News

Date: September 23, 2024
To: EITU, MTRC, InfoTech, AMS, Broader Channels
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: Final Reminder: U of T 30-day Microsoft Teams Chat Retention Protocol coming September 30

Dear colleagues,

Following on the Sep 12, 2024 reminder memo on Teams Chat Retention, the University of Toronto will be implementing a 30-day retention protocol for all individual Teams Chats, effective September 30, 2024. These are messages that occur outside of a Microsoft Teams Channel.

Important: Teams Chats deleted by a retention protocol are permanently removed and cannot be recovered. The new Teams Chat Retention protocol will be applied to all UofT Teams users.

To review more FAQs to help you prepare, visit U of T Teams Chat Retention Protocol website.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Kind regards,

Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) 

Information Technology Services (ITS) 

University of Toronto 

Date: September 23, 2024
To: InfoTech Listserv
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: ActiveX will be disabled by default in Microsoft Office Apps

Dear colleagues,

Microsoft Is disabling default ActiveX Controls in Microsoft 365 apps from April 2025 and Office 2024 (from October 2024) to improve security. The default configuration setting for ActiveX objects will change from Prompt me before enabling all controls with minimal restrictions to Disable all controls without notification. The new default setting is equivalent to the existing DisableAllActiveX group policy setting.

What you need to do to prepare:

When this change takes effect, if you need to use ActiveX controls in Office documents, you can change back to the previous default behavior using any one of the following methods:

- In the Trust Center Settings dialog, under ActiveX Settings, select the Prompt me before enabling all controls with minimal restrictions option.
- In the registry, set HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Security\DisableAllActiveX to 0 (REG_DWORD).
- Set the Disable All ActiveX group policy setting to 0.

Kind regards,

Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) 

Information Technology Services (ITS) 

University of Toronto 

Date: September 23, 2024
To: InfoTech Listserv
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: VBS deprecation

Dear colleagues,

According to official announcements from Microsoft, the Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) is being deprecated.

VBScript is a coding language that has been widely used by developers to add dynamic interactivity and functionality to web pages. Deprecation starts in the second half of 2024 and will be entirely removed from future Windows OS releases.

What you need to do to prepare:

If you have websites or applications that still run on VBScript, we recommend migrating to either PowerShell or JavaScript and other alternatives. VBScript will be available as features on demand (FODs) until sometime around 2027.

Will the retirement of VBScript impact Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)?

1. In the initial phase of VBScript deprecation, there should be no immediate impact on existing VBA solutions. You can continue using your VBA scripts as usual.
2. Future Phases: As the deprecation progresses, future phases might introduce changes that could affect VBA, especially if your VBA projects rely on VBScript components.

More information is available on the Microsoft official announcement page.

Kind regards,

Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) 

Information Technology Services (ITS) 

University of Toronto 

This is the 3rd information session regarding the upcoming Teams Chat Retention Protocol, a repetition of the first two information sessions we conducted in June, 2024. In this session covered:

- Why are we not keeping Teams chat history indefinitely?
- What is the scope of this protocol? Who does it impact?
- What messages are affected, and which ones remain unaffected?
- What will happen on September 30, 2024?
- What if I am on another retention policy?
- What will happen to the files that are shared over Teams chat?
- Preparing for this change
- Final Reminder
- Roundtable discussion

Resources:

- Session Recording
- Slides

Microsoft Forms now supports a new, more reliable data sync to Microsoft Excel for the web. The old data sync will be replaced on October 20, 2024.

What You Need to Do:

- Open your Forms.

- Click the “Update Sync” If there are notification shows, please follow the guidance to update. Update to the new solution for syncing forms responses to Excel

- With the new syncing solution, you must open the Excel app to receive new responses. Otherwise, they will not sync to the workbook.

- If you have a Power Automate Flow connected to the workbook, it will no longer receive new responses until the workbook is manually opened. In this case, you need to update your workflow to use the Forms Connector. Create an automated workflow for Microsoft Forms – Microsoft Support

Key Dates:

- October 20, 2024: The old data sync will no longer work.

Impact:

- After October 20, 2024, existing Excel files with the old data sync will not receive automatic updates from Forms.

- Users will receive notifications in Forms and Excel for the web to update their data sync.

Note:

The new data sync can only be triggered in Excel for the web. To get new Forms response data in the Excel desktop app, open the file in Excel for the web first.

- Learn more: Introducing Forms data sync to Excel – Microsoft Community Hub

Date: September 12, 2024
To: ACE-IT, EITU, MTRC, InfoTech, Broader Channels
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: Reminder: U of T 30-day Microsoft Teams Chat Retention Protocol coming September 30

Dear colleagues,

Following on the Aug 12, 2024 reminder memo on Teams Chat Retention, the University of Toronto will be implementing a 30-day retention protocol for all individual Teams Chats, effective September 30, 2024. These are messages that occur outside of a Microsoft Teams Channel.

