Everything, in order

Today is October 16. Microsoft deletes Whiteboard boards on personal accounts. No undo.

Still see yours? Export now. It may already be too late. https://whiteboard.sqlbi.com/export-microsoft-whiteboard.html

Already exported? The ZIP opens in SQLBI Whiteboard. Free, open source, 50 seconds below. Don’t trust me: Ctrl+F “October 16” on Microsoft’s page.

Tomorrow Microsoft deletes Whiteboard boards on personal accounts. No undo.

Tonight:

1. Export your boards (ZIP)
2. Check the ZIP opens
3. Store it safely
4. Optional: open it in SQLBI Whiteboard

https://whiteboard.sqlbi.com/export-microsoft-whiteboard.html Don’t trust me: Ctrl+F “October 16” on Microsoft’s page.

Tomorrow.

On October 16, Microsoft deletes Whiteboard boards on personal accounts. No undo.

If you have boards you care about, here’s tonight’s checklist:

1. Export each board you want to keep
2. Make sure the ZIP actually opens
3. Store it somewhere that isn’t going away
4. (Optional) Import it into a tool you can keep editing in

Step-by-step export: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

Still have doubts? Open Microsoft’s retirement page and Ctrl+F “October 16”: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

Work or school account? Your OneDrive boards stay in Teams and on the web, but the standalone app retires the same day. Forward this to the teacher, trainer, or relative who uses Whiteboard on a personal account.

(Full disclosure: SQLBI Whiteboard is our free tool, and it imports that ZIP: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca)

2 days. Then Microsoft deletes Whiteboard boards on personal accounts.

60-second rescue: export the ZIP, open it in SQLBI Whiteboard. https://youtube.com/shorts/trr477ddYyU

Don’t trust me: Ctrl+F “October 16” on Microsoft’s page. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/whiteboard/retirement-standalone-microsoft-whiteboard-apps

Two days left. On October 16, Microsoft deletes Whiteboard boards on personal accounts. No undo.

This short walks through the rescue: export the ZIP, import it, keep drawing. https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

Don’t take my word for the date. Open Microsoft’s retirement page and Ctrl+F “October 16”: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

Step-by-step export: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

Work or school account? Your OneDrive boards stay in Teams and on the web. You can still try SQLBI Whiteboard.

(Full disclosure: SQLBI Whiteboard is our free tool, and it imports that ZIP: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca)

3 days. Then Microsoft deletes Whiteboard boards on personal accounts.

Wrong answers only: how are you backing them up? I’ll start: a photo of my monitor.

Right answer: export the ZIP. https://whiteboard.sqlbi.com/export-microsoft-whiteboard.html Date check: Ctrl+F “October 16” on Microsoft’s page.

In three days, Microsoft deletes Whiteboard boards on personal accounts. Class diagrams, workshop sketches, meeting notes: gone, with no undo.

Wrong answers only: what’s your backup strategy?

I’ll start: “I took a photo of my monitor.”

The boring right answer: export the ZIP before October 16. https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

Don’t take my word for the date. Open Microsoft’s retirement page and Ctrl+F “October 16”: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

Work or school account? Your OneDrive boards stay in Teams and on the web. But you can still play with the SQLBI Whiteboard!

(Full disclosure: SQLBI Whiteboard is our free tool, and it imports that ZIP: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca)

Do early adopters win?

Fabric comes: Power BI is over. Conversational BI: Dashboards and reports are dead. Claude dashboards: Was conversational BI a thing?

Calm down.

As a professional, you want to stay up to date. As a company, FOMO bleeds money.

Be ready; don’t rush.

4 days. On Oct 16 Microsoft deletes Whiteboard boards on personal accounts. No undo. Export the ZIP today. Decide what to do with it later.

Don’t trust me: Ctrl+F “October 16” on Microsoft’s page. How to export: https://whiteboard.sqlbi.com/export-microsoft-whiteboard.html

Four days from now, your Microsoft Whiteboard boards may stop existing.

