Mapping Azure file shares on Windows devices

This week is a short follow-up on last week. While last week was all about configuring the authentication on Azure file shares, with the best user experience, this week is about automatically mapping those Azure file shares, for an even better user experience, on Windows devices. And to be really honest, that doesn’t really differ from mapping any other network drive. That doesn’t mean that it’s not a good moment to walk through the options for mapping (Azure) file shares. This post will briefly discuss the main different configuration options, followed with the steps to actually easily configure network mappings. That will be achieved by using the easiest most straight forward option, followed with the user experience. Note: When the authentication for the Azure file …

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Configuring Azure AD Kerberos authentication on Azure file shares for Windows devices

This week is more Windows. More capabilities for creating a better user experience. This week the focus will be on Azure file shares and the relatively new Azure AD Kerberos authentication option, that can be configured on Windows devices by relying on Microsoft Intune. Azure Files supports the identity-based authentication over SMB, using Kerberos authentication. In preview, that now includes the ability to enable and configure Azure AD for authenticating hybrid identities. That allows users with a hybrid identity, to access Azure file shares using Kerberos authentication. That configuration relies on Azure AD to issue the required Kerberos tickets, to access Azure file shares using the SMB protocol. That basically means that users can access Azure file shares over the Internet, without requiring a line-of-sight …

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Registering devices with the Windows Autopatch service

This week is all about the relatively new Windows Autopatch. Windows Autopatch is a cloud service provided, by Microsoft, that automates the update process for Windows, Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft Teams. The steps to get started with Windows Autopatch are pretty straight forward, especially with the latest adjustments of how the service interacts with the tenant. Those adjustments improve the security posture of the service, by relying on application-only authentication, and further simplifies the enrollment process of the tenant. Together that makes the enrollment pretty straight forward. That’s also why this post simply assumes that the onboarding is successfully performed. Once the tenant is enrolled to the Windows Autopatch service, the next main action is the registration of the devices …

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Using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Android for protecting the personal profile

This week another post about Microsoft Defender functionality, but on a completely different platform. This week is all about using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, on Android devices, for protecting the personal profile. And for now, specifically focused on personally owned devices. That protection functionality is focused on providing users with the same level of protection in their personal profile, as provided in their work profile. It provides users – within their personal profile – with malware scanning on user-installed apps, protection from malicious URLs, network protection, and privacy controls. That provides users with better protection and organizations with more control on which devices are allowed to have access to company data. This post will mainly focus on the configuration of that additional protection of the …

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Working with enhanced phishing protection in Microsoft Defender SmartScreen

This week is all about a new security feature that is part of Microsoft Defender SmartScreen and that was introduced with Windows 11, version 22H2. That feature is enhanced phishing protection. Enhanced phishing protection helps with protecting work accounts against phishing and unsafe usage on sites and apps. It works alongside existing Windows security features and alerts about typed work passwords in any Chromium browser, warns about reused work passwords on sites and apps, and warns when storing plaintext work passwords in Notepad, Word, or any Microsoft 365 Office app. That makes enhanced phishing protection an important addition to the Microsoft Defender SmartScreen security functionalities. This post will go through the available settings, the easy configuration, and the user experience with the enabled notifications. Note: …

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Enhance Microsoft Intune data with Log Analytics: A summary

This week an extra blog post about my session at Experts Live Netherlands 2022. I did my session about Enhance Microsoft Intune data with Log Analytics. During that session – after battling some technical challenges – I shared a lot of information around the four most obvious options for using Microsoft Intune in combination with Log Analytics. I showed the direct integration, the combination with Update Compliance, the use of the Azure Monitor HTTP Collector API and even the use of the Azure Monitor Agent. This post will provide a quick summary of that session, by briefly touching those different options. The slides (PDF) of that session are available for download here. Collecting log data via a direct integration The first option was all about …

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