Windows 10 and later

As a migration to Windows 11 is fast upon us, I thought I’d help your devices on their way into understanding whether they will support Windows 11 and what risks you may encounter with the update, by forcing devices to evaluate their readiness states.

We know that there is no native configuration for AppLocker in Intune, and we should be looking at App Control for Business already, but there is still a place for AppLocker, and I haven’t got time to manually do anything, so let’s use PowerShell to create out AppLocker policies from exported XML files.

Fancy letting your end users select what day of the week they get their device updates allowing them to be truly empowered but still ensure a level of device security, sure you do.

You’ve just implemented a Cloud Management Gateway to help your hybrid joined Windows devices communicate to Configuration Manager over the internet, but what if they’re orphaned and unable to communicate to Configuration Manager to get the new Client Settings?

This is the last part in the series around the CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmark for Windows 11, and we’d like to say that we’ve saved the best post for last, but we’d be lying. Surely the Level 2 settings can’t be worse than the Level 1?

When did Microsoft go all covert ops (maybe don’t answer that question) and start making changes to your very own Firewall Rule policies in Microsoft Intune without letting anyone know? Or did they?

The impact of the CIS settings on BitLocker and Windows Autopilot now done and dusted, we should broaden our horizons and start to look at what other problems the CIS level 1 benchmark brings to Windows 11 as a whole. Are there any? Will it be smooth sailing? Yeah, no.

So Microsoft released Windows Autopilot Device Preparation, or more commonly known as APv2, into General Availability a little while ago. So with this production release we should be able to name our corporate owned Windows devices right Microsoft? Right?

With the CIS BitLocker and associated DMA settings reviewed and updated, now is time to delve into the Windows 11 specific settings that exist in the CIS Level 1 benchmark. What issues do they bring to Windows Autopilot, what solutions can we find? Honestly, who knows.