Personal Microsoft account: on October 16 the boards are permanently deleted. Editing already stopped on September 25. Work or school account: boards stored in OneDrive stay available in Teams and on the web, but the standalone app retires the same day.

Whatever you plan to do next, do one thing today: export your boards. A ZIP on your disk beats a promise in the cloud.

Don’t take my word for the date. Open Microsoft’s retirement page and Ctrl+F “October 16”: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

Step-by-step export guide: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

(Full disclosure: SQLBI Whiteboard is our free tool, and it imports that ZIP.)

Just because a tool or document calls something a best practice doesn’t mean it is.

I’ve seen a case like that, with a link to Microsoft documentation that doesn’t mention it at all. I don’t know whether it is a misinterpretation or a link found to justify a statement (the whole tool/document was clearly built with an agent, without proper assistance).

How do you assess the reputation of agentic sources?

Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. Microsoft destroys Microsoft Whiteboard for personal accounts and keeps it only for work and school accounts. However, you can still save your data: export your boards as ZIP by October 15, before they’re deleted the next day. Then import them into SQLBI Whiteboard and give them a second (better) life! 👉 SQLBI Whiteboard: https://whiteboard.sqlbi.com

And if you’ve never used a whiteboard, you should try our new app. It’s fun and powerful. Let me know if you try it for the first time!

I would have attended this conference if I had been in Italy that week (I’ll be teaching DAX in Atlanta). Thus, if you want an excuse to visit, the conference is a good one; it’s free and interesting.

AI can explain DAX at any hour. It still can’t stand behind you, breathing down your neck while you write the measure. I can.

Three days of Mastering DAX in person: same course, same structure. This year we also spend some time on how DAX works with AI tools, because more and more DAX gets written that way, but you still need to know DAX to tell whether the result is right.

Hurry up, these are the last courses in 2026: 🇵🇱 Warsaw, October 12-14  https://www.sqlbi.com/p/mastering-dax-workshop-warsaw-oct-12-14-2026/ 🇨🇭 Lugano, October 27-29 https://www.sqlbi.com/p/mastering-dax-workshop-lugano-oct-27-29-2026/ 🇺🇸 Atlanta, November 9-11 https://www.sqlbi.com/p/mastering-dax-workshop-atlanta-november-9-11-2026/ 🇬🇧 London, November 24-26 https://www.sqlbi.com/p/mastering-dax-workshop-london-nov-24-26-2026/ 🇳🇱 Amsterdam, December 1-3 https://www.sqlbi.com/p/mastering-dax-workshop-amsterdam-dec-1-3-2026/

Defining the right contract is a key activity for a DAX developer using AI. In this article and video, we introduce the concept of a contract through simple examples.

https://www.sqlbi.com/articles/understanding-dax-contracts-when-using-ai/

#dax #ai

When you run an agent in Visual Studio (yes the big boy), it uses the debugger, watch expressions, just like a regular dude. It made all the tests green. It made my day.

Very good considerations.

For the record, a refresh reloads the data. It shouldn’t refactor anything. Would you leave an agent alone with your model for a weekend? Wrong answers only

✨ Testing DAX Measures with AI If you change a measure and want to make sure it still works in every report, this might save you some time: let the AI create the tests nobody wants to write!

Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYQpl5Hjdk0

If you use 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 with a personal account, remember to 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟲, because after that date you will no longer be able to access your data! Export each board as a ZIP now! ​ Instructions: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca ​ The 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀 is that you can now 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 that ZIP into SQLBI Whiteboard (version 1.7 or later). ​ 𝗦𝗤𝗟𝗕𝗜 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 opens it as a file on your PC: 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 and open source. ​ What started as an internal project is now becoming a full replacement for Microsoft Whiteboard, excluding real-time collaboration (for now?). Don’t hesitate to post bugs and suggestions: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 very quickly. ​ Download the latest version here: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

The first one goes down on its own. The second one is why we made the “DAX with AI” course.  https://www.sqlbi.com/campaign/dax-with-ai-courses-launch/

How many pills are you willing to take?

