Gary BlokRecast’s Endpoint Management Recap – September 2021
Welcome to the Recast Endpoint Management Recap, September 2021 – by Gary Blok.
It’s great to be back! Are you registered for MMS Miami Beach? I am and I’m so excited to see everyone later in October. In this edition of the September 2021 recap, I’ll be telling you what sessions I’m most looking forward to at MMS Miami Beach. I’ll also update you about the usual goings-on, so use the quick links below to get to what you need first.
- MMS Miami Beach
- Events / Conference News
- Microsoft Product Announcements
- Hardware Vendor Updates (Tools / Security / Features)
- Community Tools / News
- Recast Updates
This month and next, I’m going to talk about MMS Miami Beach Edition. MMS is all about the Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM) Configuration Manager and Intune communities and I always look forward to going. Now I could go on and on about each of the presenters at MMS, but after talking with Garth Jones and Mark Godfrey, I decided to tell you about what session each of us are most looking forward to at MMS.
Garth
Man, it’s hard to tell you what session I am most looking forward to because there are far too many great choices! Really for me, the BEST sessions are the non-sessions. This is where I have one-on-ones with attendees. I love to hear what they are trying to do and how they are problem-solving.
Mark
If I must choose just one, I suppose I have to go with Nathan Ziehnert’s session. Specifically, he has some content around MEMCM automation which will be interesting. I might be co-presenting with him on that, but if not, I’ll definitely be in the room for that session either way.
Gary
I’ll be jumping into as many sessions about optimization of on-prem environments as I can. The rest of the time I’ll be mingling with attendees and building relationships. That’s honestly my favorite part of MMS, getting to know others in person. Later, when we interact online on Twitter or at virtual events, it feels more personal.
Recast at MMS
Several members of Recast’s technical team, along with our front-end and back-end teams, will be at MMS Miami Beach. Garth, Mark, and I are all doing technical sessions. Garth will be giving sessions on SQL queries and reporting. Mark will be presenting on Windows OS customizations and automation. I will be presenting on task sequences and leveraging WIMs. All of us hope to see you there!
- Next Gen Microsoft 365 | CloudWay – Sept 29
- Microsoft 365 – Filters and app management – Oct 1
- WinAdmins – Introducing Windows 365 – The CloudPC – Oct 13
- MMS Miami Beach – Oct 25 – 28
- Cloud Management Community – CMC Live – Oct 26
- Microsoft Ignite – Nov 2 – 4
- ViaMonstra Office Hours – Community – Every Wednesday. “This is your chance to join us every week for Q&A and roundtable discussion on anything related to Windows deployment, MDT, ConfigMgr, or Microsoft Intune. We bring the experts; you bring the questions.”
Products:
Microsoft Edge Browser (Based on Chromium Engine): [Landing Page][What’s New Page][RoadMap Portal]
Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection – [Landing Page] [Resource Hub]
Microsoft 365 [Landing Page] [Roadmap] [Tech Community] [Youtube Channel][ODT Release]
- M365 Changes worth noting – Twitter Thread
ConfigMgr [What’s New Page] [Tech Community] [Virtual Hub][MS Q\A][Reddit]
- UserVoice for CM is deprecated – Microsoft Announcement with Alternatives
- Backup Your UV Data – Logon, go to your account, on the right, click “Export my data..”
- 2107 – Tenant attach: BitLocker recovery keys (preview)
ConfigMgr Tech Preview [What’s New Page]
- TP 2108
- Custom Properties in the console. This will be nice for adding notes, or leveraging with automation.
- TP 2109
Intune [What’s New Page] [Tech Community]
Boost your digital employee experience with Endpoint analytics
Windows [Landing Page] [Tech Community][Release Information][PowerToys]
- Server: Windows Server 2022 now generally available—delivers innovation in security, hybrid, and containers.
- Although Microsoft released a separate ADK for Windows Server 2022, the Windows 11 ADK does in fact subsume the Windows Server 2022 ADK and does support Windows Server 2022 as well as other down-level, in-market Windows versions. (ADK Info)
- Windows 10 and 11 – Commercial previews for Windows 11 and Windows 10, version 21H2
- Windows 11
- Understanding readiness for Windows 11 with Microsoft Endpoint Manager
- Windows 11 hardware requirements change again – Michael Niehaus (@mniehaus)
- Language pack support install changes, again, for Win 11 – Update to language imaging in Windows 11 – Microsoft Tech Community
- “If you want to install the Insider Pre-Release version of #Windows11 through Windows Servicing in ConfigMgr, make sure your devices have the Preview LCU KB5005101 installed that we released on 1/9/2021. Manual installation or prior WSUS import required” – Tweet Info
- Windows 11 customizations a first look – Jörgen Nilsson (@ccmexec)
- Windows 11 Preview in Your Browser
- Customize the Windows 11 Start Menu | Microsoft Docs
- Windows 365 – [W365Community]
- Accounts: “…anyone using a consumer Microsoft account can go completely passwordless! You can now delete your password from your Microsoft account—or set up a new account with no password—and sign-in…” – Introducing password removal for Microsoft Accounts
Security Alerts and Info [Microsoft Security Portal – Security Update Guide]
- 0-day Microsoft MSHTML Remote Code Execution Vulnerability CVE-2021-40444
- Tweet with info and, “Registry file to disable word documents and rtf files in the preview pane.”
