Chicago IT Support & Cyber Security | Forward Technologies
Chicago-based Forward Technologies delivers IT support and cyber security to businesses in the Chicago area and nationwide.
For years, the security advice was simple: turn on multifactor authentication.
IT people repeated it endlessly. Microsoft pushed it. Insurance companies started requiring it. Cybersecurity audits looked for it. Eventually, most businesses got the message.
Users learned the routine. Enter the password. Wait for the text message. Type in the 6-digit code. Get back to work.
Now Microsoft is changing all of that. [Read more…]
Back in the fall, I said Microsoft was going to have to extend Windows 10 support again. The numbers made it obvious. There were simply too many machines still running it, and not enough realistic paths to Windows 11 for a huge chunk of users. Now here we are.
Microsoft has quietly added another year to its Extended Security Updates program for Windows 10, pushing support out to October 12, 2027. That gives users an extra twelve months of critical security patches beyond the original cutoff, and it confirms what a lot of us in IT already suspected. Windows 10 was never going away on Microsoft’s original timeline. [Read more…]
The AI subsidy era is ending, and the bills are finally showing up.
Microsoft is reportedly cutting back internal Claude Code licenses and steering developers toward GitHub Copilot CLI instead. It matters because this is Microsoft, not some cash-strapped startup. This is the company that poured billions into OpenAI, owns GitHub, and runs one of the biggest cloud businesses on earth. If even Microsoft is looking at token-based usage and deciding the math does not work, everyone else should probably pay attention. [Read more…]
Microsoft is retiring the email passcode system long used to grant temporary access to shared files in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. The company plans to replace it with Microsoft Entra B2B guest accounts, shifting external collaboration toward a fully identity-based model across Microsoft 365.
The change affects both commercial and government cloud environments. Beginning in May 2026, new external sharing invitations will start using Entra B2B instead of the existing one-time passcode system. The transition will accelerate through the summer, with the older authentication method beginning its shutdown in July and disappearing completely by the end of August 2026. [Read more…]
Microsoft is expanding passwordless security across Windows by introducing passkey authentication through Microsoft Entra. The new capability allows users to sign in to Entra-protected resources using Windows Hello instead of traditional passwords, adding stronger resistance against phishing attacks and credential theft.
The feature will roll out as an opt-in public preview starting in mid-March 2026 and continuing through late April for global Microsoft 365 tenants. Government cloud environments will receive the preview shortly after, with deployments scheduled between mid-April and mid-May. Once enabled, the update allows organizations to adopt passkeys as an authentication method on Windows devices. [Read more…]
