Lesson 1: What You Have: Plans, IT Controls and Copilot

Before You Start: About This Course

This course is independent of Microsoft. Microsoft does not produce, endorse or review it. The steps are our own. We do not copy Microsoft's documentation. When you need the official wording, go to Microsoft's own pages. We point you to them throughout.

Microsoft changes OneDrive, SharePoint and Copilot often. Plans, prices, screens and AI features can change in a single month. For that reason, every feature claim in this course says checked on 1 November 2026. Treat that date like the use-by date on food. After that date, check Microsoft's pages again before you rely on the claim.

Step 1: Identify Your Plan Type

What you can do depends on how you sign in. There are three broad plan types:

• Consumer: you sign in with a personal Microsoft account, for example an Outlook.com address. Plans include Microsoft 365 Basic, Personal, Family and Premium.
• Small business: you use a work account on a Microsoft 365 Business plan, such as Business Basic, Standard or Premium. Your company may have only a few people, and one of them acts as the admin.
• Corporate (enterprise): you use a work account on an enterprise plan, such as E3 or E5. A dedicated IT team manages it.

Do this now:

1. For a personal account, go to account.microsoft.com/services and sign in. Write down the subscription name shown, for example "Microsoft 365 Family".
2. For a work or school account, go to myaccount.microsoft.com and open Subscriptions. Write down the licences listed there.
3. If you have both kinds of account, do both checks. Many people do, and the two accounts give different features.

Step 2: List Three Features That Depend on Your Plan

These three features show clearly how plans differ. The status below was checked on 1 November 2026.

Do this now: Write the three features down in a note with your plan's status for each and today's date. Example: "Restore whole OneDrive: yes (Personal). Checked 1 Nov 2026."

Step 3: "Not in My Plan" or "Switched Off by IT"?

If a button you expected is missing, there are two possible reasons. Each one needs a different person to fix it.

• Not included in your plan: your subscription does not include the feature, and no setting will turn it on.
  • Consumer: you, or the person who pays, would need a different plan.
  • Work: ask whoever buys licences, usually IT, finance or the founder.
• Switched off by your admin: your plan includes the feature, but your organisation has turned it off. This is often done for security or compliance. For example, an admin can stop Copilot running in SharePoint and OneDrive.
  • Ask your IT helpdesk or Microsoft 365 admin. Expect the answer to be "no" sometimes, for good reasons.

How to tell which one it is:

1. Check your licence from Step 1 against Microsoft's current page for that feature.
2. If your licence covers the feature but you cannot see it, IT has probably switched it off, or it has not reached your account yet.
3. If your licence does not cover the feature, it is not in your plan.

This course assumes you are on a corporate account with some features switched off. Each lesson says which plan a feature needs, so you can tell which case you are in.

Step 4: Check Your Copilot Licence

The word "Copilot" covers several different products. Work out which one you have.

• Consumer: Microsoft 365 Personal and Family include Copilot in OneDrive. On Family, only the owner can use it. Microsoft 365 Premium adds more Copilot features, again for the owner only.
• Work, no Copilot licence: many work accounts get Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat at no extra cost. It works mainly from web data and from files you upload. It does not search your organisation's files for you.
• Work, with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence: a paid add-on. It can pull in work information you already have access to from OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, email and calendar.

One rule applies to all of them: Copilot can only see files you have permission to open. It cannot get past your access rights.

Do this now:

1. Look in your Subscriptions list from Step 1 for an entry containing "Copilot".
2. Open OneDrive on the web and look for the Copilot button. Copilot in OneDrive currently runs on the web and on Windows PCs.
3. Write down which of the three cases above applies to you.

Step 5: Mark Preview Features as Unconfirmed

Microsoft labels some Copilot features "preview", "rolling out" or "coming soon". On 1 November 2026, Microsoft's Copilot in OneDrive FAQ listed several as coming soon. These included support for images, videos and OneNote notebooks, questions about a whole folder, and files over 150 MB. Using Copilot on several files at once was limited to 5 files.

Rule: in your notes, mark any feature with one of these labels as UNCONFIRMED, with the date. Do not build your work around it until it is generally available and you can see it in your own account.

Your Task: Build Your "What I Have" Card

Create a short note with:

1. Your plan type and subscription name
2. Three plan-dependent features with their status: included, not included, or switched off
3. Your Copilot case: consumer, Copilot Chat, or a full Microsoft 365 Copilot licence
4. Any features marked UNCONFIRMED
5. Who to ask: the plan owner for missing features, and IT for features that are switched off
6. The date you checked

Keep this card. Later lessons refer back to it.

Key Takeaways

• This course is independent of Microsoft. Always check Microsoft's current pages, and write down the date you checked.
• Your plan type (consumer, small business or corporate) decides what features you have.
• "Not in my plan" goes to whoever buys licences. "Switched off" goes to your IT admin.
• Copilot Chat and a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence are different products. Check which one you have.
• Copilot can only see what you can see.
• Features labelled preview, rolling out or coming soon count as unconfirmed until they appear in your account.