Automagically convert Intune managed devices to AutoPilot

This week a short blog post about my tweet of a bit more than a week ago. In that tweet I mentioned a new easy method to automagically convert Intune managed devices to AutoPilot. That method makes some scenarios a whole lot easier. Like for example what I did in this post to get the AutoPilot device information of Intune managed devices. That type of custom scripting is not needed anymore!

As I got many reactions to that tweet, mainly related to the location of that configuration, I thought it would be good to make a short post describing the configuration option and the expected behavior. In this post I’ll provide the steps to make this configuration and I’ll describe the expected behavior. There is no real end-user or administrator experience to show for this configuration. So, no section related to that. I’ll do explain the the expected behavior in the introduction.

Introduction

Let’s start with a short introduction about the mentioned configuration option. That configuration option is the Convert all targeted devices to AutoPilot setting. By default an AutoPilot deployment profile is only applied to already existing AutoPilot devices and doesn’t apply to non-AutoPilot devices. Configuring the Convert all targeted devices to AutoPilot setting to Yes will automagically convert all devices in the assigned group to AutoPilot. This is a one-time conversion that also works for co-managed devices. That also means that removing the AutoPilot profile will not remove the converted devices from AutoPilot. After conversion the devices can only be removed by using the Windows AutoPilot devices view. Keep in mind that it can take up to 48 hours for the conversion to be completed.

Configuration

Now let’s continue by having a look at the actual configuration. And in this case only the specific Convert all targeted devices to AutoPilot setting. The following four steps walk through the steps to get to the specific setting and are not meant to create a complete the Windows AutoPilot deployment profiles.

1	Open the Azure portal and navigate to Microsoft Intune > Device enrollment > Windows enrollment to open the Device enrollment – Windows enrollment blade;
2	On the Device enrollment – Windows enrollment blade, select Deployment Profiles in the Windows AutoPilot Deployment Program section to open the Windows AutoPilot deployment profiles blade;
3	On Windows AutoPilot deployment profiles blade, either select Create profile or select [existing deployment profile] > Properties to open the Create profile blade or the [existing deployment profile] – Properties  blade;
4	On the Create profile blade or the [existing deployment profile] – Properties  blade, the setting Convert all targeted devices to AutoPilot must be switched to Yes (below is an example of the the [existing deployment profile] – Properties  blade, the Create profile blade looks similar) ;
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Note: There’s not a real easy method to see which devices are converted to AutoPilot. Those devices will show as any other imported device, without enrollment state. However, as the configuration is done via an AutoPilot deployment profile, the device is immediately assigned to a profile. Again, without creating any fancy configurations, like query based dynamic device groups.

More information

For more information about enrolling Windows devices by using Windows AutoPilot, please refer to the documentation named Enroll Windows devices by using the Windows Autopilot.