Microsoft Intune

Using device clean-up rules in Microsoft Intune

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This week is a relatively short post about the updated device clean-up rules in Microsoft Intune. There can be many reasons why it is important to clean-up devices in Microsoft Intune (and Microsoft Entra). That can be security related by preventing access to resources, that can be cost savings by preventing device licenses from being used, and that can often even be as simple as preventing clutter in the Microsoft Intune admin center portal and keeping reports accurate. The standard functionality within Microsoft Intune to automatically clean-up devices, got a nice update with the latest service release (2507). It is now possible to create device clean-up rules per platform. And, with that, differentiate per platform. The main concept remains the same. Device clean-up rules are …

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Excluding specific files from being uploaded to OneDrive

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This week is another relatively short blog post, again somewhat related to Microsoft Edge. This week, however, is about configuring some specific OneDrive configurations. More specifically, the focus will be on excluding specific files from being uploaded to OneDrive. Not something really new, but the importance became clear again this week. There can be many reasons why organizations might want to exclude specific files from being uploaded to OneDrive, but there are also some generic reasons that are applicable to most organizations. An often heard reason is related to desktop shortcuts. Synchronizing desktop shortcuts (or even shortcuts in general) often results in either duplicate shortcuts or shortcuts to missing applications. Another reason is related to organizational branding in Microsoft Edge. Customizing organizational branding relies on …

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Protecting against typosquatting with website typo protection in Microsoft Edge

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This week is a short post about website typo protection in Microsoft Edge. That subject was briefly mentioned earlier when discussing Enhanced Security Mode in this blog post about tightening browser security in Microsoft Edge. This week is mainly focused on awareness for website typo protection. Website typo protection is aimed at protecting users against typosquatting. Typosquatting is intended to hijack traffic of users that meant to visit well-known sites, but that made a spelling mistake. That hijacking is achieved by using addresses with common misspellings or typographical errors of those well-known sites. Often that is used as prank, ad, or (friendly) competition, but more and more often that is also being used for phishing and malware. In the latter cases, users will get to …

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Getting started with Quick Machine Recovery

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This week is all about a relatively new recovery functionality in Windows. And that functionality is Quick Machine Recovery, which is also known as Cloud Remediation. Quick Machine Recovery is focused on the recovery of Windows devices when encountering critical errors that prevent the device from booting. A huge strength of Quick Machine Recovery is that it can automatically search for remediations online and use that to recover from widespread boot failures. In practice that means that Quick Machine Recovery helps with addressing the most severe failures within the environment. The type of system failures that gets devices stuck in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). The type of system failures that require significant troubleshooting time. And that’s especially challenging when it’s a widespread outage. Quick …

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Blocking Bluetooth on Android devices

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This week is all about a new configuration option for corporate-owned Android Enterprise devices. That new configuration option is the ability to block the usage of Bluetooth. There can be many different reasons why organizations might want to block the usage of Bluetooth on (some) Android devices within the environment. That could be simply from a functional perspective to preserve battery and to extend the usage time, but that could also be more from a security perspective to prevent the device from being exploited. For the latter think about unauthorized access, data interception, malware distribution, or even something like bluejacking (sending messages to nearby devices). All pretty good reasons to think about the default availability of Bluetooth on Android devices within the environment. Especially on …

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Blocking other browsers with policies for Microsoft Edge (be careful)

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This week is all about creating awareness. Creating awareness for the configuration options that are available for Microsoft Edge via the Microsoft 365 admin center, also known as the Microsoft Edge management service. The Microsoft Edge management service is an alternative method, besides Microsoft Intune, for configuring the Microsoft Edge browser via the Cloud. The configurations are stored in the Cloud and the settings can be applied through a group assignment. The user must be signed into the browser to receive those settings, and the browser must be restarted to make new settings applicable. So, pretty similar to the capabilities within Microsoft Intune. Besides that, the Microsoft Edge management service also provides access to additional settings, such as organization branding, AI, and specific security settings. …

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Experiencing the app relationship viewer

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This week is a relatively short blog post, focused on providing awareness for the recently introduced app relationship viewer. The app relationship viewer can be used to see which apps are directly connected to the selected app. Those connected apps are also known as child apps. Child apps can be either dependent apps or superseded apps. A dependent app relationship is an app that is configured as a dependency for the installation of the selected app, and a superseded app relationship is an app that is configured to be superseded by the installation of the selected app. Those relationships are shown within the app relationship viewer. But not just for the selected app, but also for the child apps. This blog post provides a brief …

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Explicitly denying elevation of specified files using Endpoint Privilege Management

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This week is all about a new feature that was recently introduced in Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM), and that feature is the ability to explicitly deny elevation. Explicitly denying the elevation blocks the specified file from running in elevated context. That enables organizations to work the other way around. Instead of configuring which file elevations are allowed, this enables organizations to allow every elevation with the exception of the elevations of those specifically specified files. Of course, the recommendation is to tightly control which files are allowed to elevate. That is, however, not always the situation that every organization is in. Often simply getting insights into what users are installing is already a huge step forward. Especially in combination with no local administrator privileges. As …

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Getting started with the Microsoft Defender Browser Protection extension for Google Chrome

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This week is sort of a follow-up on the last couple of weeks. The last couple of weeks the focus was on getting started with the different Microsoft Purview extensions for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, while this week the focus is on getting started with the Microsoft Defender Browser Protection extension for Google Chrome. The Microsoft Defender Browser Protection extension brings protection against online threats, like phishing and malicious websites, functionality known from SmartScreen in Microsoft Edge, to the Google Chrome browser. With that functionality it protects users against threats such as clicking on links in phishing emails and websites that are designed to trick users into downloading and installing malicious software. Of course Google Chrome also provides similar built-in functionality, but that will not …

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Getting started with the Microsoft Purview extension for Mozilla Firefox

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This week is sort of a follow-up on last week. Last week the focus was on getting started with the Microsoft Purview extension for Google Chrome, while this week the focus is on getting started with the Microsoft Purview extension for Mozilla Firefox. The story around the extension is pretty similar, as the Microsoft Purview extension for Mozilla Firefox extends the Endpoint data loss prevention (Endpoint DLP) capabilities to sensitive items in the Mozilla Firefox browser. And after the installation of that extension, on Windows devices, organizations get the ability to also monitor attempts to access or upload sensitive items to a Cloud service when using the Mozilla Firefox browser, and to actually enforce protective actions via data loss prevention policies. This post will provide a …

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