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Tech Tip - How To Transcribe A Microsoft Teams Call

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Do you use Microsoft Teams to hold video and voice calls? Did you know you can get Microsoft Teams to transcribe your Teams call or video call, producing a recorded video and a document of the call transcript, attributing the text to each speaker during the meeting?

Here is how to do it:

First you must make sure you Microsoft 365 tenant has been configured to allow call transcribing to take place in Microsoft Teams.

NOTE: if you are unable to transcribe your meetings, call us on 01722 411 999 and we can help enable this feature.

You can enable transcription in one of two ways, either before the call takes place or in the call itself, below is how to turn it on both ways.

Turn on transcription before the call:
- Create a Teams call invite within Microsoft Teams, this gives you more options than if you create the invite from your Microsoft Outlook calendar, both will show in your Teams and Outlook calendar so it doesn't affect you by choosing the Teams client to make the meeting request.
- Give it a title, invite the attendees, set it as a Teams call and before sending the invite...
- Click on Meeting options, click on "Recording and Transcription", move the slider to enable "Record and Transcribe Automatically".
- Send the meeting invite.
- Hold the call, during the call, at the top left of your screen you will notice the red record light, you may also not see real time transcription on the right hand side of the teams call, but you can see transcription is taking place due to the record light.
Turn on transcription during a teams call
- Start a Teams call with your participants.
- At the top of the teams call, click on the More menu option, the three horizontal dots on the menu bar (...) .
- Select Record and Transcribe.
- Click on Start Transcription.

This will start the recording and transcription of the meeting but what it also does it turn off each participants camera and microphone and notifies them that the call is being transcribe, whilst also warning them that the call will be recorded so they must agree to this before they can enable their camera and mic, this way participants cannot be recorded against their wishes.

NOTE: a meeting will only be transcribed and take place if every participant has agreed to be recorded. It also means if a participant doesn't agree to be transcribed, they cannot participate in the meeting and will be an inactive member of the call, in other words, the can hear and see the meeting, they just can't take part, so no speech or be video is recorded from that person.

Hold the meeting as you would normally, the meeting organiser will also be able to see the meeting transcribed in real time in the meeting chat window on the right hand side of the call window.

When you finish the meeting, the video file and a document of the transcription will be saved into the meeting chat window in Team.

Microsoft CoPilot takes it to the next level

Did you know you can supercharge your call transcription by using Microsoft CoPilot AI?
Not only can you ask CoPilot to transcribe you meeting, you can also ask it to create you a meeting summary, create action points for attendees, it will even go so far as to list out anecdotes that happened in the meeting itself, so it can even distinguish between work and personal commentary in the meeting and separate those out as well.

Below is a CoPilot meeting summary (with some data redacted with xxxxxxxxx to remove personal details) from a Teams call to give an idea of how powerful it is:

Summary of the Meeting:

Introduction of Transcription and Copilot:

Speaker A explained the transcription feature in Teams and the capabilities of Copilot to summarise meetings and generate bullet points. He noted that AI-generated output might not be fully accurate and to check content after it is created.
Speaker C and Speaker B discussed the visibility of the transcript and how Speaker A, as the meeting owner, can share the content at the end.

Demonstration of Copilot Features:

Speaker A demonstrated Copilot's capabilities in Microsoft Edge, Word, and PowerPoint, showing how it can generate content quickly and accurately.
Speaker C expressed interest in using Copilot for presentations and xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx meetings, noting its potential to save time and improve productivity.

Licensing and Costs:

Speaker A discussed the licensing model for Copilot, including the ability to transfer licenses between users and the one-year commitment required.
Speaker B provided details on the pricing and subscription options for Copilot, including discounts for nonprofits.

Personal Anecdotes:

Speaker C shared updates about her granddaughter and her plans to xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx.
Speaker B and Speaker C discussed personal matters, including family updates and plans for a lunch meeting in xxxxxxxxxxx.

Action Items:

Speaker A to send written instructions on how to use the transcription feature in Teams and Word.
Speaker A to summarise the meeting using Copilot and send it to Speaker C.

