Foundation Setup

One-time setup for a Power Platform learning and demo ecosystem. This repo documents how to build a clean Microsoft 365 and Power Platform environment from scratch, so every other project I publish has a known, repeatable starting point.

If you are following along with any of my certification or training repos, complete the relevant modules below first, or have an equivalent setup of your own.

Who this is for

• Microsoft Certified Trainers setting up a dedicated demo tenant
• Learners who want a clean environment for following along with my projects
• Anyone wanting to understand how Power Platform sits on top of Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and the Power Platform Admin Center

What this covers

The content is broken into short, focused modules. Each module has its own folder, its own written guide, and (where useful) its own video walkthrough.

Module 1: Microsoft 365 Developer Tenant

• Signing up for the Microsoft 365 Developer Program
• Choosing a tenant name
• First sign-in and basic tenant settings

Module 2: Custom Domain (Optional)

• When you might want a custom domain
• Adding and verifying a domain in Microsoft 365
• DNS records explained simply

Module 3: Entra ID Basics

• Users: creating, naming conventions, profile photos
• Groups: security groups vs Microsoft 365 groups
• Roles: what to assign and what to avoid

Module 4: Licences

• What comes with the developer tenant
• Assigning Power Platform licences to users
• Understanding Power Apps, Power Automate, and Dataverse licensing

Module 5: Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC)

• A tour of PPAC
• Tenant-level settings worth knowing
• Where to find usage, capacity, and analytics

Module 6: Environments

• Production, sandbox, developer, default
• Creating environments with Dataverse
• Naming conventions and a sensible dev/test/prod setup
• Environment security groups

Module 7: Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies

• What DLP policies do and why they matter
• Creating a sensible default policy
• Connector classification

Module 8: Publisher and Solution Conventions

• Creating a custom publisher
• Choosing a prefix and sticking to it
• Why this matters for ALM later

Module 9: Developer Tooling

• Power Platform CLI (PAC CLI)
• Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code
• Node.js and npm
• XrmToolBox and the tools worth installing first
• Plugin Registration Tool
• Postman

Module 10: Optional Extras

• Setting up a GitHub account and personal access tokens
• Azure subscription basics (for later projects that need Azure)
• Bookmark pack: the URLs every Power Platform builder needs

How to follow along

Each module is self-contained. Work through them in order if you are starting from scratch, or jump to a specific module if you already have most of the setup in place.

Every module folder contains:

• A written step-by-step guide
• Screenshots where they help
• A link to the matching YouTube video

Prerequisites

• A personal email address (used to sign up for the Microsoft 365 Developer Program)
• A Windows or Mac machine for the tooling modules
• Around 2 to 3 hours total if you are doing every module end to end

YouTube

Every module has a matching short video on my YouTube channel.

youtube.com/@HeatherAmiDigital

Status

This repo is being built out module by module. Modules marked below are complete and ready to follow.

• Module 1: Microsoft 365 Developer Tenant
• Module 2: Custom Domain
• Module 3: Entra ID Basics
• Module 4: Licences
• Module 5: Power Platform Admin Center
• Module 6: Environments
• Module 7: DLP Policies
• Module 8: Publisher and Solution Conventions
• Module 9: Developer Tooling
• Module 10: Optional Extras

Licence

Content in this repository is shared under the MIT Licence. Use it, adapt it, share it. If it helps, a credit back to this repo is appreciated but not required.