Latest updates on Power BI, summarised and linked back to the knowledge base. Subscribe via RSS.
Power Query is moving Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery and the other embedded-ODBC connectors onto Apache Arrow ADBC drivers, with a per-connector default flip followed by a cutover that breaks any refresh still pinned to ODBC. Microsoft has published pq-adbc-advisor, a read-only Fabric notebook that inventories every semantic model, dataflow and pipeline in a workspace and classifies each one as will fail, needs review or ready.
The retirement of Power BI Q&A, the legacy natural-language query experience, has slipped from December 2026 to February 2027 to give tenants longer to work out what depends on it before moving to Copilot. The post also recaps which experiences are affected and where things stand on Copilot capacity, embedded scenarios and sovereign clouds — worth reading if you have Q&A visuals in published reports or a linguistic schema anyone has invested in.
A benchmark comparing Import, DirectQuery and Direct Lake against Azure Databricks, with the numbers behind each. Useful ammunition next time someone insists DirectQuery is fine.
Microsoft's sample reports have been rebuilt on the modern visual defaults. Handy as a reference for what the new formatting model is supposed to look like in practice.
Microsoft is moving Power BI and Fabric connectivity from ODBC to ADBC and wants people validating now. If you rely on third-party ODBC drivers, this is the early warning — test before the transition lands, not after.
The Admin API now reports workspace networking policies across the whole tenant, so outbound access and private-link settings can be audited in one pass. Useful if you've been checking these a workspace at a time.
Fabric data agents can now generate more advanced DAX against semantic models. Preview, so treat what it writes as a first draft rather than something to ship.
The August on-premises data gateway release. Routine, but gateway versions are one of the things that quietly break refreshes, so it's worth keeping current.
Direct Lake models can now carry calculated columns, closing one of the more awkward gaps against import models. Still preview, so check the fallback behaviour before you design around it.
An upgrade wizard for moving Dataflows Gen1 to Fabric Dataflows Gen2. If you've been putting off that migration, this is the sanctioned path — worth trialling on a low-stakes dataflow before you commit the important ones.
The August monthly round-up: the usual mix of visual, modelling and service changes in one place. Worth a skim even if you only care about one area — the summaries link straight to the detail.
Edit a Power BI project anywhere and reload it straight back into Desktop. Preview, and it pushes the .pbip story further towards treating reports as source you can work on outside Desktop.
You can now edit a semantic model as TMDL script directly in the browser, not just in Desktop. Useful for quick fixes and for anyone working somewhere Desktop isn't installed.
Conditional formatting now reaches line series and legend entries, so thresholds and status colours no longer need a workaround measure per line.
Modern visual defaults let you set formatting once for a whole report instead of visual by visual. In preview, and it changes how new visuals look, so read before turning it on mid-project.
The monthly Power BI feature summary for July 2026 — the single page that tells you what changed in Desktop and the service.
A proper date picker slicer option, in preview. The thing people have been building awkward workarounds for since forever.
Shape Map is finally out of preview after years in limbo, with custom TopoJSON map support for regions the built-in maps never covered.
Tooltip options reach GA — modern tooltips, report-page tooltips and per-visual overrides, all configurable without the old formatting-pane hunt.
Visual calculations are generally available: DAX written against the visual's own result set rather than the model. Good for running totals and ranks you'd otherwise contort the model to support.
Fabric Apps can now be built on semantic model data alongside Power BI reports. Relevant if you're deciding what belongs in a report and what belongs in an app on the same model.
A bridge between Desktop and the service aimed at editing projects in place. Early days, but it points at where the .pbip authoring story is going.
Protection policies are now GA: apply a sensitivity label's protection once and have it hold wherever the data goes. The obvious answer to 'what happens when someone exports it'.
Entra ID SSO for the Denodo connector, so Denodo-sourced reports can pass through the viewer's identity instead of a shared service account. Preview.