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Modern Provisioning

Windows Activation Evolution

As organizations deploy Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise with Modern Device Management the processes for activating Windows 10 are changing, and new options are available.

Most of us are familiar with the traditional product key registration for Windows devices.   For businesses (large and small) the common activation scenarios for activation have included:

  • OEM Pro – needs internet connection for one-time activation
  • Multiple Activation Key (MAK) (Pro or Enterprise) – needs internet connection 1 time per system
  • Key Management Services (KMS) – on premise KMS server doing continual activation
  • Firmware-embedded – never needs to be on internet connection, it can be in a deferred activation state and never watermark
Read More »Windows Activation Evolution

Gathering Existing Devices Windows Autopilot Device IDs

Update 8/1/2020: Microsoft has updated their official blog post a number of times since this post to include automated ways from Intune and ConfigManager.

We have published a number of posts about what Windows Autopilot is and how to setup and test. Now that so many organizations have taken note of Modern Device Management advantages they want to know how to include those devices into the Windows Autopilot.

It needs to be clarified that Modern Devices Management in the context of Windows Autopilot, is comprised of three parts:

  1. Device Registration
  2. Device Enrollment
  3. Device Provisioning

This article relates to step 1) for existing devices within an organization. Specifically the question it is trying to answer is:

Is there a way we can generate the IDs without someone sitting down in front of hundreds / thousand of individual machines and manually starting the PowerShell script?

Here is high level steps what I have seen done out there:

Read More »Gathering Existing Devices Windows Autopilot Device IDs

Windows Autopilot White Glove Details Announced..

What is Windows Autopilot white glove?

The new Windows Autopilot white glove process, which lets IT technicians, partners, and even OEMs pre-provision devices before they are delivered to the user. Using this process, all device configuration tasks, including apps (machine-targeted or user-targeted), certificates, and policies, can be completed in advance, making it so that when the user gets the device, the device can be ready for productive use within a few minutes.

Is it available yet? 

Read More »Windows Autopilot White Glove Details Announced..