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 environment. Those elements might include instructions, arrows, photographs, videos, or 3D models. This differs from a completely immersive virtual reality experience. The employee is not transported into a simulated factory. They remain inside the real factory looking at the real machine. The digital information appears alongside it. Think of a traditional manual as a document stored in another room. Mixed reality turns parts of that manual into signs positioned directly beside the equipment.
HOLOLENS AND HANDS-FREE WORK
One of the practical advantages of HoloLens was the ability to keep the worker's hands available. Physical jobs frequently require both hands. A technician may be holding a tool. An operator may need to stabilize a component. Someone may be wearing protective equipment. Trying to operate a smartphone or balance a laptop while performing that work can interrupt the process. With HoloLens, the headset becomes the display. The employee can continue looking at the equipment while digital information remains visible. This sounds like a relatively small change, but it can significantly alter the workflow for tasks where repeatedly stopping to check documentation creates delays.
TEXT, PHOTOS, VIDEO AND 3D OBJECTS
A Dynamics 365 Guide could combine several forms of instructional content. Text could explain what action the employee should perform. A photograph could show what the correctly completed step should look like. A short video could demonstrate a movement that would be difficult to describe clearly in several paragraphs. A 3D model could help the employee identify the component they need to inspect. The important difference was spatial placement. The content was not simply another video playing somewhere inside the headset. Authors could position digital elements inside the physical workspace. An arrow could appear near a particular panel. A 3D model could appear beside the component it represents. The employee could therefore connect the instruction with the real object more directly.
WHY SPATIAL PLACEMENT MATTERR
Consider the instruction: "Inspect the filter housing." That sentence may be perfectly clear to an experienced technician. A new employee may have no idea which of several similar components is the filter housing. A photograph can help. A 3D model can help further. But mixed reality can go another step by placing the guidance near the actual component. The employee does not need to mentally translate a two-dimensional diagram into the complicated physical machine standing in front of them. That reduction in interpretation is one of the most interesting aspects of mixed reality instructions.
CREATING A DYNAMICS 365 GUIDE
Guides did not automatically understand how a company's equipment worked. Someone needed to create the instructions. The process typically started with a subject matter expert such as an experienced technician, process engineer, or trainer. Using the Dynamics 365 Guides PC application, the author could create a sequence of steps. Each step could contain concise instructions and supporting media. The author could then use HoloLens inside the actual work environment to position relevant digital elements around the equipment. This combined two types of knowledge: Process knowledge — what needs to happen. Spatial knowledge — where it needs to happen. Together, those elements created the mixed reality guide.
GOOD GUIDES REQUIRE GOOD INSTRUCTIONS
Mixed reality does not automatically make bad documentation useful. If an instruction is unclear, putting it inside a headset does not solve the problem. If an arrow points vaguely toward several similar components, the employee still does not know which component matters. If a hologram blocks the worker's view of the equipment, the technology may create another problem. Good Guides therefore required concise wording, careful spatial placement, appropriate media, and genuine understanding of the physical workspace. Instructions needed to reflect how people actually performed the work rather than how someone sitting at a desk imagined the process worked.
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