Update 1609 for Configuration Manager Technical Preview – Available Now!

First published on CloudBlogs on Sep 27, 2016
Hello everyone! Update 1609 for System Center Configuration Manager Technical Preview has been released. Technical Preview releases give you an opportunity to try out new Configuration Manager features in a test environment before they are made generally available. This month's new preview features include:

• 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 .
• Office 365 Client Management Dashboard - Use the Office 365 client management dashboard to track Office 365 updates and deployments.
• 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.
• Improvement to Endpoint Protection antimalware policy settings - You can now specify the level at which the Endpoint Protection Cloud Protection Service will block suspicious files.
• 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.

This release also includes the following new features for customers using System Center Configuration Manager connected with Microsoft Intune to manage mobile devices:

• 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 Store for Business - Windows Store for Business allows customers to obtain applications (purchased or free) and deploy them to users in their organization.
• Android, iOS, and Windows Additional Settings - New settings have been added for Android, iOS, and Windows.
• 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.
• Intune Compliance Charts - Admins can get a quick view of overall device compliance, and top reasons for non-compliance using new charts under the Monitoring.

Update 1609 for Technical Preview is available in the Configuration Manager console. To install Configuration Manager Technical Preview for the first time, the installation bits (currently based on Technical Preview 1603) are available on TechNet Evaluation Center . We would love to hear your thoughts about the latest Technical Preview! To provide feedback or report any issues with the functionality included in this Technical Preview, please use Connect . If there’s a new feature or enhancement you want us to consider for future updates, please use the Configuration Manager UserVoice site . Thanks, The System Center Configuration Manager team Configuration Manager Resources: Documentation for System Center Configuration Manager Technical Previews Documentation for System Center Configuration Manager System Center Configuration Manager Forums System Center Configuration Manager Support System Center Configuration Manager Technical Preview 5 (v1603)