This release is about removing friction from some of the most important — and often most inconsistent — admin tasks in Microsoft 365. Configuring tenant‑level features like branding or organization news shouldn’t require scripts, guesswork, or deep platform knowledge. Now, with Configuration Templates, those setups become guided, repeatable, and much easier to get right.
Imagine setting up Brand Center or enabling Organization News in minutes, with clear guidance based on your tenant’s current state — not digging through documentation or running PowerShell commands.
This means less time troubleshooting and more time making sure the experience across SharePoint and Office apps is consistent, trusted, and ready to use.
New Configuration Templates
We’re introducing a new class of templates — Configuration Templates — designed to help admins safely and consistently configure Microsoft 365 at the tenant level.
Unlike intranet or workspace templates, these do not create content structures. Instead, they focus on configuring features, assets, and settings directly in the tenant.
Configuration Templates enable:
Feature enablement — turning on and aligning key Microsoft 365 capabilities
Asset setup — configuring elements such as branding, templates, and shared resources
Policy configuration — applying consistent, repeatable tenant-wide settings
Each template provides a guided experience with clear outcomes and direct access to the configured environment, making complex setups easier to execute and standardize.
Brand Center Template — guided, tenant-aware setup
The existence of “Brand Center” is one of the dimensions assessed in Workspace Integrity, for its relevance in ensuring branding is distributed consistently across Microsoft 365.
Surprisingly, many tenants still have it only partially configured or not configured at all. The new Brand Center template reviews the current state of Brand Center in Microsoft 365 and guides admins through the next steps, making setup clearer and easier to complete.
The wizard adapts its guidance based on the tenant’s current setup:
No Brand Center and no Organization Asset Library exist yet.
An Organization Asset Library already exists, but Brand Center is not configured.
Brand Center exists, but asset libraries still need to be added and registered.
This helps admins move from an incomplete setup to a ready-to-use experience, so approved logos, images, and templates can surface more consistently in SharePoint and supported Office apps.
Organization News Template — guided, script-free setup
Enable trusted, high-visibility news across SharePoint — without PowerShell.
Microsoft 365 allows organizations to designate specific SharePoint sites as Organization News Sites, giving their news posts elevated visibility and a distinct visual treatment across the tenant. This ensures that important announcements come from trusted sources and stand out wherever news is consumed.
Traditionally, marking a site as an Organization News Site required PowerShell commands, creating friction and limiting adoption. This template removes that barrier by providing a guided, UI-based experience that allows authorized administrators to enable the feature safely and consistently.
Dark Mode Support for SharePoint Catalog
Improved visual experience in low-light environments. The SharePoint Catalog now supports dark mode, providing:
Better visual consistency across the interface
Improved comfort when working in low-light conditions
A more seamless experience for users who prefer dark themes
Replace Connections in Existing Automations
Automations can now continue when an existing connection becomes invalid and cannot be recovered—such as when trial-based connections to services like Jira or ServiceNow expire.
Admins can replace the broken connection with a new one directly within the automation, avoiding the need to recreate workflows and ensuring continuity.
Conclusion
With this release, we’re making a clear shift: from complex, manual configuration to guided, outcome-driven setup. Whether you’re standardizing branding or making sure important updates reach the right people, these templates help you move faster — and with more confidence.
This is just the beginning. We’ll keep expanding this approach to more areas of Microsoft 365, so admins can spend less time figuring things out and more time improving the workspace experience for everyone.