Power BI Update - February 2026

0:00 (gentle music)- What if your reports are faster, your modeling smoother,

0:06 and your authoring experience just got out of the way?

0:09 Here we are in February 2026,

0:12 but before we get into all of the great information,

0:15 I want to remind you that the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference

0:18 and the Microsoft SQL Community Conference are coming in March 2026 to Atlanta.

0:24 Scan the QR code to learn more and sign up!

0:27 We'd love for you to register, learn new things, and connect with the community.

0:31 And you can use the discount code FABCOMM,

0:34 F-A-B-C-O-M-M, to get $200 off registration.

0:39 Hope to see you there.

0:40 For all the details for this month, you'll see a QR code floating on the screen.

0:44 Scan that to jump straight to the monthly update blog.

0:47 I'm Adam Saxton.

0:49 This is the Microsoft Power BI Update for February 2026.

0:52 Let's begin.

0:53 This month's Generally Available features are all about performance,

0:57 polish, and productivity.

0:58 We've got improvements that make your reports more responsive,

1:01 your modeling experience more reliable,

1:03 and your workflow smarter from development to deployment.

1:06 Some of these features have been in preview

1:08 for a while and now they're fully supported for production use,

1:12 which means you can confidently roll them out across your organization.

1:15 Public Preview this month is where things get really interesting.

1:19 We're seeing deeper enhancements in authoring experiences,

1:22 smarter modeling capabilities, and early investments that point toward where

1:27 Power BI and Microsoft Fabric are heading.

1:30 These features are designed to help you move faster,

1:33 reduce manual work, and build more intelligent analytics solutions.

1:37 And with that, let's jump into the demos so

1:40 that we can see exactly what this looks like.

1:42 Based on your feedback, we've been working behind the scenes to enhance

1:45 the performance of the Azure Maps visual,

1:48 particularly for maps that use pie charts.

1:51 Beginning with the February release,

1:52 customers will start to see faster rendering when working with these visuals.

1:57 This improvement makes interactions feel more fluid and helps

2:01 reduce delays when navigating or updating a report.

2:04 All right, enough of all my talking, let's see the other demos.

2:08 [Zoe] I'm excited to announce the general availability of the input slicer,

2:12 previously called text slicer.

2:13 The input slicer has kind of dual functionality.

2:16 When it doesn't have a data column,

2:17 it's used in translytical task flows with user data functions,

2:21 and when it has a data column,

2:23 it is a slicer where you can just type in any part

2:26 of what you're looking for and it will filter the data column attached.

2:30 Previously, we only had one filter operator, which was contains any.

2:34 So, as I type in different strings,

2:36 as long as the value is contained anywhere in that word,

2:39 it would go ahead and select it.

2:41 Now, we're adding in a whole bunch more of those filter operators,

2:45 including starts with any, does not start with any, contains all, contains any.

2:49 And as a report author,

2:51 I can choose to show the whole text of those filter operators,

2:54 format the fonts and the background to match my report.

2:58 When I'm consuming this report with the input slicer,

3:02 if I wanted to look for all the state starting

3:04 with a, the contains any doesn't get the job done, but starts with any does.

3:07 I'm able to flip it over to that filter

3:09 operator I see on my state starting with a.

3:12 And if I wanted to add in the state starting with w,

3:14 I can easily do that and undo it

3:16 just like I could before with this slicer experience.

3:20 When viewing Power BI reports on a non-Windows device, such as on a Mac,

3:25 you'll notice that some of the fonts don't

3:27 appear as they would have on a Windows device,

3:30 such as the titles on this report are showing in kind of a Times New Roman look.

3:34 Now, with this update,

3:36 when you look at the same report on a Mac or a non-Windows device,

3:40 you should see the fonts as they were looking when viewing on a Windows device.

3:46 Here, I have a list of my state and territories

3:49 that I want to paste in to select my slicer here.

3:52 In button slicer, this has been available for a while,

3:55 I can simply copy from Excel,

3:57 paste into the slicer, and I can see those selections have been made.

4:01 With this release, we're also enabling this on existing slicers.

4:04 So, here, I have an existing dropdown slicer, I have the Paste option,

4:08 and just like I have with the button slicer,

4:10 I can select those items that I pasted in from Excel.

4:16 I want to show you a couple things about the new card visual now GA.

4:21 One of the things we've changed in this release is we've

4:24 increased the default for the number of columns from 5 to 10.

4:28 And with Autogrid on, this means that if you have less than 10 items,

4:31 it will fill the space.

4:32 But if you turn Autogrid off, it will leave space for up to 10 items.

4:36 And another thing we didn't really highlight before was

4:39 that you can add categories to your new card visual.

4:42 When categories are added, and here I have year, they're actually selectable,

4:45 so I can select one of the years if I click on that header part of the card.

4:50 And to unselect, I just pick a different section

4:52 of the card to click and it will release that selection.

4:56 Those demos were amazing.

4:57 And before we wrap up, it's time for our Community Member Spotlight.

5:01 Every month, we highlight someone who's leaning in, helping others,

5:04 sharing knowledge, and making the Power BI and Fabric community stronger.

5:09 This month, we're spotlighting Karin Szilagyi.

5:12 I hope I said that right.

5:13 Karin joined the Power BI community in 2024.

5:16 She has received more than 180 kudos,

5:19 authored over 50 solutions, she has over 50 replies.

5:23 And fun fact, outside of her work with data,

5:26 Karin is a dedicated plant enthusiast.

5:28 She currently cares for over 60 different plant varieties

5:32 inside her home with more than 80 plants in total, including duplicates.

5:37 Karin especially enjoys tropical plants,

5:39 although she admits they can be challenging to keep alive.

5:42 She and her family cultivate more than 150 plant varieties in their garden.

5:48 Their collection includes everything from roses and fruit

5:51 trees to around 10-15 different tomato varieties each summer,

5:55 along with dahlias and other seasonal plants.

5:58 Karin is also one of the founders and organizers

6:01 of the Microsoft Fabric and Power BI user group in Austria.

6:04 So, from all of us, thank you for everything you do for this community.

6:08 We appreciate your time and your contributions.

6:11 If you have questions about any of these updates,

6:14 drop them in the comments below.

6:15 We're always watching, and we love seeing what you're building.

6:18 For all the details, scan the QR code on the screen or hit up the link

6:22 in the description below to check out the monthly update blog.

6:25 And if you're not already there,

6:27 join us over at the Microsoft Fabric Community site.

6:30 It's the best place to stay connected and keep learning.

6:32 Thank you so much for watching.

6:34 Keep being awesome, and we'll see you in the next video.