Last week, someone asked me what keeps me up at night when it comes to endpoint management. The answer surprised them; it was not the sophisticated threats or latest vulnerabilities we read about in headlines. What concerns me most is the friction between security and productivity, that invisible tax we've all paid for years when security can get in the way of getting work done. October marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and this year's theme, "Security Starts with You," resonates deeply with the work our team has been doing. The features landing in Microsoft Intune this month reflect a fundamental shift in how we think about security — not as a barrier, but as an enabler. From enrollment-time grouping that helps IT teams surface issues faster to new Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM) capabilities that make IT professionals' lives easier.
Faster reporting with new enrollment time grouping reports
There's no single reason why a device might not end up in the right group during provisioning — and that's exactly what makes it so hard to troubleshoot. For teams managing hundreds or thousands of devices, these blind spots add up fast. That’s why I’m glad the enrollment time grouping failures report is now generally available in the Microsoft Intune admin center. This helps eliminate blind spots and gives IT teams visibility to address issues proactively. The new capability surfaces failures across Windows Autopilot device preparation provisioning, Android Enterprise fully managed devices, Android corporate-owned work profile devices, and Android Enterprise dedicated devices.
Administrators can now navigate enrollment time grouping failures in the admin center to gain more visibility of devices that didn't become members of their specified static device groups during enrollment. The enrollment time grouping failures report is available in the admin center under **Devices** > **Monitor** > **Enrollment time grouping failures**. Now updated information is displayed within 20 minutes, helping device configuration removal when a device is not part of the required group.
Identity-aware privilege management
The new elevate as current user capability in EPM gives IT admins finer control over how elevation works. When creating rules, you can now specify whether an elevated process runs under the user’s own account or the EPM default virtual account.
Why does this matter? Because some applications, especially during runtime, fail when they lose awareness of the user’s profile, environment variables, or registry settings. Processes such as user customization, accessing profile information, or obtaining a server license require that the system maintains the context of the user with elevated privileges. With this new mode, those processes keep the user’s identity, so they work as expected, while still maintaining full audit trails.
Zero Trust principles favor virtual account elevation, which strips user context from tokens entirely. When applications need user profile paths or settings to function correctly, the elevate as current user capability gives you that flexibility while maintaining control through scoped rules and audit trails. Configure these elevation options based on your specific application requirements — learn more in the elevation settings documentation.
Improving security posture visibility with new EPM Overview dashboard
Greenfield organizations moving to standard user accounts for the first time needed a better way to identify deployment targets, gauge health, and measure impact. The new EPM Overview Dashboard provides a centralized view in Intune showing readiness for migrating local admin accounts to standard users, including managed versus unmanaged elevation activity and trends.
Figure 1: Screenshot of the new EPM Overview DashboardThis new dashboard (shown above) answers three critical questions. It identifies which users are experiencing friction, shows what changes improve user experience based on actual elevation patterns, and enables adjustments without manual data entry. Enterprise IT security teams gain faster policy refinement, improved security posture through removal of persistent admin rights, and reduced helpdesk load by identifying candidates for auto-approval rules.
Updated network endpoints for Azure Front Door
Behind every feature you use in Microsoft Intune runs an infrastructure designed for security, reliability, and performance. As part of Microsoft's ongoing Secure Future Initiative, network service endpoints for Microsoft Intune are adopting new IP addresses defined by Azure Front Door. This change affects customers using a firewall allowlist that allows outbound traffic based on IP addresses or Azure service tags.
This improvement supports better alignment with modern security practices and makes it easier over time for organizations using multiple Microsoft products to manage and maintain their firewall configurations. It's the kind of behind-the-scenes work that doesn't make headlines but reinforces the secure foundation upon which everything else depends. If you're managing third-party firewalls or proxy configurations, now is the time to review your allowlists and ensure these endpoints are included. Detailed information about all IP addresses that should be allowed for use by Intune client and host services is available in the Network endpoints for Microsoft Intune documentation under Intune core service here.
Windows Autopilot delivers secure-by-default device provisioning
A quick update on an item we shared in August: the ability for the Enrollment Status Page to install Windows security updates during out-of-box experience (OOBE) is now scheduled for January 2026. While the setting is visible in your profiles, updates to Windows are not yet available during OOBE. This extra time allows the team to ensure a reliable, seamless experience for every device.
Administrators continue to have complete authority over when updates are installed, using the enrollment status page (ESP) to manage configurations. This applies to both Intune-managed devices and Windows Autopilot scenarios, ensuring the core benefit remains consistent. Please read the Intune documentation for more details, requirements, and limitations.
This aligns with the "Security starts with you" theme Microsoft has been emphasizing for Cybersecurity month. Devices that are patched from the moment users first ‘sign in’ reduce the window of vulnerability that comes with delayed updates.
Looking ahead
In summary, October's updates reflect what IT teams have been working toward — security that empowers rather than restricts. When the tools supporting security work this seamlessly, "Security starts with you" becomes more than a theme, it becomes the foundation every device is built on. I encourage you to explore these capabilities in your own environment and share your experiences. The Microsoft Intune community thrives on feedback from IT professionals solving real-world challenges, and your insights help shape where we invest next.
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