Recast’s Endpoint Management Recap – Holiday 2020

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Welcome to the  Recast Endpoint Management Recap, Holiday edition (November + December) 2020 by Gary Blok

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 Holiday 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 – State of the Union – [YOUTUBE Recording]
• This was a great live event, the ConfigMgr team brought some highlights of things to come, and there was a great “Happy Hour” time we were could chat up other community members, along with David James and others.
• NWSCUG | TCSMUG | AZSMUG Combo Group: had a great session, Mike Marable covered how he moved from Task Sequences to Native Features Updates in CM… why? necessity. More stuff was covered, but honestly, I found that to be pretty cool. Still waiting on the slide deck and recoding to be posted, so check back often. [NWSCUG Site]
• FWSMUG: The recordings [YouTube] from Cloud Imaging Day user group meeting with @jarwidmark , @mikael_nystrom and @AArwidmark
• Microsoft is sponsoring Microsoft 365 workshops for eligible customers [Workshop Link]

‍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]‍

• Edge Browser was released to WSUS as a full install, make sure you’re updated your ADRs. [Reddit] [MS KB]
• [Blog Post] Block the Edge Shopping Assistant with Microsoft Intune (Peter Klapwijk @inthecloud_247)
• [Blog Post] Manage Edge mobile favorites with Microsoft Intune (Peter Klapwijk @inthecloud_247)
• [Blog Post] New Edge sync policy in action…no more getting started splash screen (Oliver Kieselbach @okieselb)

Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection – [Landing Page] [Resource Hub]

Microsoft 365 [Landing Page] [Roadmap] [Tech Community] [Youtube Channel]

‍ConfigMgr [What’s New Page] [Tech Community] [Virtual Hub][MS Q\A][Reddit]

• Training: Introduction to Microsoft Endpoint Manager
• 2006 – Several Hot Fixes
• 2010 – Fast Ring [Blog]
• Tons of Cloud Feature Updates and Fixes.
• Admin Service Updates
• Collection Improvements
• Task Sequences over the internet (with CMG)

ConfigMgr Tech Preview [What’s New Page]

• TP 2011

Intune [What’s New Page] [Tech Community]

Windows 10 [Landing Page] [Tech Community][Release Information]

• 20H2 released
• What’s New in 20H2 For IT Pros
• 1909 Bug Fix for Certs, make sure you’re using the latest 1909 Media for upgrades.

Security Alerts [Microsoft Security Portal – Security Update Guide]

• Meet the Microsoft Pluton processor – The security chip designed for the future of Windows PCs

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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.

HP

• [Enterprise Tools Landing Page] [Community / Blog Site] [Outlet Site]
• Windows Update will start automatically updating HP System BIOS in Jan 2021. [WhitePaper]
• You can already get BIOS updates by manually checking for updates, but soon, they will automatically update when it meets criteria. Check out that whitepaper to learn more.
• [Blog Post] Secure BIOS with HP Sure Admin and CMSL : A review of how to implement password-less BIOS protection with HP’s Sure Admin certificate-based technology

Dell

• [Enterprise Tools Landing Page] [Refurbished Sale Site] [Outlet Site]

Lenovo

• [Enterprise Tools Landing Page][Blog Site]
• [Blog Post] Deploying Commercial Vantage With Intune
• [Blog Post] Manage Commercial Vantage with Intune
• Commercial Vantage provides a user interface for changing hardware settings, running diagnostic scans, checking for Lenovo software and driver updates, and more.  Commercial Vantage is a slimmed-down and customizable version of Lenovo Vantage which has been available in the Microsoft Store since December 2017
• Lenovo CommercialVantage [Rebranded and Updated]
• Lenovo Dock Manager 
• Client-side utility that handles updating Lenovo Dock Firmware
• Can pull firmware updates from Lenovo Support or from a local repository
• Local repository created and maintained using Update Retriever
• Adds useful dock related information into WMI

Microsoft [Surface]

• Surface Hub’s Windows 10 Team 2020 Update‍

From the Surface Team: We’ll likely be releasing firmware and drivers for some products this month, but nothing major.  The only thing I’d say is “happy holidays” .

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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, starting with Task Sequence Steps in depth (Gary Blok @gwblok)
• [Youtube Channel] Intune Training Series [@OnPremCloudGuy & @AdamGrossTX]
• [Video Series] Video Tutorial: Introduction – Applications in MEMCM (Steve Rachui @steverac)
• [Community Site] Windows Virtual Desktop – Newsletter

Blog Posts

 Cloud Tech

• [Blog Post] Getting started with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for Android (Peter van der Woude @pvanderwoude)
• [Blog Post]  Microsoft Edge browser settings & extensions (Rahul Jindal @rahulj1906)
• [Blog Post] Bitlocker silent and automatic Encryption Settings for Lenovo Thinkpads (Rahul Jindal @rahulj1906)
• [Blog Post] Implementing your first DLP policy (Paul Winstanley @SCCMentor)
• [Blog Post] You can’t save work files here and other assorted errors (Paul Winstanley @SCCMentor)
• [Blog Post] Imaging from the Cloud – How to setup Powershell Deployment Extension (PSD) for MDT with HTTPS (Brooks Peppin @brookspeppin)
• [Blog Post] Introducing Autopilot Manager (Oliver Kieselbach@okieselb)

