ConfigMgr

Conditional access and device state

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This week back in conditional access again. More specifically, the recently introduced feature to exclude devices based on the device state, which is currently still in preview. This enables organizations to exclude managed devices (Hybrid Azure AD joined and/ or compliant) from a conditional access policy. That means that the conditional access policy will only be applicable to unmanaged devices. This enables new scenarios and makes existing scenarios easier. Think about using session controls to enable a limited experience within cloud apps, for unmanaged devices only. In this post I’ll show the very simply and straight forward configuration, followed by the end-user experience. Configuration The configurations that make the most sense for using the device state are related to the access controls. At least, in …

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Conditional access and guest users

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This week back in conditional access. More specifically, the recently introduced feature to assign a conditional access policy to All guest users, which is currently still in preview. At the same time also the ability to assign to Directory roles was introduced. The idea for both is the same. The first is to specifically assign to guest users and the second is to assign to specific roles in the directory. This post will focus on the first scenario. I’ll show the very simply and straight forward configuration, followed by the end-user experience. Configuration Microsoft Teams is getting really hot for collaboration. This also creates a very low bar for inviting external parties (B2B) to collaborate with. Working together. Of course this should be facilitated to …

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Rename a device via Windows 10 MDM

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This blog post uses the Accounts configuration service provider (CSP), to create a local user account on Windows 10 devices. This area was added in Windows 10, version 1803. This weeks blog post is a follow up on last weeks post about creating a local user account via Windows 10 MDM. This week is also about the Accounts CSP, but this this time I’ll use the Accounts CSP for renaming a Windows 10 device. This can be useful with maintaining a specific naming convention. I’ll show the available nodes, I’ll show how to configure them and I’ll end this post by showing the end-user experience. Also, I’m pretty sure this will be possible via Windows AutoPilot at some point in time, but, even then, this …

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Create a local user account via Windows 10 MDM

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This blog post uses the Accounts configuration service provider (CSP), to create a local user account on Windows 10 devices. This area was added in Windows 10, version 1803, which is currently available as Insider Preview build. This week is all about creating local user accounts via Windows 10 MDM. That can for example make life a bit easier with troubleshooting an offline device. A fallback account. In this post I’ll show how this can be achieved by using the Accounts CSP. I’ll show the available nodes and I’ll show how to configure them. I’ll end this post by showing the end-user experience. Also, spoiler alert, it’s good to note that this is not a pretty administrator experience at this moment, but I’m pretty sure …

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Great overview about the current state of the environment with Management Insights

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This week I’m back in Configuration Manager again. More specifically, I’m going to look at Management Insights that is introduced with the release of Configuration Manager, version 1802.  Management Insights provides information about the current state of the environment. The information is based on analysis of data from the site database and will better understanding the state of the environment and. It also provides additional information to take action based on the insight. In this post I’ll show the different insights and were to find the information that is used for the insight. Management Insights Let’s go through the different insights. I’ll do that by first providing the step to get to the available insights, followed by more information per Management Insight Group Name. As …

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Default device compliance status

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This week I’m going to look at the recent introduction of the feature to configure the default compliance state for devices when no compliance policies are targeted. This enables additional security for all devices, as it enables administrators to mark devices as non compliant when no compliance policies are targeted to the device. In this post I’ll start with a short introduction about this security feature, followed by a walk through the configuration. I’ll end this post by looking at the end-user experience. Introduction As should be known by now, compliance policies are basically rules, such as requiring a device PIN, or requiring encryption. These device compliance policies define rules and settings that a device must follow to be considered compliant. The recently introduced security …

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Co-management and the ConfigMgr client

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This blog post is a follow-up on this earlier post about deploying the ConfigMgr client via Microsoft Intune. In this post I want to look more at the behavior of the ConfigMgr client in a co-management scenario. I want to show the available configurations and, more importantly, I want to show the behavior of the ConfigMgr client. I want to show the corresponding configuration and the messages in the different log files. Co-management configuration Now let’s start by looking at the different configuration options of co-management and the configuration values. To look at the available configuration options, simply follow the next three steps (assuming the initial co-management configuration is already created). 1 Open the Configuration Manager administration console and navigate to Administration > Overview > …

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Deploying the ConfigMgr client via Microsoft Intune

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This week is all about deploying the ConfigMgr client via Microsoft Intune. Like last week, this is also a nice addition in combination with Windows AutoPilot. The idea is to install the ConfigMgr client next to the MDM agent and to create a co-management scenario. The main use case to do something like this is when an organization is making the transition from traditional management to modern management. In that scenario the organization can use co-management to make a phased move to the cloud. For example, use ConfigMgr for patch management and use Microsoft Intune for configurations and compliance. In this post I’ll provide a short introduction to co-management, followed by the prerequisites for the ConfigMgr client installation and the end result. Introduction Starting with …

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Enable Windows Automatic Redeployment from the login screen

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This week a short post about enabling Windows Automatic Redeployment form the login screen. It’s a follow up on enabling password reset and PIN reset from the login screen, as it enables another feature on the login screen, and a nice addition in combination with Windows AutoPilot. Windows Automatic Redeployment might be a familiar feature, but I couldn’t find much written information about it yet. In this post I’ll provide a brief introduction to Windows Automatic Redeployment, followed by the required configuration and the end-user experience. Introduction Now let’s start with a brief introduction about Windows Automatic Redeployment. Starting with Windows 10, version 1709, administrators can use Windows Automatic Redeployment to quickly remove personal files, apps, and settings, by resetting Windows 10 devices from the …

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Conditional access and Windows 7 domain joined devices

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This week is all about conditional access in combination with Windows 7 domain joined devices. I know, simple solution, migrate as fast as possible to Windows 10. Having said that, it’s not always possible to simply migrate those devices to Windows 10 and in the mean time those devices do need access to Office 365. That’s why I thought it would be good to write something about those Windows 7 domain joined devices in combination with conditional access. As Windows 7 should not be a reason to not implement conditional access. In this post I’ll provide the details about the additional configurations that need to be in place, to allow Windows 7 domain joined devices access to Office 365. So, not directly about conditional access, …

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