If you would like more information or help with Microsoft Teams, Microsoft CoPilot or even both, please call us, on 01722 411 999, where we can arrange a demonstration, help with configuration and setup, licensing and supporting you moving forwards.

Tech Tip - How Monitoring And Maintenance Keeps Your Computers Secure

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was at a seminar once, where the speaker was talking about nipping a problem in the bud, deal with it whilst the problem is small, rather than let it grow and become more complex. He used a really good metaphor of describing a monster destroying a city, he asked if it would be easier to stop the monster when it was small, a baby, or would it be easier to let it grow big and try to stop it then whilst it is on a rampage destroying the city.

We all piped up it would be easier to deal with it whilst it was small. You may be wondering why I am going down this rabbit hole, what has this got to do with computers?

It's simple really, computers also suffer from problems, which, if left unchecked, can also grow into monsters that are much harder to tackle than if they were caught when they were small. This is why The Silver Cloud Business offers management and monitoring for our customers.

Management that allows your environment to be kept up to date, ensuring that software is current and that security patches are being applies to plug any vulnerabilities that hackers might exploit.
Monitoring that allows computers to be scanned to ensure their hardware is functioning correctly and to make any tweaks or replace anything that is failing before it becomes an issue, for example, we can detect if a hard disk is going to fail soon and can replace it before it fails and loses all its data, making it a far easier problem to resolve before it has failed than after.

The Silver Cloud Business offers two levels of monitoring and management, Basic and Premium.

Basic Management and Monitoring

This is where the computer hardware and the software they run are monitored and managed, patching industry standard applications from Microsoft and making sure the hardware is running as it should, making sure the hardware is running as it should, without any components failing.

Premium Management and Monitoring

This is a more comprehensive service, which covers off the computer hardware and software, with more comprehensive software management, encompassing all software deployed on your computers , but also encompasses the network infrastructure with vulnerability scanning at the perimeter (penetration testing) as well as Microsoft 365 vulnerability and configuration scanning, which also ensures your computers are compliant with Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, making and maintaining accreditation easy for your business.

These are very simplified descriptions of our monitoring and management service, if you would like more information, please call us on 01722 411 999 and we will happily provide more detail and a demonstration of how the service works.

Tech Tip - How To Get The Most Out Of Chatting with Microsoft Copilot

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Microsoft Copilot is such a powerful tool, it is easy to use, but it is also easy to use it badly so you don't get the best out of it. In simple terms, there are various versions, free in Windows 11, Web, cut down version included with Business Premium or a fully licensed that fully integrates with Microsoft 365.

Copilot is Microsoft's AI (Artificial Intelligence) digital assistant and like all AI tools it uses Large Language Models (LLM) which is a machine learning model that means it uses vast amounts of data to perform natural language processing tasks. LLMs can generate, translate, predict AND summarise text. LLMs also means the AI can also answer naturally worded questions and perform other tasks, just by asking.

Copilot's interface can be accessed via the web, in the Microsoft 365 applications, via your smart phone, smart watch or tablet and it will run on Windows and MacOS. Some computers even now come with a Copilot key on the keyboard, making access even quicker and easier. You can type your questions or if your hardware has a mic, speak to Copilot to ask what you need help with. If you have it licensed in your Microsoft 365 tenant it can also search through all of the information you have access to, including SharePoint, OneDrive, Emails, Teams chats etc.

Whilst this can be really useful, it can also be dangerous, so be careful how you use it. If you are privy to sensitive information you don't want to share, Copilot won't know this, so it could, inadvertently, access and use information it shouldn't when you ask it to do things, for example HR records, salaries etc, that it could use whilst generating your output. This is why it pays to ask the right way with Copilot and to verify the output each time.

Here are some tips on how to ask the right way to get the most out of Copilot:

Start off simple - when you first start out using Copilot, ask a simple question to begin with
When you get your first result from Copilot, start to tighten the result by asking for more specifics
Keep narrowing the results bit by bit to refine the results further
When you get close to what you want, it is time to ask Copilot for more options, whilst you may be happy with the result, Copilot can always come up with more suggestions and improvements that you may not even have thought of
Examine the output, just to make sure Copilot hasn't overshared information it has access to inside your organisation, Copilot loves to be helpful, but it often can't differentiate between what it should or shouldn't use so ALWAYS check the output before you share with others. Don't abdicate responsibility to Copilot!

