Microsoft Endpoint Manager

Working with custom compliance settings

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This week is all about the latest capabilities that are available within compliance policies. Those capabilities are custom compliance settings. Custom compliance settings enable the IT administrator to basically check for anything and to use that for the compliance state of the device. The IT administrator can use PowerShell script in the custom compliance setting, to verify the status of anything that is available on the device. The results can be compared to rules and values that are configured in a JSON file. The result of that comparision can be used as part of the compliance policy. This post will proivde a quick introduction to custom compliance settings, followed with the steps to create the require PowerShell script and JSON file. This post will end …

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Getting started with Security Management for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

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This week is all about Security Management for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. Security Management for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is the new configuration channel that can be used for managing the security configuration for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) on devices that are not enrolled into Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM). Not in Microsoft Intune, nor in Configuration Manager. With that new configuration channel, MDE retrieves, enforces, and reports on the policies that are assigned via MEM. After onboarding to MDE, the devices are automatically joined to Azure AD and become visible in the MEM (and Azure AD and Microsoft 365 Defender). Within MEM those devices are marked as managed by MDE. This post will go through the steps to configure the required tenant configurations, the …

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Different options for upgrading devices to Windows 11

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This week is again all about upgrading devices to Windows 11, by using Microsoft Intune. When discussing the upgrade to Windows 11, the first and foremost thing to mention is that managed devices won’t automatically upgrade to Windows 11. There is always an action required by the IT administrator to make sure that managed devices are allowed to upgrade to Windows 11. The options to configure those managed devices, however, were limited when using Microsoft Intune. That has changed with the latest service release (2111) of Microsoft Intune. That service release introduced a few more options for managing and controlling the upgrade to Windows 11. This post will go through those different methods for upgrading devices to Windows 11, followed the configuration options for those …

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Managing Windows Insider Preview Builds within the organization

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This week is al around managing Windows Insider Preview Builds. Even though it’s not a new subject, it’s good to at least get a refresher. Especially when mentioning the Windows Insider Preview for Business program, as it’s often still unknown. The fun part, however, is that it’s actually pretty simple to get started. For organizations, the Windows Insider Preview for Business program enables them not having to register each device or user in the program and to easily set important policies around preview builds. The only requirement is to register an Azure AD tenant, so it can be used for authentication.This post walks through that requirement and more, as prequisites for configuring Windows Insider Preview Builds within the organization, followed with the steps for creating …

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Allowing users to opt-in for Windows 11 by using access packages

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This week is all about providing users with an easy method to opt-in for using Windows 11. That easy method can be created by using standard functionality that is provided by Azure AD entitlement management – an identity governance feature – and that can be used to automate access request workflows, access assignments, reviews, and expiration. More specifically, entitlement management introduces the concept of an access package and those packages provide an easy method to govern access. In a way, an access package can be used to create a simple automated flow to allow users to opt-in for Windows 11. That can be achieved adding the user to an Azure AD group and using that group for the assignment of a feature update deployment. This …

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Microsoft Tunnel Gateway: A quick overview

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This week my post is a few days later, as my post is an extension of my session at the Nordic Virtual Summit Second Edition. At the virtual summit I did a session about Getting access to on-premises resources with Microsoft Tunnel. During that session I shared the information around the architecture of Microsoft Tunnel and I zoomed in on getting up-and-running with Microsoft Tunnel and getting insight in Microsoft Tunnel. This post will provide a quick summary of that session about the different important components of Microsoft Tunnel and how to get connected to Microsoft Tunnel. Most of that information will be summarized in tables and slides. The slides (PDF) of that session are available for download here. Main components of Microsoft Tunnel The Microsoft Tunnel …

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Customizing the default app associations on Windows 11 devices

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This week is another follow-up on the posts of the last weeks about customizing Windows 11 devices. This week, however, is focused on customizing the default app accosiations on Windows 11 devices. Customizing the default app associations enables organizations to associate specific apps with file and link types, for their users. Besides that, this post is also an updated version of this post of over four years ago. Even though not a lot has changed, the configuration did become easier. This post goes through the creation of the required app assocations file, folowed with applying that file on Windows 11 devices. This post ends with showing the user experience with the customized app assoications. Important: My personal opinion is that – as with every other …

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Customizing the Taskbar on Windows 11 devices

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This week is a follow-up on last weeks post about customizing the Start menu layout on Windows 11 devices. This week, however, is focused on customizing the Taskbar layout on Windows 11 devices. Customizing the Taskbar layout enables organizations to create a standardized layout for their users. With the arrival of Windows 11, the configuration options for customizing the Taskbar layout have changed. Especially from a setting-by-setting perspective the options are now rather limited. This post does a quick breakdown of the Taskbar layout in Windows 11 and the different configurations that are available, per section. That breakdown is followed with a zoom-in on the actual configuration for creating the standardized layout. This post ends with showing the user experience with a customized Taskbar layout. …

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Customizing the Start menu layout on Windows 11 devices

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This week is all about customizing the Start menu layout on Windows 11. Customizing the Start menu layout enables organizations to create a standardized layout for theirs users by pinning apps, removing default apps, ordering apps and more. The configuration of such a standardized layout has changed from Windows 10 to Windows 11. To create a standardized layout for Windows 11, the IT administrator must use a JSON-file. In previous versions of Windows, that required a XML-file. That configuration change, justifies an explanation about the Start menu layout in Windows 11 and the different configuration options. This post breaks down the new Start menu layout in Windows 11 and the different configuration options that are available, per section. That breakdown is followed with a zoom-in …

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Simplifying targetting groups of apps with app protection policies

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This week is all about the simplification in targetting groups of apps with app protection policies and a followup on my tweet of last week. That tweet provided a quick peak at the new targetting options of app protection policies for Android and iOS/iPadOS devices. The great thing about that simplification is that app protection policies can now be targeted at different categories (or groups) of apps. Those categories of apps are All apps, All Microsoft apps and Core Microsoft apps, and are dynamically updated to include the appropriate apps. That dynamic update will make sure that the already created app protection policies are automatically updated with the latest apps that are available for the different categories and will also make sure that newly created …

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