All knowledge base posts in Microsoft Community Hub

How do I close my Microsoft Tech Community Account?

Allen — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 17:22:23 GMT

To close your Microsoft Tech Community account, you can follow these steps:

Go to the Microsoft Tech Community website and sign in to your account.
Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner of the page.
Select My Settings from the dropdown menu.
Click on the Privacy tab.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Close Account button.
Follow the instructions to confirm that you want to close your account.

When you close your account all your posts will be anonymized and your profile will be removed from our system. You will be unable to login again with the same account for up to 72 hours.

Note: Once you have requested to close your account it can not usually be stopped and its not possible recover a deleted account. For this reason the steps to close your account require you to confirm this is your intend.

Closing your Microsoft Tech Community Account does not impact your access to other Microsoft Products or Services.

If you have any questions or concerns about this topic please contact our team.

Note: We can not assist you with queries relating to other Microsoft products or Services, please post these questions in the corresponding Community Hub or contact support.

Adding the Microsoft Tech Community to your safe senders list

Allen — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 15:34:45 GMT

Outlook 2016 and later
Outlook.com
Gmail
Yahoo Mail
Apple Mail

Outlook 2016 and later:

Open Outlook and go to the Home tab.
Click on the Junk dropdown menu and select Junk E-mail Options.
Go to the Safe Senders tab.
Click on the Add button.
Type in Notifications@CommunityHub.Microsoft.com and click OK.

Outlook.com:

Open Outlook.com and go to Settings (gear icon).
Select View all Outlook settings.
Go to Junk email > Safe senders and domains.
Type in Notifications@CommunityHub.Microsoft.com and click Add.

Gmail:

Open Gmail and go to Settings (gear icon).
Select See all settings.
Go to the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.
Click on Create a new filter.
In the From field, type in Notifications@CommunityHub.Microsoft.com.
Click on Create filter.
Check the box next to Never send it to Spam.
Click on Create filter again.

Yahoo Mail:

Open Yahoo Mail and go to Settings (gear icon).
Select More Settings.
Go to Filters.
Click on Add new filters.
In the From field, type in Notifications@CommunityHub.Microsoft.com.
In the To field, type in your email address.
Click on Save

Apple Mail

Open Apple Mail.
Click on Mail in the top menu bar and select Preferences.
Click on the Junk Mail tab.
In the Junk Mail tab, click on the Add button.
Enter the email address Notifications@CommunityHub.Microsoft.com in the Email Address field.
Click on OK.

My name shows up as null null, why is this and how do I fix it?

Allen — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 14:43:54 GMT

Applies To:

All users where their name shows as "null null"

Roles Required:

Any

Occasionally when users register with the Microsoft Tech Community, their First and last names will show up as null null. This typically happens for one of a handful of reasons:

The first and last name fields of the identity provider have not been filled in.
A recently created account in AAD sometimes has not yet fully propagated to the Microsoft Graph API.
An error occurred during registration.

How to fix it?

For issue 1, the fix is to either go to your Microsoft Account page and enter the missing details or contact your Office 365 / Microsoft 365 admin and request they complete these details for you. Which of these options is appropriate for you will depend on if you're using a personal account or an account provided by your employer.

Once these details have been updated then use this login link, it will force the system to try to refresh your profile data from the Microsoft Graph.

For issue 2, the only option is to wait a minimum of 8 hours and then use this link to login.

Finally for issue 3, try using this login link to force a refresh and if it still doesn't work - see below.

Further help

Ok, so you have tried all of the above and it is still not working? then you can email the Microsoft Tech Community Team and we will usually get back to you with in 1 business day*.

When you do contact us please provide the following information:

Name:

e-mail address you are trying to register with:

Link to your profile:

Any additional details or comments:

*The Microsoft Tech Community Team are not available during US Holidays.

Microsoft Tech Community Guidelines

Meenah_Khosraw — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 17:53:05 GMT

The mission of our online community is to provide a platform for IT admins, developers, MVPs, and Microsoft employees to interact. We want Tech Community to be a central destination for education and thought leadership on product news, best practices, and live events.

Get started by signing in. You'll need a Microsoft email to register (@outlook, @hotmail, @live, etc.) For help with creating a Tech Community account, follow these steps.

