Monthly What's New
Recast’s Endpoint Management Recap – February 2021
Topics: Monthly What's New
Welcome to the Recast Endpoint Management Recap, February 2021 by Gary Blok
Let’s start by saying big things are happening at Recast. “Recast Software, a global leader in productivity and security tools for Systems Management, announced that it has acquired Enhansoft, whose technology enables asset inventory retrieval and reporting within Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (MECM).” Read rest of the post here
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Hi Bloggers! If you’re in the community and you’re blogging things, feel free to send me a DM or tag me in your twitter post when you tweet your latest blog post so I know it’s out there. I browse twitter fairly regularly, but I’m sure I still miss a lot of great content being created. If you’ve started blogging and it never shows up on my list, hit me up! @gwblok
Thanks for checking out the February edition of our recap. As always, the layout to the post:
- Events / Conference News
- Microsoft Product Announcements
- Hardware Vendor Updates (Tools / Security / Features)
- Community Tools / News
- Recast Updates
That’s the idea, a high level overview of things going on that you’ll want to be aware of and you can dig into them further on your own. If you’re new to this monthly post, you’ll want to look back at previous months, so much great content.
Events
- MMS 2021 Quiz Show (with a giveaway!) – March 11
- Microsoft Ignite – March 2-4
- Veeam Ignite Connection (Register for Free T-Shirt and raffle)
- Workplace Ninja Virtual Edition 2021 – Aug 31 – Sept 2
- [Blog Post] Top FREE Microsoft Certification Hands-on Labs
- [Paid] The ViaMonstra OnlineAcademy
- Endpoint management deep dives + Q&A in March
- [Paid] 2021 PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit – April April 27-29
- [Previous Recording] The CSMUG 2021 Browser Summit presented by PolicyPak
Microsoft Products & Announcements
Microsoft has posted a page with a lot of great resources during this time, to help IT professionals, Educators, Families, and Remote Business, along with how Microsoft is helping in the battle on Covid-19 on their Responding to COVID-19 together page.
Products:
Microsoft Edge Browser (Based on Chromium Engine): [Landing Page][What’s New Page][RoadMap Portal]
- Turn off the Edge welcome page (Michael Niehaus @mniehaus)
Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection – [Landing Page] [Resource Hub]
Microsoft 365 [Landing Page] [Roadmap] [Tech Community] [Youtube Channel]
- FYI… a new ODT released, you’ll want to use this for your deployments.
ConfigMgr [What’s New Page] [Tech Community] [Virtual Hub][MS Q\A][Reddit]
ConfigMgr Tech Preview [What’s New Page]
- TP 2101
- The coolest thing in this release (if you’re asking me) is the ability to install console extensions from the console! Yes, you can now install Recast Right Click Tools from the Console!
- [Blog Post] Required application deployments visible in Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center (Niall C. Brady @ncbrady)
- TP 2102 Release Post
Intune [What’s New Page] [Tech Community]
Windows 10 [Landing Page] [Tech Community][Release Information][PowerToys]
- Understanding the new Windows update history experience
- KB4535680 update is causing BitLocker problems in Windows 10 (betanews.com)
- Introducing the next feature update to Windows 10, version 21H1
Security Alerts [Microsoft Security Portal – Security Update Guide]
Hardware Vendor Updates
I’m only listing changes. If you want a more complete list of their tools, check out previous month’s posts.
For a full list of tools that, blog posts and information about the Vendors, check out the ConfigMgr Manufacturers’ page.
** Much of this information is provided directly from the vendor, so when you see “we”, think of it as “Vendor Name”, and not Recast Software.
HP [Enterprise Tools Landing Page] [Community / Blog Site] [Outlet Site]
- HPIA 5.0.4 Fixes:
- Fixes miscellaneous issues.
- Fixes some BIOS SoftPaqs not installing when command line InstallType set to All.
- Fixes /Offlinemode trying to access Internet.
- Remove Ctl+Shift+S from Download SoftPaqs and Create Driver Pack functions.
- Enhancements:
- Support for NTLM and Kerberos proxy login.
- Support for relative paths when running Analyze from command prompt for file path locations
- [Blog Post] The blog for using HP Sure Admin (replacing BIOS passwords with certificates) has been updated to provide more clarity and details
- HP’s Developer Portal | Automating Maintenance of HP Image Assistant Repositories (Updated 2/19/2021)
- adds ability to import an existing repository and update its INI file accordingly
- adds ability to do an OS version support check against listed, checked platforms – useful when trying to sync a new (or older)version of Windows – advisory only
Dell [Enterprise Tools Landing Page] [Refurbished Sale Site] [Outlet Site]
- The Command Repository Manager is now available in 10 different languages, so even more users across the regions can benefit from the tool. The Command | Cloud Repository Manager can help simplify update management by allowing IT admins to tailor updates specifically and uniquely to their environment. With cloud accessibility, that means update catalogs can be accessed for up to two years – providing a single source of truth and minimizing update errors during testing and rollouts.
Lenovo [Enterprise Tools Landing Page][Blog Site]
- Nothing new to Report this Month
Microsoft [Surface]
- Nothing new to Report this Month
Community Tools \ Blogs
One more note, I do my best to provide Twitter accounts with the blog posts, both to provide credit where credit is due, and so you can then follow them yourselves to stay in the loop as things are coming out and ideas are being discussed on twitter.
