The reason to Customize Windows Start Menu is a must for any organization to deploy a standard workstation and remove any unwanted software from it. Sometimes Microsoft makes small changes under the hood and can hardly be tracked unless an issue comes up to flag those changes. The configuration of the Start Menu and Taskbar for Windows 10 has been since the beginning a great challenge for administrators and it doesn’t look that this will change anytime soon. Windows 11 which came out recently share the same mechanism as Windows 10 when it comes to the Start Menu thus, this post can be used for Windows 11. Microsoft added the following note to the start menu layout modification documentation after the 1703 release A simple note, with great implication! Following our previous posts on Windows 10 Customization and how to modify the taskbar configuration, we will detail how to configure … Read More
Import Windows Devices for AutoPilot in Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Windows Autopilot is a solution designed that allows you to set up and pre-configure Windows devices for your environment using Azure and Endpoint Manager. The goal of Autopilot is to reduce the OS deployment complexity. If done correctly, a user logs to an out-of-box computer, logs on his computer with his ADD user account, and applications and configurations get deployed. All that with minimum infrastructure requirements. If you are new to Autopilot, we have a post that describes every step you need to do to get started. Autopilot has its flaws but it’s improving very fast. One of those flaws was that device importation was made from the Windows Store for Business or the Microsoft Partner Center. Those days are over since you can now import your device directly from Endpoint Manager. Endpoint Manager Autopilot device import Launch Endpoint Manager Select Device / Enroll Devices / Windows enrollment In the Windows Autopilot … Read More
Deploy SCCM Wifi Profiles with Password to Windows 10 Devices
Introduced since SCCM 2012 R2, SCCM Wifi profiles are used to send Wifi configurations to clients. It can be useful if your company is not using certificates or any automated authentication methods. A smaller organization that uses a simple WPA2 setup can use SCCM Wifi profiles to send Wifi SSID and password so that the computers connect automatically to that network. You can also use Wifi profile to manage mobile devices with Intune but we won’t cover this scenario in this post. The major drawback of the SCCM Wifi Profile is that it’s impossible to enter the Wifi password using the console UI. (Even in the newest versions). We will show you how to deploy Wifi profiles on a Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 computer, including the Wifi password using an XML file. How to deploy SCCM Wifi Profiles with password to Windows 10 devices Since it’s not possible to enter a password in … Read More
How to fix Azure Update Compliance missing devices
Azure Update Compliance has been around for a few years already. Originally part of Windows Analytics, it’s the only component that lived through the years. It has become more popular with the growing number of devices managed with Windows Update for Business. It is also useful for an environment that manages updates and feature updates with Configuration Manager. In this post, we’ll cover how to make the required change so devices report back to Azure Update Compliance. I recently did a check for a few clients and noticed that the number of devices in Update Compliance was drastically low or even almost empty in some environments. This is because of a change from Microsoft, that was enforced back in January 2022. Since devices were managed prior to May 2021, we need to adjust the configurations to fix Azure Update Compliance missing devices. If you are looking for how to use … Read More
How to Enable and Monitor SCCM BranchCache
In this post, we will cover how to configure BranchCache on your SCCM server SCCM clients. It’s quite straight forward and using BranchCache can significantly optimize network bandwidth during deployment. BranchCache is a bandwidth-optimization feature introduce with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. Each client uses a cache and acts as an alternate source for content that devices on its own network request. SCCM can use BranchCache to optimize network bandwidth during deployments. That way you decrease your request on your distribution points since your client act as the source for other clients. We won’t go into detail on all different SCCM Caching methods, this blog focus on enabling BranchCache but we suggest that you get familiar with the different caching options that are available. BranchCache Peer Cache Connected Cache Delivery Optimization Microsoft has an excellent article for Selecting the right peer caching technology and a great comparison post … Read More