Here are some guidelines and helpful tips to keep in mind when interacting across Tech Community:

DO:

Be positive, kind, and courteous. Be friendly with others on the network. Feel free to provide feedback but keep it constructive.
Be interactive - “Like” posts and ask questions!
Browse our list of Community Hubs for the products you’re most interested in and join discussion conversations. Community Hubs are where most of the conversations happen.
Post your question or comment in the applicable community! Is your question about Exchange? Post it to the Exchange group. Using labels like “SharePoint” and ”Microsoft 365” help people understand what product or topic you’re talking about.

Not sure where to post? Post your question or comment in our Community Lounge in the Tech Community Discussion space, and one of our community admins will assist in finding the right Community Hub to post to.

If you ask a question and a posted answer worked for you, select “Mark answer as best response.” This helps resolve the thread, so other community members and visitors know you received the answer you were looking for.
Search before you post! There is a chance that your question has already been answered. The search bar at the top of the site is very useful, so take advantage of it.
Keep private stuff private. Make sure if you post confidential information, you do so responsibly and in the correct place.
Add a profile photo and complete your profile! It’s quick, easy, and helps identify your expertise and role to other community members and visitors.
Adjust your email notification preferences. Click on your profile photo in the upper right corner, go to My Settings > Subscriptions & Notifications > Notification Settings to set your preferred notifications.
Invite others to the community! Use the following short link: http://aka.ms/mstechcommunity.

DON’T

Post support or break/fix questions. The best place to get product support is the Microsoft Answers community: http://answers.microsoft.com/. If you’re an IT admin, you can also open a support ticket through the Microsoft 365 admin center. Opening a support ticket is the best way to track an issue and ensure it gets escalated as needed so you’re back up and running as quickly as possible.
Post solicitation, third-party links, content-free posts, or spam. First-time offenders will be given a warning, but future offenses may result in a temporary or permanent account ban. However, we have a zero-tolerance policy on spam. Violators who break the no spam rule will be permanently banned from the community on multiple instances of spamming.
Don’t post personal information about yourself or anyone else, such as email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, etc. If you want to connect with another community member or employee, ask for their permission to send them a direct message through our site’s Private Message feature.

Note: These guidelines outlined above still apply to private messages.

Be negative. We welcome constructive feedback here, but don’t post personal or harassing remarks, sarcasm, or blame; it’s not helpful.
Use crazy fonts, profanity, or ALL CAPS. Not only are these things inappropriate, but they’re also unnecessary.
Wander off topic. Don’t post about religion, politics or other things that don’t belong here. We do have a dedicated space designed to be an online version of an office water cooler called, Away From Keyboard. However, the rule of no religion, politics and other taboo topics still applies here. Keep it light and fun!
Share content from a private group. Respect your colleagues and our acceptable usage policy, and don’t share confidential information outside the community’s private groups.
Harvest user data. Some members may share personal information here. If you spam members from this network, Microsoft may take legal action.

Badging rings

You will notice that some community members have colored rings around their profile photos. This means they were awarded a specific badge. Here is a breakdown of each badging ring:

Microsoft employees are designated with a blue ring. Like you, they are members of the community with expertise in specific Microsoft products. We encourage them to share their knowledge, expertise, and opinions, and interact with other members on this platform.

Community Managers are designated with a red ring. We are here to encourage conversation, event participation, provide direction, answer general community questions, and keep the community a healthy and fun place for everyone.

MVPs are designated with a green ring. They are recognized technology experts who passionately share their knowledge and expertise with the community.

Similarly, you may notice badges and ranks next to usernames. Badges are achievements you can “unlock.” Ranks, such as MVP, can either be assigned or earned through community participation.

Microsoft Tech Community Feedback & Ideas

This is a community designed for you! If you have feedback or ideas about the Microsoft Tech Community website, please post them in our Tech Community Ideas space.

Flag inappropriate content for review

Tech Community is a big online community that continues to grow, so our admin team doesn’t always see everything to moderate accordingly. This is where you, the community member, can help! If you see any violation of these guidelines or our Terms and Conditions, please report the post by clicking the … button on the top right of the message, select Report Inappropriate Content, and provide a reason for why you think it’s inappropriate, such as if it breaks one of the guidelines outlined above.

If you have any questions about our guidelines, Terms and Conditions, or policies, email our team.

Thanks for being part of the Microsoft Tech Community! To learn how to get started, check out our Getting Started Guide.

