is available at no extra cost to Google Workspace subscribers, though a paid AI Expanded Access add-on – costing $30 per user each month – is required to remove certain usage limits.

Features that have rolled out in recent months include the ability for a Gemini agent in Sheets to carry out multi-step actions such as formatting, analysis and data entry, and, more recently, the ability to create entire spreadsheets from a single prompt. A Fill with Gemini feature builds on the existing AI function, enabling users to automatically populate selected cells by detecting intent from information within a spreadsheet as well as from the web.

Another feature, Sheets Canvas (currently available in alpha), lets users generate interactive apps that update in real-time based on changes to spreadsheet data. This could be a kanban board for a sales pipeline, for instance, or an analytics dashboard that uses Sheets as its back-end data source. 

Google claims users already see a range of benefits from Gemini in Sheets. According to an August 2025 survey of 200 Sheets users conducted by the company, the majority of knowledge workers (89%) said AI features in Sheets save them at least an hour a week, and 88% believe AI features have made them more confident in their data analysis skills. 

The most popular AI use cases include creating spreadsheets and charts, analyzing data, and fixing broken formulas. How widely these features are actually used is unclear; Google declined to provide weekly usage statistics for Gemini in Sheets.

As the company embeds Gemini deeper into Sheets, questions remain about just how much businesses can trust AI tools to handle important business data, as well as what increased automation means for those who spend much of their day wrangling data. 

Computerworld recently talked with Birnbaum about the potential benefits and challenges of the latest evolution of spreadsheet software. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

As businesses become more focused on seeing value from AI investments, what measurable benefits are customers seeing from Gemini in Sheets – for example, time saved or other forms of return on investment? “Spreadsheets remain one of the universal languages for businesses, and we don’t anticipate that’s going to change anytime soon. But by bringing AI into the product where people work, we think it can significantly reduce the technical tax of data: the time spent understanding it, sourcing it, analyzing it, visualizing it.

“Historically, data professionals spent — let’s estimate it at 80% of their time — on the mechanical groundwork, data cleaning, crafting formulas, formatting, troubleshooting, and maybe only 20% of their time on actual strategic decision-making.

“We think that by offloading the manual, time-consuming, error-prone data work to Gemini, we can flip that ratio a bit, so humans can focus on the things that really matter: the high-value questions to ask and the judgment calls and decisions that get made from them. We’re starting to see evidence of that in our own user base and customer base.

“The second point to make is that AI can democratize data analysis to some extent, and make it available to many more users. For so many years, the spreadsheet was a gatekeeper; if you couldn’t speak the rigid language of spreadsheet formulas, you couldn’t extract the value from data. But by introducing these natural language interfaces, AI is separating the analytical capability from the technical literacy. 

“If you can ask the right questions, or describe what you want in plain language, Gemini and Sheets can help you achieve your goals in a spreadsheet, even if you have minimal spreadsheet skills yourself.

“What we’ve seen so far from users and customers is that it’s incredibly empowering for people who might have been scared off by data analysis or dreaded opening spreadsheets in the past. You don’t need to go and wait for a data analyst to help you; you can go and do this work yourself in a spreadsheet.”

The flip side is, how confident can businesses be if more junior employees can take on higher-level analysis tasks by relying on AI? Given the propensity for AI models to hallucinate, to what degree can businesses trust that these tools won’t introduce errors into important business data? “It’s something we spent a ton of time thinking about. We’ve gone to great lengths to build these AI tools to collaborate with you, to show their work, explain what they did, and make sure that you can take over where they leave off.

“Our Sheets agent, for example, lays out a really explicit, transparent plan for you to review and approve before any data manipulation happens. It’s designed to do that in plain natural language in a way that the average user could understand, and then it gives you back that final summary, so you know exactly what it did and where it did it.

“The other thing is that the model is great at explaining things. If you inherit a spreadsheet that has some complex formula that you don’t understand, for example, the model does an amazing job of explaining how it works and what it’s doing.

“In many ways AI is not only making these features more accessible, but helping users feel more confident in the output. Human error is an inherent risk in manual data management, with or without AI. One misplaced comma or broken cell reference can completely corrupt an entire financial model, and it can be completely undetected. 

“Our approach with AI in Sheets is to create this deliberate verification loop. You now have another spreadsheet expert working along with you, reducing the likelihood of these mistakes.”

Even if humans produce errors too, does it ultimately come down to accountability when AI is involved? “Our point of view here is that AI should be partnering with the knowledge worker who’s doing the work here. And everything that we’ve built is designed to be that partner. You might be able to offload tasks to the model, but we’re citing sources, we’re providing plans and explanations. We’re ultimately relying on the user to do that final verification.

“We spend a humongous amount of time focused on quality. We know that for AI to be useful in spreadsheets, it has to be reliable. When we launched Sheets Gemini Agent, for example, we were really proud that we set a state-of-the-art benchmark on the full SpreadsheetBench data set, which at the time exceeded competitors and near-human expert ability. 

“But we know quality is never ‘good enough’ or done. We’re constantly working to improve quality for our users and customers, and for the use cases where they’re relying on AI most.”

What potential do you see for more agentic functionality in Gemini Sheets — for example, bringing in data from other sources, creating recurring reports, or taking more actions independently? “We’re listening closely to customers and users and building what they’re telling us they need. The agent is already capable of doing very complex multistep workflows, and we see users discover that the agent is extremely capable of doing end-to-end spreadsheet tasks. In terms of connectors, in an alpha we have connections available to HubSpot, Salesforce, and Mailchimp. We hope to expand that over time.

“There’s no path to have AI replacing analysts. I think AI is giving analysts more time back to actually do the more valuable parts of their job. Analysts that I work with are way more productive and impactful than they ever were before, because they can push that uninteresting spreadsheet grunt work off to the model, freeing up time for more interesting and impactful work.

“A great example: the visualizations I’m getting back from analysts nowadays are canvases instead of static charts that I can explore myself. It’s way more informative and useful than what I was accustomed to before.”

Looking ahead, do you expect a larger share of spreadsheet work to be carried out by agents, with humans setting goals and reviewing results? What will be the biggest change in how people use spreadsheets with AI? “The tasks are likely to stay similar and the use cases for spreadsheets are likely to continue to be relevant. The biggest change will be the ability to push the uninteresting spreadsheet grunt work off to a model and free up time for the user to do things that are more impactful, more interesting, more meaningful to the business.

‘Spreadsheets have historically been these like static containers where data goes to rest. I think AI can turn spreadsheets into these dynamic, localized software applications. And I do actually think this sort of changes the game for how people might use spreadsheets moving forward. 

“It’s not just a passive grid full of numbers; spreadsheets are evolving to become these live, long-lived, collaborative applications. Employees can build these on the fly, like a basic CRM or supply chain dashboard in seconds. This is an area of investment for us moving forward, and we’re really excited to see how this evolves.”

AI assistants and agents, such as ChatGPT or Claude, might be able to analyze spreadsheet files and business data without users working inside a spreadsheet application. What do you think will keep Sheets central to the workflow, rather than simply making it one part of a wider AI-driven process?“We’re in constant touch with customers and users; it’s clear work is still happening in spreadsheets. I think spreadsheets remain incredibly popular tools. If we can bring the AI capabilities users need directly into the product where they already are, we’ll transform the way they work.  

“I think we can be the front-end for some of this great AI innovation and the products that users are accustomed to today. Everything we build is guided by user feedback: users are telling us right now they want AI to help them do their everyday or more complex tasks, and they’re starting in Sheets today.”

