March 2023 Updates for Power BI

First and foremost, after almost 10 years, support for Windows 8.1 ended on January 10 (why a Tuesday, no one seems to know!).  Accordingly, Microsoft will cease supporting Power BI Desktop on Windows 8.1 from the end of January 2024.  Thereafter, Power BI Desktop will only be supported on Windows 10 and later editions.  Furthermore, the January 2024 release of Power BI Desktop for Report Server will be the last release to support Windows 8.1, and this version will only receive security updates until January 2025 per Microsoft’s Modern Lifecycle Policy.

Moving on to the continuation of Power BI, in this latest release you’ll find On-object interaction, which allows you to right-click on a visual to access the Format pane and updates to the way you can apply slicers on your reports using a new ‘Apply all slicers’ button.  There’s also Multiple Audiences in the Power BI app, email subscriptions for scorecards and the General Availability of Storytelling in PowerPoint.

The full list is as follows:

Reporting

• ‘Apply all slicers’ button, ‘Clear all slicers’ button and ‘Optimization presets’ update
• New styling for the Format Pane
• On-object interaction (opt-in) in Preview
• Visual container improvements

Data connectivity

• Google BigQuery and Google BigQuery Azure AD (connector update)
• Azure Databricks and Databricks (connector update)
• Dremio Cloud (connector update)
• FactSet RMS (connector update)
• SurveyMonkey (connector update)

Service

• Storytelling in PowerPoint now Generally Available
• Power BI org app Multiple Audiences now Generally Available
• Announcing new Scanner API scenarios
• Email Subscriptions

Mobile

• Discover external orgs content in your Mobile application
• Grant access on the go

Visualisations

• New visuals in AppSource
• Financial Reporting Matrix v7.0
• Acterys Variance
• Feature Summary for Drill Down Combo PRO
• Gantt Chart by MAQ Software (Premium).

As always, we'll be detailing these updates in our April newsletter.  Please remember we have virtual / online training in Power BI which you can find out more about here.  If you are not already a subscriber, why not sign up at the bottom of any SumProduct web page?  And don't forget to download the latest version of Power BI Desktop here too.