How to send SetupDiag Result in your SCCM Inventory during a Windows 10 Feature Update
Windows 10 Feature updates can be tricky for many reasons. Fellow SC Dudes, Adam Gross, created a free and easy-to-implement solution to help debug and track down Feature Update logs. This solution will describe how to send SetupDiag Result in your SCCM Inventory during a Windows 10 Feature Update. Along with our previous post to track down Windows 10 Feature Update hard blocks, will greatly ease Windows 10 Servicing. Windows 10 SetupDiag SCCM Inventory Benefits Centralized log for any on-prem Feature Update attempt SetupDiag details stored in Hardware Inventory, which can be monitored by SQL query/reports and PowerBI While we recommend sticking to Feature Update to deliver new Windows 10 builds, this solution will work the exact same if a Task Sequence is used to do an upgrade. In this post, we’ll detail how to implement the Windows 10 Feature Update script to include it in your SCCM Inventory. This … Read More
Collect Windows10 Events in log analytic Workspace
Windows 10, Azure, and Endpoint Manager offer many different tools to gather and know more about what is going on in your environment. One of those is Log Analytics Workspace. Log Analytics workspace has the ability to collect data from Windows devices such as Events and performance data through the Microsoft monitoring agent. This can centralize Windows events to be analyzed and crunched to identify potential impacts happening to many computers. While the Monitoring agent is free, the data hosted in Log Analytics Workspaces will cost a little per month for great insight. Based on past experience, you can expect ~100$/month for roughly 7000 devices reporting Errors and Warning. In this post, we will describe how to configure the Azure Log Analytics Workspace to gather Windows10 Events centrally. Windows10 Events log analytic – Prerequisites The following operating systems are supported to report event viewer by using the Log Analytics agent … Read More
Monitor SCCM Task Sequence Progress
When deploying Windows 10 operating system using SCCM (OSD), you will need to monitor SCCM task sequence progress. This allows us to track task sequence start, end time and most importantly errors (if any). Our post will show 4 different ways to monitor SCCM task sequences. Each of them has its own benefits and drawbacks. Monitor SCCM Task Sequence Using the Console You can view the progress of a task sequence using the SCCM console. This method is simple and easy but permit to see the status of only one machine at the time. If your deployment staff don’t have access to the console or view deployment status, this option is not for you. Open the SCCM Console Go to Monitoring / Deployments Search and right-click the deployment linked to your Windows 10 task sequence On the menu, select View Status In the Deployment Status screen, select the In Progress tab for a running … Read More
How to use Windows Update for Business with Intune
Windows Update for Business is one of the new things Microsoft proposed along with Windows 10. It has come a long way since it’s release. Even if it isn’t perfect yet, or give all the flexibility that ConfigMgr (MEMCM) offer when managing monthly update or feature release, for many small/medium business, this brings a more simple approach to patching and maintaining Windows 10 up to date. In this post, we will detail how to configure Intune Windows Update for Business to patch Windows 10 devices managed by Intune Pre-requisites Windows 10 must be managed by Intune If Windows 10 is being co-managed with ConfigMgr(MEMCM), make sure the slider for Software Update is set to Intune Intune Windows Update Business – Update rings strategy Depending on multiple factors, the key for Windows Update for Business to be successful is to define the various update rings for your enterprise. Here, no magic … Read More
How to configure Delivery Optimization with Intune
Microsoft has been hard at work to optimize content delivery since the release of Windows 10 and Office 365. While not perfect at the beginning, the offer is now really great and offer many supported methods to ease the huge content that needs to be distributed month after month. Delivery Optimization is a key component included in Windows 10 since the beginning and recently added to Office 365. Combining Delivery Optimization Intune with Windows update for business will greatly help content download from the Internet. In this post, we will provide details to configure Delivery Optimization for Windows 10 and Office 365, by using Microsoft Intune. This post is part of a series on Windows Autopilot that will be published in the following weeks. In the next posts, we will cover the following subjects : Getting started with Windows Autopilot | Step-by-step guide How to deploy Win32 Applications in Microsoft … Read More