Recast’s Endpoint Management Recap – Jan 2020

‍Welcome to the first Recast Endpoint Management Recap of 2020!

Episode three of a monthly edition of recent updates, news and helpful resources for the ConfigMgr community. Highlights from the last month include:

• 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.

Events & Conferences

This past month we saw some user group action, and we found where / when Ignite 2020 will be.

• Ignite 2020 – September 21–25, 2020 – New Orleans, LA
• GeekWeek – Truesec – March 23-27, 2020, Chicago or March 2-6, 2020, Stockholm
• NWSCUG – Recast Sponsored this January – No Recording
• DFWSMUG – January 28, 2020
• WMUG – Recorded on Youtube – What’s new in MEM Intune and ConfigMgr with Robert Marshall and Paul Winstanley

There are a lot of user groups, not every group meets every month, but there are a lot of ways to get plugged in, meet peers, make connections, and know you’re not alone in this MEMCM journey. Reach out to @RecastSoftware if you’re interested and unsure where to start, and we’ll try to help you connect with your local group.

Microsoft Product Announcements

Microsoft Edge Browser (Based on Chromium Engine): LANDING PAGE

Release Announcement: New Year, New Browser

What do we like about the new Edge?  It’s secure, it’s fast, it’s easy to patch, it’s managed, has “IE Mode” for legacy support based on your Enterprise Site List, use profiles for separation, huge extension library (since you can use Chrome extensions), and it’s just sweet.

Edge Focused Info:

• [MS Docs] Deploy Edge with ConfigMgr 1910 (I did this in my lab, took just a few minutes to get it all setup and running)
• [MS Docs] Access Microsoft Edge Legacy after installing the new version of Microsoft Edge
• [MS Docs] Security baseline (FINAL) for Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, version 79
• [MS Docs] Plan your Edge Deployment
• [Blog] Deploy Microsoft Edge Patches with SCCM Software Updates|ConfigMgr [Anoop C Nair]
• [Blog] How to Use Profiles in Microsoft’s Chromium Edge for Managing Multiple Accounts in Azure, Teams and More [@AdamGrossTX]

‍Intune Whats New Landing Page

ConfigMgr Whats New Landing Page

• ConfigMgr 1910 went General Availability (GA), or what they call the Slow Ring on 12/20.
• ConfigMgr 1910 update rollup released Jan 15th. Fixes several bugs since initial release.

ConfigMgr Tech Preview Landing Page

• TP 2001 released.

‍

Hardware Vendor Updates

HP

• [Enterprise Tools Landing Page]
• HP Client Management Script Library – Latest Release from 2019.11 – Associated Blog Post
• HP Image Assistant – Latest Release from 2019.11
• HP Manageability Integration Kit – Latest Release from 2019.11
• HP BIOS Configuration Utility (BCU) – Updated Version 4.0.30.1 SP100599  – User Guide (PDF) – Latest Release from 2019.12
• (NEW) Tip from HP – Extend Hardware Inventory to gather info about Docks, to easier support and report on them. Check out this PDF (Page 11)
• (NEW) New Released Docs which explain their new Software Wrapper: The HP Software Wrapper is a Microsoft Windows-based application that provides a unified interface to install or extract software, HP Driver Packs, or HP BIOS Packages onto end-user computers. – If you package / Deploy HP drivers, software, firmware, you’ll want to read this.

Dell

• [Enterprise Tools Landing Page]
• Dell Command Monitor – NEW UPDATE – Support for determining the status of the Warranty – 2019.12 [User Guide] [Reference Guide]
• Dell Command Configure (CCTK) – Last Update 2019.09
• Dell Command Update  – Last Update 2019.11 – Command-line interface support & more in 3.1
• Dell Command PowerShell Provider – Last Update 2019.04

Lenovo

• [Enterprise Tools Landing Page]
• System Update 5.07.0092 – NEW UPDATE – Updated 2020-01-08 – Minor Enhancements. [Release Notes]
• Thin Installer 1.3.0018 – NEW UPDATE – Updated 2019-12-19 – Several command line enhancements. [Release Notes]
• This version adds “-packagetypes” that allows you to filter the updates installed by their type (1 – Application, 2 – Driver, 3 – BIOS, 4 – Firmware, 5 – Other; Package Type was added to Update Retriever’s  ‘Update view’ in previous release)  Also  adds return code 3010 when installing Reboot Type 3 updates with ‘-noreboot’ to suppress the reboot from Thin Installer so that solution  like Config Mgr can trigger restart.
• Added return codes for when the “Scan” action is used to identify  when updates are available
• Added command parameters to download updates only and also to install the previously downloaded updates x‍
• Vantage for Enterprise – Not much info available on this, large download with lots of parts.‍
• Blog Posts. Lenovo has an official blog with how-to’s. It had two posts at the end of October, which I’d recommend reading if you support Lenovo.
• [Blog Post] – System Update Suite and MEM: Part 1 Deploying the Apps

Microsoft [Surface]

• Surface Support: Drivers – Constant Updates, you’ll have to do some drill-downs to find if a specific product to see if there are updates
• Surface Tools for IT: – Updated 2019.11.08

‍

Community Tools Blogs

Check out some of our favorite tools for ConfigMgr, along with several blog posts covering a wide range of areas and ideas to all help with Endpoint Management.  This month was quite busy in the community.

