Wednesday, October 19, 2016

New ConfigMgr Current Branch features from 1511 till now! (part 2)

Since December 8, 2015 ConfigMgr Current Branch is Generally Available. This based on version 1511, which stands for November 2015 (MMYY). Since this release (and even before that too), there are monthly features added in Technical Preview, which are merged in public release (1602, 1606). Let's have a look at new features so far. When available this blogpost will be updated with new releases.

Microsoft did an amazing job on new ConfigMgr features for both standalone and hybrid environments. Really love the speed on new builds and update experience. Remember: When you want to go fast with Windows, you need to go fast with ConfigMgr too! :-)

New features in production so far:

[1610]
Deny previously approved application requests:
As an administrator you can deny a previously approved application request. To install this application later, users must resubmit a request. This does not uninstall the application.

Exclude clients from automatic upgrade:
When you configure settings to control how clients automatically upgrade you can now specify a collection to exclude specific clients from the upgrade. This applies to automatic upgrade as well as other methods such as software update-based upgrade. This can be used for a collection of computers that need greater care when upgrading the client.

Filter by content size in automatic deployment rules:
Use the content size filter in automatic deployment rules to prevent large software updates from automatically downloading to better support simplified Windows down-level servicing when network bandwidth is limited.

Improvements to the notification experience for high-impact task sequence and required application deployments:
Task sequence deployments that have a high-impact to the end user, for example operating system deployments, now display more intrusive notifications. However, end users can dismiss (snooze) these notifications, and control when they reappear. Any relevant client settings for notification frequency are still honored.


[1609]
Android, iOS, and Windows Additional Settings:
New settings have been added for Android, iOS, and Windows.

Boundary Group Improvements:
Improvements have been made to boundary groups to allow more granular control of fallback behavior, and greater clarity of what distribution points are used.

Deploy Office 365 apps to clients:
We have added a new Office 365 Servicing node in the Software Library where you can deploy Office 365 apps to clients.

Improvements for BIOS to UEFI conversion:
An OS deployment task sequence can now be customized with a new variable, TSUEFIDrive, so that the Restart Computer step will prepare the drive for transition to UEFI. See the documentation for additional details on the necessary customizations.

Intune Compliance Charts:
Administrators can get a quick view of overall compliance, and top reasons for non-compliance using new charts under Monitoring.

Native Connection Types for Windows 10 VPN Profiles:
You can now create Windows 10 VPN profiles with Microsoft Automatic, IKEv2, and PPTP connection types in the Configuration Manager console without using OMA-URI.

Office 365 Servicing Dashboard:
Use the Office 365 servicing dashboard to track Office 365 updates and deployments.

TouchID, ApplePay and Zoom DEP Settings:
DEP provides the ability for admins to create enrollment profiles to skip initial setup screens for new iOS devices. TouchID, ApplePay and Zoom have now been added as options to configure in the iOS enrollment profiles.

Windows 10 Upgrade Analytics:
Assess and analyze device readiness and compatibility with Windows 10 to allow smoother upgrades. This is done through integration with Windows Upgrade Analytics.

Windows Store for Business:
Windows Store for Business allows administrators to obtain applications (purchased or free) and deploy them to users in their organization.


[1608]
Application Requests from Software Center:
Users are now able to request approval for applications and view the request history for applications in the Application Details view in Software Center. The Request button in Application Details no longer redirects to the web-based Application Catalog.

Improvements to Asset Intelligence:
In the Configuration Manager 1608 Technical Preview, we have added a field to the properties for inventoried software that lets you set a parent and child relationship with other software. In the Inventoried Software list, you can view the parent of any software and also hide all child software.

New Software Indicators in Software Center:
The Software Center Applications, Updates, and Operating Systems tabs now show what software was recently added. Numbers in the navigation pane show how many new pieces of software are in each tab.

Remote Control Keyboard Translation:
In a remote control session, keys typed are now mapped by default to the sharer's keyboard when the keyboard languages do not match, so that the viewer is able to type normally. This behavior may be turned off in the Remote Control viewer Action menu.


[1607]
Customizable Branding for End-User Dialogs:
End-user dialogs that are opened from Software Center or taskbar notifications now show the same organization name, color and icon branding as Software Center. The administrator workflow for specifying branding settings remains unchanged.

Manage duplicate hardware identifiers:
Add known duplicate MAC addresses or SMBIOS IDs to be ignored hierarchy-wide for PXE boot and client registration.

Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS) Connector:
Sync data such as collections from ConfigMgr to OMS.

Windows 10 Edition Upgrade:
Upgrade Configuration Manager clients running Windows 10 Professional edition to Windows 10 Enterprise edition with just a product key; no reimaging required.


Part 1 of this series can be found HERE.
Will be updated with further 2016 updates!

No comments:

Post a Comment