Microsoft 365 (and Office 365) subscribers get more frequent software updates than those who have purchased Office without a subscription, which means subscribers have access to the latest features, security patches, and bug fixes. But it can be hard to keep track of the changes in each update and know when they’re available. We’re doing this for you, so you don’t have to.

Following are summaries of the updates to Microsoft 365/Office 365 for Windows over the past year, with the latest releases shown first. We’ll add info about new updates as they’re rolled out.

Note: This story covers updates released to the Current Channel for Microsoft 365/Office 365 subscriptions. If you’re a member of Microsoft’s Office Insider preview program or want to get a sneak peek at upcoming features, see the Microsoft 365 Insider blog.

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20182)

Release date: June 16, 2026

This build includes, in the words of Microsoft, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20182).

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20168)

Release date: June 9, 2026

This build offers “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20168).

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20140)

Release date: June 3, 2026

This build fixes a single bug, in which images didn’t display when using top and bottom text wrapping in classic Outlook.

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20140).

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20112)

Release date: May 26, 2026

This build offers “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20112).

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20076)

Release date: May 20, 2026

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which Excel or PowerPoint closed unexpectedly in rare cases while the user was actively co-authoring, particularly when opening a document for the first time.

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20076).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20172)

Release date: May 14, 2026

This build fixes a bug in Outlook in which sending mail failed when multiple Exchange accounts were configured.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20172).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20164)

Release date: May 12, 2026

The build plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20164).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20136)

Release date: May 5, 2026

This build fixes a bug in which Outlook closed unexpectedly after replying to a mail item with labels.

Get more info about  Version 2604 (Build 19929.20136).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20106)

Release date: April 29, 2026

This build includes “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20106).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20090)

Release date: April 21, 2026

This build includes “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20090).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20182)

Release date: April 14, 2026

In this build, Copilot can now edit your PowerPoint documents. Copilot can start a new presentation or build on an existing one, generate slides, update content, improve layouts, and polish design, while preserving formatting, structure, and branding. 

The build also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20182).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20168)

Release date: April 9, 2026

This build fixes several bugs, including one in Outlook in which users could not close the Copilot chat pane using a keyboard. Users can now close the pane by navigating to the Close button using a keyboard or by using the assigned keyboard shortcut.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20168).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20142)

Release date: March 31, 2026

This build includes “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20142).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20114)

Release date: March 24, 2026

This build fixes a single bug in which PowerPoint sometimes closed unexpectedly when opening a newly created empty file from the OneDrive folder.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20114).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20190)

Release date: March 18, 2026

This build fixes an Outlook bug in which updating a single instance of a recurring meeting in a Microsoft 365 group calendar updated the entire series.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20190).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20172)

Release date: March 10, 2026

This build introduces agent mode in Word, which adds a conversational chat experience that helps create, edit, and refine document content as you work. In addition, the build fixes a bug that impacted the rendering of extended characters in calendar items, causing certain characters to appear as question marks.

The build also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20172).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20152)

Release date: March 3, 2026

This build fixes a bug in which closing a document sometimes remained in progress indefinitely after the Office app resumed from sleep or hibernation.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20152).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20126)

Release date: February 24, 2025

This build fixes several bugs, including one that caused OneNote to close unexpectedly upon startup.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20126).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20214)

Release date: February 17, 2025

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20214).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20204)

Release date: February 10, 2026

This build fixes a bug that sometimes prevented users from opening emails with the Encrypt Only label in Outlook.

It also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20204).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20166)

Release date: February 3, 2026

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20166).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20150)

Release date: January 27, 2026

In this build, OneNote applies your chosen proofing language more consistently, so you don’t have to reset it for every paragraph when writing in multiple languages. In addition, the build fixes several bugs, including one that caused Office applications to become unresponsive when profile card-related activities were performed.

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20150).

Version 2512 (Build 19530.20184)

Release date: January 21, 2026

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2512 (Build 19530.20184).

Version 2512 (Build 19530.20144)

Release date: January 13, 2026

This build fixes a number of bugs, including one that caused Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to become unresponsive when profile card-related activities were performed.

It also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2512 (Build 19530.20144).

Version 2512 (Build 19530.20138)

Release date: January 8, 2026

This build offers, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2512 (Build 19530.20138).

Version 2511 (Build 19426.20218)

Release date: December 16, 2025

This build offers, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2511 (Build 19426.20218).

Version 2511 (Build 19426.20186)

Release date: December 9, 2025

This Patch Tuesday build offers, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.” The build also has a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2511 (Build 19426.20186).

Version 2511 (Build 19426.20170)

Release date: December 3, 2025

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2511 (Build 19426.20170).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20244)

Release date: November 20, 2025

This build fixes a bug in Outlook that caused users to see “Contacting the server for information” repeatedly when loading some emails.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20244).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20232)

Release date: November 18, 2025

This build includes, in the words of Microsoft, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20232).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20190)

Release date: November 11, 2025

This Patch Tuesday build fixes a bug in Outlook that caused some recipients to be unable to access OneDrive links shared with them via email. The build also has a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20190).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20178)

Release date: November 4, 2025

This build fixes a single bug, in which @mention searches produced no results in Office apps.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20178).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20158)

Release date: October 30, 2025

This build introduces a new Get Data dialog in Windows that simplifies finding and using external data, and adds Analyze Data to the Data tab.

The build also fixed an bug in Outlook that prevented users from downloading web add-ins in some virtualized environments.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20158).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20216)

Release date: October 21, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20216).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20194)

Release date: October 14, 2025

This build has a variety of security updates (see details), along with various fixes to functionality and performance.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20194).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20172)

Release date: October 7, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20172).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20156)

Release date: October 1, 2025

This build fixes two bugs, one in Excel in which ribbon controls were not rendered when rejoining Office sessions in a virtual machine, Azure Virtual Desktop, or remote desktop environment, and another that caused Outlook to terminate unexpectedly when starting.

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20156).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20264)

Release date: September 23, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20264).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20240)

Release date: September 16, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20240).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20222)

Release date: September 9, 2025

This build has multiple security updates (see details), along with various fixes to functionality and performance.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20222).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20192)

Release date: September 3, 2025

This build fixes a bug in which some Outlook add-ins were getting “Office.auth.getAccessToken is not a function” errors.

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20192).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20154)

Release date: August 26, 2025

This build fixes a bug that caused Outlook to terminate unexpectedly when sending a meeting invite with an encryption label. It also adds support for pixelated rendering of embedded images in SVG assets for the entire Office suite.

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20154).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20208)

Release date: August 19, 2025

This build fixes a variety of bugs.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20208).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20184)

Release date: August 12, 2025

This build fixes a bug which required users to restart Outlook to open a .msg file after initially accessing it once. The build also includes a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20184).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20156)

Release date: August 5, 2025

This build fixes a single bug, in which users had to restart Outlook to open a .msg file after initially accessing it once.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20156).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20136)

Release date: July 30, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including in which Outlook closed unexpectedly shortly after launch, and another in Word in which the word count sometimes displayed incorrectly.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20136).

Version 2506 (Build 18925.20184)

Release date: July 22, 2025

This build fixes two bugs, one that caused the Copilot Command Center to continue to be visible after disabling the Copilot user interface, and another in which when creating handouts in PowerPoint, certain characters (full-width numbers) couldn’t be properly transferred to the handout.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18925.20184).

Version 2506 (Build 18925.20168)

Release date: July 15, 2025

This build fixes two bugs, one that caused Visio 32-bit to close unexpectedly when using the Drawing control, particularly in setups involving COM components or .NET integrations, and another in Word in which copying and pasting content between documents sometimes changed the applied style unexpectedly.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18925.20168).