ConfigMgr

• [Blog Post] How To Deploy HP BIOS Settings Using SCCM and HP BIOS Configuration Utility (BCU)(Daniel Engberg @danielclasson)
• [Blog Post] Windows as a Service: Sharing my PreCache and In-Place Upgrade Task Sequences – 20H2 edition, part 1 (Martin Bengtsson @mwbengtsson)
• [Blog Post] Deploy RSAT (Remote Server Administration Tools) for Windows 10 v20H2 using ConfigMgr and PowerShell (Martin Bengtsson @mwbengtsson)
• [Blog Post] Requesting Active directory from WinPE (Nicolas Lacour @Diagg)
• [Blog Post] OneTrace Log Viewer to Replace CMTrace (Anoop C Nair @anoopmannur)
• [Blog Post] Add keyboard shortcuts in WinPE (Damien Van Robaeys @syst_and_deploy)
• [Blog Post] What to do when Endpoint Manager upgrades don’t go as planned. Hint: logs (Niall C. Brady @ncbrady)
• [Blog Post] Manage BitLocker policies and escrow recovery keys over a cloud management gateway (CMG) (Niall C. Brady @ncbrady)
• [Blog Post] Troubleshooting Clients with Unknown Update State in CM (PatchMyPC)
• [Blog Post] Keeping track of changes in a Task Sequence (Merlin from Belgium @MerlinFromBE)
• [Blog Post] Use SCCM/MEMCM StatusMessage MessageID to Audit Administrator actions (@benoitlecours)
• [Blog Post] HP Image Assistant Self Service Through Software Center (Ryan Engstrom @ryandengstrom)
• [Blog Post] How to Confirm That Hardware Inventory Is Working (Enhansoft @Enhansoft)
• [Blog Post] How to collect Teams client logs for troubleshooting using Configuration Manager–Scripts (Eswar Koneti @eskonr)
• [Blog Post] Deploy an OS over CMG using bootable media (Niall C. Brady @ncbrady)
• [Blog Post] WIM Your Applications Like a Boss (Sune Thomsen @SuneThomsenDK)
• [Blog Post] Manage BitLocker policies and escrow recovery keys over a cloud management gateway (CMG) (Niall C. Brady @ncbrady)

 Other SysAdmin Goodies

• [Blog Post] How To Install Hotfixes Using Powershell (MSU Files)(Daniel Engberg @danielclasson)
• [Blog Post] Troubleshoot Windows 10 Hard Blockers (Jonathan Lefebvre @JLefebvreGloben)
• [Blog Post] Installing SQL 2019 (Jonathan Lefebvre @JLefebvreGloben)
• [Blog Post] MEMCM SQL Server 2017 to 2019 Upgrade (Winston Hinton @belge1096)
• [Blog Post] Map drives when connecting to corporate network (Jörgen Nilsson @ccmexec)
• [Blog Post] Set your Azure VPN connections to “Connect Automatically” with PowerShell (Ben Reader @powers_hell)
• [Blog Post] Working with Hyper-V VMs in an Intune Lab environment (Oliver Kieselbach @okieselb)
• [Blog Post] Auto Update Docker Desktop for Windows even with no admin rights using a Windows Service (Damien Van Robaeys @syst_and_deploy)
• [Blog Post] Troubleshooting Windows Error Codes Like a Pro (Andreas Hammarskjöld @AndHammarskjold)
• [Report] Windows 10 Feature Update Readiness PowerBI Report – MEMCM version (Trevor Jones@SMSagentTrevor)

Tool Updates

• ConfigMgr Documentation Tool [GitHub](Paul Wetter @PaulWetter)
• Image Customize [GitHub] Great scripts to configure/customize a the default user profile of a Windows image at deployment (Aaron Parker @stealthpuppy)
• 2Pint Software – BITS Manager (Twitter Post)
• WaaS Task Sequences for Download – Several Updates and Tested on 20H2 (@gwblok)
• CM Architecture Visio Template [Blog] [GitHub] (Anoop C Nair @anoopmannur)
• CMPivot Queries [GitHub] (Merlin from Belgium @MerlinFromBE)
• Windows 10 Toast Notification Script Update: Second action button and built-in prevention from disabling toast notifications [Blog] (Martin Bengtsson @mwbengtsson)
• ConfigMgr Client Health Version 0.8.3 Released (Anders Rødland @andersrodland)
• WIMWitch v2.40: Supports Windows 10 2009/20H2. Fix for the bug that prevents WIM creation when loading old configs (Donna Ryan @TheNotoriousDRR)

Recast Software Updates‍

• [Tech docs] Launched ConfigMgr Docs: Task Sequence Beyond the Docs

Watch for more content and new Right Click Tools features coming soon next month. From all of us at Recast software, we wish you a safe and wonderful holiday season and a bright 2021 ahead!

Thanks for checking out the post, and look forward to more monthly updates of what’s going on.  If you think we missed something, or want any other news added, find us on Twitter: @RecastSoftware‍

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