Important: Teams Chats deleted by a retention protocol are permanently removed and cannot be recovered. The new Teams Chat Retention protocol will be applied to all UofT Teams users.

Based on community questions, here is additional guidance on preparing for the new protocol.

- Once the retention protocol is implemented, all chats that take place outside of a Teams channel will be subject to the 30-day retention rule. These messages will have a 30-day lifespan and will then be automatically deleted. For those with the existing 7-day retention protocol, the schedule will continue as before.

- Search your chat history and ensure that you copy and save those threads that are important to you before September 30, 2024. All messages older than 30 days will be affected.

- Is there a bulk mechanism to save chat threads? At present, there are no such tools. There are some simple methods to save chats, for example:

- To save a specific message from your Teams chat, hover over the message and click on the three-dot icon.

- Then, select the “Share to Outlook” option to send an email to the individual you had the conversation with or to yourself, ensuring the message is saved as an email.

- Any files or document links shared in one-on-one chats will remain accessible. To access these files, go to the specific Teams chat, then click on the Files tab next to the Chat tab.

- Chats inside Teams channel are not affected by this protocol. How to obtain a Team -Teams may be requested by sending an email to need.team@utoronto.ca with the desired Team name, and the Team owner(s). Teams are subject to an institutional naming convention. More details on Team creation are available in this knowledge base article — Teams & Channels: Request to set up a new Team.

- What happens to chat threads that are created during a meeting?

- If you intend to save chats from Teams meetings, the meeting must be created from inside a Team channel. These chats are not affected by the new retention protocol. Please refer to the knowledge base article, Creating a meeting from a Microsoft Teams Channel, to learn how to create a meeting from inside a Teams Channel.

- If there is no intent to preserve the meeting chat, it is not necessary to create the meeting inside a Team.

Join us for MS Chat Retention information session on September 18 @11am. To add this event to your calendar, click Add to Calendar . You can also access the meeting via the Teams Meeting Link.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Kind regards,

Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) 

Information Technology Services (ITS) 

University of Toronto 

Join us on the first Thursday of each month for an informative Connect+Learn session on SIS Training Resources & Support, tailored primarily for new ROSI users. The Student Information Systems (SIS) group manages enterprise student and curriculum applications, and processes for the University.

SIS provides reporting tools, enhancement and production request forms, and support for the SIS applications. In the session, we will discuss:

Student Information Systems – What we do and how to get help
ROSI and OASIS Training Materials & Resources
What we support and what we do not (and where to go for those)
When to use ESC and how to write a ticket and use ESC appropriately

Resources

- - Recording [Stream]
  - Slides [SharePoint]

Join us for a Connect+Learn session on Opening of Term and Registration. This session will demonstrate processes and explore some key topics for academic units and Registrars’ Offices to prepare for the upcoming academic term. Monitoring registration using ROSI reports, clearing admission conditions and maintaining leaves of absences will be discussed. Attendees will be able to learn how to look up data manually and produce summary reports to identify outstanding enrolment issues and to keep track of registration volume.

Topics to be discussed:

- Monitoring Registration – Reports
- Registration Information (4AAB/4ACB) – what it means
- Student Conditions (4AEC)
- Leaves of Absence
- Generating class lists (review)

Resources

- - Recording [Stream]
  - Slides [SharePoint]

Aug 21, 2024

In this Connect+Learn session you will learn about SharePoint L4 Data Template

We will cover:

- What is the L4 site template?
- WHy and when you would need a L4 template
- Features of the L4 Template
- FAQs
- Q&As

Resources

- Session Slides
- Session Recording

Date: August 20, 2024
To: AMS Users
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: AMS System Outage – September 7

Dear AMS Users,

Please note that the systems below will be unavailable on Saturday, September 7 from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. due to system maintenance:

Academic Administrative Appointments (AAA)
AMS SAP GUI
Capital Project Portal
Employee Self-Service (ESS)/Manager Self-Service (MSS)
EvoSuite Applications (EvoOrder, EvoPlan, EvoNotify)
Expense Reimbursement Direct Deposit (ERDD)
Fiori Launchpad Reporting
Invoice Workflow
My Customer Account
My Research (MR/Portal)
SAP Asset Manager Mobile (sync will not work)
uSOURCE

See our System Availability page for a list of ongoing information on system status.

Sincerely,
Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI)

EASI

Final Reminder: U of T 30-day Microsoft Teams Chat Retention Protocol coming September 30

ActiveX will be disabled by default in Microsoft Office Apps

VBS deprecation

Teams Chat Retention Protocol – Session 03 (Final Reminder)

Important Update for Microsoft Forms Users | Microsoft Forms – Data sync to Excel

Reminder: U of T 30-day Microsoft Teams Chat Retention Protocol coming September 30, 2024

Monthly SIS Training Resources & Support Session

Opening of Term and Registration

SharePoint L4 Data Site Template

AMS System Outage – September 7