Version 2506 (Build 18925.20158)

Release date: July 8, 2025

This Patch Tuesday build fixes several bugs in Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, and the whole Office suite, including one that caused the Copilot icon to unexpectedly display in Outlook when Copilot had been disabled by the admin in government cloud.

The release also includes a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18925.20158).

Version 2506 (Build 18827.20176)

Release date: July 1, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Word in which print preview sometimes stopped working when printing long emails.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18827.20176).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20176)

Release date: June 26, 2025

This build introduces several new features, including one in Excel in which the PivotTables dialog box interface has been replaced by a redesigned panel, making it easier to view all of your options and simpler to change your data selection before inserting a recommended PivotTable.

Get more info about Version 2505 (Build 18827.20176).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20164)

Release date: June 17, 2025

This build fixes a bug that caused the “Try the new Outlook” toggle to be enabled when working in Classic Outlook side by side with the new Outlook.

Get more info about Version 2505 (Build 18827.20164).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20150)

Release date: June 10, 2025

This build fixes several bugs, including one for the entire Office suite in which a Save As attempt on an existing file didn’t complete successfully, and subsequent attempts continued to encounter issues when trying to save to a file that no longer existed.

This Patch Tuesday release also includes a variety of security updates: see details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about  Version 2505 (Build 18827.20150).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20140)

Release date: June 3, 2025

This build offers a variety of bug and performance fixes.

Read about Version 2505 (Build 18827.20140).

Microsoft Office users may find that some of their applications are failing to open when called on by third-party applications. It’s an issue that has emerged after the latest round of Microsoft updates.

The problem affects Word, Excel, and other Office applications opened from third-party offerings including CCH Engagement, Workpaper Manager, Zotero, or dental office software such as Dentrix or Softdent.

The update issued on June 9 appears to have triggered problems with the OLE automation that these third-party applications use to interact with Office. Users have reported that files are failing to open, with no error message indicating what has gone wrong,

According to one Windows user forum, the issue is particularly frustrating because of this lack of error message. As one user put it, “‘Word won’t open from our workpaper system’ is functionally the same as ‘Word is broken.’ To an administrator, the difference determines whether the next hour is spent repairing Office, rolling back Windows, calling a line-of-business vendor, or opening a Microsoft support case.”

Microsoft has said that it is aware of the issue and is working towards a resolution.

Deleting mystery file

The company is also looking to fix a minor issue that has emerged from this latest round of updates: Users are finding that when items are deleted, the confirmation dialog box displays the internal Recycle Bin file name (for example, $Rxxxxx.ext) instead of the original file name. However, Microsoft stressed that in the Recycle Bin, the item still appears with its original name.

Microsoft has introduced usage-based billing for Copilot Cowork, which is now generally available. 

Microsoft unveiled Copilot Cowork in March, pitching it as an AI agent that’s capable of independently performing long-running, multi-step tasks — even when a user’s computer is off. 

It’s built on the same technology that underpins Anthropic’s Claude Cowork. Unlike Claude Cowork, which can interact directly with files and applications on a user’s computer, Copilot Cowork runs in Microsoft’s cloud environment and acts on documents held in a customer’s Microsoft 365 tenant.

On Tuesday, Microsoft unveiled pricing details for Copilot Cowork, which involves usage-based billing in addition to a Microsoft 365 Copilot license ($30 per user each month for large enterprises before discounts, and $20 for Microsoft 365 Copilot for Business). 

The usage-based pricing is calculated from four components, according to Microsoft: “model use, context retrieval, tool calls, and runtime.” 

In practice, this means more intensive tasks that draw on multiple sources, use “deep reasoning” and generate two or more outputs will lead to higher costs — denoted in Copilot Credits. 

There are two payment options: pay as you go — priced at 1 cent per credit — and P3, where customers commit to usage volume in advance and receive a discount.

Cowork is turned off by default; IT admins can decide when to make it available and which employees get access. Admins can also impose spending limits at the tenant, group, and user level, and receive notifications when spending reaches a certain level.

Users will also be able to see how much each tasks costs in credits (available “soon after” the general availability launch, Microsoft said). 

Copilot Cowork customers can select from multiple AI models, including Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 and Sonnet 4.6, while those enrolled on the Frontier program can access OpenAI’s GPT 5.5 and Microsoft’s own Cowork 1 model.

Microsoft is considering hosting a version of DeepSeek’s open source models. “We are actively exploring a range of options that meet those requirements, and DeepSeek is one of several models under consideration. We’ll share more specifics on the underlying model closer to release,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

Microsoft also announced new integrations with third-party apps such as Miro and Monday.com, with more — such as Adobe, Box, and Canva — coming soon.

This article was updated on June 19 to add Microsoft’s comment on DeepSeek.

MUNICH — Amid trans-Atlantic political and trade tensions, digital sovereignty — once a relatively niche concern — has jumped to the top of the agenda for European organizations wary of their reliance on US technology suppliers.

For many, including European Union policy makers, increased use of open source software is a key part of the answer, offering an alternative to proprietary platforms from a handful of large US vendors.

That’s the view of Frank Karlitschek, CEO of Nextcloud, the German software vendor that bills itself as an open-source alternative to software suites from the likes of Microsoft and Google. 

Karlitschek founded the company in 2016, forking OwnCloud’s open-source file-sharing software. Since then, Nextcloud has expanded its products to include a range of productivity and collaboration tools that organizations can install and run on their own servers or access via cloud providers. 

More recently, Nextcloud helped develop the Euro-Office application suite, which launched last week as an open source alternative to Microsoft Office and others, and continues to build out its Nextcloud Hub with AI assistant and agent features. The company now says revenues are growing at between 50% to 100% year over year.

Computerworld spoke to Karlitschek at Nextcloud Summit about momentum around digital sovereignty, the European Commission’s Tech Sovereignty Package proposals, and how Nextcloud hopes to evolve in the coming years.

The following interview was edited for length and clarity.

When Nextcloud launched, there was a big push in Europe away from on-premise software towards US cloud providers. How have attitudes towards open source and awareness of alternatives providers changed since then? “I’ve been doing open source since the ‘90s; at the time it was mostly for a nerdy audience — a very small group of people who really care about software and being in control. The sovereignty part was always there. It’s the core idea behind open source that you can understand what the software is doing, you can deploy it wherever you want, you can study it and change it, and so on. 

“At the time, it was very niche, and since then it’s really growing and growing. There are certain points in time that really accelerated the growth; something like the Snowden revelations, for example, or the whole discussion about GDPR and certain legislation. And then, of course, the current geopolitical situation.  

“I personally find it interesting that it grew from something that is just interesting for software developers, and now it’s on the geopolitical stage. I have meetings with big politicians who really care about it now, and I personally find it interesting that it’s increasingly understood by — I wouldn’t say the mainstream, but more and more people.

“At the beginning of Nextcloud, we mostly talked with IT managers looking for a solution; they care about how it works, the price and other things. But now we are also talking with the C-level people. It’s part of an overall strategy of a company, to say, ‘Hey, we need to look into the dependencies, we want to have a solution that fits into the strategy of the company.’

“In the past, it was like a commodity – it’s just some software, who cares? Now, it’s really part of the company strategy. That’s really interesting.”

There’s been a lot of interest around digital sovereignty over the past couple of years. To what degree is this translating into action, with organizations migrating away from US cloud providers? “The interest is gigantic. Everybody’s talking about it, we have so many contacts and people coming to us. Not everybody is doing it — a lot of people are just exploring and seeing what the options are. 

