Offline Windows Autopilot deployment profile

This week is all about Windows Autopilot. More specifically, about offline Windows Autopilot deployment profiles. The use case for an offline Windows Autopilot deployment profile is simple, a migration from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for existing devices. It enables organizations to reimage devices for one last time and provide those devices with an offline Windows Autopilot deployment profile. That will make sure that those devices will contact the Windows Autopilot deployment service, without first being registered. In this post I’ll look at getting the offline Windows Autopilot deployment profile, followed by a look at the explanation of the attributes in the offline Windows Autopilot deployment profile. I’ll end this post by looking at the usage of the offline Windows Autopilot deployment profile and a …

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Block access to a device until specific apps are installed

This week a short blog post about a recently introduced feature in the Enrollment Status Page (ESP). The ability block access to a device until specific apps are installed. I also tweeted about that feature recently and I thought it would be good to document the use case, the configurations and the end-user experience. Introduction Let’s start with a short introduction. The ESP is strongly recommended with Windows Autopilot. The idea of the ESP, is to block the device until the device is ready for usage by the user. This new feature enables an administrator to only block the device until the most important apps are installed for the user. That enables the user to be earlier productive. The administrator simply chooses which apps are …

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Hybrid Azure AD join with Windows Autopilot

This week is all about a very often requested feature, which is the ability to hybrid Azure AD join a device when using Windows Autopilot. The combination of the latest updates to Microsoft Intune with Windows 10, version 1809, provides just that! The ability to hybrid Azure AD join a device when using Windows Autopilot! In other words, the device will join the on-premises Active Directory and register in Azure Active Directory. In this blog post I’ll start with a short introduction about the hybrid Azure AD join with Windows Autopilot, followed by the most important configurations. I’ll end this post by looking at the experience. Introduction Let’s start with a little introduction about the hybrid Azure AD join through Windows Autopilot. A short summary …

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Require an Internet connection during device setup

This week I’m going to look at a well hidden configuration option that is recently introduced and can be really useful in specific scenarios. That configuration option is to require an Internet connection during the device setup. Requiring an Internet connection during device setup can be useful when trying to prevent users from resetting the device (either accidently or on purpose) and configuring it without an Internet connection, as configuring a device without Internet connectivity would enable a user to configure the device with a local user and without enrollment. In this blog post, I’ll start with a short introduction about why this configuration option would be useful and what the options are with this configuration option. Followed by the configuration steps and the end-user …

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Windows Autopilot self-deploying mode

This week a new blog post about Windows Autopilot. More specifically, Windows Autopilot self-deploying mode. Autopilot self-deploying mode is really useful for devices that are function specific, like for example kiosk devices. The biggest benefit is that a device with a wired network connection (with Internet) can be completely configured without any user interaction. Simply connect the device to the wired network and power it on! Real zero touch provisioning! In this post I’ll provide the configuration steps to create that experience, followed by some known errors and the end-user experience. Configuration Let’s start with a few important requirements and limitations: The device must run Windows 10, version 1809 or later; The device can only be Azure AD joined (Active Directory join is not supported); …

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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 …

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Join us at Experts Live Europe in Prague

A bit less than two weeks from now, October 25-26, Experts Live Europe will be in Prague. Together with my finest colleague, Arjan Vroege, I will deliver two sessions! And we hope to see you there! Experts Live Europe is a Microsoft community conference with a focus on Microsoft cloud, datacenter and workplace management. During this conference, top experts from around the world present discussion panels, ask-the-experts sessions and breakout sessions and cover the latest products, technologies and solutions. About our sessions The maybe-not-that-sexy version of modern management – A true story – In this session, we will take you into the real world of modern management. Modern management is a great buzzword and by now we all know the lovely story of modern management. …

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Deploy customized Win32 apps via Microsoft Intune

Last week Microsoft announced the ability to deploy Win32 apps via Microsoft Intune during Microsoft Ignite. That takes away one of the biggest challenges when looking at modern management and Microsoft Intune. I know that I’m not the first to blog about this subject, but I do think that this subject demands a spot on my blog. Besides that, I’ll show in this post that the configuration looks a lot like deploying apps via ConfigMgr. Not just from the perspective of the configuration options, but also from the perspective of the configuration challenges when the installation contains multiple files. In this post I’ll show the configuration steps, followed by the end-user experience, when deploying a customized Adobe Reader DC app (including the latest patch). Pre-process …

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Assign a user to a Windows AutoPilot device

This blog post uses capabilities that are added in Windows 10, version 1809, which is currently still in preview. This week a short blog about another relatively new Windows AutoPilot feature. This week is all about assigning a specific user to a specific Windows AutoPilot device. That enables an administrator to directly assign a user to a Windows AutoPilot device. Assigning a user to a Windows AutoPilot device will make sure that the username will be pre-filled during Windows setup. It also lets the administrator set a custom greeting name, which will also be added during the Windows setup. In this post I’ll show the actual configuration steps, followed by the end-user experience. Configuration Before starting with the actual configuration steps, it’s important to name …

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Software Center is getting close to awesome!

It’s almost been too long ago since I’ve done my latest post about Software Center. Luckily there are enough reasons introduced with Configuration Manager, version 1806,  to devote another blog post to Software Center, as Software Center is getting close to awesome. Yes, I deliberately say close to awesome, as we always need to leave options open for improvement. In this post I’ll focus on three great new additions to Software Center: 1) infrastructure improvements, 2) a custom tab and 3) maintenance windows. No more application catalog website point and web service point required Let’s start with the first and, in my opinion, best improvement related to Software Center. Starting with Configuration Manager, version 1806, available user-targeted apps can be made available in Software Center …

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