Getting Started on the Tech Community

EmilyPerina — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 21:23:28 GMT

How to Sign In

1. Click ‘Sign In’ at the top of the home page.

2. Enter in your email address and password. You can choose one of the options below:

Use your Microsoft Account (MSA) which could be an @outlook.com; @live.com, @hotmail.com or other personal email address that you have set as a Microsoft account.

Use the email address associated to your Office 365 or Azure account, which could be your work email address.

Selecting Communities to Join

Open the Communities page by clicking on the “Community Hubs” in the left dropdown menu. Select at least one product or community to join. You can also search for specific communities using the search bar. You can join more communities at any time.

Completing Your Profile and Connecting Social Media Profiles

Changing an Avatar

Click on the default avatar at the top right of the navigation bar and select “My Settings”.

Click the ‘Avatars’ tab.
Click ‘Upload an Avatar’ to add your own photo.

Avatar Badging Rings

You might notice some community members have colored rings are their avatars. This means they were awarded a specific badge. Here is a breakdown of each badging ring:

Blue ring - Microsoft Employee
Red ring - Community Manager
Green ring - MVP

Create a Bio

Click your avatar at the top right of the navigation bar and select “My Settings”.

Click on “Personal Information’, under the Personal tab.
Provide your organization’s name, your title, bio, and other details about yourself. When finished, click ‘Save’.

Add Social Media Accounts

You can also add your social media accounts to your profile in ‘Personal Information’ under the personal tab.

Click on ‘Social Media Profiles’.

Add URLs linking to your social media profiles, then click ‘save’.

Managing Preferences, Subscriptions and Notifications

Subscriptions to blogs and spaces enables you receive an email notification when a new blog or post has been published. You will automatically be subscribed to topics you participate in. See the guidance below on managing subscriptions.

Setting Preferences

You will automatically be subscribed to topics you participate in. To disable this, click your avatar at the top right of the navigation bar and select ‘My Settings’.

In the ‘Preferences’ Tab, deselect ‘Automatically subscribe me to topics or reviews I participate in.’

Manage Subscription Notifications

Click on the ‘Subscriptions & Notifications’ tab.
To customize notifications, click on ‘Notification Settings’.

Subscribe or Follow Blogs or Spaces

You can also choose what blogs and discussion spaces you would like to subscribe to or follow.

Within the blog or discussion space, click the Subscribe or Follow button on the task bar.

For more information on Contributing to the Community, please visit the supporting article. - Contributing to the Community - Microsoft Tech Community

Contact us

Have community related questions? Reach out to us at TechCommunity@microsoft.com.

Have feedback or ideas for the community experience? Let us know in the Community Lounge!

Contributing to the Community

Trevor_Rusher — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 20:03:53 GMT

Here is a quick guide on how you can start interacting and engaging on Tech Community! Enjoy

How to Ask a Question

1. Click on the 'Community Hubs' dropdown menu on the navigation bar

2. Click on the Product Hub that best fits your question or idea (if your topic is not listed on the most Active Hubs, be sure to check out the Special Topics or Browse All Community Hubs)

3. Select the appropriate space within the Community to post your question or idea

4. Click the 'Start a New Conversation' button

5. Fill out the Subject and Message (Title and Body) sections of your conversation. Add a label (or a few) that best fits your message topic. Then click “Post” to publish your conversation.

Engaging with Posts

1. Like posts by clicking on the thumbs-up icon at the bottom of the post

2. Reply to posts by clicking the reply button, either in the main feed or on the post directly

3. Share posts by selecting the other platform icons on the right

Note: Selecting ‘Reply’ will open the simple text response box. Clicking the ‘Open Full Text Editor’ button will open the rich text editor. In this editor you can include graphics, hyperlinks, media, and styling in your reply, in addition to being able to control your subscription to the thread, add tags, and upload relevant files. When you are finished, click “Post” to publish your response.

Sending a Private Message

1. Click on the profile picture or name of the member you want to private message

2. Click the 'Message' button in the top right. This will open up a text editor just like the one used for posting above. Follow the same instructions!

Subscribe to a Community Board

1. On the Community of your choice, select the 'three dots' dropdown menu and select 'Subscribe to RSS Feed' to receive notifications for posts in community/space you selected.

I have received an email from the Microsoft Tech Community, is it legitimate?

