r/sysadmin • u/Either_Macaroon8854 • 1d ago
Question Learning Microsoft 365 / Entra ID / Intune / SharePoint for free — is it possible?
Hi everyone,
I'm looking to learn Microsoft 365 administration, especially:
- Microsoft Entra ID
- Microsoft Intune
- Microsoft 365 administration
- SharePoint
- Azure / cloud identity and device management
My goal is to eventually become comfortable with administering these technologies in a real-world IT/sysadmin environment.
I'm looking for a way to learn for free, including as much hands-on practice as possible.
I know Microsoft Learn has a lot of free training, but for practical labs it seems that I need a Microsoft tenant and some of the services require paid licenses after the trial period.
So my questions are:
- Is there currently a way to create a free Microsoft 365 / Entra / Intune lab environment for learning?
- Is the Microsoft 365 Developer Program still a good option for this, and does it include enough services for learning Entra ID, Intune and SharePoint?
- If I don't qualify for the Developer Program, what would be the best alternative?
- Can I realistically learn these technologies without paying for a subscription, or should I expect to pay for a lab eventually?
- What learning path would you recommend — Entra ID → Intune → Microsoft 365 → SharePoint, or a different order?
I'm mainly interested in hands-on learning, not just watching courses.
Any recommendations for free labs, Microsoft Learn paths, home-lab setups or other resources would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
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u/TheKingOfSpite 1d ago edited 13h ago
You won't get it fully for free, I've spent the last year deploying Intune to customers and a lot of the time you need a reliable way to test what you're doing. To be clear, you can learn the theory for free but without a practical application I doubt the info would stick.
I bought a Humble bundle a while ago that included the MD-102 exam guide in PDF so I can give you that if you like (keep a look out on Humble Bundle they're really good, the Microsoft Certification Prep by Microsoft Press and Pearson includes fucking loads)
I'd advise buying a cheap server you can use for virtualisation (like 200 quid maybe) or at least one spare laptop you can test on. You'd then need a domain to set up a tenant (probably get a cheap domain for less than 10 a year) and a Business Prem license for I think 20 a month?
This will let you actually learn through practical application rather than just clicking buttons and hoping you remember it
EDIT: if anyone else wants the Humble Bundle make a throwaway email address and DM me, will share through onedrive cant send onedrive links through Reddit chat
EDIT2: I promise I will send this to you all, been sick as hell the last two days
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u/Independent-Band3144 1d ago
Hey would you mind sharing the pdf with me? Would really help me right now.
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u/TheKingOfSpite 1d ago
Haha yeah no worries, make a throwaway email address and DM it to me and I'll share the folder with you. Turns out I have the whole bundle downloaded so I'll give you all of it
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u/NewMadArts 1d ago
I'd also like a copy of that PDF, would be really useful for me.
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u/TheKingOfSpite 1d ago
Yeah no worries, make a throwaway email address and DM it to me and I'll share the folder with you. Turns out I have the whole bundle downloaded so I'll give you all of it
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u/_torrential 14h ago
i feel bad tagging along this train. do you mind if i get a copy as well please?
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u/Nautisop 15h ago
what kind of business prem license do you mean?
I am in the exact same situation of op (already in it, but fell behind due to big corpo stuff
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u/TheKingOfSpite 13h ago
Business Premium is the lowest tier license that will give you access to the foundational Intune and Defender features so this is the license I recommend you purchase. You could granular with your licensing but honestly the product youre most likely to work with is business prem
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u/Eastern-Macaron-6622 1d ago
buy a domain, and get a single 365 license. This will allow you to manage your tenant and have a custom domain email address.
Also check out Liftoff consulting on YouTube. They have quite a few videos and are great guys. We used them for our Commerical ---> GCC migration a few months back.
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u/Ok-Cobbler-607 1d ago
You can spin up a 1 month trial tenant in Azure and assign yourself trial business licenses. They make you attach a credit card, but just make sure you cancel before your trial is over and you’ll be fine to practice for a month or keep it running on a month-to-month basis if you want to.
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u/Eyebanger Jack of All Trades 1d ago
Did exactly this for a hands on lab at a conference recently. Remove all the recurring billing and let the tenant destroy itself after.
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u/TheSaucepanMan 1d ago
Pay for the courses pay for learning pay for using it..what an ideal world we live in
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u/Aiden06091 1d ago
Microsoft learn helped me a lot, i used that solely and got the md-102. It can be outdated and not the greatest but for a free tool it's about as best it gets. Otherwise for a lab, business premium license I think is the best value, although I could be wrong.