“Obviously, we hope that this will translate into actions in a few months. At the moment, it’s a lot of talking and exploring the options. As a company, we are also growing a lot in customer base.  But the interest in this space is even bigger; we see it as the beginning of a funnel.

‘In defense we see a lot of interest, then also everything around education is very important for us, then other regulated markets like the healthcare, for example. Finance is an interesting one.”

A lot of the conversations around digital sovereignty are tied to the current geopolitical situation and even the US administration. Do you see demand for sovereign technology as a structural change or are some organizations holding back to see how the situation improves in the future? “I see it as a long-term trend. If you look at the IT budgets and projects in the ‘90s, it was some something unimportant. It was, of course, important that the printer works and the fax machine works, but it was not definitely not strategic for the company. 

“And then in 2000, the whole cloud trend came up, and there was the big hope that this will save money. It was always the narrative with cloud computing that you can just outsource it and save money and it’s great. 

“Nowadays, people realize that it’s not something that you can just ignore. I wouldn’t say that everything comes back on premise, but people care about it now. They understand it’s not just a commodity, like water, or electricity that comes out of the wall and you don’t care what’s behind it. People realize that it’s something that has an impact on the future of an organization, from a vendor lock-in perspective, from a cost perspective, from an industry espionage perspective, and competitiveness. With open source, you’re more flexible. So, I think the trend that this is all more strategic and important for the future, this will go on.”

The European Commission recently published its Tech Sovereignty Package, including its open source strategy. Are these proposals sufficient to address the concern around digital sovereignty and support the open source ecosystem in Europe?

“It’s great, I really like it. I was actually surprised they listened so well. But now the real challenge is to actually do it; this still needs to happen. The description of the problem and a possible solution, this is all very good. I’m surprised, I’m happy about it, but to put this into actually binding law, this still needs happen.”

Would you like to see any changes to the current proposals before they’re gets passed into legislation? “At the moment, they have these four different risk levels, and the most critical one — No. 4 — is one where they accept only open source and European solutions. This is the highest risk level, but this is only for 1% of the market. I hope that it’s better understood that more than 1% should care about this more.

“If you have something which is completely not critical, maybe doesn’t possess any personal data at all — sure, it’s totally fine [to use non-EU suppliers]. But if you have GDPR requirements, espionage protection, no vendor lock-in, and so on, then there should be more of that [the highest requirement level].”

US firms have attempted to address European customers’ concerns in different ways, with sovereign marketed cloud services and joint ventures with European providers. Microsoft 365 Local is designed to run on premise. Where do you draw the line between what’s actually a sovereign solution and what some call ‘sovereignty washing? “Sovereignty has different dimensions, of course. But if you look at the problem of the CLOUD Act alone, which gives foreign agencies full access to the data here, then the whole idea that it’s enough to have European data centers — that’s not enough. It’s clearly written in the CLOUD Act, that even with [European] data centers, or subsidiaries, it still applies.  

“Microsoft tries to find a solution there with its Delos idea; a company that is owned by SAP — a German company — and Microsoft delivers only the software. But even then, you have this dependency, because software needs updates and software security updates. And if they’re not available, or if someone puts a backdoor into the software, which is possible, then you still have a problem. 

“So, they’re trying really, really hard to find a way around the problem, but it’s not easy for them.”

To look ahead a bit in terms of the product strategy, there were announcements for Nextcloud Hub this week around AI agents, and the program to work with independent software vendors. What do these say about Nextcloud’s future? “The overall product strategy will not change so much; it’s about having state-of-the-art collaboration software — but with a lot more control, security and safety — that’s open source and independent where you host it. So this will always stay, but of course, there’s some additional factors that come into play now, like the AI impact that we see and want to leverage with our agent strategy. 

“We’ve had this for one and a half years already, but we are expanding that. In the future, you might still use an interface in a classic way that you open documents and type in text and so on. But there are also a lot of operations that can be automated in the future with AI. And this is something we really invest a lot into. 

“Another aspect of AI is how easy it is to build custom software around it. The coding models are getting better all the time, which means there will be more and more custom business software. This is what we want to capture with our ISV program. Software development will become easier, but you don’t want to deploy just random software in your company, you want to have something that is tested, certified and secured, and that somebody’s accountable for it. This can be something we can provide at Nextcloud.”

Editor’s note: NextCloud paid for Matthew Finnegan’s travel and hotel costs for NextCloud Summit 2026, but had no editorial role in the creation of this story.

Long before Taco Tuesday became part of the pop-culture vernacular, Tuesdays were synonymous with security — and for anyone in the tech world, they still are.  Patch Tuesday, as you most likely know, refers to the day each month when Microsoft releases security updates and patches for its software products — everything from Windows to Office to SQL Server, developer tools to browsers.

The practice, which happens on the second Tuesday of the month, was initiated to streamline the patch distribution process and make it easier for users and IT system administrators to manage updates.  Like tacos, Patch Tuesday is here to stay.

In a blog post celebrating the 20th anniversary of Patch Tuesday, the Microsoft Security Response Center wrote: “The concept of Patch Tuesday was conceived and implemented in 2003. Before this unified approach, our security updates were sporadic, posing significant challenges for IT professionals and organizations in deploying critical patches in a timely manner.”

Patch Tuesday will continue to be an “important part of our strategy to keep users secure,” Microsoft said, adding that it’s now an important part of the cybersecurity industry.  As a case in point, Adobe, among others, follows a similar patch cadence.

Patch Tuesday coverage has also long been a staple of Computerworld’s commitment to provide critical information to the IT industry. That’s why we’ve gathered together this collection of recent patches, a rolling list we’ll keep updated each month.

In case you missed a recent Patch Tuesday announcement, here are the latest six months of updates.

For June, Patch Tuesday means an IT scramble

Microsoft this month released 206 updates affecting Windows, Office, Exchange Server, and its developer tools — including three Windows vulnerabilities already publicly disclosed. That trio includes an elevation of privilege in the Collaborative Translation Framework (CVE-2026-45586), a denial of service in HTTP.sys (CVE-2026-49160), and a BitLocker security feature bypass (CVE-2026-50507). At the moment, none appear to be under active exploitation, but all three are rated “Exploitation More Likely.” 

Even without an exploited zero-day, the June 2026 Patch Tuesday release requires Patch Now recommendations for Windows, Office, and Exchange. The latter is back in the patch picture with a consolidated security update that Microsoft recommends installing “as soon as possible.”

More info is available here on Microsoft Security updates for June 2026.

For May, Patch Tuesday means 139 updates — but no zero-days

Microsoft this month released 139 updates affecting Windows, Office, .NET, and SQL Server (though there were no updates for Microsoft Exchange Server). Despite the absence of zero-days, the May Patch Tuesday update still requires Patch Now recommendations for Windows and Office. 

The combination of three unauthenticated network RCEs (Netlogon, DNS Client, and SSO Plugin for Jira and Confluence), four Word Preview Pane RCEs, the large TCP/IP vulnerability cluster, and the carry-over BitLocker recovery condition (still active on Windows 10 and Windows Server) warrants an accelerated deployment release schedule. 

More info is available here on Microsoft Security updates for May 2026.

Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday release for April is a whopper

Windows admins are going to be busy this month, dealing with the largest Patch Tuesday cycle in memory. The April release involves 165 updates and roughly 340 unique CVEs from Microsoft — including two zero-days, one of which is already being actively exploited in the wild. 