Allen — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 11:53:59 GMT

Updated: January 12th, 2024

Applies To:

Community Notificiations

All email notifications from the Microsoft Tech Community are delivered from the email address NoReply@CommunityHub.Microsoft.com.

We will never ask for personal information, or to confirm your account or password via email. Also, although links from the Microsoft Tech Community will always point to websites owned by Microsoft, as a community forum where users can post content, we would encourage you to treat any emails with links with caution.

If you are unsure, feel free to send your email to the Microsoft Tech Community Team and we will be happy to validate it.

Please note, our team can only help with issues you maybe having with the Microsoft Tech Community itself. If you have a product support question please either post in the correct forum or contact https://support.microsoft.com

Using Search in this community

Allen — Fri, 21 May 2021 19:56:35 GMT

We use an open source search tool that supports several standard search functions: Stemming, Boolean operators, and Wildcards .

Stemming
Stemming enables a search engine to compare the roots of search terms to community content. For example, if a user enters “speakers” as the query, the search engine reduces the word to its root “speak” and returns all content containing the root such as “speaking”, “speaker”, and “speaks”.

Boolean operators are used in keyword searches to combine or exclude search terms. We support these basic Boolean operators:

The OR operator is used by default, meaning that if there is no Boolean operator, the OR operator is used. To search for documents that contain either “bose reviews” or “speaker reviews” use the query bose reviews speaker reviews or bose reviews OR speaker review. You can use the symbol || in place of OR.
The AND operator matches documents where both terms exist in the text of a single document. The symbol && can be used in place of the word AND.
To search for documents containing “car speakers” and “bose” use the query car speakers AND bose.
The + operator requires the term you enter after the + symbol to exist somewhere in the field of a single document. To search for documents that must contain “bose” and may contain “car” use the query +bose car.
The NOT operator excludes documents that contain the term after NOT. The symbol ! can be used in place of the word NOT. To search for documents that contain “headphones” but not “bose” use the query headphones NOT bose. The NOT operator can only be used with a single term. For example, the term bose speakers will return no results.
The - operator excludes documents that contain the term after the – symbol. To search for documents that contain “car speakers” but not ”bose” use the query car speakers -bose.

Wildcard search
Wildcard searches are used as a placeholder for any sequence of characters or words. You can use single character or multiple character wildcard searches within single terms (not within phrase queries).

To perform a single character wildcard search use the ? symbol.For example, to search for text or test you can use the search te?t.
To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the * symbol. For example, to search for test, tests or tester you can use the search test*.

Why should I join the Microsoft Tech Community?

Christine Karambelas — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 21:57:39 GMT

Question

Why join the Microsoft Tech Community?

Answer

The Microsoft Tech Community is a public community where Microsoft employees, product superfans, MVPs, IT Pros, and tech enthusiasts share tips & best practices about Azure, Microsoft 365 and more. The Microsoft Tech Community provides cutting edge product news, an opportunity to share feedback on Microsoft products, invitations to events, how-to guidance, and a platform for collaborating with other technologists.

Become a member of the Microsoft Tech Community to discover and discuss technology solutions with Microsoft engineers, acquire new skills, learn from innovative product use cases, give and receive technical guidance, and enjoy support and encouragement from other technologists.

Browse a Community Hub – We have over 80 Community Hubs, focused on Microsoft Products and Special Topics.
- Collaborate with peers, Microsoft MVPs and Microsoft Professionals in a discussion space.
- Get help and responses to questions and feedback from Microsoft Product teams and MVPs.
- Join AMA (Ask Microsoft Anything) events to ask questions and provide feedback directly to Microsoft product teams. Our AMAs are one-hour online forums. See upcoming AMAs on our home page.
- See the latest news, product feature updates, and how-to guidance in blog posts.
- Share product improvement ideas in an idea space.
Watch product sessions and resources in our Video Hub.
Discover and share interesting events in our Community Events page.
Get product training and certifications with Microsoft Learn. Check out the Microsoft Learn tab on our home page. Share your learning experiences and get the latest updates in the Microsoft Learn Community.
Find more information and resources about the Microsoft Tech Community in the Community Lounge.

Tagging users - etiquette

Eric Starker — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 16:51:36 GMT

So, there’s been some discussion and confusion about tagging other users in forum posts. While we do not have any absolute rules about this, I’d like to clarify a few things about when and when it is not appropriate to tag a user.

