{"id":8188,"date":"2021-03-09T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=8188"},"modified":"2021-03-08T15:42:07","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T15:42:07","slug":"using-windows-autopilot-to-deploy-pcs-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2021\/03\/using-windows-autopilot-to-deploy-pcs-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic.htm","title":{"rendered":"Using Windows Autopilot to deploy PCs in the middle of a pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A year ago, who would have thought that so many people would still be working from home because of COVID-19? That a pandemic response would lead to such a huge impact on the way we live? That we&#8217;d be having discussions about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2021\/01\/whats-the-future-of-the-office.htm\">the future role of the office<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lots of things changed in 2020. Some of them may never change back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Changes to PC operating system deployment methods<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a saying (attributed to the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus) that the one constant in life is change&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over nearly 30 years working in IT, I&#8217;ve worked on a lot of PC rollouts. And the technology keeps on changing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Back in 1994, I was using Laplink software with parallel cables (so much faster than serial connections) to push Windows for Workgroups 3.11 onto PCs for the UK Ministry of Defence.<\/li><li>In 2001, Ghost (which by then had been purchased by Norton) was the way to do it. Working with a a Microsoft partner called Conchango, my team at Polo Ralph Lauren rolled out 4000 new and rebuilt PCs. We did this across 8 European countries, supporting languages and PC hardware types with just two images.<\/li><li>By 2005, I was working for Conchango and using early versions of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2005\/02\/microsoft-solution-accelerator-for.htm\">Microsoft Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) solution accelerator<\/a> to push standard operating environment (SOE) images to PCs for a UK retail and hospitality company.<\/li><li>By 2007, BDD had become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/11\/bdd-2007-overview.htm\">Microsoft Deployment<\/a>. Later, that was absorbed into System Center Configuration Manager.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>After this, the PC deployment stuff gets a bit fuzzy. My career had moved in a different direction and, these days, I&#8217;m less worried about the detail (I have subject matter experts to rely on). My concerns are around the practicalities of meeting business requirements by making appropriate technology selections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which brings me back to the current day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A set of business requirements<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine it&#8217;s early 2021 and you&#8217;re faced with this set of requirements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Must deploy new Windows 10 PCs to a significant proportion of the business&#8217; staff.<\/li><li>Must comply with UK restrictions and guidance in relation to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus.<\/li><li>Should follow Microsoft&#8217;s current recommended practice.<\/li><li>Must maintain compliance with all company standards for security and for information management. In particular, must not impact the company&#8217;s existing ISO 27001, ISO 9001 or Cyber Essentials Plus certifications.<\/li><li>Should not involve significant administrative overhead.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A solution, built around Windows Autopilot<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The good news is that this is all possible. And it&#8217;s really straightforward to achieve using a combination of Microsoft technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/services\/active-directory\/\">Azure Active Directory<\/a> provides a universal identity platform, including conditional access, multifactor authentication.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/mem\/autopilot\/\">Windows Autopilot<\/a> takes a standard Windows 10 image (no need for customised &#8220;gold builds&#8221;) and applies appropriate policies to configure and secure it in accordance with organisational requirements. It does this by working with other Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM) components, like Intune.<\/li><li>OneDrive keeps user profile data backed up to the cloud, with <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/onedrive\/redirect-known-folders\">common folders redirected<\/a> so they remain synced, regardless of the PC being used.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does it look like?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>My colleague, Thom McKiernan (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thommck\">@ThomMcK<\/a>), created a great unboxing video of his experience, opening up and getting started with his Surface Pro 7+:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IZHCMgVYMOI?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>(I tried to do the same with my Surface Laptop 3 but unboxing videos are clearly not my thing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why does this matter?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The important thing for me is not the tech. It&#8217;s the impact that this had on our business. To be clear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We deployed new PCs to staff, during a national lockdown, without the IT department touching a single PC.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For me, <strong>it took around 10 minutes from opening the box to sitting at a usable desktop<\/strong> with Microsoft Teams and Edge. (What else do you need to work in 2021?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That would have been unthinkable a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems that, on an almost daily basis, I talk to clients who are struggling with technology to allow staff to work from home. It always seems to come back to legacy VPNs or virtual desktop &#8220;solutions&#8221; that are holding the IT department back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, if you&#8217;re looking at how your organisation manages its end user device deployments, I recommend taking a look at Windows Autopilot. Perhaps you&#8217;re already licensed for Microsoft 365, in which case you have the tools. And, if you need some help to get it all working, well, you know who to ask&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Featured image created from Microsoft press images.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A year ago, who would have thought that so many people would still be working from home because of COVID-19? That a pandemic response would lead to such a huge impact on the way we live? That we&#8217;d be having discussions about the future role of the office? Lots of things changed in 2020. Some &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2021\/03\/using-windows-autopilot-to-deploy-pcs-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Using Windows Autopilot to deploy PCs in the middle of a pandemic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[659,724,586,54],"class_list":["post-8188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-end-user-computing","tag-microsoft-365","tag-windows-10","tag-os-deployment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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