- Razer Synapse Vulnerability: with a Simple Mouse Plugging in, Windows System Privileges Are Achieved
- Razer autorun exploit – registry remediation tweet.
I’m only listing changes. If you want a more complete list of their tools, check out the previous month’s posts.
For a full list of tools, 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]
New client management blogs:
- How to Update HP BIOS on Commercial Platforms
- Using HP Image Assistant with Microsoft Endpoint Manager
more coming…
Dell [Enterprise Tools Landing Page] [Refurbished Sale Site] [Outlet Site]
- Dell TPM 2.0 Firmware Update Utility – Covers several business class models.
Lenovo [Enterprise Tools Landing Page][Blog Site]
We have a couple of new things rolling out this month and early next month.
Available now is a new version of Commercial Vantage that adds an option to populate Battery info in WMI. The policy can be enabled to update the battery details in WMI on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. The data is stored in root\Lenovo namespace, in the Lenovo_Battery class. gwmi -Namespace root/Lenovo -Class Lenovo_Battery
We are also introducing two new products that should become available in early October.
- Lenovo Deployment Assistant: Utility for Configuration Manager admins which automates the generation of application packages and configuration items, the extension of HW Inventory to pick up Lenovo custom classes, and the creation of some custom collections. This was presented at the Workplace Ninja’s event earlier this month. You can read more about it here: Introducing Lenovo Deployment Assistant (thinkdeploy.blogspot.com). Contact your Lenovo sales rep if interested.
- Lenovo Manageability Commander: This is a client-server solution that provides comprehensive out-of-band management for both Intel and AMD devices. It integrates with Intel’s EMA solution for cloud provisioning of AMT. It also supports AMD DASH to achieve similar functions on AMD products. More details on this product will be available soon.
My team is also working on building out a new “docs.lenovocdrt.com” site to consolidate and standardize our documentation for deployment, patching and management solutions we cover. Hoping to go live in early October as well.
Microsoft [Surface]
Surface event where several updated models were presented.
- Surface Pro 7+
- Surface Pro 8
- Surface Pro X
- Surface Go 3
- Surface Duo 2
- Surface Laptop Studio
- Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse
One more note, I do my best to provide Twitter accounts with the blog posts. I do this 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 Microsoft docs, a ConfigMgr overview:
- [YouTube Channel] Intune Training Series [@OnPremCloudGuy and @AdamGrossTX]
- S03E10 Upload Hardware Hash with a Task Sequence – Low Audio (I.T) – Jake Shack (@shackelfjaco)
- [YouTube Channel] Namaste Techies [@anoopmannur and @Hoorge]
- [YouTube Channel] MEM – tips and tricks – Mattias Melkersen – (@MMelkersen)
- Offensive WMI – (Part 1 – Basics) (Part 2 – Exploring Namespaces, Classes & Methods) (Part 3 – Interacting with Windows Registry) – Pinaki (@0xInfection)
- Windows Firewall: The Series – Anthony J. Fontanez (@ajf8729)
Blog Posts
Cloud Tech
- Intune Error 0x801c003 – Benoit Lecours (@benoitlecours)
ConfigMgr
- How to Monitor SCCM Scripts from Console and Custom Reports – Benoit Lecours (@benoitlecours)
- ConfigMgr Client Deployment via Software Update – Anthony J. Fontanez (@ajf8729)
- Report on Overlapping Boundaries – Trevor Jones (@SMSagentTrevor)
Other SysAdmin Info
Tool Updates
- Free Report: Free Readiness MEMCM / SCCM Windows 11 Report (systemcenterdudes.com)
- Something cool from Jan Ketil Skanke and Maurice Daly – See announcement on Twitter.
- Intune Notifications app – Tobias Almen (@almenscorner)
- Windows Cleanup Script – (Also in Community Hub) – Ioan Popovici (@IoanPopovici)
- Win32AppMigrationTool – Ben Whitmore (@byteben)
- CloudLAPS Community Edition – MSEndpointMgr Team
- Watch the webinar, Introducing: Endpoint Insights.
- See us at MMS Miami Beach and make sure to say, “Hi!” to Gary, Mark, and Garth.
- Coming in October, Right Click Tools version 4.8. Stay tuned!
- We are hiring! If you or someone you know is looking to make a huge impact at a fast-growing company, take a look at our job postings and apply today.
- Follow us on Twitter @RecastSoftware to hear the latest.
Thanks for checking out this edition of Recast’s Endpoint Management Recap – September 2021, and look forward to more monthly updates of what’s going on.
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