Podcasts / Blog Series / Video Blogs
- [Documentation Series] Beyond the MS Docs, a ConfigMgr overview,
- Task Sequence Steps in depth
- Community Tools
- [Youtube Channel] Intune Training Series [@OnPremCloudGuy & @AdamGrossTX]
- [Youtube Channel] Namaste Techies [@anoopmannur & @Hoorge]
- [Youtube Series] WVD Image Management Series (Jim Moyle @JimMoyle)
- [Blog Series] CM Lab Series, Part 6 – Setting up Software Update Point (Sune Thomsen @SuneThomsenDK)
Blog Posts
Cloud Tech
- [Blog Post] Query Defender ATP for Vulnerabilities: Part 1 (Jordan Benzing @JordanTheITguy)
- [Blog Post] Top 10 Benefits of Windows Autopilot (Thomas Marcussen @MarcussenThomas)
- [Blog Post] Updating your Security baselines in Microsoft Endpoint Manager to a newer version (Kenneth van Surksum @kennethvs)
- [Blog Post] Getting Intune Device Notes from Graph API (Paul Wetter @PaulWetter)
- [Blog Post] Logging in a cloud-world – Part 3 (Intune/Autopilot) (Tom Degreef @TomDegreef)
- [Blog Post] Notify users when their device is running low on disk space using Toast Notifications and Endpoint Analytics Proactive Remediations (Martin Bengtsson (@mwbengtsson)
- [Blog Post Update] Deploy Fonts via Intune (Niels Kok @NielsKok5)
- [Blog Post] The new way of managing Windows 10 settings with Microsoft Intune – Settings Catalog (Peter Klapwijk @inthecloud_247)
- [Blog Post] Use Azure Key Vault to secure your Graph API connection in Power Automate (Peter Klapwijk @inthecloud_247)
- [Blog Post] Further integrating Apple Business Manager with Microsoft Intune (Peter van der Woude @pvanderwoude)
- [Blog Post] Adding devices or users to an Azure AD group after Windows Autopilot is complete but only when the device is marked as Compliant (Niall C. Brady @ncbrady)
ConfigMgr
- [Blog Post] Change the Maximum File Size of a MIF (Garth Jones @GarthMJ)
- [Blog Post] How to Enable Remote Errors (Garth Jones @GarthMJ)
- [Blog Post] Microsoft Endpoint Manager Resources (Garth Jones @GarthMJ)
- [Blog Post] Configuration Manager Logs – Where Are My Log Files? (Garth Jones @GarthMJ)
- [Blog Post] Keeping Up with Distribution Points (Brett Anderson @SaltayPeaches)
- [Blog Post] Comparing ESD with standard WIM packages in ConfigMgr IPU Task Sequences (Johan Arwidmark @jarwidmark)
- [Blog Post] Breaking your collections down into smaller subsets (Maik Koster @Maik_Koster)
- [Blog Post] MDT: Deploy from the cloud – Grab latest Build on the fly directly from Microsoft (Nicolas Lacour @Diagg)
- [Blog Post] Using ConfigMgr Run Scripts and Microsoft Quick Assist to Repair a Broken Domain Trust Relationship (Adam Gross @AdamGrossTX)
- [Blog Post] Machine Policy Request & Evaluation Cycle | Client Action ConfigMgr (Anoop C Nair @anoopmannur)
- [Blog Post] Create a new WinPE boot image – Systems Management Squad (sysmansquad.com) (Adam Cook @codaamok)
Other SysAdmin Info
- [Blog Post | Download] The Backup Bible – Complete Edition (Author: Microsoft MVP Eric Siron | Write up by Niall C. Brady @ncbrady)
- [Blog Post] Learn How to Manage Windows 10 Drivers and Firmware for Microsoft Surface (Jitesh Kumar @jitesh8092)
- [Blog Post] What’s New Group Policy Settings Available in Different Versions of Windows 10 (Jitesh Kumar @jitesh8092)
- [Blog Series] Security of the Intel Graphics Stack (Igor Bogdanov @IgorBog61650384)
- [Blog Post] Delete a protected OU using PowerShell (Guy Leech @guyrleech)
- [Blog Post] Digging into the Windows Feature Experience Pack (Michael Niehaus @mniehaus)
- [Blog Post] UEFI Secure Boot: Yes, again (Michael Niehaus @mniehaus)
- [Blog Post] Use PowerShell to convert your files (exe, ps1…) to Base64 and then back from Base64 to the file (Damien Van Robaeys @syst_and_deploy)
- [Blog Post] How to Find Running Processes with PowerShell’s Get-Process Cmdlet (Adam Bertram @adbertram)
- [Blog Post] Deploy Windows Subsystem for Linux (David Brook @DBBrook24)
- [Blog Post] Checking LAPS Password Cross-Forest Using PowerShell (GeoffP @TheSleepyAdmin)
Tool Updates
- Tons of PowerShell tools from David Segura recently – Release Notes. More on OSDeploy.com
- WimWitch 3.0 – CM Console Integration
- Operating System Dashboard is the Free Report in February 2021
- OSD-Reporting: This script creates a webpage to show SCCM OSD Reporting (tcox8 on github.com)
Recast Software Updates
- [Webinar Recording] See what’s new in Right Click Tools 4.5
- [Tech docs] ConfigMgr Docs: Task Sequence Beyond the Docs
- Stay tuned for our ConfigMgr Series of webinars from community leaders being announced next week! Follow us on Twitter @RecastSoftware to hear the latest
Thanks for checking out the post, and look forward to more monthly updates of what’s going on.