Windows 10

Automagically convert Intune managed devices to AutoPilot

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This week a short blog post about my tweet of a bit more than a week ago. In that tweet I mentioned a new easy method to automagically convert Intune managed devices to AutoPilot. That method makes some scenarios a whole lot easier. Like for example what I did in this post to get the AutoPilot device information of Intune managed devices. That type of custom scripting is not needed anymore! As I got many reactions to that tweet, mainly related to the location of that configuration, I thought it would be good to make a short post describing the configuration option and the expected behavior. In this post I’ll provide the steps to make this configuration and I’ll describe the expected behavior. There is …

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Join us at Experts Live Europe in Prague

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A bit less than two weeks from now, October 25-26, Experts Live Europe will be in Prague. Together with my finest colleague, Arjan Vroege, I will deliver two sessions! And we hope to see you there! Experts Live Europe is a Microsoft community conference with a focus on Microsoft cloud, datacenter and workplace management. During this conference, top experts from around the world present discussion panels, ask-the-experts sessions and breakout sessions and cover the latest products, technologies and solutions. About our sessions The maybe-not-that-sexy version of modern management – A true story – In this session, we will take you into the real world of modern management. Modern management is a great buzzword and by now we all know the lovely story of modern management. …

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Deploy customized Win32 apps via Microsoft Intune

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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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Assign a user to a Windows AutoPilot device

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This blog post uses capabilities that are added in Windows 10, version 1809, which is currently still in preview. This week a short blog about another relatively new Windows AutoPilot feature. This week is all about assigning a specific user to a specific Windows AutoPilot device. That enables an administrator to directly assign a user to a Windows AutoPilot device. Assigning a user to a Windows AutoPilot device will make sure that the username will be pre-filled during Windows setup. It also lets the administrator set a custom greeting name, which will also be added during the Windows setup. In this post I’ll show the actual configuration steps, followed by the end-user experience. Configuration Before starting with the actual configuration steps, it’s important to name …

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Software Center is getting close to awesome!

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It’s almost been too long ago since I’ve done my latest post about Software Center. Luckily there are enough reasons introduced with Configuration Manager, version 1806,  to devote another blog post to Software Center, as Software Center is getting close to awesome. Yes, I deliberately say close to awesome, as we always need to leave options open for improvement. In this post I’ll focus on three great new additions to Software Center: 1) infrastructure improvements, 2) a custom tab and 3) maintenance windows. No more application catalog website point and web service point required Let’s start with the first and, in my opinion, best improvement related to Software Center. Starting with Configuration Manager, version 1806, available user-targeted apps can be made available in Software Center …

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Single full-screen Kiosk Browser app in kiosk mode

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This week is all about configuring a single full-screen app in kiosk mode and more specifically, configuring the Kiosk Browser app as a single full-screen app in kiosk mode. A couple of years ago, I also did a post about setting up kiosk mode on Windows 10. This time it’s not about using OMA-URI’s, this time is all about using the available options within the portal. Spoiler alert, it became a whole lot easier! Deployment scenarios that this adds on to are, for example, AutoPilot self-deploying mode and enrollment via a device enrollment manager. In this post I’ll go through a few prerequisites for the configuration, followed by the actual configuration of the Kiosk Browser app in kiosk mode. I’ll end this post by looking …

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Prevent users from ending tasks via Windows 10 MDM

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This blog post uses the TaskManager node of the Policy CSP, to prevent the end task functionality on Windows 10 devices. This node is added in Windows 10, version 1809, which is currently still in preview. This week a short blog post about a newly introduced setting in Windows 10, version 1809, which is currently still in preview. That’s the setting to prevent non-administrator users from ending tasks via Task Manager. That can be a useful addition to a Windows AutoPilot deployed device on which the users are configured as standard users. Simply preventing users from performing activities that an administrator might not like them to do. In this post I’ll show the available settings, followed by the configuration and the end-user experience. Settings Let’s …

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Factory reset, Fresh start, AutoPilot reset, so many options?!

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This week something completely different. This time no technical configurations, this time I’ll try to provide some guidance about different Windows 10 features to remotely reset a Windows 10 device by using Microsoft Intune. With the introduction of the remote AutoPilot reset their are now 3 similar features to remotely reset a Windows 10 device: Factory reset , Fresh start and AutoPilot reset. In this post I’ll try to answer questions like “What are the differences between these reset options?” and “When can I use which reset option?”. Factory reset Introduction The Factory reset action returns the device to its factory default settings. This removes all personal and company data and settings from this device. The drive will be securely erased. When triggering this remote …

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

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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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Remote Windows AutoPilot Reset

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This blog post uses remote Windows AutoPilot Reset, to remotely trigger a device reset on Windows 10 devices. This capability is added in Windows 10, Insider Preview Build 17672 and later. This week it’s all about (remote) Windows AutoPilot Reset. That might sounds like something really cool and really new, but it’s actually not that new. Remember my post about Windows Automatic Redeployment? Well, that functionality still exists, but with the addition to trigger the redeployment (read: reset) remotely via Microsoft Intune, this feature is rebranded to (remote) Windows AutoPilot Reset. That means that Windows Autopilot Reset removes personal files, apps, and settings, by resetting Windows 10 while still maintaining the Azure AD Join and the Microsoft Intune enrollment. In this post I’ll show the …

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