Microsoft is heavily investing in AI capabilities across its Power Platform, and Power Pages is no exception. This low-code platform for building secure and data-driven business websites has undergone significant enhancements recently, introducing a range of new features and improvements. These updates include AI-powered capabilities, improved design tools, and enhanced security measures to streamline website development and elevate user experiences. Let's explore the latest additions to Microsoft Power Pages.
Microsoft has integrated its AI-powered Copilot across various aspects of Power Pages, providing assistance and automation for both makers and users.
- Copilot in Design Studio: Copilot assists with various design tasks, such as adding sections contextually, generating Power Fx formulas, and explaining them. It can also respond to images in addition to text, allowing for more interactive and dynamic website creation. Furthermore, users can customize themes by simply asking the chatbot for desired changes. (April 2025)
- Copilot for Website Content: Copilot can summarize website content, elevate search with AI enhancements, and answer questions from website data, improving user experience and information retrieval. (Public Preview)
- Copilot Q&A: This feature allows users to optimize a site and rectify potential issues by leveraging Copilot's knowledge base and recommendations. (Public Preview)
- Copilot for Content Creation: Copilot can assist in designing web content, drafting new pages and sections using content from existing documents and presentations. (Public Preview)
- AI-Generated Site Prompt Cards: These cards help makers build industry and scenario-specific sites quickly by providing prompts and suggestions. (Generally Available)
These Copilot features significantly enhance the Power Pages experience by automating tasks, providing intelligent assistance, and enabling more efficient website development.
Professional Developer Experiences
Power Pages offers a range of features that cater to professional developers, allowing for advanced customizations and configurations.
- Migration to Bootstrap 5: Existing sites can now be migrated to Bootstrap version 5, ensuring compatibility with the latest web standards and improving site performance. (January 31, 2025)
- Visual Studio Code Integration: The Visual Studio Code extension allows developers to view and edit website content in VS Code, providing a familiar and powerful environment for website development. Developers can also preview Power Pages sites directly within VS Code on both web and desktop, streamlining the development process and improving efficiency. (Public Preview)
By providing these developer-focused features, Power Pages ensures that professional developers have the tools and flexibility they need to build sophisticated and customized websites.
Design Studio Improvements
The Power Pages design studio provides a user-friendly, low-code environment for creating and customizing websites. Recent updates to the design studio further enhance its capabilities and usability.
- Enhanced File Upload: Power Pages now supports larger file uploads, drag-and-drop functionality, and uploading files from cloud storage or cameras. This improvement enhances user experience and facilitates the sharing of large files. (June 2025)
- Modern List Enhancements: The modern list component has been enhanced with custom JavaScript support and new controls, providing more flexibility and customization options for developers. (April 2025)
- Microsoft Entra External ID Integration: A wizard has been introduced to simplify the setup of Microsoft Entra External ID, streamlining authentication for external users and improving site security. (April 2025)
- Payments on Websites: Power Pages now allows the integration of payment gateways like Stripe, enabling businesses to easily accept payments on their websites and expand their online reach. (November 1, 2024)
- Security Scan: A new security scan feature helps improve site security by identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, ensuring a secure online environment for businesses and users. (March 2025)
- Power Fx in Web Template Components: Makers can now use Power Fx in web template components, providing more flexibility and control over website logic and enabling more dynamic and interactive experiences. (February 2025)
These design studio improvements make it easier for both citizen and professional developers to create, customize, and manage their websites, ultimately leading to more engaging and effective online experiences.
Security and Governance Enhancements
Security remains a top priority for Microsoft Power Pages. Recent updates have focused on providing more robust security measures and streamlined governance capabilities.
- Disable External Authentication Providers: Administrators can now disable specific external authentication providers to enhance site security and control access to their websites. (December 15, 2024)
- Enhanced Security View: The Power Platform admin center now includes a dedicated security view for Power Pages, providing a centralized location for managing security settings, monitoring threats, and ensuring compliance. This view also includes detailed information about payment integrations for sites within a tenant. (March 2025)
- Power Pages in Power Advisor: Power Advisor now provides recommendations for Power Pages, helping administrators optimize site performance and security by identifying potential issues and suggesting best practices. (November 19, 2024)
- Azure Key Vault Support: Support for Azure Key Vault has been added to securely store payment integration keys, adding an extra layer of security for sensitive information. (Generally Available)
- Internal-Only Sites: Administrators can make sites internal-only by disabling anonymous access and all external authentication providers except for Microsoft Entra ID, ensuring that only authorized users can access sensitive information. (Generally Available)
- Disable Anonymous Access: Administrators can now disable anonymous access to Dataverse data published in websites, providing more granular control over data security and access.
- Enforce Table Permissions: Power Pages now enforces table permissions for all forms and lists, regardless of the "Enable Table Permissions" setting, ensuring consistent and robust data security across all sites.
- Deprecation of Local Authentication: The local authentication mechanism has been deprecated in favor of more secure options like Azure AD B2C.
- Microsoft Entra ID (B2B) Authentication: A new Microsoft Entra ID (B2B) authentication option has been introduced, providing a secure and streamlined way for businesses to collaborate with external partners.
- "Jobs-to-be-done"-based Hubs: The modernized Power Platform admin center introduces new "jobs-to-be-done"-based hubs, allowing users to seamlessly navigate specific Power Pages product experiences such as inventory, security, and analytics dashboards, along with a comprehensive licensing view.
These security and governance enhancements demonstrate Microsoft's commitment to providing a secure and reliable platform for building business websites. By implementing these updates, businesses can ensure that their online presence is protected and compliant with industry standards.
Important Changes and Deprecations
In addition to the new features and enhancements, Power Pages has also undergone some important changes and deprecations.
- OAuth 2.0 Implicit Grant Flow: The OAuth 2.0 implicit grant flow within Power Pages has been deprecated. Existing customers using this feature need to migrate to the supported method.
- Lucene.NET Search: Lucene.NET search has been deprecated in favor of Dataverse search. Existing portals using Lucene.NET search need to migrate to Dataverse search by October 1, 2024.
- SameSite Mode Changes: Power Pages now allows makers to mark SameSite mode as Strict for all portal cookies where applicable. A new website setting has been added to control the SameSite mode for all cookies, configurable to the level of specific cookies.
- Deprecation of Webpage and Web File Tracking: Webpage and web file tracking functionality has been retired.
These changes and deprecations are important for developers and administrators to be aware of as they plan and maintain their Power Pages websites.
