Microsoft has released a new website for Office 365 users after adding PowerShell to Office 365. The new website is about using Powershell to automate tasks in Office 365. There is no doubt that the Office 365 graphical user interface is robust and does everything it offers. Still, when there is too much similar work, it can be run as a set of commands or a batch file to complete the work faster compared to using the Office 365 graphical user interface.
PowerShell for Office 365
The website also provides some scripts and examples to the Powershell users who can also implement them in not only Office 365 but also in their Windows 10 operating system or even Windows 8.1 or Windows 7. But the main purpose of the site is to educate IT admins about the real power of Powershell that they can use while performing day to day tasks when on Office 365.
The IT Admin center has now the Powershell tool in Office 365 in addition to GUI interface. It is not replacing the graphical user interface in any way. Rather, as Microsoft puts it:
PowerShell does not replace the Office 365 Admin Center. In fact, they are complementary tools and should both be used. The strength of PowerShell only really becomes apparent when you need to handle scenarios such as:
-
Adding or editing a large number of users.
-
Using multiple filters to sort through data.
-
Exporting data such as user lists and groups.
-
Configuring less commonly used settings
The blog gives an excellent example of migrating users. If done using the Office 365 GUI, admins will have to edit users. With Powershell, they can simply do it in three steps and that too, automated. They need to export the data as a CSV (comma separated values Excel sheet), run the editing commands that migrate or update user information, and then import the CSV into the database. Since it involves just three steps – automated – the work hardly takes time. The only restriction is that the Powershell in Office 365 has to be accessed with administrator privileges.
Check out some Powershell script samples on the new website
