Getting familiar with the Intune Management Extension log files

This week is another post about the Intune Management Extension (IME). This week the focus is on the log files of the IME. Probably not the most interesting subject, but definitely an important subject. Especially as an IT administrator, it’s important to be familiar with the available log files of the IME and to understand the usage of those log files. Besides that, it can also be interesting to be familiar with the configuration options for those log files. Together that will help with a better understanding of the logging capabilities of the IME and the log files that should be used to find the information related to a specific problem. This post will have a closer look at the IME log files and the …

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Understanding the Intune Management Extension client health check

This week is sort of a follow-up on the posts of the last couple of weeks about Win32 apps. This week, however, the focus is more on the process that is in place to make sure that everything around the Intune Management Extension (IME) keeps functioning. The IME contains many important components for installing Win32 apps, for running PowerShell scripts, for running inventories, and more. That makes it important that the IME is running successfully. To make sure that the IME is running successfully, the Intune Management Extension Health Evaluation was introduced. That evaluation is focused on performing checks on the service of the IME. This post will have a closer look at the IME client health check and the actions that it performs. Starting …

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Working with custom compliance settings

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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Working with (custom) detection rules for Win32 apps

After my post of last week about Working with (custom) requirements for Win32 apps only one configuration subject of Win32 apps is left that I’ve discussed in detail, the detection rules for Win32. The format of this week is similar to that post and to previous posts about the different configuration subjects of Win32 apps. Detection rules must be used to determine the presence of a Win32 app. A Win32 app can have multiple detection rules. In that case every detection rule must be met to detect the app. That will help with making sure that the app installation will only be started when the app is not yet installed. In this post I’ll start with going through the different detection rule formats and I’ll …

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Working with (custom) requirements for Win32 apps

A few months ago I did a post about Working with the restart behavior of Win32 apps and a few months before that I did a post about Working with Win32 app dependencies. This week is similar to those post. This week is also about Win32 apps, but this week it’s about working with requirements for Win32 apps. Requirements can be used to make sure that the Win32 app will only install on a device that meets specific requirements. That means that requirements for Win32 apps, bring a lot of options and capabilities, which enable a lot of scenarios. Think about deploying a Win32 app to a user group and only installing on a specific device brand, type, or model. That can be achieved by …

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Working with Win32 app dependencies

After a couple of weeks with distractions, this week I’m stepping away from conditional access. This week is all about Win32 app management capabilities. More specifically, about Win32 app dependencies. About half a year ago, when Win32 app management capabilities were introduced, I did my first post about those capabilities. That post is still being read really good, so I thought this would be a good time for a nice addition to that post. In this post I’ll start with a shorting introduction about Win32 app dependencies, followed by the configuration steps for Win32 apps and specifically for Win32 app dependencies. I’ll end this post by showing the experience for the end-user and the administrator. Introduction Let’s start with a short introduction about reason for …

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Simple method for adding notifications to scripted installations

This week is focused on the end-user experience. More specifically, the end-user experience for scripted actions. Especially when deploying apps, or performing other scripted actions, by using the PowerShell functionality, there could be actions of interest for the end-user.In that case I would like to notify the end-user. The app deployment functionality already provides the option to display notifications to the end-user and in this post I’ll show a simple, but effective method, to also display notifications to scripted installations. That can be a nice addition to this post about combining the powers of the Intune Management Extension and Chocolatey. In this post I’ll provide an updated script, followed by the required configuration steps. I’ll end this post with the end-user experience. Script The first …

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Simply enabling Windows Sandbox

This blog post uses Containers-DisposableClientVM, to enable the Windows Sandbox feature on Windows 10 devices. This is available in Windows 10 Insider build 18305 or later. This week is all about enabling a recently introduced Windows Feature. That Windows Feature is Windows Sandbox. Windows Sandbox is a lightweight desktop environment that is specifically created for safely running applications in isolation. It provides an isolated, temporary, desktop environment where users can run untrusted software without the fear of lasting impact to their device. Any software installed in Windows Sandbox stays in the sandbox and cannot affect the host. The installed software is permanently deleted, once Windows Sandbox is closed. Windows Sandbox is part of Windows 10 (Pro and Enterprise) Insider build 18305 or later. In this …

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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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Simply installing the Windows 10 Accounts extension for Google Chrome by using PowerShell

This week is all about simply automatically installing the Windows 10 Accounts extension for Google Chrome. About a year ago I showed that the extension is required when using conditional access and I also showed earlier that it’s possible to use ADMX ingestion to configure Google Chrome. However, the latter is always the easiest method. It actually might be a bit complicated for a simple configuration. That’s why I’m going a different road this time. This time I’m going for a small PowerShell script that will create a registry key and value. In this post I’ll show how to create the PowerShell script, how to assign it by using Microsoft Intune and the end result in Google Chrome. Create PowerShell script As I’ve decided to …

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