My Always On VPN configuration with Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager explained

March 27, 2020March 11, 2020 by Martin Bengtsson

Introduction

This is another post, I have wanted to do for some time now. Always On VPN is not something new, but many organizations are moving away from Direct Access, and Always On VPN seems to be the preferred and logical choice for many – including ours.

Also, I don’t think that the current outbreak of COVID-19 has missed anyone’s attention, which is why working from home and remote via VPN has become highly relevant these days.

This post will not go into details on the infrastructure required in order to setup Always On VPN (Remote Access Server, Network Policy Server, PKI etc.), but rather explain the configurations made on the client with Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager. I will also elaborate on my experiences, again from the perspective of a production environment.

Finally, a big shout out to Michael Mardahl for always being a tremendous help. Go follow this dude. He’s amazing at what he does. 🙂

Securing your endpoints with Microsoft Intune, part 1: Exploit Guard Controlled Folder Access

March 5, 2020March 5, 2020 by Martin Bengtsson

Introduction

This is the first and initial blog post of an upcoming series, all concerning how one can secure their endpoints using Microsoft Intune.

The posts are meant to serve as titbits, quickly giving the reader an understanding of a specific feature.

The posts are not released in any particular order, and the topics discussed are based on what I’m currently looking into, in my own environment.

Therefore and as usual, this is not a typical and standard walk through, but more a look into how I’m initially taking on the discussed topic. Curios? Read on! 🙂

Configuring and managing my Surface Pro X using Windows AutoPilot, Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager

February 21, 2020February 18, 2020 by Martin Bengtsson

Introduction

This is not a traditional walk through of a specific technical topic. It’s rather a story about setting up my new Surface Pro X device, making it work with AutoPilot, Intune and ConfigMgr in a Hybrid AAD Join deployment.

You don’t per say have to own a Surface Pro X device in order to benefit from the content in this post. However, as the Surface Pro X ships with an ARM processor, it makes for some unique situations and experiences.

During the post, I will deep dive some of the technical aspects of Hybrid AAD joining the device, as this has a lot of moving parts and dependencies in order to work.

Additionally, this process was not completely without obstacles. I’m not sure if these obstacles are working as intended or not, but I failed to get Co-management work loads to work properly, as well as I was seeing weird things happening if applying the Security Baseline for Windows. More on that throughout the post. 🙂

How I deploy, configure and set the new Microsoft Edge as default browser using Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager

February 17, 2020January 24, 2020 by Martin Bengtsson

Introduction

Unless you have been hiding under a rock lately, you should be aware that the new Microsoft Edge browser happened and was released in the first stable release on January 15.

All very exciting and delicious, and we who have been testing with Dev and Beta versions across our enterprises, have been waiting eagerly to be able to offer the one browser to rule them all (hopefully).

So this is a little something on how I have chosen to deploy, configure and set the new Microsoft Edge as default browser, using a combination of both Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager.

Device Compliance with Configuration Baselines, Configuration Manager version 1910 and Microsoft Intune

January 4, 2020January 3, 2020 by Martin Bengtsson

Introduction

This must be one of my favorite features of Configuration Manager version 1910: Include custom configuration baselines as part of compliance policy assessment.

For a detailed description of the feature, I suggest you read the What’s new article.

In short, this enables us to assess device compliance based on almost anything and really extends the possibilities.

I will walk through the setup required and give you a quick and easy example on how to use this new awesome feature in a co-management scenario.

Script Update: Automatically remind users to update iOS with e-mails and custom notifications using Microsoft Intune Powershell SDK

December 16, 2019December 16, 2019 by Martin Bengtsson

Introduction

If you already use or intend to use my script, which reminds users to update iOS with e-mails and custom notification, you will want to use the updated script. 🙂

I obviously put the script to use in production, and quickly realized that the script also picks up obsolete devices. This is not ideal, as you might end up in a situation where a user is reminded by e-mail, to update a device which is obsolete and no longer in use.

So the script has been updated to cater for this situation, and now only picks up devices which has been syncing with Microsoft Intune within the last 2 days.

My original and still valid post on how to use the script here: https://www.imab.dk/automatically-remind-users-to-update-ios-with-e-mails-and-custom-notifications-using-microsoft-intune-powershell-sdk/

Automatically remind users to update iOS with e-mails and custom notifications using Microsoft Intune Powershell SDK

June 9, 2021December 1, 2019 by Martin Bengtsson

Introduction

**Minor update**: https://www.imab.dk/script-update-automatically-remind-users-to-update-ios-with-e-mails-and-custom-notifications-using-microsoft-intune-powershell-sdk/

Long title! It could have been even longer, but I struggled to squeeze in that the e-mail also is sent over Office 365 and the entire deliciousness is running on a schedule with Azure Automation. 🙂

The story here is, that iOS is getting updates quite frequently, and a lot of enterprises (including myself), are managing those iOS devices as private BYOD devices enrolled through the Company Portal. As of such, keeping the devices up to date is the end-user’s responsibility and something that’s often forgotten and neglected.

So what if we could send those devices and users a kind reminder automatically, both as a custom notification directly on the device, but also as an e-mail? Microsoft Intune Powershell SDK to the rescue!

Co-management with ConfigMgr and Intune and a little something about Microsoft Defender antimalware policies

November 14, 2019November 12, 2019 by Martin Bengtsson

Introduction

Originally when the Endpoint Protection workload for co-management was introduced with Configuration Manager 1802, this was done without antimalware policies.

That essentially meant that antimalware policies was still being managed solely by Configuration Manager, while a feature like Exploit Guard was managed by Intune.

Now, this has since changed (at the time of writing, I’m not sure when they snug in the addition, but that’s not related to the post anyway) and the workload now includes antimalware policies enabling us to manage all aspects of Microsoft Defender with Microsoft Intune.

So what does that mean, and are there anything specifically you need to be aware of? I believe there is. 🙂

A brief first look on Microsoft Defender ATP Tamper Protection

October 17, 2019October 16, 2019 by Martin Bengtsson

Introduction

Late last night my time, Tamper Protection in the Microsoft Defender stack went Generally Available.

In short and as the name implies, this is a feature which essentially locks Microsoft Defender and prevents your security settings from being tampered with, including changes made by an administrator.

From a security perspective, this is a great and welcomed addition – let’s take a closer look. 🙂

PS. I did find some oddities in some of the behavior when trying to disable Microsoft Defender through Group Policy. More on that in the end of the post.

Enrollment of co-managed devices based on Azure AD device token with ConfigMgr 1906

August 7, 2019August 6, 2019 by Martin Bengtsson

Introduction

A short and sweet peek into the latest improvement to the enrollment of co-managed devices into Microsoft Intune.

Prior to SCCM 1906 (System Center Configuration Manager), the enrollment into Microsoft Intune required a user to sign in to the device. This has now changed and the device is able to auto-enroll into Microsoft Intune based on its Azure AD device token.

Note: This is not an A-Z guide, so I’m sadly not covering all the basics and requirements around enrollment nor co-management. Instead I’m touching base with some of the interesting parts, based on my own environment, setup and curiosity. 🙂