Are there still people writing meaningful articles/blog posts?

I try to monitor what’s being published in the semantic models/Power BI space (for the News section of the SQLBI newsletter). In the last few months, more and more articles in the “blog” section of a company (I mean, many companies!) have been completely useless. I want to give free suggestions since they paid some SEO expert for bad advice:

• Choose a topic that could be helpful. Present a technical problem with a solution. Don’t vaguely repeat the marketing stunt of big companies.
• The LLM you use can create diagrams. SVG works better than PNG/JPG. You can also use animations.
• Did you ask yourself if you make your company look better after publishing it?

Hey, I could be wrong! If you have an explanation for why slop content can help a company, I’d be glad to hear it.

On October 16, Microsoft will delete the legacy boards from Microsoft Whiteboard, which will be retired from personal accounts. (That’s 22 days from today!)

If your boards live in a personal account, your window is even shorter: starting tomorrow, September 25, those accounts go read-only. Whatever you planned to save, save it within the next week.

How to export (see the picture below):

1. Click on Settings (top-right)
2. Click on Export
3. Click on Zip (HTML+JSON)

Only the ZIP format has all the details you can use for future import. Moreover, you get an HTML format that renders well in a browser without requiring any additional app.

We built SQLBI Whiteboard because we teach with a whiteboard every week and didn’t want to lose the tool. It’s free, open-source, and runs offline on Windows.

Export your existing boards first, so you don’t lose your data. Soon, you will be able to import your exported Microsoft Whiteboard files into SQLBI Whiteboard (We are still working on it!)

You can get a taste of the new app if you want (import will be implemented soon):

https://www.sqlbi.com/tools/sqlbi-whiteboard/

The time has come: in 2026, 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗗𝗔𝗫 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲.

We also created three new video courses that should not become obsolete in two weeks! 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗜: 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼 (𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲!) 𝗗𝗔𝗫 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗜: 𝗘𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗗𝗔𝗫 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗜: 𝗦𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀

We have a page dedicated to AI for Power BI and DAX, where you can also find the link to these courses: https://www.sqlbi.com/ai/

I wrote a long post to recap what has changed between 2023 and 2026, and trying to answer many questions I expect to receive: https://www.sqlbi.com/blog/marco/2026/09/22/where-we-stand-on-ai-and-dax-in-2026/

I am looking forward to receiving all types of comments! 🙂

A simple daily average can mask complexity that isn’t immediately apparent. In this article and video, we explore several edge-case scenarios to meet different requirements, using AI to speed up development.

https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

#dax #powerbi

I have a free online session about VertiPaq on Saturday, September 26, 10:00 UTC (11:00am GMT, 12:00pm CEST, 6:00am EST). If you think Direct Lake is the new kid in town, well, internally it’s always VertiPaq after transcoding… so… no excuses!

Agenda/registration at https://retrodata.live/

Good news, everyone. The meeting about protecting focus time was well attended.

Do you need focus time to focus on your focus time?

Wrong answers only!

10% error on Facebook Likes and everybody’s happy; 0.1% on your financial data and you’re paying a fine (or worse!)

When you receive data, some of the assumptions you make about it are broken. You can accept it, you drop it, or you write a report about what’s wrong: all three can be the right answer.

I picked two extremes to make the point; most work sits in the middle, where you can live with lower quality, but you have to know you’re accepting it.

Watch the full webinar: https://youtu.be/qtnLNZFRZ84

DAX evolves, and the in-person course you can take this Fall isn’t the same as what we taught four years ago. Not every new DAX function makes the cut; the course can’t grow forever, so something new has to push something else out. This year, the new thing is AI for model authoring, and yes, we’ll look at AI tools to write DAX: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Copilot… All these tools require the same approach to get what you need and not just something that seems to work. Knowing DAX is still very helpful and productive!

