Unannounced & Incomplete

Not even half a year after Microsoft Ignite, the company’s cheerful promises to keep its clients better informed of upcoming changes have hit yet another snag. The surreptitious retirement of Microsoft Azure AD Commands downloadable as a file didn’t just occur without fanfare—it came without, well, much of any announcement at all.

Microsoft Connect’s homepage now redirects to a Doc pointing users elsewhere. Unfortunately, this Doc doesn’t cover everything Connect once handled, leaving affected users feverishly searching for scripts and programs that to all appearances had vanished forever.

For one small example, version 1.1.166.0 of the Azure AD PowerShell commandlets are now only accessible through the new PowerShell Gallery. When, say, setting up a server, users could previously download the necessary files ahead of time and prep the server while offline. This was quite convenient, and for high-security situations it could be essential. In classic cloud style, the new method requires an internet connection to query Gallery before beginning setup—leaving a user with no offline alternative.

Microsoft is an enormous company, constantly updating, patching, and releasing programs and applications. But the issue with that is plain: no one can use those new updates and releases if no one knows about them.

For any readers also in search of these particular cmdlts, they can be found here.