Office 365 – new admin center preview

Hi All,

In this article I’ll discuss the few changes (Admin friendly features) in new O365 Admin center preview.

There is new Office 365 admin center available which is in preview.

When we visit Office 365 Admin center (https://admin.microsoft.com/AdminPortal/Home#/homepage), option at right hand side in top bar cames –  “Try the preview” as

Figure 1: Office 365 – New Admin Center Preview: “Try the preview” option in current Admin Center

When we opt/select for this option, we redirected to new admin center which is in preview as

Figure 2: Office 365 – New Admin Center Preview

In above figure 2, there is new admin center in preview. I have marked the few changes with round shaped figure having black color.

Here we will discuss few interesting Admin friendly changes as

“Essentials” cards are movable now directly on the home page and those are remembered:

Here “Essentials” cards or cards which we add on home page are movable. Now those are not necessarily being in specific order.

Now I’ll move the “Billing” card to left side of “User management card” as

Figure 3: Office 365 – New Admin Center Preview – Cards are movable on home page it self

In current Admin center, these are cards are not draggable on home page. We need to click on top navigation “Customize your home”and then from there we could rearrange and add new cards as

Figure 4:Office 365 – Current Admin Center – Option for “Customizing home page”

“Edit” option on Navigation on left side:

At left side, in navigation pane when we click on “Edit” link it opens the panel to edit the navigation menu as

Figure 5: Office 365 – New Admin Center Preview – Editing navigation – options for left navigation

This option is handy, which allows to choose what options should be visible by default when admin logs in.By default, “Users”, “Groups”, and “Billing”options are selected as shown in above figure.

Also by default “Customized navigation pane” option is enable, Admin can disable this option. I couldn’t see this option in current admin center.

“+ Add card” option is available in the top at right side:

At right side on the top when we click on “+Add card” option, cards panel open from where we can drag and drop the respective cards as

Figure 6:Office 365 – New Admin Center Preview – “+Add card” option – drag and drop feature

This option at right side top corner is not available in current admin center but then their other option available.

This is the change in new admin center. Also Drag-Drop feature is not available in current admin centers, we need to click on the card to add.

“…Show more” option on Navigation on left side at the bottom:

One more interesting link is “…Show more” in the left side navigation as

Figure 7:Office 365 – New Admin Center Preview – “…Show more” option in left navigation

When we click on “… Show more” link,it opens all the menus but one new thing I’ll like to highlight here is “Admin centers” as

Figure 8: Office 365 – New Admin Center Preview – “All admin centers” option

and link “All admin centers” as shown in above figure. When we click on “All admin centers” link admin center page opens (https://admin.microsoft.com/AdminPortal/Home#/alladmincenters) and those are nicely rendered in the form of cards as

Figure 9:Office 365 – New Admin Center Preview – All Admin Center page

This option is not available in current admin center.

Finally, Admin could “Preview off” the preview any time from the same option available at right side corner in Top bar.

Thanks for reading 🙂

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