If you respond to a post, you will automatically tag the original poster. While you can remove this tag, it’s not the same as intentionally adding a tag and doesn’t really apply to this etiquette document.
When you do decide to tag a user, think about why you are doing so. Here are a few tips along those lines:

If you are responding to a thread that already includes that user, they will see the response regardless of a tag.
If you are in a space managed by Microsoft employees, such as Edge Insiders, no need to tag them as they are already monitoring that space, and probably your post.
If you need to reach members of our Tech Community team, it’s much more efficient to email us at techcommunity@microsoft.com which is our official support mechanism, than to tag us in posts.
If the product has a support channel located elsewhere, better to reach out to that support channel as tagging a Microsoft employee will not guarantee you a timely answer.
If a user indicates they would rather not be tagged, please respect their decision and don’t tag them in the future.

We do not have a rule against tagging other users but we recommend doing so with caution, Give users the chance to respond, as a tag can come across as “poke, are you still there?” Think of tagging as a last resort or emergency mechanism if you have an inquiry without a response for a long period of time (over a week) or a time-sensitive emergency.

If you have any questions or concerns about these guidelines, feel free to reach out to our team at techcommunity@microsoft.com.

I'm having trouble with Microsoft Tech Community. What's the best way to reach out?

Eric Starker — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 17:43:45 GMT

While our aim is to provide you with a perfect, trouble-free, smooth experience in the Microsoft Tech Community, realistically, we know that's not always possible. So what's the best way to reach out?

Here are a few scenarios and the best way to handle each one.

Someone posted a spam message.

On the right side of the message, there's a drop-down arrow with options. Click "Report Inappropriate Content," and offer the context (indicating it's spam). Our team reviews these posts on a daily basis and will consider and remove any messages we confirm to be spam.

Someone is being abusive or rude.

Similarly as per above, "Report Inappropriate Content" is your best bet in this scenario. Please note we have a Code of Conduct if you have any doubt about whether content is appropriate.

I'm having technical issues with the community.

Reach out to techcommunity@microsoft.com and we'll be able to help you.

I have general questions about Tech Community.

If you have questions about the Tech Community or elements of it, we recommend posting in our Community Discussion space.

I have some ideas on how to improve Tech Community.

We have a Community Ideas board where we track suggestions and feedback. This is the best place to submit it as we'll take into consideration suggestions based on amount of upvotes and interest.

What not to do:

Please don't escalate any conflict. If someone is being abusive or rude, please report it and let us handle it.

Please do not tag individual Microsoft employees in posts or comments. If a Tech Community thread has gone dormant for a significant period of time unanswered (a thread which requires one), feel free to reach out to techcommunity@microsoft.com and we can do our best to reach out to the appropriate team.

Thanks! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) Guidelines

Eric Starker — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 19:30:08 GMT

An Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) is the same as an “Ask Me Anything (AMA)” on Reddit,or YamJam on Yammer. It provides the opportunity for the community to ask questions and have a discussion with a panel of internal and external experts on a particular topic.

In order to get the best value out of this hour, here is an outline of how the flow of the AMA will go and some guidelines for etiquette.

There will be a panel of Microsoft experts as well as MVPs on hand to answer questions about product and strategy. They will be introduced at the beginning.
At the scheduled kick off time, an announcement will be made notifying group members that the AMA has started. Please respond to the initial welcome thread introducing yourself, but make sure you post your questions in a separate thread.
Please read through the threads before posting. Your question may have been answered already.
Be patient. The panel will try to get to every question, but some questions may go unanswered.
Please be polite and follow normal Community Etiquette (see our Code of Conduct for reference). Any personal attacks, inappropriate language, or promotional content will be deleted.
Please stay on topic. Discussions pertaining to other topics, products, or services belong in the appropriate group. If you would like to submit an idea for an AMA topic, please message one of the admins privately.
When the AMA period is over, the group will remain open so people can review the content and continue to reply to existing threads, but do not expect a prompt reply. The moderator will create a summary of the AMA and share it to the community in the days following the event.

Tips:

Use the "Reply" function to reply to an individual comment. This will make the thread much easier to follow.
You can hover over the “in reply to” portion of the comment to see the context.
If you are receiving too many emails or notifications, you can change your settings by going to Profile > My Subscriptions.

