#MicrosoftExchange – Microsoft Cloud Quick Fix

Exchange 2016 / 2019 Extended Security Update program

Working your way thru an Exchange SE Migration and need a bit more time? This week marks t-minus 2 months until the end-of-support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 / 2019. After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide technical support, bug fixes, or security update unless… You request to join the Exchange 2016 / 2019 Extended Security Update program. This is today’s #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix !

Exchange Server SE is the next release of Microsoft Exchange Server and is now available download. The licensing model for Exchange Server SR requires subscription licenses for all users and devices that access Exchange Server SE on top of required Server licenses and CALs. Microsoft will continue to provide a free Hybrid server license and key via the Hybrid Configuration Wizard.

Now of course on October 15, 2025 your Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019 servers will continue to work but it is recommended you begin to prepare now if you will require more time to perform your upgrade or migrations.

Beginning on August 1, 2025, customers with an Microsoft Agreement can contact their Microsoft account rep to inquire and purchase a 6 month Extended Security Update (ESU) for their Exchange 2016 / 2019 servers. Your Microsoft account rep will have information related to per server cost and additional details on how to purchase and receive ESU updates.

Notes about the Expended Security Updates:

ESU’s are priced per Exchange Server
Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019 will still go end-of-support on October 14, 2025, and you will not be able to open support cases for them
This ESU is a way for customers who might not be able to finalize their migrations to Exchange SE before October 14, 2025, to receive Critical and Important updates
Microsoft isn’t committing to actually releasing any SUs during the ESU period. Microsoft will confirm with ESU participants each Patch Tuesday whether an Exchange SU will be provided or not
ESU’s will be valid for 6 months only to April 14, 2026). There will be no extension of ESU’s past April 2026.

See for more information see:

#MicrosoftCloudQuickFix #Microsoft365 #MicrosoftExchange #ExchangeOnline

Six months until Exchange Server 2016 / 2019 End of Support

Do you have old on-premises Exchange servers kicking around? Old Hybrid Exchange servers left over from a previous Exchange Online Migration or an anonymous SMTP relay? Last week marked t-minus 6 months until the end of support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 / 2019. After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide technical support, bug fixes, or security updates. What are your options? This is today’s #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix !

Of course, on October 15, 2025, your Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019 will continue to work but it is recommended you begin to prepare now.

We recommended that you either fully migrate to Exchange Online as moving to Microsoft Cloud Services ensures continuous support, access to advanced features, and security advancements or (and if you haven’t done this by now there is likely good reason) upgrade your on-premises Exchange Servers to Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE) to be released in July 2025 and offers a direct in-place upgrade from Exchange Server 2019 CU 15 released in February 2025.

If you are still running Exchange Server 2016 you should perform a side-by-side ‘legacy upgrade’ to Exchange Server 2019 CU 15 now and then perform the in-place upgrade to Exchange Server SE once released. The good news is Exchange Server 2019 CU15 is fully supported on Windows Server 2025!

Exchange Server SE is the next release of Microsoft Exchange Server and will be available for download in July 2025. The licensing model for Exchange Server SR requires subscription licenses for all users and devices that access Exchange Server SE on top of required Server licenses and CALs. Microsoft will continue to provide a free Hybrid server license and key via the Hybrid Configuration Wizard.

See for more information see:

Now that you know your options, it’s time to start planning your transition.

#MicrosoftCloudQuickFix #Microsoft365 #MicrosoftExchange #ExchangeOnline

Exchange Server 2013 End of Support April 11, 2023

Yesterday was Groundhog Day and in honor of the great movie with the same name today’s #MicrosoftQuickFix is once again (get the reference now 😉) that Exchange Server 2013 is reaching end of support in 67 days from today on April 11, 2023!

After April 11, 2023, #Microsoft will no longer provide technical support for problems that may occur, bug fixes for newly discovered issues, security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered, and time zone updates.

Now look this doesn’t mean that because the Exchange Server software is out-of-date and no longer supported that it is going to stop working. Email will still flow, databases will still store data, mailboxes will still be accessible, but nefarious hackers will breathe a sigh of relief as the code now remains stagnant and despite “network magic” mitigation attempts all it takes is one zero-day venerability making its way in…

So your options are to Upgrade to Exchange Server 2019 – See the following page on Microsoft Docs for to Exchange Server 2019 system requirements, Exchange 2019 Requirements, Exchange 2019 Memory Requirements, Exchange 2019 Client Compatibility to begin.

Note: It is a supported coexistence scenario for Exchange 2019 and Exchange 2013 provided all your Exchange 2013 servers in your organization are patched to Exchange Server Cumulative Update 21 or higher.

and/or

Migrate to Exchange Online – See Decide on a migration path in Exchange Online on Microsoft Docs – Anyone still need a business case for migrating to #ExchangeOnline ?