The Readiness team recommends “Patch Now” schedules for nearly every major product family: Windows, Office (with a zero-day), Microsoft Edge (Chromium), SQL Server, and Microsoft Developer Tools (.NET). April also brings Phase 2 of Microsoft’s Kerberos RC4 hardening with full enforcement set for July. There is a lot to cover, so here’s a useful infographic mapping the deployment risk for each platform.

More info is available here on Microsoft Security updates for April 2026.

For March, Patch Tuesday delivers fixes for 83 vulnerabilities

Microsoft’s March Patch Tuesday release addresses 83 vulnerabilities across Windows, Office, SQL Server, Azure, and .NET — with two publicly disclosed zero-days affecting SQL Server and .NET (though neither is being actively exploited in the wild.) Six additional vulnerabilities spanning the Windows Kernel, Graphics Component, SMB Server, Accessibility Infrastructure, and Winlogon are flagged as “Exploitation More Likely.”

The most significant change this month is the introduction of Common Log File System (CLFS) hardening with signature verification, which will affect how Windows handles log files across the operating system. More info on Microsoft Security updates for March 2026.

February’s Patch Tuesday release fixes 59 flaws, including 6 being exploited

The company’s Patch Tuesday release for February addresses 59 CVEs across the company’s product family — roughly half the volume of January’s 159 patches. Six vulnerabilities, affecting Windows Shell, MSHTML, Desktop Window Manager, Remote Desktop, Remote Access, and Microsoft Word, are already being actively exploited. (All five Critical-rated CVEs target Azureservices rather than Windows, however.) 

Both Windows and Office get a “Patch Now” recommendation, with CISA setting a March 3 enforcement deadline for all six exploited vulnerabilities. Two new enforcement timelines also take effect in April: Kerberos RC4 deprecation (CVE-2026-20833) and Windows Deployment Services hardening (CVE-2026-0386). More info on Microsoft Security updates for February 2026.

For January, Patch Tuesday starts off with a bang

The first Patch Tuesday release of 2026 addresses 112 CVEs across Microsoft’s product portfolio, including eight rated critical and three zero-day vulnerabilities. One zero-day (CVE-2026-20805), an information disclosure flaw in the Desktop Window Manager, is already under active exploitation, prompting CISA to add it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog with a remediation deadline of Feb. 3, 2026. (Note: 95 of the vulnerabilities affect Windows.) More info on Microsoft Security updates for January 2026.

Microsoft 365 (and Office 365) subscribers get more frequent software updates than those who have purchased Office without a subscription, which means subscribers have access to the latest features, security patches, and bug fixes. But it can be hard to keep track of the changes in each update and know when they’re available. We’re doing this for you, so you don’t have to.

Following are summaries of the updates to Microsoft 365/Office 365 for Windows over the past year, with the latest releases shown first. We’ll add info about new updates as they’re rolled out.

Note: This story covers updates released to the Current Channel for Microsoft 365/Office 365 subscriptions. If you’re a member of Microsoft’s Office Insider preview program or want to get a sneak peek at upcoming features, see the Microsoft 365 Insider blog.

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20168)

Release date: June 9, 2026

This build offers “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20168).

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20140)

Release date: June 3, 2026

This build fixes a single bug, in which images didn’t display when using top and bottom text wrapping in classic Outlook.

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20140).

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20112)

Release date: May 26, 2026

This build offers “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20112).

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20076)

Release date: May 20, 2026

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which Excel or PowerPoint closed unexpectedly in rare cases while the user was actively co-authoring, particularly when opening a document for the first time.

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20076).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20172)

Release date: May 14, 2026

This build fixes a bug in Outlook in which sending mail failed when multiple Exchange accounts were configured.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20172).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20164)

Release date: May 12, 2026

The build plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20164).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20136)

Release date: May 5, 2026

This build fixes a bug in which Outlook closed unexpectedly after replying to a mail item with labels.

Get more info about  Version 2604 (Build 19929.20136).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20106)

Release date: April 29, 2026

This build includes “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20106).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20090)

Release date: April 21, 2026

This build includes “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20090).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20182)

Release date: April 14, 2026

In this build, Copilot can now edit your PowerPoint documents. Copilot can start a new presentation or build on an existing one, generate slides, update content, improve layouts, and polish design, while preserving formatting, structure, and branding. 

The build also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20182).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20168)

Release date: April 9, 2026

This build fixes several bugs, including one in Outlook in which users could not close the Copilot chat pane using a keyboard. Users can now close the pane by navigating to the Close button using a keyboard or by using the assigned keyboard shortcut.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20168).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20142)

Release date: March 31, 2026

This build includes “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20142).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20114)

Release date: March 24, 2026

This build fixes a single bug in which PowerPoint sometimes closed unexpectedly when opening a newly created empty file from the OneDrive folder.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20114).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20190)

Release date: March 18, 2026

This build fixes an Outlook bug in which updating a single instance of a recurring meeting in a Microsoft 365 group calendar updated the entire series.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20190).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20172)

Release date: March 10, 2026

This build introduces agent mode in Word, which adds a conversational chat experience that helps create, edit, and refine document content as you work. In addition, the build fixes a bug that impacted the rendering of extended characters in calendar items, causing certain characters to appear as question marks.

The build also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20172).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20152)

Release date: March 3, 2026

This build fixes a bug in which closing a document sometimes remained in progress indefinitely after the Office app resumed from sleep or hibernation.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20152).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20126)

Release date: February 24, 2025

This build fixes several bugs, including one that caused OneNote to close unexpectedly upon startup.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20126).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20214)

Release date: February 17, 2025

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20214).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20204)

Release date: February 10, 2026

This build fixes a bug that sometimes prevented users from opening emails with the Encrypt Only label in Outlook.

It also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20204).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20166)

Release date: February 3, 2026

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20166).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20150)

Release date: January 27, 2025

In this build, OneNote applies your chosen proofing language more consistently, so you don’t have to reset it for every paragraph when writing in multiple languages. In addition, the build fixes several bugs, including one that caused Office applications to become unresponsive when profile card-related activities were performed.

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20150).

Version 2512 (Build 19530.20184)

Release date: January 21, 2025

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2512 (Build 19530.20184).

Version 2512 (Build 19530.20144)

Release date: January 13, 2026

This build fixes a number of bugs, including one that caused Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to become unresponsive when profile card-related activities were performed.

It also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2512 (Build 19530.20144).

Version 2512 (Build 19530.20138)

Release date: January 8, 2025

This build offers, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2512 (Build 19530.20138).

Version 2511 (Build 19426.20218)

Release date: December 16, 2025

This build offers, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2511 (Build 19426.20218).

Version 2511 (Build 19426.20186)

Release date: December 9, 2025

This Patch Tuesday build offers, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.” The build also has a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2511 (Build 19426.20186).

Version 2511 (Build 19426.20170)

Release date: December 3, 2025

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2511 (Build 19426.20170).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20244)

Release date: November 20, 2025

This build fixes a bug in Outlook that caused users to see “Contacting the server for information” repeatedly when loading some emails.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20244).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20232)

Release date: November 18, 2025

This build includes, in the words of Microsoft, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20232).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20190)

Release date: November 11, 2025

This Patch Tuesday build fixes a bug in Outlook that caused some recipients to be unable to access OneDrive links shared with them via email. The build also has a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20190).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20178)

Release date: November 4, 2025

This build fixes a single bug, in which @mention searches produced no results in Office apps.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20178).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20158)

Release date: October 30, 2025

This build introduces a new Get Data dialog in Windows that simplifies finding and using external data, and adds Analyze Data to the Data tab.

