Settings Catalog

Easily managing Windows App on Windows devices

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This week is all about easily managing the Windows App on Windows devices. In the early days, the Windows App was pretty straightforward. There were some configuration settings available within the Windows App, and the user could configure those settings. Nowadays, more and more configuration settings have become available, and some now also become available for the IT administrators for central management. That enables IT administrators to manage the update behavior, the first run experience, the log off behavior, and the ability to create shortcuts. Especially, managing the update behavior can provide the IT administrators with a little bit more control over the updates for the Windows App, as it enables the them to configure an admin release ring and to turn off automatic updates. …

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Configuring Point-in-time restore in Windows

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This week is a follow-up on this post of earlier this year about getting started with point-in-time restore in Windows. At that moment, the early release of Point-in-time-restore became available and showed the concept in the Windows. Now that functionality is further developed in to a general available feature that also includes management capabilities via Microsoft Intune. Point-in-time-restore fits perfectly in the storyline of the many new (and still coming) features related to the backup, restore, and recovery of Windows. That storyline goes from Quick Machine Recovery, which is focused on recovering Windows devices when encountering critical errors that prevent the device from booting, to Windows settings backup and restore (previously known as Windows Backup for Organizations), which is focused on making it easier to switch …

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Managing Apple Intelligence on iOS and iPadOS devices

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This week is all about managing Apple Intelligence on iOS and iPadOS devices. Apple Intelligence is the personal AI that is built directly into iOS, iPadOS and MacOS. With that, Apple provides users with generative AI models that can directly integrate with personal data to help with writing content, creating images, organizing notifications, and more, while keeping the data private by processing it locally or by using Private Cloud Compute. On top of that, it nowadays also provides the ability to integrate with ChatGPT. And that is where it might become discussion worthy for most organizations. In general, especially in Europe, organizations nowadays want control over their data and the location of their data. That might already be a discussion for the Private Cloud Compute, …

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Customizing the pinned folders in Start layout

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This week is all about customizing the pinned folders in the Start layout, and is a follow-up on this post about customizing the power options in Start layout. Again, it is important to start with that the fact that something is technically possible, does not mean that it should actually be done. In most cases, it should be up to the user to configure in the Start layout whatever they need to be productive. There are, however, cases in which an IT administrator might need to take a bit more control. That can be useful on shared devices, such as kiosk devices and Shared PCs. This post will be another part in the series to go through the different sections of the Start layout, this …

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Dynamically removing preinstalled Microsoft Store apps using native functionality

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This week is all about a really nice addition to the native functionality to remove preinstalled Microsoft Store apps. That nice addition is the ability to dynamically remove any preinstalled MSIX/APPX app, which builds on the functionality described earlier about removing preinstalled Microsoft Store apps using native functionality. The story around removing those apps is still the same. When working with Windows devices in an enterprise environment, a common request is to control the preinstalled Microsoft Store apps. These default apps, which ship as part of the Windows image, often include consumer-oriented or redundant functionality that does not align with corporate standards. That makes removing often desirable. Removing these apps often required custom scripting, or other creative solutions. Starting with Windows 11 version 24H2, however, …

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Configuring Windows Spotlight

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This week is all about configuring Windows Spotlight. Windows Spotlight is definitely not something new, as it already exists since the beginning of Windows 10, but it is good to be familiar with the capabilities and configuration options. This week will be a refresher. Windows Spotlight is a Windows feature that can be used to display different wallpapers on the background of the desktop and the lock screen, and offers suggestions, fun facts, tips or organizational messages. In that case, when using Windows Spotlight for displaying different wallpapers, a new image is displayed every day on the lock screen or the desktop. On top of that, when using Windows Spotlight for displaying suggestions, fun facts, tips, recommendations are displayed on how to enhance productivity in …

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Customizing only the initial Start menu layout

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This week is all about customizing only the initial Start menu layout on Windows 11. That on itself is nothing new, as customizing the Start menu layout has been possible since the early days of Windows 11. The main configurations related to customizing the Start menu layout are described in this post. That also means that the ideas around customizing the Start menu layout have not changed. Customizing the Start menu layout enables organizations to create a standardized layout for their users by pinning apps, removing default apps, ordering apps and more. To create a standardized layout for Windows 11, the IT administrator should use a JSON-file that contains the configuration of the Start menu layout. What makes it extra interesting is the added functionality …

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Configuring the visibility of the Settings pages

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This week is not about something new, this week is about configuring the visibility of the different Settings pages. The Settings app is the Windows application that provides a unified interface to manage the different system settings. Almost everything that was configurable in the old days via Control Panel, is now configurable via the Settings app. With some exceptions of course. The main reasons to make adjustments to the visibility of the different Settings pages, are to create a more controlled and secure environment. That can be especially useful for specific types of devices, such as kiosk devices and student devices. In those cases, limiting the access to different Settings pages can help with preventing unauthorized changes and maintaining a consistent user experience. The good …

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Removing preinstalled Microsoft Store apps using native functionality

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This week is all about the native functionality to remove preinstalled Microsoft Store apps. Very useful. When working with Windows devices in an enterprise environment, a common request is to control the preinstalled Microsoft Store apps. These default apps, which ship as part of the Windows image, often include consumer-oriented or redundant functionality that does not align with corporate standards. Removing these apps often requires custom scripting, or other creative solutions. Starting with Windows 11 version 25H2, however, there will be native functionality available to facilitate the removal of most preinstalled Microsoft Store apps. That enables the IT administrator to easily remove those preinstalled Microsoft Store apps. Those configurations are available via Group Policy and via Configuration Service Provider (CSP), enabling basically any deployment scenario. …

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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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