Imagine standing beside a large industrial machine and seeing the next repair instruction appear directly beside the panel you need to open. Instead of putting down your tools, walking back to a laptop, searching through a PDF, or trying to remember what an experienced technician told you during training, the information appears directly inside your field of view. That was the central idea behind Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides. In this episode of Microsoft Knowledge Nuggets on M365 FM, Mirko Peters explains Dynamics 365 Guides in plain English: what the mixed reality application was designed to solve, how Microsoft HoloLens brought instructions into the physical workplace, how companies could capture expert knowledge, how Microsoft Teams enabled remote assistance, and how Dynamics 365, Dataverse, Power Platform, Power BI, and AI could extend the experience. There is also an important strategic issue organizations need to understand: Microsoft has set December 31, 2026 as the end-of-availability date for Dynamics 365 Guides and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist. For organizations still using the technology, preserving the knowledge contained inside their Guides is therefore becoming just as important as understanding the technology itself.
WHAT IS DYNAMICS 365 GUIDES?
Dynamics 365 Guides is a Microsoft mixed reality application designed to bring step-by-step work instructions directly into the physical environment where employees perform a task. Instead of requiring a technician to repeatedly move between a machine and a manual, Guides could display digital instruction cards, images, videos, and 3D objects through a Microsoft HoloLens headset. The employee could still see the real machine, tools, equipment, coworkers, and surrounding environment. Digital information appeared alongside that physical world. This made Guides particularly interesting for scenarios involving manufacturing, maintenance, inspections, field service, training, assembly, and other repeatable physical processes. The fundamental concept was simple: Bring the instruction to the work instead of forcing the worker to leave the work to find the instruction.
THE PROBLEM: INSTRUCTIONS ARE OFTEN FAR FROM THE WORK
Physical work frequently happens far away from the information required to perform it. A technician may be servicing a pump. An operator may be assembling equipment. A maintenance employee may need to inspect dozens of components in a particular sequence. A quality inspector may need to compare a finished component against an approved standard. Traditionally, those employees might rely on paper manuals, PDFs, laptops, classroom training, or experienced colleagues. All of those methods can work. But they create a separation between where the knowledge lives and where the work happens. A technician reads the manual, returns to the machine, remembers as much as possible, completes part of the task, and then potentially returns to the documentation. That constant context switching creates friction.
WHY TRADITIONAL MANUALS CAN BECOME A PROBLEM
Imagine a new technician standing beside a machine they have never repaired. The manual refers to components by technical names and part numbers. The actual machine contains cables, covers, grease, connectors, labels, bolts, and dozens of components that look similar. The technician reads the manual. Then they look at the machine. Then they return to the diagram. Then they try to determine whether the component shown on the page is actually the component in front of them. An experienced technician may perform the same task almost automatically because years of experience have created practical knowledge that the manual does not fully communicate. Dynamics 365 Guides attempted to reduce that gap by putting visual guidance directly beside the physical object.
CAPTURING EXPERT KNOWLEDGE
Experienced employees often possess enormous amounts of undocumented knowledge. They know which cover should come off first. They know which tool fits into a difficult space. They recognize what a correctly installed component should look like. They know where common faults occur. They know which warning signs inexperienced employees frequently overlook. The problem is that much of this information exists primarily inside people's memories. When those employees are busy, working at another location, changing jobs, or retiring, organizations can lose valuable operational knowledge. Dynamics 365 Guides provided a way to convert some of that experience into structured digital instructions. An experienced technician, process engineer, or trainer could create a repeatable sequence that another employee could follow while standing directly beside the equipment.
WHAT IS MIXED REALITY?
Mixed reality combines the physical environment with digital information. With Dynamics 365 Guides, an employee could wear a Microsoft HoloLens headset while continuing to see the real world. Digital elements could then appear within that environ...
