In our July 2023 service release (2307), we're adding some major capabilities to Microsoft Intune. First, we’re enabling users to uninstall Windows apps in the Intune Company Portal! Next, we’re expanding the type of app that can be deployed on macOS by announcing support for unmanaged PKG apps. And finally, we’re providing public preview of a new, unified endpoint security settings management experience. These new features will drive productivity and allow management of more complex scenarios for users and admins.
Let us know how these new releases work for you! Comment on this post or connect with me on LinkedIn.
Uninstalling apps in the Company Portal for Windows
Our first capability we’re highlighting this month enables users to uninstall apps in the Intune Company Portal for Windows themselves rather than relying on help desk support to get it done. Customers have requested this capability for a while; and it even received a standing ovation from customers when we announced at a conference that it was in development. This functionality is slowly releasing, and we anticipate it’ll be fully available within the next week or two.
Prior to this release, standard users couldn’t uninstall applications they’d installed through the Company Portal without administrator rights. This meant they needed support, taking up valuable help desk resources and time.
Now, users can select “uninstall” for Win32 and Microsoft Store apps they installed on demand in the Company Portal if the app was assigned as available.
While this option is always on and available for Microsoft Store apps, admins can enable or disable it for Win32 app users, with off as the default. Watch a video of the experience here:
Expanding ability to deploy complex apps on macOS
In our next release, we’re expanding the range of apps that can be installed on macOS using a new PKG installer workflow that utilizes the Intune agent. This will significantly reduce IT overhead and improve the Intune onboarding process for Mac.
Previously, many common security apps, such as VPNs or antivirus software, couldn’t be installed on Macs using the Intune line-of-business app workflow, so admins had to deploy them using scripting. Deploying these apps at-scale required admins to author and manage scripts and did not provide rich app reporting. The new flow will add support for deploying PKG apps that are unsigned, have a hierarchical structure within the installer (as opposed to flat PKG files), or are component or payload-free PKGs.
This is another milestone in our app lifecycle improvement journey, building in even more macOS management capabilities. We previously eliminated the need to use the app wrapping tool for macOS LOB apps, and added support for installing DMG-type apps. We will continue to update the new PKG installed workflow with further improvements in the future.
Streamlining unified security settings management
This month, we’re offering public preview of a new unified experience that streamlines and strengthens endpoint security settings management across Windows, macOS, and Linux. The new capability speeds up response time and offers a single-portal experience that eliminates the need for separate management tools or updates to IT resources. It improves coordination and visibility between IT and security teams to help organizations protect themselves better.
For organizations that use Microsoft Intune as a complete management suite, the new native security settings management capabilities in Defender for Endpoint are integrated with Microsoft Intune’s admin experience.
This integration allows IT and security teams to apply security policies to devices from both Defender and Intune admin centers, no matter where they are in their flow. Data is seamlessly synced between both products, providing a single source of truth for IT and security teams and preventing miscommunication and security gaps.
The new capability also simplifies the onboarding process by removing the requirement for all devices to be fully registered with Azure AD. This prevented customers from applying security management capabilities. Now all in-scope devices can be managed instantly.
To learn more about this capability, refer to these blogs:
What do you think?
Sharing your thoughts helps us get better! Please provide feedback on our July 2023 Intune releases by commenting on this post or connecting. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements in August!