For a bit of fun I am going to get ask Copilot in Microsoft Word to help me write a letter to the local council about missing a bin collection.

First, I asked Copilot a simple question "help me write a letter to the council about missing our bin collection"

Copilot responded with:

Letter to the Council Regarding Missed Bin Collection

[Your Name]

[Address]

Dear [Council's Name],

Re: Missed Bin Collection on [Specific Date]

The non-collection of bins has caused inconvenience, as the waste has begun to accumulate, potentially posing a health hazard. Our address is [Your Address], and this issue has affected not only our household but also several of our neighbours.

I kindly request that an immediate arrangement be made for the collection of the missed bins. Additionally, I would appreciate it if the council could investigate the cause of this oversight to prevent future occurrences.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. I look forward to a swift resolution.

Yours sincerely,

[Your Name]

Next I asked it to be more specific, tightening my criteria with more information with the following "can you add that we saw the truck but they drove past our house as if they were instructed to skip our address"

Letter to the Council Regarding Missed Bin Collection

[Your Name]

[Address]

Dear [Council's Name],

Re: Missed Bin Collection on [Specific Date]

I am writing to bring to your attention an issue regarding the missed collection of our bins on [specific date]. Despite placing the bins out for collection as per the usual schedule, they were not collected. On that day, we saw the collection truck drive past our house as if they were instructed to skip our address.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. I look forward to a swift resolution.

Yours sincerely,

[Your Name]

Lastly I have asked it for the option "Could you make it less formal and more fun" just to show what Copilot would do to the output to change it up based on my options with the following result:

Hey Council, What's Up with Our Bins?

[Your Name]

[Address]

Hey [Council's Name],

Re: Our Bins Didn't Get Picked Up!

Just wanted to give you a heads-up that our bins didn't get collected on [specific date]. We had them out like always, but the truck just cruised on by as if our house was invisible!

Now, we've got a pile-up of rubbish that's starting to look like a mini landfill. It's not just us – our neighbours are dealing with the same mess. We're at [Your Address], in case you need to know where to send help.

Could you please arrange for someone to grab our bins ASAP? And maybe check out why the truck decided to skip us? We'd really appreciate it!

Thanks a bunch for sorting this out. Looking forward to seeing the truck back soon!

Cheers,

[Your Name]

The above output was generated using the fully licensed version of Copilot, if you would like more information or help getting Copilot up and running, give us a call and we can happily assist with your business or organisation getting the most out of Copilot.

Tech Tip - Get Ready To Move To Windows 11 Before 14th Oct 2025

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Did you know that Windows 10 is running out of time?

Microsoft is retiring Windows 10 on 14th October 2025, when all support for the operating system will expire. If your business is using Windows 10, you need to upgrade or migrate to Windows 11 before this date to ensure your computers will continue to receive Microsoft feature upgrades and security updates, to ensure your business is safe from vulnerabilities.

If you would like help or advice, give us a call on 01722 411 999 and we will happily help, alternately here are some tips on how to prepare for Windows 11

How to prepare your business for Windows 11

Check your hardware is compatible with Windows 11. Windows 11 needs newer hardware to work, such as the Trusted Platform Module V2.0 (TPM 2.0) to ensure the device can be encrypted. You can download the Microsoft PC Health Check app from here: https://aka.ms/GetPCHealthCheckApp or alternately search for the Microsoft PC Health Check app and download the tool from Microsoft's website
Check all of the software you are running will still work with Microsoft Windows 11. You may need to reach out to the software vendors to check and see if the version you have is compatible or if you need to update the software as well. This can determine if you need to upgrade or migrate your computer to Windows 11
Check there are drivers for any special hardware connected to your computer, such as a scanner, camera or other device. Some computers are connected to other systems, for example, a dentist may have a computer connected to an X-Ray machine. There need to be Windows 11 compatible drivers for each device connected. Again, the hardware vendor website will list which operating system drivers they have for the device. The good news is most devices that work with Windows 10 will work with Windows 11 without issue, but it is best to check and test first!
Make sure you have a good backup your data before doing any upgrades to ensure it is safe, check your backup has worked, it is best to check you have a good copy of your data and not need it than to need it and find out there is no good backup.
Does your computer have enough resources, enough processing power and RAM, is the disk fast enough or is your computer still using an old mechanical drive. Is it going to be cost effective to upgrade your computer or has it reached the end of its life?

