You can do a lot of tasks with MECM, but the one thing that MECM doesn’t have are some good device management remote actions. MECM has got client notification that allows you to perform client actions on a collection or on a single device, but still the amount of actions and feedback of these actions are not really that great. I have been using an other great MECM 3rd party tool called RECAST Right Click Tools (RCT) and it is available as a free version or a payed Enterprise version. Off course the Enterprise version has got more actions/tools available but still the free version really makes the life of a system administrator or it support employee much easier.
MECM
Install Microsoft Teams with Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager
Because of the world wide epidemic of COVID-19 a lot of employees are working at home. The last few months the usage of online/cloud meeting platforms has exponentially grown and because of this a lot of companies had to implement MS teams much faster then planned. In order to use teams you can use the online teams or install the Teams app, you don’t need admin rights in order to install it on a computer.
So an employee could go and use a browser to use the teams online or install the Teams app on his or hers companies computer, but it would be even better when the employees won’t have to install it at all, and could just use the desktop Teams app when using the companies computers. In this case the best thing to do is to deploy the Teams desktop client. So in this post I will show how to Install Microsoft Teams with Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.
Use the Run Scripts feature in MECM (SCCM) to deploy PowerShell scripts
Run Scripts feature in MECM (SCCM) in allows you to do the following things:
- Create and edit PowerShell scripts for use with Configuration Manager.
- Manage script usage through roles and security scopes.
- Run scripts on collections or individual managed devices.
- Get Realtime script results from client devices.
- Monitor script execution and view reporting results directly after deploying your script.
PowerShell Active Directory Module on Windows 10
The PowerShell active directory module allows you to do the following things:
- Manage and automate standard domain-related tasks
- Check domain user Active Directory attributes and group memberships on the users workstation, if installed on users workstation (described in this post)
Deploy Windows 10 build as a feature update
With MECM (SCCM) you can deploy a new Windows 10 build in two ways. You can deploy Windows 10 build as a feature update (Servicing) or you can create a task sequence (in-place-upgrade).
In my opinion with a task sequense you can easy create pre and post actions based on variables but the time that a user can’t use the computer (downtime) can be quiet long.
Deploying the feature update with servicing is much more user friendly, because there is almost no downtime for the user. Creating pre and post actions can be done but are not easy and can’t be based on variables like task sequence steps can.