In either case we recommend seeking assistance and using the Exchange Deployment Assistant which is a web-based tool that asks you about your current Exchange environment and generates a custom step-by-step checklist that will help you.

For more information about Exchange Server see:

#Microsoft #Microsoft365 #MicrosoftExchange #ExchangeOnline #MicrosoftCloudSecurity #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix

Outlook Cloud Based Signatures

Upgrades to how your email signatures are stored will be launching soon. That is today’s #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix !

Email signatures regardless of your mailbox residing on-premises or in Exchange Online have traditionally been stored on your local computer. Users have had to recreate them every time they reinstall Outlook, move to a new device, or leverage multiple devices.

As outline in Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 60371 with this change for mailboxes hosted in Exchange Online, #Microsoft will migrate the local signatures to the cloud automatically, no manual steps are required. This means the same set of signatures will be available on any Windows (Microsoft 365) or Web version of Outlook, and you will no longer need to reconfigure your signatures when getting a new device.

Per Microsoft if you use 3rd party solutions in your environment for signature management this change will not impact you at this time.

For more information, please see the following Microsoft Support page.

#MicrosoftCloudQuickFix #Microsoft365 #ExchangeOnline

Reminder – Exchange Server 2013 End of Support April 2023

Today’s #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix is that Exchange Server 2013 is reaching end of support in a little over 7 months from now. After April 11, 2023, #Microsoft will now longer provide technical support for problems that may occur, bug fixes for new issues that are discovered, security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered, and time zone updates.

Upgrade to Exchange Server 2019 – See the following page on Microsoft Docs for Exchange Server system requirements and/or

Migrate to Exchange Online – See Decide on a migration path in Exchange Online on Microsoft Docs

In either case I highly recommend using the Exchange Deployment Assistant which is a web-based tool that asks you about your current Exchange environment and generates a custom step-by-step checklist that will help you.

#Microsoft #Microsoft365 #ExchangeOnline #MicrosoftExchange #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix

Retirement of Exchange Online PowerShell with MFA

Microsoft is retiring the “Exchange Online PowerShell module with MFA” on December 31, 2022 with support for the module ending this month on August 31, 2022.

This is today’s #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix !

It is recommended to now use the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module (EXO V2 module), which uses modern authentication and supports accounts with or without MFA.

If your like me you have a lot of updating to do to some old Exchange Online management scripts written with the older V1 module but, as an added bonus, there are a bunch of stunning exclusive Exchange Online PowerShell cmdlets that are optimized for bulk data retrieval scenario. Check out About the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module for more information about these new cmdlets.

For installation and connection instructions, see Install and maintain the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 mod ule and Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.

#MicrosoftCloudQuickFix #Microsoft365 #ExchangeOnline

Expanded user impersonation to 350 protected users with anti-phishing policy

#Microsoft is increasing the number of protected users you can secure in #ExchangeOnline with #MicrosoftDefenderforOffice365 anti-phishing policies. This is today’s #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix !

Available by the end of the first week of June 2021 within Anti-Phishing policy, in the Users to protect section, you will be able to specify up to 350 users (per policy) up from 60 users.

This means you will be able to specify more users to be protected. This user impersonation protection continues to prevent the specified users from being impersonated as message senders. This is a must-have for key personnel in your organization from Board Members to Executives/C-Suite to your Finance staff and protects against impersonation attacks that are designed to trick key users such as finance, executive assistants, and HR into making wire transfers or providing other monetizable information to cybercriminals.

Check out this Microsoft Docs page for more details on how to configure Impersonation settings in anti-phishing policies.

March 2021 Quarterly Exchange Updates

Your #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix is a friendly reminder to patch your on-premises #MicrosoftExchange Servers! #Microsoft has released cumulative updates for Exchange Server which include the fixes that were released earlier this month in response to the zero-day vulnerabilities for Microsoft Exchange Server that are being actively exploited.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/released-march-2021-quarterly-exchange-updates/ba-p/2205283

Decommission your on-premises Exchange servers?

I had a customer ask if after they were done migrating all their mailboxes and services from their local on-premises Exchange Server to Exchange Online if they could remove their local Exchange server. You certainly cant blame them for wanting to with the recent news of zero-day vulnerabilities for Microsoft Exchange Server that are being actively exploited and that Exchange Online was not at risk.

I remembered a great article posted a few years back by Paul Cunningham on Practical365.com and in it the following:

“If you have directory synchronization in place, then you need to manage the mail attributes of users, groups, and contacts in the on-premises Active Directory, and then allow those changes to synchronize to Azure Active Directory. The only 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 way to manage the mail attributes on-premises is using the Exchange management tools, which requires at least one Exchange server to be running.”

https://bit.ly/38HYltb

The key word is 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 and sadly no new updates from Microsoft have come since 2017 so for now the answer is no you must keep at least one Exchange Server on-premises and this has been your #MicrosoftCloudQuickFix