The build also fixed an bug in Outlook that prevented users from downloading web add-ins in some virtualized environments.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20158).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20216)

Release date: October 21, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20216).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20194)

Release date: October 14, 2025

This build has a variety of security updates (see details), along with various fixes to functionality and performance.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20194).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20172)

Release date: October 7, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20172).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20156)

Release date: October 1, 2025

This build fixes two bugs, one in Excel in which ribbon controls were not rendered when rejoining Office sessions in a virtual machine, Azure Virtual Desktop, or remote desktop environment, and another that caused Outlook to terminate unexpectedly when starting.

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20156).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20264)

Release date: September 23, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20264).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20240)

Release date: September 16, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20240).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20222)

Release date: September 9, 2025

This build has multiple security updates (see details), along with various fixes to functionality and performance.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20222).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20192)

Release date: September 3, 2025

This build fixes a bug in which some Outlook add-ins were getting “Office.auth.getAccessToken is not a function” errors.

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20192).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20154)

Release date: August 26, 2025

This build fixes a bug that caused Outlook to terminate unexpectedly when sending a meeting invite with an encryption label. It also adds support for pixelated rendering of embedded images in SVG assets for the entire Office suite.

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20154).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20208)

Release date: August 19, 2025

This build fixes a variety of bugs.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20208).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20184)

Release date: August 12, 2025

This build fixes a bug which required users to restart Outlook to open a .msg file after initially accessing it once. The build also includes a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20184).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20156)

Release date: August 5, 2025

This build fixes a single bug, in which users had to restart Outlook to open a .msg file after initially accessing it once.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20156).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20136)

Release date: July 30, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including in which Outlook closed unexpectedly shortly after launch, and another in Word in which the word count sometimes displayed incorrectly.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20136).

Version 2506 (Build 18925.20184)

Release date: July 22, 2025

This build fixes two bugs, one that caused the Copilot Command Center to continue to be visible after disabling the Copilot user interface, and another in which when creating handouts in PowerPoint, certain characters (full-width numbers) couldn’t be properly transferred to the handout.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18925.20184).

Version 2506 (Build 18925.20168)

Release date: July 15, 2025

This build fixes two bugs, one that caused Visio 32-bit to close unexpectedly when using the Drawing control, particularly in setups involving COM components or .NET integrations, and another in Word in which copying and pasting content between documents sometimes changed the applied style unexpectedly.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18925.20168).

Version 2506 (Build 18925.20158)

Release date: July 8, 2025

This Patch Tuesday build fixes several bugs in Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, and the whole Office suite, including one that caused the Copilot icon to unexpectedly display in Outlook when Copilot had been disabled by the admin in government cloud.

The release also includes a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18925.20158).

Version 2506 (Build 18827.20176)

Release date: July 1, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Word in which print preview sometimes stopped working when printing long emails.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18827.20176).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20176)

Release date: June 26, 2025

This build introduces several new features, including one in Excel in which the PivotTables dialog box interface has been replaced by a redesigned panel, making it easier to view all of your options and simpler to change your data selection before inserting a recommended PivotTable.

Get more info about Version 2505 (Build 18827.20176).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20164)

Release date: June 17, 2025

This build fixes a bug that caused the “Try the new Outlook” toggle to be enabled when working in Classic Outlook side by side with the new Outlook.

Get more info about Version 2505 (Build 18827.20164).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20150)

Release date: June 10, 2025

This build fixes several bugs, including one for the entire Office suite in which a Save As attempt on an existing file didn’t complete successfully, and subsequent attempts continued to encounter issues when trying to save to a file that no longer existed.

This Patch Tuesday release also includes a variety of security updates: see details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about  Version 2505 (Build 18827.20150).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20140)

Release date: June 3, 2025

This build offers a variety of bug and performance fixes.

Read about Version 2505 (Build 18827.20140).

Version 2504 (Build 18730.20186)

Release date: May 20, 2025

This build introduces a new PowerPoint feature: Notification emails for mentions, tasks, comments, and replies will now contain context previews even when the source document is encrypted, and the email will inherit the document’s security policies.

Get more info about Version 2504 (Build 18730.20186).

Version 2504 (Build 18730.20168)

Release date: May 13, 2025

This build fixes a bug in which users were seeing high CPU usage when typing in Outlook. It also includes a variety of security updates: see details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2504 (Build 18730.20168).

Version 2504 (Build 18730.20142)

Release date: May 6, 2025

This build includes various bug and performance fixes.

Get more info about Version 2504 (Build 18730.20142).

Version 2504 (Build 18730.20122)

Release date: April 29, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in which PowerPoint was unable to open a file from a network mapped drive from File Explore, another in which Word closed unexpectedly when opening .doc files, and another for the entire Office suite in which large 3D files couldn’t be inserted.

Get more info about Version 2504 (Build 18730.20122).

Version 2503 (Build 18623.20208)

Release date: April 17, 2025

This build fixes a bug that could cause Excel to stop responding.

Get more info about Version 2503 (Build 18623.20208).

Version 2503 (Build 18623.20178)

Release date: April 8, 2025

This build fixes a single bug in Word in which users may have encountered an issue with saving, seeing the message “saving…” in the title bar. It  also includes a variety of security updates. Go here for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2503 (Build 18623.20178).

Version 2503 (Build 18623.20156)

Release date: April 2, 2025

This build lets you use Dark Mode in Excel, which darkens your entire sheet, including cells, and may reduce eye strain. It also fixes several bugs, including one in Word in which opening specific files that contain many tracked changes and comments resulted in poor performance, and one in PowerPoint in which the app was not displaying the icon for an inserted PDF object.

Get more info about Version 2503 (Build 18623.20156).

Version 2502 (Build 18526.20168)

Release date: March 11, 2025

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which some Word files with numerous tracked changes and comments were slow. It also includes a variety of security updates: see details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2502 (Build 18526.20168).

Version 2502 (Build 18526.20144)

Release date: March 5, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Word in which the default font size may not be 12pt as expected, and another in which PowerPoint automatically closed when the system went into hibernate or sleep mode.

Get more info about Version 2502 (Build 18526.20144).

Version 2501 (Build 18429.20158)

Release date: February 11, 2025

This build removes the option to display Track Changes balloons in left margin in Word. It also includes a variety of security updates. See “Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates” for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2501 (Build 18429.20158).

Microsoft 365 (and Office 365) subscribers get more frequent software updates than those who have purchased Office without a subscription, which means subscribers have access to the latest features, security patches, and bug fixes. But it can be hard to keep track of the changes in each update and know when they’re available. We’re doing this for you, so you don’t have to.

Following are summaries of the updates to Microsoft 365/Office 365 for Windows over the past year, with the latest releases shown first. We’ll add info about new updates as they’re rolled out.

Note: This story covers updates released to the Current Channel for Microsoft 365/Office 365 subscriptions. If you’re a member of Microsoft’s Office Insider preview program or want to get a sneak peek at upcoming features, see the Microsoft 365 Insider blog.

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20140)

Release date: June 3, 2026

This build fixes a single bug, in which images didn’t display when using top and bottom text wrapping in classic Outlook.

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20140).

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20112)

Release date: May 26, 2026

This build offers “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20112).

Version 2605 (Build 20026.20076)

Release date: May 20, 2026

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which Excel or PowerPoint closed unexpectedly in rare cases while the user was actively co-authoring, particularly when opening a document for the first time.

