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ms-900Fundamentals

Microsoft 365 Fundamentals

Microsoft 365 Certified: Fundamentals

MS-900 is breadth, not depth: what the services are, how they are licensed, and how Microsoft frames security and compliance. The explainers below cover exactly that ground in plain English. Read them in order and you will have the map the exam expects.

For: Buyers, project managers, sales and support staff, and new admins who need the vocabulary and the shape of the platform.

Official exam page and skills outline ↗
25 guides in 4sections. The sections are this site's grouping, written to follow the shape of the published skills outline; weightings and the current outline live on the exam page above and change between exam versions.

01What Microsoft 365 is and how it is sold

  1. 1What is Microsoft 365?What Microsoft 365 is: what's in the suite, who each plan is for, how the pieces fit together, and what changed since the Office 365 days.
  2. 2Microsoft 365 plans and pricingMicrosoft 365 plans and pricing, made navigable: Business Premium for SMB, E3 plus add-ons for enterprise, E5 when you'll use it — with every comparison.
  3. 3Microsoft 365 licensing models explainedHow Microsoft 365 is sold — direct, CSP, EA, MCA, NCE — and which model fits which organisation.
  4. 4Microsoft 365 for small businessHow to choose, set up, and run Microsoft 365 in a small business — the plan, the basics, and the security baseline.
  5. 5Microsoft 365 for enterpriseWhat changes when Microsoft 365 is deployed at enterprise scale — plans, identity, governance, and lifecycle.
  6. 6Microsoft 365 vs on-premises OfficeComparing Microsoft 365 to a traditional on-premises Office, Exchange, and SharePoint estate — and why the on-prem case is shrinking.
  7. 7Microsoft 365 vs Google WorkspaceMicrosoft 365 vs Google Workspace compared without marketing: feature by feature, where each wins, where it doesn't matter, and how the decision gets made.

02The core services

  1. 8What is Microsoft Teams?What Microsoft Teams is: chat, meetings, telephony, and collaboration in Microsoft 365, how it fits the platform, the licensing shape, and running it well.
  2. 9What is SharePoint?What SharePoint is: the platform behind Microsoft 365 file storage, team sites, intranets, Teams, and OneDrive — how it works and how to run it well.
  3. 10What is OneDrive?What OneDrive is: the personal file layer of Microsoft 365, how sync and Known Folder Move work, the OneDrive-vs-SharePoint rule, and what admins control.
  4. 11What is Exchange Online?What Exchange Online is: Microsoft 365's cloud email and calendaring, how it fits the platform, the security and compliance layers, and running it well.
  5. 12What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?What Microsoft 365 Copilot is: what it does in Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams, how grounding works, what it costs, and what to fix before rollout.
  6. 13Microsoft Intune and device managementMicrosoft Intune explained: what it manages, how policies work, how enrollment and compliance fit together, and where it sits in Microsoft 365.
  7. 14Windows 365 explainedWhat Windows 365 is: how Cloud PCs work, the licensing tiers, how it connects to Intune and Entra ID, and when it beats AVD or a physical laptop.

03Security, compliance, identity, and trust

  1. 15What is Microsoft Entra ID?What Microsoft Entra ID is: the identity service behind every Microsoft 365 sign-in, how it relates to Active Directory, and the licensing tiers that matter.
  2. 16Zero trust in Microsoft 365What zero trust actually means in a Microsoft 365 context — and the concrete controls that get you there.
  3. 17Which Microsoft Defender is whichWhich Microsoft Defender is which: Endpoint, Office 365, Identity, Cloud Apps, Business, XDR, Cloud, Antivirus — what each does and which licence gets it.
  4. 18What is Microsoft Purview?What Microsoft Purview is: labels, DLP, retention, eDiscovery, insider risk, and the data-governance catalogue — how the two halves differ and where to start.
  5. 19Microsoft 365 security and complianceA practical tour of the Microsoft 365 security and compliance stack — Defender, Purview, Entra, and how they fit together.
  6. 20Microsoft Service Trust Portal and compliance documentationWhere to find Microsoft's compliance certifications, audit reports, and data-handling commitments.
  7. 21Microsoft 365 tenant isolation and data residencyHow Microsoft 365 isolates tenant data, where it's physically stored, and the data residency commitments by region.

04Support, service health, and lifecycle

  1. 22Microsoft 365 service health and Message CenterHow to track Microsoft 365 service incidents and upcoming changes — and how to keep your organisation informed.
  2. 23Working effectively with Microsoft SupportHow to engage Microsoft Support for Microsoft 365 issues — preparing requests, severity, escalation, and what to expect.
  3. 24The Microsoft 365 Roadmap and feature previewsHow Microsoft surfaces upcoming features — the public Roadmap, Targeted Release, private and public previews.
  4. 25Microsoft FastTrackMicrosoft's deployment assistance service for eligible Microsoft 365 customers — what it covers and how to engage.

Independent site, not affiliated with Microsoft. Found a gap in this path? Send it through the contact form.