How to change my community identity? (username & full name)

Eric Starker — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:15:17 GMT

How do I change my community identity? (username & full name)

Changing your username

You can choose a new username by clicking your avatar at the top right, and clicking My Settings.

Alternatively you can also click this link.

User names can be between 4 and 40 characters in length and contain 0-9,a-z,A-Z, underscore (_) or hyphen(-). Usernames must be unique and if your desired username has been taken then you will be asked to choose another.

Note: users names with spaces and periods(.) are no longer supported.

Changing your full name

Your name is pulled into our system from your Microsoft account, so we aren't able to change it on our end.

If your account is using a personal email account, to change your name, update the name here, then log back into the community using this link.

If your account is using a work email account, you'll need to speak to someone in your organization who is an admin and have them update the name in the O365 User Admin panel. Then log back into the community using this link.

Can I merge or transfer the account I use to login to the Microsoft Tech Community

Eric Starker — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 21:15:09 GMT

I am using my employer's credentials to login to the Microsoft Tech Community but I am moving employers. Can I take my account with me?

Unfortunately, that's not possible. We're unable to change the email address on your account since your work owns the original email address.

What we can do is transfer over your contributor level (for example, Senior Member, Regular Contributor, etc.). A few roles and badges may be able to be transferred (Member of the Week, for example). Email us at techcommunity@microsoft.com and we can do this for you.

Please note we cannot transfer any of your contributions (discussion forum posts, etc.) from one account to another.

I'd like to change my email address on my account from one personal account to another (Outlook.com, etc.)

This is possible. You'll need to create a second account with the new email address, which will allow us to capture some login information to apply to the first account.

Once you've done this, email our team at techcommunity@microsoft.com and we can sort it for you.

Contact Us

Allen — Tue, 12 May 2020 21:34:10 GMT

Have community related questions? Reach out to us at TechCommunity@microsoft.com.

Note: we can not help you with product specific questions, please post your query in the relevant community or contact Microsoft Support.

Have feedback or ideas for the community experience? Let us know in the Community Discussion space!

Home Feed, Communities and Spaces

Allen — Tue, 12 May 2020 21:27:09 GMT

Home Feed

The Home Feed shares activity based on your Communities and Spaces you join. You can filter Home Feed news by Popular, Newest, Experts and Unanswered.

Communities

Communities are platforms that share news, discussions, blogs and ideas about Microsoft Products and Solutions. You can become a member of the Communities that matter most to you.

Spaces

Within each community are Spaces, which are subgroups of a community. They host discussion topics and ideas that relate to their Community.

Favorite Spaces
You can join and favorite Spaces most relevant to you, which will personalize your feed. Select Favorite Spaces by clicking on the heart in the right side of a Space's window.

To see a list of your favorite Spaces, click on the heart in the top right of your screen. You no longer need to go into the community to get to your favorite community spaces.

Managing Preferences, Subscriptions and Notifications

Allen — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 21:08:01 GMT

Subscriptions to blogs and spaces enable you to receive an email notification when a new blog or post has been published to what you are subscribed to. You will automatically be subscribed to topics you participate in. See the guidance below on managing subscriptions.

Setting Preferences

You will automatically be subscribed to topics you participate in. To disable this, click on your avatar at the top right of the navigation bar and select 'My Settings – Complete Profile'.
In the 'Preferences' Tab, deselect 'Automatically subscribe me to topics or reviews I participate in'.

Manage Subscription Notifications

Click on the 'Subscriptions & Notifications' tab.
To customize notifications, click on 'Notification Settings'.

Subscribe to Blogs or Spaces

You can also choose what blogs and spaces you would like to subscribe to.

Within the blog or space, hover the drop-down arrow next to 'Options' or 'Conversations', and then click 'Subscribe' in the drop down list.
To unsubscribe from a blog or space, hover the drop-down arrow next to 'Options' or 'Conversations', and then click 'Unsubscribe' in the drop down list.

Completing your profile & connecting social media profiles

Allen — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 20:48:16 GMT

Changing an avatar

Click on the default avatar at the top right of the navigation bar and select 'My Settings'.
Click the 'Avatars' tab.
Click 'Upload an Avatar' to add your own photo.