Get more info about Version 2605 (Build 20026.20076).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20172)

Release date: May 14, 2026

This build fixes a bug in Outlook in which sending mail failed when multiple Exchange accounts were configured.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20172).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20164)

Release date: May 12, 2026

The build plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20164).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20136)

Release date: May 5, 2026

This build fixes a bug in which Outlook closed unexpectedly after replying to a mail item with labels.

Get more info about  Version 2604 (Build 19929.20136).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20106)

Release date: April 29, 2026

This build includes “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20106).

Version 2604 (Build 19929.20090)

Release date: April 21, 2026

This build includes “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2604 (Build 19929.20090).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20182)

Release date: April 14, 2026

In this build, Copilot can now edit your PowerPoint documents. Copilot can start a new presentation or build on an existing one, generate slides, update content, improve layouts, and polish design, while preserving formatting, structure, and branding. 

The build also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20182).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20168)

Release date: April 9, 2026

This build fixes several bugs, including one in Outlook in which users could not close the Copilot chat pane using a keyboard. Users can now close the pane by navigating to the Close button using a keyboard or by using the assigned keyboard shortcut.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20168).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20142)

Release date: March 31, 2026

This build includes “various fixes to functionality and performance,” according to Microsoft.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20142).

Version 2603 (Build 19822.20114)

Release date: March 24, 2026

This build fixes a single bug in which PowerPoint sometimes closed unexpectedly when opening a newly created empty file from the OneDrive folder.

Get more info about Version 2603 (Build 19822.20114).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20190)

Release date: March 18, 2026

This build fixes an Outlook bug in which updating a single instance of a recurring meeting in a Microsoft 365 group calendar updated the entire series.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20190).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20172)

Release date: March 10, 2026

This build introduces agent mode in Word, which adds a conversational chat experience that helps create, edit, and refine document content as you work. In addition, the build fixes a bug that impacted the rendering of extended characters in calendar items, causing certain characters to appear as question marks.

The build also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20172).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20152)

Release date: March 3, 2026

This build fixes a bug in which closing a document sometimes remained in progress indefinitely after the Office app resumed from sleep or hibernation.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20152).

Version 2602 (Build 19725.20126)

Release date: February 24, 2025

This build fixes several bugs, including one that caused OneNote to close unexpectedly upon startup.

Get more info about Version 2602 (Build 19725.20126).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20214)

Release date: February 17, 2025

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20214).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20204)

Release date: February 10, 2026

This build fixes a bug that sometimes prevented users from opening emails with the Encrypt Only label in Outlook.

It also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20204).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20166)

Release date: February 3, 2026

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20166).

Version 2601 (Build 19628.20150)

Release date: January 27, 2025

In this build, OneNote applies your chosen proofing language more consistently, so you don’t have to reset it for every paragraph when writing in multiple languages. In addition, the build fixes several bugs, including one that caused Office applications to become unresponsive when profile card-related activities were performed.

Get more info about Version 2601 (Build 19628.20150).

Version 2512 (Build 19530.20184)

Release date: January 21, 2025

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2512 (Build 19530.20184).

Version 2512 (Build 19530.20144)

Release date: January 13, 2026

This build fixes a number of bugs, including one that caused Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to become unresponsive when profile card-related activities were performed.

It also plugs a number of security holes. For details, see Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2512 (Build 19530.20144).

Version 2512 (Build 19530.20138)

Release date: January 8, 2025

This build offers, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2512 (Build 19530.20138).

Version 2511 (Build 19426.20218)

Release date: December 16, 2025

This build offers, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2511 (Build 19426.20218).

Version 2511 (Build 19426.20186)

Release date: December 9, 2025

This Patch Tuesday build offers, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.” The build also has a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2511 (Build 19426.20186).

Version 2511 (Build 19426.20170)

Release date: December 3, 2025

This build includes, in Microsoft’s words, “Various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2511 (Build 19426.20170).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20244)

Release date: November 20, 2025

This build fixes a bug in Outlook that caused users to see “Contacting the server for information” repeatedly when loading some emails.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20244).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20232)

Release date: November 18, 2025

This build includes, in the words of Microsoft, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20232).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20190)

Release date: November 11, 2025

This Patch Tuesday build fixes a bug in Outlook that caused some recipients to be unable to access OneDrive links shared with them via email. The build also has a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20190).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20178)

Release date: November 4, 2025

This build fixes a single bug, in which @mention searches produced no results in Office apps.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20178).

Version 2510 (Build 19328.20158)

Release date: October 30, 2025

This build introduces a new Get Data dialog in Windows that simplifies finding and using external data, and adds Analyze Data to the Data tab.

The build also fixed an bug in Outlook that prevented users from downloading web add-ins in some virtualized environments.

Get more info about Version 2510 (Build 19328.20158).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20216)

Release date: October 21, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20216).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20194)

Release date: October 14, 2025

This build has a variety of security updates (see details), along with various fixes to functionality and performance.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20194).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20172)

Release date: October 7, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20172).

Version 2509 (Build 19231.20156)

Release date: October 1, 2025

This build fixes two bugs, one in Excel in which ribbon controls were not rendered when rejoining Office sessions in a virtual machine, Azure Virtual Desktop, or remote desktop environment, and another that caused Outlook to terminate unexpectedly when starting.

Get more info about Version 2509 (Build 19231.20156).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20264)

Release date: September 23, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20264).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20240)

Release date: September 16, 2025

This build has, in Microsoft’s words, “various fixes to functionality and performance.”

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20240).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20222)

Release date: September 9, 2025

This build has multiple security updates (see details), along with various fixes to functionality and performance.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20222).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20192)

Release date: September 3, 2025

This build fixes a bug in which some Outlook add-ins were getting “Office.auth.getAccessToken is not a function” errors.

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20192).

Version 2508 (Build 19127.20154)

Release date: August 26, 2025

This build fixes a bug that caused Outlook to terminate unexpectedly when sending a meeting invite with an encryption label. It also adds support for pixelated rendering of embedded images in SVG assets for the entire Office suite.

Get more info about Version 2508 (Build 19127.20154).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20208)

Release date: August 19, 2025

This build fixes a variety of bugs.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20208).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20184)

Release date: August 12, 2025

This build fixes a bug which required users to restart Outlook to open a .msg file after initially accessing it once. The build also includes a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20184).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20156)

Release date: August 5, 2025

This build fixes a single bug, in which users had to restart Outlook to open a .msg file after initially accessing it once.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20156).

Version 2507 (Build 19029.20136)

Release date: July 30, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including in which Outlook closed unexpectedly shortly after launch, and another in Word in which the word count sometimes displayed incorrectly.

Get more info about Version 2507 (Build 19029.20136).

Version 2506 (Build 18925.20184)

Release date: July 22, 2025

This build fixes two bugs, one that caused the Copilot Command Center to continue to be visible after disabling the Copilot user interface, and another in which when creating handouts in PowerPoint, certain characters (full-width numbers) couldn’t be properly transferred to the handout.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18925.20184).

Version 2506 (Build 18925.20168)

Release date: July 15, 2025

This build fixes two bugs, one that caused Visio 32-bit to close unexpectedly when using the Drawing control, particularly in setups involving COM components or .NET integrations, and another in Word in which copying and pasting content between documents sometimes changed the applied style unexpectedly.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18925.20168).

Version 2506 (Build 18925.20158)

Release date: July 8, 2025

This Patch Tuesday build fixes several bugs in Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, and the whole Office suite, including one that caused the Copilot icon to unexpectedly display in Outlook when Copilot had been disabled by the admin in government cloud.