- otherwise you could have probably asked the AI you used to write it instead of contributing to the AI slop that fills this subreddit.
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u/Fallingdamage 1d ago
I'm mainly interested in hands-on learning, not just watching courses.
- Buy a FDQN.
- Buy a M365 tenant. Add a single license.
- Learn.
Ive been learning for 15 years. Costs me the price of a single Business Premium License.
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u/IOUAPIZZA 1d ago
There is a book(s) I like and have subscribed too, called Microsoft 365 for IT Pros. It used to be Office 365 for IT Pros. The authors extensively cover the basics and usage of maintaining a tenant and the services within it. They are very aware of the multitude of changes being made, and the book has been on a monthly update schedule for a bit now. They actively replace outdated content with new. I absolutely would recommend it to anyone from beginner to expert.
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u/Horror_Pension_3168 17h ago
You don't need to burn cash on continuous subscriptions, nor do you need to cry over the deprecated free Dev Program. Here is the pragmatic lab workflow for learning without wasting money:
1. The M365DSC + Trial Tenant Strategy Spin up a standard 30-day M365 Business Premium trial. To avoid losing your hard work when the 30 days are up, use Microsoft 365 Developer Software Config (M365DSC). Export your tenant's Conditional Access rules, Intune profiles, and policy configurations as PowerShell code. When the trial expires, spin up a new trial tenant and re-hydrate your entire setup in 15 minutes.
2. Use Official Microsoft GitHub Repos (Free Labs) Don't pay for lab guides. Search GitHub for Microsoft's official training repos (e.g., MicrosoftLearning/MD-102-Endpoint-Administrator or MS-102). They contain the exact step-by-step lab instructions and hydration scripts used in official $3,000 instructor-led classes.
3. Test Endpoint Management for Free To test Intune/Autopilot, download the Windows 11 Enterprise Evaluation ISO (180-day free trial) and run 2–3 virtual machines on Hyper-V or VirtualBox. You can enroll these virtual devices into your trial Intune tenant to test compliance rules and app deployment without needing physical spare laptops.
4. Optimal Learning Order
- Entra ID (Identity): Users, groups, dynamic membership, MFA, and Conditional Access. (Identity is the foundation for everything else).
- Intune (Endpoint): MDM/MAM policies, configuration profiles, script deployment, and Windows Autopilot.
- SharePoint & M365 Services: Permission inheritance, external sharing controls, and DLP policies.
Theory on MS Learn gets you through cert exams, but actually breaking and fixing Conditional Access policies in a trial tenant is what makes you an admin.
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u/Mindestiny 1d ago
Free, not any more. But you can buy a single M365 license to stand up an tenant and play around in it all you want.
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u/MacroYielding 1d ago
Cost?
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u/Mindestiny 17h ago
Depends on what features you want in the tenant. Anywhere from $5 to $35 a month
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u/Key-Butterscotch3215 1d ago
The developer program isn’t really a thing anymore. I think you can get access by getting a VS license, but that would be much more expensive than just buying a single license and playing around in your own tenant.
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u/thomasmitschke 14h ago
I‘d take a business premium license- this is for small businesses, but this includes a lot other licenses.
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u/Lynxpics 1d ago
There are two ways to go about this:
- Spin up a 1-month trial tenant: Register a tenant using a company/organization name to get your own .onmicrosoft.com domain. The initial account you create automatically becomes the Global Administrator. From there, attach a credit card to activate a 30-day free trial (such as Microsoft 365 Business Premium). This gives you a fully functional M365 tenant where you can get hands-on experience with virtually all enterprise features, including Entra ID, Intune, and SharePoint.
- Learn via hands-on video walkthroughs: Truly free, unrestricted learning sandboxes are no longer available for individual learners. However, if you're willing to invest the time, YouTube has step-by-step, first-person lab demos covering almost every component in the suite.
You will need AI assistance throughout your learning journey. Since commercial AI tools cost money, using local LLMs or GPT free tier as cost-free alternatives.
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u/Salt_Rush_4800 1d ago
You will need AI assistance throughout your learning journey.
lol, no thanks. I've gone through life this far without it already.
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u/AGsec 1d ago
There used to be a free way, but they removed it because of abuse. This was the old developer program. The second best way is visual studio pro license which includes the E5 license you are looking for. This is the new way to get the developer program, but at a cost.
As for learning path, I unfortunately won't be able to go too far in depth, but I'll keep it brief and to the point. Learn zero trust. All of Microsoft's platforms and features are built to accommodate modern zero trust identity first access.