Microsoft 365 Support Pro: Exchange Online and Outlook

What's inside

1. Level 1: Exchange Online on One PageFree
   Learners see how Exchange Online fits together. On the user's side are Outlook, Outlook on the web and the mobile apps. Behind them sit the mailbox, the directory, mail flow and the protection services. The lesson says plainly that this course is independent of Microsoft and is not its documentation.
2. Level 2: Who Can Do What: The Smallest Role per JobFree
   Learners match each common support job to the smallest Exchange or Microsoft Entra role that can do it. They learn why broad role groups such as Recipient Management give more access than most first-line tasks need.
3. Level 3: Touring the Exchange Admin Centre for Support
   Learners find their way round the parts of the Exchange admin centre that support uses: recipients, mailbox properties, delegation, mail flow and reports. They also learn where the Microsoft 365 admin centre and the Defender portal take over.
4. Level 4: Read-Only Exchange Online PowerShell
   Learners connect to Exchange Online PowerShell and run read-only Get- cmdlets. These answer support questions faster and more precisely than the console does, and the learner never risks changing anything.
5. Level 5: Mailbox Types, Licences and Limits
   Learners tell user, shared, room, equipment and group mailboxes apart. They see how a licence affects mailbox and archive features, and they check the current service limits, recording the date they looked.
6. Level 6: Reading Tenant-Wide Policy to Explain It
   Learners read tenant-wide settings, such as organisation config, sharing policies, Outlook on the web policies and outbound spam policy, so they can explain to a user why something behaves as it does. They escalate the issue rather than redesign the policy.
7. Level 7: Creating and Setting Up a Shared Mailbox
   Learners create a shared mailbox in the admin centre and in PowerShell, and give it a sensible address and display name. They also learn when a shared mailbox needs a licence.
8. Level 8: Full Access and Automapping
   Learners grant and remove Full Access to a mailbox. They control automapping, so the mailbox either appears in Outlook by itself or has to be added by hand, and they understand the trade-offs of each.
9. Level 9: Send As and Send on Behalf
   Learners set Send As and Send on Behalf on a mailbox. They see how each one looks to the recipient, and they learn why Full Access alone does not let a user send.
10. Level 10: Calendar Folder Permissions
    Learners grant calendar access at the right level, from free/busy only to Editor. They do this on a user's own calendar and on the Default and Anonymous entries, using the mailbox folder permission cmdlets.
11. Level 11: Calendar Delegates and Meeting Handling
    Learners set up a delegate who manages another person's meetings, which is common for executive assistants. They control where meeting requests are delivered, and learn how delegate access differs from plain folder permissions.
12. Level 12: Distribution Lists and Microsoft 365 Groups
    Learners manage membership, owners and delivery settings for distribution lists, mail-enabled security groups and Microsoft 365 groups, and learn which type fits which request.
13. Level 13: Aliases, Addresses and Forwarding
    Learners add extra email addresses (aliases) to a mailbox and set the primary address. They configure forwarding, and see how the outbound spam policy can block automatic forwarding to outside addresses.
14. Level 14: Setting Automatic Replies for a User
    Learners set, schedule and remove automatic replies on someone else's behalf, with separate internal and external messages. This is a common request when someone is ill or has left suddenly.
15. Level 15: Mailbox Quotas and Size
    Learners read a mailbox's size, its quota levels and which folders take up the space. This lets them answer 'how full am I?' accurately, before anything goes wrong.
16. Level 16: The Online Archive and Retention Tags
    Learners turn on a user's online archive and see how the retention policy moves items into it automatically. They check that the policy is running, and they explain where archived mail appears in Outlook.
17. Level 17: Auto-Expanding Archiving
    Learners decide when auto-expanding archiving is the right answer to a full archive. They check its licence conditions and growth limits against current documentation, and they understand that it cannot be turned off once on.
18. Level 18: Rooms, Equipment and Booking Policies
    Learners set up room and equipment mailboxes, add rooms to room lists so people can find them, and set booking rules with Set-CalendarProcessing, such as auto-accept, delegates, booking window and meeting length.
19. Level 19: Fault: Classic Outlook Profile Won't Connect
    Learners work through a classic Outlook profile that keeps asking for a password, shows 'disconnected' or won't load. They check causes in order (sign-in, Autodiscover, a corrupt profile) and finish with a fix, a confirmation and a note to the user.
20. Level 20: Fault: New Outlook Problems
