Microsoft releases Office 2016 Technology Preview, which will be released in the second half of the year

At Convergence 2015 in Atlanta today, Microsoft released a technical preview of Office 2016 (Windows desktop) and Skype (Commercial edition). Office 2016 is expected to be officially released in the second half of the year, while Skype for Business is likely to be launched in the first half.

After months of Windows Office 2016 private beta preview, Microsoft is today a further open preview for Office365 business users, especially IT pros and developers interested in this version of Office. According to a January Microsoft plan, Office 2016 will be officially released in the fall of the second half of this year, and the tablet and mobile phones installed in all Windows 10 systems are free of charge.

According to the Microsoft Official blog, the major improvements that Office 2016 has made for IT pros and developers include a lack of detail about end-user-oriented feature enhancements, due to the Technology Preview version. ）：

Data loss Protection (DLP): DLP previously only in Exchange, Outlook, OneDrive commercial version and SharePoint, Microsoft this time to apply it to Word, Excel and Powerpoin above. Administrators can centrally create and manage implementation content authoring and document sharing policies. If the application detects behavior that violates the policy, the end user will receive hints about sharing restrictions.

Outlook

Mapi-http protocol-New Office will replace RPC based synchronization with this protocol, MAPI-HTPP is relatively more suitable for the Internet and supports exchange/outlook connections.

Multi-factor authentication-outlook integrates Active Directory authentication Library (Adal) to support multiple factor authentication, and security is enhanced.

Message performance Improvements-download messages, display mailing lists, and shorten the time to show new messages from hibernation.

Storage configuration Lean-the time to keep mail on the device can be more flexible, providing 1, 3, 7, 14, 30 days of choice.

Search-outlook Search reliability, performance, availability are improved, FAST based search engines are integrated into Exchange.

Provides spot-and-deploy functionality for Office 365 users with improved deployment capabilities for Office 365. Major improvement points include:

Network traffic Management-use Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) to prevent network congestion and BITS to dynamically schedule network usage.

Enhanced distribution Management-integrates with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) to download and distribute Office reading updates more efficiently.

Flexible update Management-in addition to the General Security update exception, administrators can control the frequency of upgrades and patches to receive features.

Simplified activation Management-office 365 Admin Portal allows administrators to manage user's device activation.

Information Rights Management (IRM)-extends to Visio, while supporting offline, online Visio graphics protection.

Microsoft also released today a Skype for Business Technology Preview, a Skype for Business with demos, IM, voice and video telephony features that will become part of the Office 2016 suite in the future, It shows that Microsoft is aware of the important role of communication and collaboration in office. In addition, last November Microsoft announced that it would use Skype for Business to replace the original Lync, according to the plan, the Skype for Business will be launched in the first half of 2015.

To download Office, you need to register your business files on Microsoft Connect. Skype can be downloaded directly to Microsoft TechNet Evaluation Center.

[Source: blogs.office.com, venturebeat.com]