A special call out to a new website, a portal of collaboration, a way to get plugged in to the Microsoft Endpoint Management community: Systems Management Squad “Our goal is to foster community driven IT knowledge sharing through mentor-supported blogging and public speaking.”

Another new Community also came about this past month: MC2MC – Microsoft Cloud and Client Management Community [ @wmatthyssen @_Cloud_boy @Goosken @Jasper_be @Tim_DK @pdtit @peter_linders]

PodCasts / Blog Series / Video Blogs‍

• [Video Blog Series] MBAM & the new Bitlocker Management feature in Microsoft Endpoint Manager Configuration Manager [Niall C. Brady]
• [Video Blog Series] 7 Task Sequence Tips [@gwblok & Recast Software] -Favorite Troubleshooting Tips: Version & SMSTS Stamping
• [Blog Posts Series] Soft Skills Post & Series on Impostor Syndrome [Sean Bulger – @managed_blog]
• [Blog Post Series] Windows as a Service (WaaS) [Mike Marable – @mike_marable]
• [Youtube Channel] Episode 25 – Deploying and Configuring the New Edge Browser w/ Microsoft Intune [@OnPremCloudGuy & @AdamGrossTX]

Blog Posts‍

 Cloud Tech

• [Blog Post – Intune] Find Intune Devices with the Jan 2020 Windows 10 CU Patch Installed [@skatterbrainzz]
• [Blog Post – Intune] Manage Android Devices with Microsoft Intune [ntweekly.com]
• [Blog Post – Intune] Restrict Who Can Join Machines to Microsoft Intune [ntweekly.com]
• [Blog Post – Intune] Set HP BIOS settings through Intune and PowerShell [Damien Van Robaeys]
• [Blog Post – Intune] Set Lenovo BIOS settings through Intune and PowerShell [Damien Van Robaeys]
• [Blog Post – Intune] Set Dell BIOS settings through Intune and PowerShell [Damien Van Robaeys]
• [Blog Post – Intune] Deploy fonts to Intune managed Windows 10 devices [Nicola Suter – @nicolonsky]
• [Blog Post – Intune] Working with (custom) detection rules for Win32 apps [Peter van der Woude – @pvanderwoude]
• [Blog Post Series] Keeping it Simple with Intune [Paul Winstanley]

 General ConfigMgr

• [Blog Post] Hardware Inventory – Gathering Additional Items (Post 1) (Post 2) [Recast Software]
• [Newsletter] Enhansoft (Several Posts)- [Enhansoft]
• [Blog Post] ConfigMgr Deep Dive: Single Instance Storage [Nathan Ziehnert]
• [Blog Post] How to upgrade SCCM SQL version [Jonathan Lefebvre]
• [Blog Post] Building a Basic ConfigMgr Lab [@SuneThomsenDK]
• [Blog Post] Repairing Invalid Win32_UserProfile WMI Class on Windows 7 to 10 In-Place Upgraded Devices [ @AdamGrossTX]
• [Icon Tip] Grab icons for Intune or Software Center for well known Apps on this GitHub Repo [Aaron Parker – @stealthpuppy]
• [Icon Tip] Grab icons on this Site as well [icons8.com]
• [Icon Tip Blog Post] Set Application icon size in Software Center for ConfigMgr using PowerShell [Zeng Yinghua -@sandy_tsang]
• [Blog Post] Get Previous and Scheduled Evaluation Times for ConfigMgr Compliance Baselines with PowerShell [Trevor Jones – @SMSagentTrevor]
• [Blog Post] Delivery Optimization and Multiple Boundary Groups [Johan Arwidmark]
• [Blog Post] Debugging BSOD in WinPE [Johan Arwidmark]
• [Blog Post] Using ConfigMgr to Pin and Un-Pin OneDrive Known Folders [Ben Whitmore – @byteben]
• ‍

 Other SysAdmin Goodies

• [Blog Post] Windows Virtual Desktop: Creation and Management [Jake Shackelford]
• [Blog Post] Common VSCode Extensions [@JordanTheITguy]
• [Blog Post] SQL Tip: Unicode/Non-Unicode & Implicit Conversion [Benjamin Reynolds – @SqlBenjamin]
• [Blog Post] YouTube Video Metadata Scraping with PowerShell [Stephen Owen Deploy(@FoxDeploy)]

 Tools

• [Tool] WIMWitch Update(s): 1.3.0 / 1.3.1 [Donna Ryan] – Update Windows Media with Patches offline for Deployment – GUI Tool
• [Tool] OSDBuilder Update: 20.1.14 ‍[David Segura] – Update Windows Media offline, customize and so much more – PowerShell Command Line
• [Tool] Driver Automation Tool Updated to 6.4.1 on 2019.12.05 – Simplify driver management
• [Tool] Configmgr Prerequisites Tool – Help get a new Windows Server installed with all the Features, ADK, settings with the click of a button.
• [Script] Create Operational ConfigMgr Collections updated 2020.01.13 [Benoit Lecours] – Creates a bunch of useful collections
• [Script] Fully Automate Software Update Maintenance in Configuration Manager [Bryan Dam – @bdam555]

‍

Recast Updates

• Right Click Tools 4.1 was released with many new tools and features added in the Enterprise edition. Click here to read more about what’s new, watch an on-demand webinar and download the new version today.

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