Office 365 Standard

1. Office 365 Standard Download
2. Microsoft Business Standard

Microsoft 365 Business Standard (One-Year Subscription) With Microsoft 365 Business Standard, you get email hosting plus desktop, premium Office apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, as well as other tools to help run and grow your business. For all Microsoft 365 subscriptions and many newer non-subscription versions of Office (since 2013 and later), your Office product has an associated account. This is the account you use to sign in to Office.com so you can manage your subscription or install or reinstall Office when needed. Office 365 Business Premium is the fully stocked version of Office 365. With it, you get Microsoft's desktop apps, the web versions of Office, Microsoft Teams, business email support, 1 TB of.

Important

The Microsoft 365 updates described in this article apply to Microsoft 365, SharePoint Online, and Exchange Online. These release options are targeted, best effort ways to release changes to Microsoft 365 but cannot be guaranteed at all times or for all updates. They do not apply to Microsoft 365 Apps, Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, and related services. For information about release options for Microsoft 365 Apps, see Overview of update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps.

With Microsoft 365, you receive new product updates and features as they become available instead of doing costly updates every few years. You can manage how your organization receives these updates. For example, you can sign up for an early release so that your organization receives updates first. You can designate that only certain individuals receive the updates. Or, you can remain on the default release schedule and receive the updates later. This article explains the different release options and how you can use them for your organization.

How it works - release validation

Any new release is first tested and validated by the feature team, then by the entire Microsoft 365 feature team, followed by all of Microsoft. After internal testing and validation, the next step is a Targeted release (formerly known as First release) to customers who opt in. At each release ring, Microsoft collects feedback and further validates quality by monitoring key usage metrics. This series of progressive validation is in place to make sure the worldwide-release is as robust as possible. The releases are pictured in the following figure.

For significant updates, customers are initially notified by the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. As an update gets closer to rolling out, it is communicated through your Microsoft 365 Message center.

Note

You need a Microsoft 365 or Azure AD account to access your Message center through the admin center. Microsoft 365 home plan users do not have an admin center.

Standard release

This is the default option where you and your users receive the latest updates when they're released broadly to all customers.

A good practice is to leave the majority of users in Standard release and IT Pros and power users in Targeted release to evaluate new features and prepare teams to support business users and executives.

Note

If you switch from targeted release back to standard release track, your users may lose access to features that haven't reached standard release yet.

Targeted release

With this option, you and your users can be the first to see the latest updates and help shape the product by providing early feedback. You can choose to have individuals or the entire organization receive updates early.

Important

Large or complex updates may take longer than others so that no users are adversely affected. There is no guarantee on the exact timeline of a release.

Targeted release for entire organization

If you Set up the release option in the admin center for this option, all your users will get the Targeted release experience. For organizations with more than 300 users, we recommend using a test subscription for this option. For test subscription information, please reach out to your Microsoft contact.

Targeted release for selected users

If you Set up the release option in the admin center for this option, you can define specific users, usually power users, to receive early access to features and functionality.

Benefits of Targeted release

Targeted release allows admins, change managers, or anyone else responsible for Microsoft 365 updates to prepare for the upcoming changes by letting them:

• Test and validate new updates before they are released to all the users in the organization.

• Prepare user notification and documentation before updates are released worldwide.

• Prepare internal help-desk for upcoming changes.

• Go through compliance and security reviews.

• Use feature controls, where applicable, to control the release of updates to end users.

Set up the release option in the admin center

You can change how your organization receives Microsoft 365 updates by following these steps. You have to be a global admin in Microsoft 365 to opt in.

Important

It can take up to 24 hours for the below changes to take effect in Microsoft 365. If you opt out of targeted release after enabling it, your users may lose access to features that haven't reached the scheduled release yet.

1. In the admin center, go to the Settings > Org Setting, and under the Organization profile tab, choose Release preferences.

2. To disable targeted release, select Standard release, then select Save changes.

3. To enable targeted release for all users in your organization, select Targeted release for everyone, then select Save changes.

4. To enable targeted release for some people in your organization, select Targeted release for selected users, then select Save changes.

5. Choose Select users to add users one at a time, or Upload users to add them in bulk.

6. When you're done adding users, select Save changes.

Office 365 Standard Download

Learn more

Discover how to manage messages in your Microsoft 365 Message center to get notifications about upcoming Microsoft 365 updates and releases.

Related Articles

Encryption is an important part of your file protection and information protection strategy. This article provides an overview of encryption for Office 365. Get help with encryption tasks like how to set up encryption for your organization and how to password-protect Office documents.

• For information about certificates and technologies like TLS, see Technical reference details about encryption in Office 365.

• For information about how to configure or set up encryption for your organization, see Set up encryption in Office 365 Enterprise.

What is encryption, and how does it work in Office 365?

The encryption process encodes your data (referred to as plaintext) into ciphertext. Unlike plaintext, ciphertext can't be used by people or computers unless and until the ciphertext is decrypted. Decryption requires an encryption key that only authorized users have. Encryption helps ensure that only authorized recipients can decrypt your content. Content includes files, email messages, calendar entries, and so on.

Encryption by itself doesn't prevent content interception. Encryption is part of a larger information protection strategy for your organization. By using encryption, you help ensure that only authorized parties can use the encrypted data.

You can have multiple layers of encryption in place at the same time. For example, you can encrypt email messages and also the communication channels through which your email flows. With Office 365, your data is encrypted at rest and in transit, using several strong encryption protocols, and technologies that include Transport Layer Security/Secure Sockets Layer (TLS/SSL), Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

Encryption for data at rest and data in transit

Examples of data at rest include files that you've uploaded to a SharePoint library, Project Online data, documents that you've uploaded in a Skype for Business meeting, email messages and attachments that you've stored in folders in your mailbox, and files you've uploaded to OneDrive for Business.

Examples of data in transit include mail messages that are in the process of being delivered, or conversations that are taking place in an online meeting. In Office 365, data is in transit whenever a user's device is communicating with a Microsoft server, or when a Microsoft server is communicating with another server.

With Office 365, multiple layers and kinds of encryption work together to secure your data. The following table includes some examples, with links to additional information.

Microsoft Business Standard

What if I need more control over encryption to meet security and compliance requirements?

Microsoft 365 provides Microsoft-managed solutions for volume encryption, file encryption, and mailbox encryption in Office 365. In addition, Microsoft provides encryption solutions that you can manage and control. These encryption solutions are built on Azure.

To learn more, see the following resources:

How do I...

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