Month: October 2024

Limiting access to apps during non-working time

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This week is all about a relatively new functionality for limiting access to apps on iOS and Android devices during non-working time. Working time settings allow organizations to enforce policies that limit access to apps and to mute notification messages from apps during non-working time. Muting notifications is something that was already possible by using global quiet time, as described in this earlier post. Limiting access, however, is something relatively new that can be used for limiting access to specific apps during non-working time. That can be achieved by using app protection policies to block or warn users from using Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Edge on their iOS and Android devices, during non-working time. For that, a new setting is introduced in the conditional launch …

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Enabling optional Windows updates

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This week is all about enabling optional Windows updates. Enabling optional updates is all related to the Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available slider in the Settings app. That slider can be used to enable optional updates on a Windows device. Optional updates provide new features and non-security changes. Besides that, optional updates can also include features that are gradually rolled out. Those rollouts are also known as controlled feature rollouts (CFRs). Most of those optional updates are released on the fourth Tuesday of the month and are also known as non-security preview releases, while regular updates are released on the second Tuesday of the month. Nowadays, regular updates are also known as B week releases, while optional updates are also known as …

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Getting started with Windows protected print mode

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This week is all about another new feature within Windows 11, version 24H2. Mainly to create awareness. That new feature is Windows protected print mode. Windows protected print mode builds on top of the existing IPP print stack. Main enhancement is that only Mopria certified printers are supported and that it disables the ability to load third-party print drivers. Securing the printing stack has always been, and still remains, challenging. Mainly because it has to deal with compatibility of legacy drivers and high effective permissions of the printer drivers. That’s not all that easy to address. Windows protected print mode, however, is a step into the right direction. That adds some long-awaited improvements to the print security in Windows that should make the impact smaller of challenges …

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Easily managing Personal Data Encryption for known Windows folders

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This week is a follow up to this post of a few months ago about getting started with Personal Data Encryption (PDE). That post was really focused on the early introduction of PDE and the functionality that it brings to the table, while this post will basically add-on to that functionality and knowledge. PDE is still a pretty unknown feature that is now actually growing in useful functionalities and could become a very welcome addition to the available data protection capabilities on Windows. With the latest version of Windows 11, version 24H2, PDE now also contains the ability to protect personal data in known Windows folders. Those known Windows folders are Documents, Desktop, and Pictures. That provides organizations with more protection capabilities for personal data, …

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