Avatar badging rings
You might notice some community members have colored rings around their avatars. This means they were awarded a specific badge. Here is a breakdown of each badging ring:
- Blue ring - Microsoft Employee
- Red ring - Community Manager
- Green ring - MVP

Create a bio

Click your avatar at the top right of the navigation bar and select “My Settings”.
Click on 'Personal Information', under the Personal tab.
Provide your organization’s name, your title, bio, and other details about yourself. When finished, click 'Save'.

Add social media accounts

You can also add your social media accounts to your profile in 'Personal Information', under the Personal tab.

Click on 'Social Media Profiles'.
Add URLs linking to your social media profiles, then click 'Save'.

What is my User ID?

Allen — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 16:31:10 GMT

From time to time you maybe asked to join closed communities, to help us add you quickly you will be asked to provide your Microsoft Tech Community User ID.

To find your Microsoft Tech Community User ID follow these steps:

Login to the Microsoft Tech Community
click your profile image in the top right (inside yellow box in image below)
Click Profile image top right, then My profile underneath
Next click My Profile (inside the green box on the image above)

Your User ID is the number at the end of the URL you have now landed on.

(Example: my profile is: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/10784 and so my User ID is 10784)

Yours should take the same format.

Privacy

Allen — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 22:56:27 GMT

When data is collected, we want to make sure it’s the right choice for you. To help you as an end user and a participant of this community to exercise your Data Subject Request (DSRs) rights under General Data Protection Regulations we provide the following functionalities. The below sections explain step by step process on how you can view, edit and delete your personal information (customer data). To learn more about the data collected by Microsoft and it’s use please view the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

View and Export personal data

To view all your data collected by Microsoft Tech Community:

Navigate to Microsoft Tech Community
Sign in by clicking “Sign In” link at the top right.
Once logged in, click on your profile avatar and select “My Profile” link.My Profile Link
You can view all information related to your activity with the Microsoft Tech Community.
You can update your profile, view things you have liked recently, your uploaded photos and using the filter in the My Activity tab to view:

Conversations you have started
Conversations you have replied to
Any replies that have been marked as “Best Response”
All Conversations you have interacted with.

You may also export their personal data in json format using below steps:

Navigate to "My Settings".

My Settings Link

Select “Personal information” from the second level menu.

Personal Information

Scroll to bottom of the page and click on the links under Download links:

Personal Information

In addition to personal data provided here, we also capture user’s interaction with the service, which includes the following:

Visits
Visits per Geo
Registration Date
Most recent sign in
Total sign ins
Total minutes online
Last visit IP address
Last logged in IP address
Roles
Search Terms
Device Type
OS/Browser config data
Page views
Bulk Data Location
Rank
Badges earned

Tech Community Account Closure

We have recently changed how you close your Microsoft Tech Community Account. You may now close your account directly from your user settings page when you are signed in. This will delete your profile and anonymize your posts. In accordance with our Terms of Use, we will not delete your posts entirely.

Exceptionally, you can also request your account closed by emailing our team. We will only close accounts via this method once we have confirmed your identity and that you are the account owner.

Note: Once an account deletion request has been completed, either by yourself or our team, it takes 72 hours before the same credentials can be used to login again and deleted accounts can not be recovered.

All knowledge base posts in Microsoft Community Hub

How do I close my Microsoft Tech Community Account?

Adding the Microsoft Tech Community to your safe senders list

Table of Contents

Outlook 2016 and later:

Outlook.com:

Gmail:

Yahoo Mail:

Apple Mail

My name shows up as null null, why is this and how do I fix it?

How to fix it?

Further help

Microsoft Tech Community Guidelines

Getting Started on the Tech Community

How to Sign In

Selecting Communities to Join

Completing Your Profile and Connecting Social Media Profiles

Managing Preferences, Subscriptions and Notifications

Contact us

Contributing to the Community

I have received an email from the Microsoft Tech Community, is it legitimate?

Using Search in this community

Why should I join the Microsoft Tech Community?

Question

Answer

Tagging users - etiquette

I'm having trouble with Microsoft Tech Community. What's the best way to reach out?

Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) Guidelines

How to change my community identity? (username & full name)

How do I change my community identity? (username & full name)

Can I merge or transfer the account I use to login to the Microsoft Tech Community

Contact Us

Home Feed, Communities and Spaces

Managing Preferences, Subscriptions and Notifications

Completing your profile & connecting social media profiles

What is my User ID?

Privacy

View and Export personal data

Tech Community Account Closure