The release also includes a variety of security updates (see details).

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18925.20158).

Version 2506 (Build 18827.20176)

Release date: July 1, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Word in which print preview sometimes stopped working when printing long emails.

Get more info about Version 2506 (Build 18827.20176).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20176)

Release date: June 26, 2025

This build introduces several new features, including one in Excel in which the PivotTables dialog box interface has been replaced by a redesigned panel, making it easier to view all of your options and simpler to change your data selection before inserting a recommended PivotTable.

Get more info about Version 2505 (Build 18827.20176).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20164)

Release date: June 17, 2025

This build fixes a bug that caused the “Try the new Outlook” toggle to be enabled when working in Classic Outlook side by side with the new Outlook.

Get more info about Version 2505 (Build 18827.20164).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20150)

Release date: June 10, 2025

This build fixes several bugs, including one for the entire Office suite in which a Save As attempt on an existing file didn’t complete successfully, and subsequent attempts continued to encounter issues when trying to save to a file that no longer existed.

This Patch Tuesday release also includes a variety of security updates: see details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about  Version 2505 (Build 18827.20150).

Version 2505 (Build 18827.20140)

Release date: June 3, 2025

This build offers a variety of bug and performance fixes.

Read about Version 2505 (Build 18827.20140).

Version 2504 (Build 18730.20186)

Release date: May 20, 2025

This build introduces a new PowerPoint feature: Notification emails for mentions, tasks, comments, and replies will now contain context previews even when the source document is encrypted, and the email will inherit the document’s security policies.

Get more info about Version 2504 (Build 18730.20186).

Version 2504 (Build 18730.20168)

Release date: May 13, 2025

This build fixes a bug in which users were seeing high CPU usage when typing in Outlook. It also includes a variety of security updates: see details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2504 (Build 18730.20168).

Version 2504 (Build 18730.20142)

Release date: May 6, 2025

This build includes various bug and performance fixes.

Get more info about Version 2504 (Build 18730.20142).

Version 2504 (Build 18730.20122)

Release date: April 29, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in which PowerPoint was unable to open a file from a network mapped drive from File Explore, another in which Word closed unexpectedly when opening .doc files, and another for the entire Office suite in which large 3D files couldn’t be inserted.

Get more info about Version 2504 (Build 18730.20122).

Version 2503 (Build 18623.20208)

Release date: April 17, 2025

This build fixes a bug that could cause Excel to stop responding.

Get more info about Version 2503 (Build 18623.20208).

Version 2503 (Build 18623.20178)

Release date: April 8, 2025

This build fixes a single bug in Word in which users may have encountered an issue with saving, seeing the message “saving…” in the title bar. It  also includes a variety of security updates. Go here for details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2503 (Build 18623.20178).

Version 2503 (Build 18623.20156)

Release date: April 2, 2025

This build lets you use Dark Mode in Excel, which darkens your entire sheet, including cells, and may reduce eye strain. It also fixes several bugs, including one in Word in which opening specific files that contain many tracked changes and comments resulted in poor performance, and one in PowerPoint in which the app was not displaying the icon for an inserted PDF object.

Get more info about Version 2503 (Build 18623.20156).

Version 2502 (Build 18526.20168)

Release date: March 11, 2025

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which some Word files with numerous tracked changes and comments were slow. It also includes a variety of security updates: see details.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

Get more info about Version 2502 (Build 18526.20168).

Version 2502 (Build 18526.20144)

Release date: March 5, 2025

This build fixes a wide variety of bugs, including one in Word in which the default font size may not be 12pt as expected, and another in which PowerPoint automatically closed when the system went into hibernate or sleep mode.

Get more info about Version 2502 (Build 18526.20144).

Version 2501 (Build 18429.20158)

Release date: February 11, 2025

This build removes the option to display Track Changes balloons in left margin in Word. It also includes a variety of security updates. See “Release notes for Microsoft Office security updates” for details.

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Get more info about Version 2501 (Build 18429.20158).

Microsoft has developed a new AI agent that can run autonomously around the clock to complete tasks across Microsoft 365 applications.

Microsoft Scout, unveiled at the company’s Build event Tuesday, is a new type of always-on agent based on the OpenClaw agent framework that Microsoft calls “autopilots.”

These act on a user’s behalf with their own governed Entra identity, Omar Shahine, corporate vice president at Microsoft, said in a blog post.

“Autopilots stay active in the background, understand how work gets done across your apps and systems, and take action without needing to be prompted each time,” said Shahine, a Microsoft veteran who recently announced he is leading a new team to bring OpenClaw-based personal assistants to Microsoft 365 apps.

Microsoft Scout connects to apps such as Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, and SharePoint, and accesses data from chat, email, calendar, and contacts. Accessed via Teams, it can also interact with a user’s browser and with external apps via model context protocol (MCP). The tool functions across cloud, desktop, and the web.

Shahine said Scout can reduce mundane tasks that office workers face, such as coordinating and scheduling meeting times with colleagues, or blocking times in a user’s calendar based on upcoming work commitments. “It can also spot risks, like stalled decisions, so you can address them before they become blockers,” he said.

It’s available as an “experimental release” to customers of the company’s Frontier program, Microsoft said, and will require Intune policy configuration and “opt-in attestation.”

Scout is the latest in a range of agentic tools available in Microsoft 365 apps, including Agent Mode, where users can interact with Microsoft 365 Copilot inside apps such as Word and Excel to create content, and Copilot Cowork — Microsoft’s version of Anthropic’s Claude Cowork agent that can complete tasks independently.

Despite the company’s big AI push, Microsoft has struggled to convince businesses that Microsoft 365 Copilot is worth the additional cost; it’s advertised at $30 per user each month for large businesses. Around 3% of Microsoft 365 customers pay for the add-on subscription, the company said in January, with 15 million paid users. (Microsoft announced last month that that figure has now risen to 20 million.)

It’s not clear whether Scout will be included in Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions or charged separately. Microsoft did not immediately provide additional details about pricing.

The launch follows Google’s recent announcement of Spark, an autonomous agent that runs within the Google Workspace application suite. Spark can also be considered a response to the launch of OpenClaw last year, initially under the name “Clawdbot.”

OpenClaw has drawn scrutiny due to apparent security flaws, but Microsoft promises Scout is built with “enterprise-grade security and controls, so it can be trusted in your organization from day one.”

For organizations that have already deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot, Scout doesn’t introduce entirely new data risks, said Jeff Pollard, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. But it “amplifies whatever data governance problems already exist. The difference this time: instead of surfacing sensitive data to users, it can potentially act on it.

“That makes it an active risk in terms of day to day operations,” Pollard said.

Potential security concerns echo those for AI agents and are exacerbated with personal agents such as Scout: amplified data exposure (since agents can interact with data and use tools autonomously); agent manipulation or prompt injection; unexpected actions, such as using tools or acting in ways that aren’t supposed to be allowed; and observability gaps related to understanding user and agent intent and the explainability of actions.

“However, these tools exist because they make AI far more useful for individuals, so security leaders can’t draw a line in the sand and say “no.” They have to adapt and figure out how to secure them,” said Pollard.

As with most new workplace technologies, Pollard expects adoption to start with “power users” who design and develop the use cases for the agent that can then expand more widely across users.

He warned that the accuracy of tools such as Microsoft Scout can fall short of user expectations. “LLM agents still struggle with goal alignment, multi-step reasoning drifts, and tool misuse,” he said. “Users aren’t always great at explaining what they want and LLM agents aren’t always great at providing what was requested. That’s a continuing problem.”