Why should you worry about Windows 10 going out of support?

Computer operating systems comprise of millions of lines of code, programmers have to cater for all of the different combinations of hardware out there, which means there can sometimes be security holes that are either missed or introduced by a new function or feature or even combination of hardware devices.

Once these issues are discovered, bad actors out there will try to exploit these holes in the operating system, which is why there are security updates released either every second Tuesday of the month (affectionately known in the industry as patch Tuesday) or, if the discovered security issue is significant, a zero day exploit path will be released outside of the usual patching schedule. It is imperative that these patches and updates are applied to your computer regularly to ensure it is protected.

Can we help?

Yes we can, the above steps may be a bit overwhelming to undertake prior to the upgrade or migration, this is even before the actual upgrade or migration process! We have been helping businesses prepare for operating system upgrades and can help yours, we can take the pain and hassle away and help your business ensure it is using a secure, supported environment. Give us a call on 01722 411 999 and we will help take away the pain of migrating to Windows 11.

Tech Tip - How To Keep ChatGPT Conversations Alive Whilst Switching Between Applications On Your Phone

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Did you know that you can keep ChatGPT conversations running on your device, even if you switch between applications or if you lock your phone. Here is an easy way to keep ChatGPT running in the background:

On your phone, open the ChatGPT application
Tap on the two line menu icon at the top left of the screen
Tap on your account name at the bottom of the screen to access the settings menu
Scroll through the menu until you find the VOICE MODE menu options
Enable the slider to the right of Background Conversations, turning the slider from Grey and to the left, to Green and to the right to show it is enabled
This allows you to continue talking with ChatGPT even when the phone is using a different application or if the phone is locked.
Once you have made this change, tap on the small X at the top of the screen to close the settings

To disable this feature, just go through the steps above but move the slider next to Background Conversations from Green and to the right, to Grey and to the left to turn the feature off.

NOTE: When using background conversation mode, ChatGPT will continue to listen and will offer answers to you, even if it is not what you want. For example if you are using background mode and then stop to have a conversation with someone else, ChatGPT will often offer up answers to chip in to the conversation! So whilst it is GREAT for helping you multitask and access information from ChatGPT whilst you are in other applications or having it in the background with your phone locked, it will always listen and it will offer up information when asked. I even asked ChatGPT what its wakeup phrase was and it told me to use "Hey ChatGPT", however, even without using this wakeup phrase, it was always listening, and kept on asking me if I needed help, like a very needy personal assistant.

So whilst this is a handy feature for multitasking, it is still invasive and never appears to go into a passive state until it is woken up. We found the only way to stop it listening was to turn the feature off after use, or you will have ChatGPT constantly asking if you need help or offering up unsolicited advice!

Tech Tip - How To Access The Start Button Quick Admin Menu

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There is an underused and often overlooked menu built into the Start Button in Windows that allows the computer user to quickly access a lot of admin features, and it is really useful if you have the right admin privileges.

To access the Quick Admin menu either right click the Start Button, or press the Windows key + X

This will bring up a pop-up menu showing options such as:

Power options
Device manager
Network connections
Disk manager
Task manager
Settings
Shutdown or sign out

To name but a few. This is a handy way to access these features, and more, quickly and easily without having to wade through various menu levels or opening applications to get to them. It is great if you want to sign out of the session quickly or if you want to run a command or search for something on the computer.

We would recommend having a look at this hidden menu to see how much it can do for you, and see if it can save you any time or help you become more efficient when using your PC.