Microsoft 365 update – Now it is possible to disable the creation of new SharePoint 2013 workflows – Tenant level setting available

Hi All,

Greetings for the day 🙂 LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL 🙂

Today new update. I was browsing through Microsoft 365 Message Center and noticed the message related to SharePoint 2013 workflow for SharePoint Online so thought to share

Message / Update : SharePoint tenant admins and global admins may disable the creation of new SharePoint 2013 workflows in their tenant by using a new parameter, –StopNew2013Workflows, in the Set-SPOTenant PowerShell command

Details:

• To execute this PowerShell we need latest version of SharePoint Online PowerShell – 16.0.21513.12000 – which is shipped on 10 Aug 2021

Steps to verify latest version of SharePoint online PowerShell :

• Open the “SharePoint Online Management Shell“
• Use Get-Module PowerShell cmdlet to know the current version of SharePoint Online PowerShell

PS C:\> Get-Module -Name Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell | fl

Name              : Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell
Path              : C:\Users\u1086350\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell\16.0.21213.12000\Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell.dll
Description       : Microsoft SharePoint Online Services Module for Windows PowerShell
ModuleType        : Binary
Version           : 16.0.21213.12000
NestedModules     : {}
ExportedFunctions :
ExportedCmdlets   : {Add-SPOGeoAdministrator, Add-SPOHubSiteAssociation, Add-SPOHubToHubAssociation, Add-SPOListDesign...}
ExportedVariables :
ExportedAliases   :

• As in above image, it seems we do not have latest version of SharePoint Online PowerShell module
• Lets install the latest version using Install-Module PowerShell cmdlet

Install-Module -Name Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell -Force

Note – Here Force attribute will require “Install-Module” to update the latest version

OR

Update-Module -Name Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell

• Once latest version of SharePoint Online PowerShell updated we are ready to verify the new attribute “Stop2013NewWorkflows”
• We will use Get-SPOtenant PowerShell CMDLET to verify

PS C:\> Connect-SPOService

cmdlet Connect-SPOService at command pipeline position 1
Supply values for the following parameters:
Url: https://knowledgejunction1-admin.sharepoint.com

PS C:\> Get-SPOTenant

• Please notice default value for “StopNew2013Workflows” is false. This means developers / users by default can create new SharePoint 2013 workflows
• To disable / to stop the creation of new SharePoint 2013 workflows in SharePoint Online we can change the value of parameter “StopNew2013Workflows” to TRUE by Set-SPOTenant cmdlet

Set-SPOTenant -StopNew2013Workflows $TRUE

• After disabling the creation of new SharePoint 2013 workflows if developer / user tries to create the new SharePoint 2013 workflow from SharePoint designer 2013, we will get an error “The SharePoint admin has disabled the creation of new workflows. Existing workflows will continue to run“

Availability of this setting – This setting is available since late Aug 2021

Associated Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID : Roadmap ID 82078

Thanks for reading 🙂 STAY SAFE 🙂 STAY HEALTHY 🙂