Exercise 1 - Create a Power Platform environment

Task 1.1 - Power Platform Admin Center

Before you start the lab exercises, you must create a development environment for you to work in.

  1. Open a web browser, navigate to https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/manage/environments, and sign in using your credentials for this exercise.

  2. If prompted, choose the option to stay signed in.

  3. Close any pop-up messages that are displayed.

Task 1.2 - Add Dataverse to the default environment

  1. Select the ellipses (…) for the Contoso (default) environment and select Add Dataverse.

    Add Dataverse to the default environment in the Power Platform Admin center.

  2. Leave all of the default settings and select Add.

Task 1.3 - Create a new environment

  1. In the Environments page, select + New to create a new environment with the following settings:

    • Type: Developer
    • Region: default region
    • Name: Your name
    • Environment group: None
    • Make this a Managed Environment: No
    • Get new features early: No
    • Create on behalf: No

    Create an environment in the Power Platform Admin center.

  2. Select Next and in the Add Dataverse section:

    • Language: English (United States)
    • Currency: USD ($)
    • Deploy sample apps and data: No

  3. Select Save and wait until the state of your environment is Ready (you can use the Refresh button to update the display).

    [!NOTE] Environment provisioning can take several minutes depending on tenant configuration.

    Environment created in the Power Platform Admin center.

  4. In a new browser tab, navigate to https://copilotstudio.microsoft.com/ and sign in if prompted.

[!NOTE]
If you experience issues loading Copilot Studio or your environment:

  • First, capture your environment ID (GUID) from the Power Platform admin center:
    1. Open the environment you created at https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/manage/environments.
    2. Locate the environment ID in the URL (a long string such as 12345678-90ab-cdef-1234-567890abcdef).
    3. Copy and save this value.
  • Then try accessing your environment directly by pasting your ID into the following URL: 
    https://copilotstudio.microsoft.com/environments/<your-environment-id>/home

  1. If prompted, select Get Started and keep the default country or region settings.

  2. Skip any welcome messages.

  3. In the upper right corner of the page, switch environments by using the Environment Selector and select the environment you created.

    Select your environment in the Copilot Studio.

Task 1.4 - Create a solution

  1. In the left navigation pane, select the ellipses (…), and select Solutions.

  2. You should see several solutions including the Default Solution and the Common Data Services Default Solution.

    List of solutions in Maker portal.

  3. Select + New solution.

  4. In the Display name text box, enter Lab Exercises

  5. Verify that Name is automatically populated.

  6. Select + New publisher below the Publisher drop-down.

  7. For Display name, enter Fabrikam

  8. For Name, enter fabrikam

  9. For Prefix, enter fab

  10. Verify that Fabrikam (fabrikam) is selected in the Publisher drop-down.

  11. Select the Set as your preferred solution checkbox.

    [!NOTE] Setting this as your preferred solution ensures new assets created during later labs are added to the Lab Exercises solution by default.

    New solution.

  12. Select Create.

  13. Close the Solutions browser tab.

  14. Refresh the Copilot Studio page.

You now have a Power Platform environment and solution to work in.