    Learners handle new Outlook faults, including sign-in and account sync problems, missing features compared with classic Outlook, and users switching between the two. They work out whether the cause is the client, the account or a tenant-wide setting.
21. Level 21: Offline Cache and OST Faults
    Work through faults in classic Outlook's offline cache: the symptom, the likely causes in order, read-only checks on cache mode, the sync slider and OST size, then a safe rebuild and how to confirm it worked.
22. Level 22: Shared Mailbox Doesn't Appear in Outlook
    Diagnose a shared mailbox that is missing, or appears and disappears, in classic or new Outlook by checking permissions, automapping, replication delay and client behaviour in a fixed order.
23. Level 23: Send As and Send on Behalf Failures
    Resolve 'you do not have permission to send' bounces and messages that go out with the wrong sender, using permission checks, the From field the user picked and the way the client caches names.
24. Level 24: Calendar and Delegate Sync Faults
    Troubleshoot delegates who can't see or act on meeting requests, missing or duplicate meetings and shared calendars that don't update, in both classic and new Outlook.
25. Level 25: Full Mailbox: Can't Send or Receive
    Handle the 'mailbox full' ticket from the warning stage to the stage where mail stops, using the quota thresholds, folder sizes, the Recoverable Items folder and the archive.
26. Level 26: Missing Items That Were Never Deleted
    Find mail and folders the user says have vanished but are really hidden by views, filters, Focused Inbox, inbox rules, a mistaken move or sync settings.
27. Level 27: Message Trace in the Exchange Admin Centre
    Run a message trace in the new admin centre experience and read the results and message details to answer 'did it arrive, and if not, where did it stop?'.
28. Level 28: Get-MessageTraceV2 and the 10-Day Window
    Trace mail from Exchange Online PowerShell with Get-MessageTraceV2 and Get-MessageTraceDetailV2, working within the rule of 90 days of history but no more than 10 days per query.
29. Level 29: Decoding NDRs and Bounce Codes
    Read a non-delivery report the way support should: who generated it, the enhanced status code, and the likely cause and fix for the bounces you will see most often.
30. Level 30: Reading SPF, DKIM and DMARC Results
    Read message headers and Authentication-Results to explain why mail was junked, rejected or flagged as spoofed, without redesigning the domain's DNS or policy.
31. Level 31: Reviewing and Releasing Quarantine
    Find a quarantined message, read why it was held, and release it, preview it or request release within the quarantine policy and the role you hold.
32. Level 32: Handling User-Reported Phishing
    Follow a reported message from the user's Report button through the user-reported settings and the Submissions page to a verdict and a reply to the user.
33. Level 33: Spam Policy Effects as Support Sees Them
    Explain why a message landed in Junk, in quarantine or in the inbox by reading the spam verdict, the tenant allow and block lists and the user's own safe and blocked senders.
34. Level 34: Spotting a Compromised Mailbox in Inbox Rules
    Recognise the mailbox-level signs of account compromise, such as hidden forwarding rules, rules that delete or move mail, and unexpected forwarding settings, and contain them without destroying the evidence.
35. Level 35: Recovering Deleted Items
    Recover deleted mail, calendar items and folders from Deleted Items and Recoverable Items, from the user's side and the admin's side, within the retention window and any holds.
36. Level 36: Leavers' Mailboxes: Convert, Delegate, Forward
    Process a leaver's mailbox in a safe order: block sign-in, convert to shared, give access to the manager, set forwarding or an auto-reply, then remove the licence, with each step checked against current limits.
37. Level 37: Reading Holds and Inactive Mailboxes
    Read whether a mailbox is under litigation hold, retention policy or eDiscovery hold, and what that means for deleting a leaver and for inactive mailboxes.
38. Level 38: Where Support Stops: Third Line and Microsoft
    Draw the line between what first and second line resolve, what goes to third line or the security and compliance teams, and what needs a Microsoft service request.
39. Level 39: Building the Evidence Packet
    Put together an escalation that third line or Microsoft can act on straight away: scope, timeline, identifiers, traces, headers, command output and what has already been tried.
40. Level 40: Final Challenge: The Mail and Calendar Ticket Queue Exam
    Triage a queue of realistic tickets drawn from the whole course: delegation, calendars, Outlook faults, bounces, quarantine, phishing, recovery and leavers. Resolve or escalate each one and write a note for each.

Access

The first 2 levels are free with a free account. Every level, the podcast edition and the AI tutor come with All Access at £4.99/month or any Creator plan — see pricing.

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