Intune Updates: New and shiny things in July 2024 for Microsoft Intune

Depending on where you are in the world, some are lucky enough to be in summer vacay, other are in snow boots booking it down their favourite run. Others like I are in :the matrix” keeping up to speed with the latest updates from the team at Microsoft.

This is a 850 word 7 min read article to wrap up some of the 3 callout features for this month, think about it like this some ready to go and others that are brewing nicely 🍵

Here are some snippets from the Microsoft blog, that are worth having on your radar.

#1 Copilot (preview)

#2 Users can install macOS apps on demand via Intune

#3 Windows 365 Cloud PC security baseline updates

#1 Copilot (preview)

IT Intune Admins will be able to use free text searches rather than learning Kusto Query language (KQL) in the near future. This new feature is included in the Public preview so if you haven’t already ask Copilot for some type of device data and see how the answers are, These should be in the KQL string allowing you to paste it into Intune Advanced Analytics to get the specific answers from your tenant.

The goal of these types of features like many other Copilot’s in the Microsoft ecosystems is to unlock users time to make better informed decisions and in this case be in a better position to improve your security posture.

I’d like to hear from anyone trying this preview feature, we are working on a follow article to this one once we get more scenarios.

For more information on Microsoft Copilot in Intune (public preview) this learn article can help fill in more detail.

Screenshot of Copilot providing a suggested KQL query to retrieve needed device data.

You can find more about this new capability in the Copilot in Intune documentation.

#2 Users can install macOS apps on demand via Intune

Over the last 12 months there’s been a lot of inroads as to what is possible with macOS management via Intune (read more here if you’d like more) . The newest shinny’s feature in this months release fits into the managed applications category, introducing to IT Intune admins the ability to offer users via the Company Portal, app’s in either PKG and DMG format for simple and easier consumption and adoption of their managed apps.

Something many have been asking for this includes the options of “available” and “required” assignment type variables.

These features around managed apps should yield lessoning the load for It teams that may be looking for familiar options from the Microsoft stack to help when managing a hybrid device fleet.

We are hearing more of this where windows OS devices are the majority and Inune is in use. Along with a subset of faculty or marketing users that love their MacOS’s and still have security compliance to consider. Whilst an obvious choice for Windows is Intune some macOS admins may not of know yet about the progress the Microsoft Intune team have made in this area.

Just like supporting any OS there are considerations and best practices to follow and implement. We’ve had some great traction with our client with these features and can recommend its worth exploring further is you have some ahem… macOS devices in your fleet.

Image sourced from Allthingscloud.blog

#3 Windows 365 Cloud PC security baseline updates

Microsoft Windows 365 security baseline gets an update. If you are configuring security settings and policies to deploy via Intune is as confirmed in our own research paper a steep learning curve for most new adopters to Intune or to people shifting from SCCM.

This updated Windows 365 security baseline can be talored to your needs. But does give a much needed boost to a few area:

• Faster deployment of baselines version updates
• Improved reporting UI
• More consistent naming conventions
• Changes to Setting of “Tattooing” variable
• Profiles can use assigned filters
  
  Key points Sourced from Tech Community intune blog

From this upgrade previous customised baselines will need patching for more information on this specific area see Deploy security baselines for Windows 365 FWIW This update is the first one to the baselines since 2021. Another helpful link maybe this one that helps shed some light on deploying security baselines.

Whilst our team at SureDeploy have baselines preconfigured for security frameworks such as Essential8, NIST and CIS, this baselines is more specific to Windows 365 scenarios, for more information on these baselines visit our Intune page

In summary

Some food for thought in this latest update from Microsoft, if you’d like to know more about Intune on first hand, feel free to complete our demo form or give our office a call we are humans after all and can appreciate that Intune is one thing but having a guiding partner for your org can be a helpful resource to planning and smooth rollouts.

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