The last five dates in 2026 for the Mastering DAX Workshop:

🇵🇱 Warsaw, October 12-14 https://www.sqlbi.com/p/mastering-dax-workshop-warsaw-oct-12-14-2026/ 🇨🇭 Lugano, October 27-29 https://www.sqlbi.com/p/mastering-dax-workshop-lugano-oct-27-29-2026/ 🇺🇸 Atlanta, November 9-11 https://www.sqlbi.com/p/mastering-dax-workshop-atlanta-november-9-11-2026/ 🇬🇧 London, November 24-26 https://www.sqlbi.com/p/mastering-dax-workshop-london-nov-24-26-2026/  🇳🇱 Amsterdam, December 1-3 https://www.sqlbi.com/p/mastering-dax-workshop-amsterdam-dec-1-3-2026/

A DAX calculation can produce convincing values at the detail level and fail at the total. The problem is often that the business rule was evaluated at the wrong granularity. This article+video introduces four grains, or levels of granularity, that should be identified before writing your DAX formula.

https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

#dax #powerbi

If you teach/demo… Prepare a presentation for SQLBI Whiteboard:

• Create a .wimport file with the text, code, and bitmap to include
• Open it with SQLBI Whiteboard
• Start the presentation, highlight and mark elements

There is also an export to PDF/PPTX, but that’s a topic for another day. https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca Microsoft Store: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca GitHub: https://static.licdn.com/aero-v1/sc/h/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca

Many-to-many relationships are valid in Power BI, so are bidirectional filters. However, they’re not considered best practice, which is different.

A best practice in Power BI is what you do by default when you have no reason to make an exception. It’s a suggestion, not a principle.

Isn’t it the same in other domains?

CTRL+V: paste DAX code F6: Format it Highlight the code and teach. It also works with SQL. Interested in other languages?

SQLBI Whiteboard is free and open source.

https://whiteboard.sqlbi.com · Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9NN5N0L2TMTF · GitHub: https://github.com/sql-bi/SQLBI-Whiteboard

A new episode of “The Whiteboard” series, where I talk about matrix totals in Power BI. Special guest: the SQLBI Whiteboard!

https://youtu.be/jbGEXZ85Nr0

#powerbi #dax #whiteboard

Do you think Direct Lake is the future? It’s all about VertiPaq after transcoding!

Join my free session on VertiPaq: Sept 26, 10:00 UTC. No excuses! Register now: https://retrodata.live/

#VertiPaq

SUMX ( Customer, … ) looks safe. In my demo, it loses over 20% of the revenue. Fair enough; we made a dramatic demo to get that!

The blank row DAX adds for the orphan transactions isn’t in a table reference, so the iterator never sees that money. VALUES ( Customer ) brings it back. With MAXX, do the opposite.

Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/anSUtRETJUo?si=qsJNoU8rko8WHeT1

Your report. Live. On a whiteboard.

This is LiveView in SQLBI Whiteboard: capture any running window onto the canvas.

Your Power BI report is there, updating live. You can freeze the frame and draw over it. Or draw while it’s changing, if you want!

No screenshots, no window switching, no “let me share my other screen.” You can use any window, not just Power BI.

https://whiteboard.sqlbi.com · Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9NN5N0L2TMTF · GitHub: https://github.com/sql-bi/SQLBI-Whiteboard

A yet-unpredicted side effect of agent coding could be a resurgence of client software over web apps. It’s still early to say, but I’m starting to see more signs of that.

PS after a few comments: “client software” means software designed to run locally, also without an internet connection. Forget the data analytics world; I’m talking in general.

I exhausted tokens configuring the Moonlight client on Windows to get a good client user experience for Omarchy running in a Docker container on another box. It was worth the effort! At the next reset, I’ll ask to write up some documentation on this insane architecture (btw, Tailscale is in the loop in case I connect outside this LAN).

@dhh, is there a repo that serves as a knowledge base or something similar? I didn’t find any info in the manual.