Using the Intune Management Extension, on a 64-bit platform, for a very happy New Year!

by

Let’s start the New Year with a quick tip about the Intune Management Extension, which is used for running PowerShell scripts, in combination with a 64-bit platform. The Intune Management Extension is 32-bit and will run PowerShell scripts in a 32-bit environment. This is not always the desired behavior. Actually, many activities and/or cmdlets, require a 64-bit environment. In this blog post I’ll provide a simple workaround, to run the PowerShell scripts in a 64-bit environment, and I’ll show the behavior of that simple workaround. The (example) script Now let’s start by looking at that simple workaround. That workaround is actually a simple addition to a script that starts the same script, by using the 64-bit environment of PowerShell. This is achieved by starting with …

Read more

Running scripts on Christmas day (and any other day)

by

My last blog post of this year will also be about a new (pre-release) feature of Configuration Manager, version 1710. This post will be all about the ability to create and run scripts from the Configuration Manager administration console. To be correct, the ability to create and run scripts was added in Configuration Manager, version 1706, and Configuration Manager, version 1710, added the ability to use parameters with those scripts. It completed the functionality.  My Christmas day present for the community is a walkthrough through this functionality and how it runs on the client device. After reading this post you should be able to understand how your script can create the output and how you can find the correct GUIDs to follow the activity on …

Read more

Restarting a computer couldn’t be easier!

by

This week I’m still staying in the new features of Configuration Manager, version 1710. This time it’s all about how easy it became to restart a client device. Restarting a client device became a right-click action! It simply couldn’t be easier! This opens up a whole new world for managing client devices with a pending restart. In this blog post, I’ll start with a short introduction about restarting a client device, followed by the simple actions to trigger a restart for a client device. I’ll end this post by following the activity through the log files. Introduction Starting with Configuration Manager, version 1710, it’s possible to use the Configuration Manager console to identify client devices that require a restart, and then use a client notification …

Read more

The awesome world of child task sequences

by

Like last week I’m staying in the world of new features of Configuration Manager, version 1710. This time it’s all about the awesome world of child task sequences. Awesome. To be a bit more specific, the awesome world of child task sequences, which refers to the newly introduced task sequence step Run Task Sequence. This opens up a whole lot of options, from using specific standards throughout all deployments until enabling different administrators from maintaining their own child task sequence. In this post I’ll go through a short introduction about the Run Task Sequence step, followed by the configuration options for the Run Task Sequence step. I’ll end this post with the end result of running a child task sequence, by showing how it’s logged. …

Read more

Super easy customizing Software Center

by

This week it’s time for a short blog post about customizing Software Center. And not without reason. About two years ago I did a post about setting the company logo in the new Software Center. I received many reactions on that post about why a Microsoft Intune subscription configuration was required to set a company logo in Software Center. I had no answer. Now that time is over! Starting with Configuration Manager, version 1710, it’s super easy to customize Software Center with Client Settings. Including the company logo! In this post I’ll walk through the available configuration options and I’ll show the end-user experience. Including an additional bonus about the Software Center icons. Configuration Starting with Configuration Manager, version 1710, it’s super easy to add …

Read more

Combining the powers of the Intune Management Extension and Chocolatey

by

A bit more than a week ago the Intune Management Extension was added to Microsoft Intune to facilitate the ability to run PowerShell scripts on Windows 10 devices that are managed via MDM. That addition opens a whole new world for managing Windows 10 devices via MDM. Looking at app deployment specifically, this enables the administrator to look at something like Chocolatey for deploying packages. That would make the app deployment via Microsoft Intune suddenly flexible. In this blog post I’ll start with a little introduction about the Intune Management Extension and Chocolatey, followed by the configuration of a PowerShell script to install Chocolatey packages. I’ll end this post by looking at the end result. Introduction Let’s start with a short introduction about the awesome …

Read more

Notify end-user about non-compliant device

by

This week is all about device compliance policies. Well, actually it’s all about what actions can be triggered for non-compliant devices. Since recently it’s possible to configure actions for non-compliance. Previously the action for non-compliant devices was that the device would be marked as non-compliant. That action is still configured by default, but it’s now also possible to configure additional end-user notifications. In this blog post I’ll provide a short introduction to the actions for non-compliant devices, followed by the required configurations. I’ll end this post with the end-user experience. Introduction Let’s start with a short introduction. Device compliance policies now contains configuration properties for the configuration of Actions for noncompliance. The Actions for noncompliance allows administrators to configure a time-ordered sequence of actions that …

Read more

Auto-enroll Windows 10 devices using Group Policy

by

This week is all about creating awareness for the automatic MDM enrollment feature, using ‘Group Policy, that is introduced in Windows 10, version 1709. In some scenarios that might not sounds very interesting. Especially when looking at cloud only scenarios. However, this feature is very interesting in scenarios when organizations want to move to the cloud. Think about co-management. Co-management helps organizations to slowly move their device management capabilities to the cloud, by allowing multiple device management agents on a single device. Microsoft just released co-management in Microsoft Intune and co-management is also available in the latest Technical Preview releases of Configuration Manager. So, imagine a scenario in which a currently Configuration Manager managed device can receive a Group Policy setting to also auto-enroll the …

Read more

Super easy start with reporting and the Intune Data Warehouse

by

This week is all about creating awareness for the reporting capabilities of Microsoft Intune. An often heard request. An introduction to the recently introduced Intune Data Warehouse and how easy it can be used to build reports that provide insight into the Intune environment. The Intune Data Warehouse provides access to more information about the Intune environment than the Azure portal. With the Intune Data Warehouse it’s possible to access historical Intune data, data refreshed on a daily cadence and a data model using the OData standard. In this blog post I’ll show how to easily connect to the Intune Data Warehouse, using two different methods, and I’ll end this post with the end result after connecting. Requirements Before starting with creating the connection to …

Read more

Intune and Zimperium – Part 2: Conditional access and mobile threat defense level

by

This week the second part about the integration between Microsoft Intune and Zimperium. A quick reminder, Zimperium is one of the available third-party Mobile Threat Defense connectors for Microsoft Intune. The first part, which is available here, was mainly about integrating Zimperium with Microsoft Intune. Including an overview of the total solution. In this second part, I’ll be providing a short introduction about the mobile threat defense levels and I’ll show how to configure conditional access in combination with these threat levels. Including how the different configurations are related. I’ll end this post with the end-user experience. Introduction Like last week, I’ll start with short introduction. Last week this introduction was about providing an overview about the integrated solution. This week is all about looking …

Read more