Import Windows AutoPilot devices in Microsoft Intune

This week I’m going to show the import experience of Windows AutoPilot devices in Microsoft Intune. About three months ago, this wasn’t possible yet and it was still required to use the Windows Store for Business (see this blog post). Even up until a few weeks ago it was still required to perform additional steps with the formatting. Now the experience is really straight forward.

I was planning on showing that experience during my session last week, at the Microsoft Tech Summit, but after speaking to many people onsite I noticed that it would be better to spent more time on explaining what Windows AutoPilot is and what Windows AutoPilot is not. Setting the expectations. An easy comparison with car and aircraft functionality helped a lot (together with some statements about what Windows AutoPilot does and what Windows AutoPilot does not do).

Now, back to the subject of this post, let’s have a look at the latest import experience by getting the device information and than importing that information in Microsoft Intune.

Get device information

To get the required device information, I’m using the latest version of the Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo PowerShell script. That script is the easiest method to get the required information, especially for testing purposes. An alternative could be the Windows AutoPilot Device Information report in Configuration Manager, version 1802 or later. The script can create a CSV with a column for the Device Serial Number, the Windows Product ID and the Hardware Hash of the device. With the latest version of the script the value for the Windows Product ID will be skipped. Simply follow the next four steps.

1 Open Windows PowerShell as an Administrator;
2 Run Save-Script -Name Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo -Path C:\Windows\Temp to inspect the PowerShell script;
3 Run Install-Script -Name Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo to install the PowerShell script;
4 Run Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo.ps1 -OutputFile C:\Windows\Temp\MyComputer.csv to get the required device information;
WA_MyComputer

Note: Keep in mind that the script can also run with a Partner switch, which will make sure that also the Manufacturer name and Device model are collected and reported.

Import device information

Now import the Windows AutoPilot device information into Microsoft Intune. The import process in Microsoft Intune can now also handle a header row in the CSV and an empty column for the Windows Product ID. This wasn’t possible until a couple of weeks ago. To import the device information, simply follow the next five steps.

1 Open the Azure portal and navigate to Intune > Device enrollment > Windows Enrollment;
2 On the Devices enrollment – Windows enrollment blade, click Devices below Windows AutoPilot devices (Preview) to open the Windows AutoPilot devices (Preview) blade;
3 On the Windows AutoPilot devices (Preview) blade, click Import to open the Add Windows AutoPilot devices blade;
4 WA_AddWAdevicesOn the Add Windows AutoPilot devices blade, select the just created CSV (MyComputer.csv) and click Import to trigger the import process;

Note: Selecting the CSV will immediately trigger a check on the formatting of the CSV.

5* Back on the Windows AutoPilot devices (Preview) blade, click Sync followed by Refresh to speed up the process to show the devices in Microsoft Intune;
WA_WAdevices

*At this moment the Microsoft Intune experience might still be a bit out of sync (it’s still preview) with the Windows AutoPilot deployment service, which is why I’ve added this step to manually trigger the sync.

21 thoughts on “Import Windows AutoPilot devices in Microsoft Intune”

  1. Hi Peter,
    At mr Niehaus session about Autopilot advice was to still use the Business Portal cause the Intune Portal was not as ‘Stable’. Furthermore you can also use the Partner Portal. Benefit of this is you dont need to run the script and harvest the Hardware Hash. You only need to upload the device serial no. (Only Works with newer hardware 2018 January and up).
    PS. If you followed the session sorry for repeating 🙂

    Reply
  2. This is the most valuable page for modern Windows 10 deployment. You’re great. Do you by any chance have any ideas on how to rename a machine through Intune? I’ve been back and forth with Microsoft on this and the obvious PowerShell method will not work because it seems Intune cannot handle any PS Script that requires a restart. Any ideas would be extremely helpful.

    Reply
    • Thank you, Steve!
      At this moment there are not that many options. Either script something fancy, or package something fancy. However, in both cases you need to find something custom to handle reboot behavior. It won’t be pretty for the status in the console of the used policy.
      Regards, Peter

      Reply
  3. As you noticed they fixed the Intune CSV format so you can upload the CSV file created by Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo directly 🙂

    Reply
  4. Intune will now accept a standard CSV file (just like the Microsoft Store for Business) when uploading devices for Windows AutoPilot

    Reply
  5. Hi Peter,

    Great blog! The -partner switch for Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo wasn’t introduced untill v1.3, so you might want to update the link to the PowerShell script. (currently linking to v1.2)

    Reply
  6. Hi Rkast – short question concerning the “serial” method. We tried this already various times and it does not work for us (even with involvement of MS support). Did you test that yourself?

    Reply
  7. Hi Tom,
    No i have not tested this yet. I just learned this at the tech summit. Do you use the Partner Portal as this is only possible in that Portal? And is the hardware newer than Jan/Feb 2018?

    Reply

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