Skip ahead is open – for a short time, so be quick #WindowsInsiders

Posted on 31/01/2019 by Stephan Wibier

As Microsoft is getting ready for the release of another feature realse of Windows 10, coming April 2019, the development for the next Build has already started.

And if you are in the Windows Insider Preview you can apply for the Skip Ahead option.

This means that you don’t get this current Build anymore but start with the new one, OW yeah! But as said, it’s a limited seats program. If you want in, be fast!

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You can change your setting at ‘Settings‘ – ‘Update and Security‘ – ‘Windows Insider Program‘

Happy testing!

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Bitlocker wizard – brought to you by Microsoft Intune

Posted on 25/01/2019 by Stephan Wibier

If you enroll a Windows 10 device in Microsoft Intune you can manage this device as a Mobile Device, hence the name Mobile Device Management (MDM). And of course you can do all sorts of fantastic things with it!

You can trow policies at the device, configuration items, software, updates et cetera et cetera!
And most of this can be done transparant (i.e. invisible) to the user of this device.

But sometimes it good to show something to a user. Recently I was in a little discussion with a collegue about enabeling Bitlocker on a managed device. Of course you should do it when preparing a device, but this was a migration and the devices where not Bitlockered 🙁

So you can do this invisible, but I stated that it would be a GOOD thing to show the user that the drive would be encrypted so they know that their data is protected.

So and how does this look like?

So first the user is informed that his or her device needs to be encrypted.

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And if the user clicks on the flyout or message a Bitlocker Wizard starts.

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It could be that the device the user is using doesn’t meet the requirements of Bitlocker. Found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/information-protection/bitlocker/bitlocker-overview-and-requirements-faq

And then this baby will pop-up!

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But if we are all set and good to go we can continue with the wizard. Backing up the recovery key. I can say that the first option – Save to your cloud domain account is by far the best option!

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Saving the key 🙂

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To encrypt your disk you have tweo options, self-explaning I think!

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And off we go!

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You can monitor the progress

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And if you close the screen above, well you find the progress in the taskbar. Nice.

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And after a while, it’s pretty quick on those nice SSD’s, your disk is encrypted. Safe.

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Enroll in Olympia corp – Upgrade your Windows 10 edition from Pro to Enterprise (2) #WindowsInsiders

Posted on 25/01/2019 by Stephan Wibier

Find the Apply phase here.

Microsoft has a test and acceptance environment for the Windows 10 Insiders. It’s called Olympia. It’s a complete solution, with a website, Office 365, Intune et cetera.

You will find the website here: https://olympia.windows.com

In a previous blog we applied for the Olympia corp, and now it is time to enroll in it!
To keep your Windows 10 edition read this blog!

Enroll

So you got the message that your Olympia account and it is time to Enroll! Find the details here!

There are 2 ways to Enroll:

Choose one of the following two enrollment options:

– Keep your current Windows 10 edition

Please see Olympia Corp enrollment – keep current edition.

– Upgrade your Windows 10 edition from Pro to Enterprise

Please see Olympia Corp enrollment – upgrade to enterprise edition.

* Please note that your Windows 10 Enterprise license will not be renewed if your PC is not connected to Olympia.

The first option will keep your system almost as it is, you add an Olympia account and the policies to your system. With the second option you get an Olympia managed system, logon with your Olympia account and so on! It will also give you a Windows 10 Enterprise for Insiders license. So more to do and test, me happy 😉

So what is the experience you get with Option 2 – Upgrade your Windows 10 edition from Pro to Enterprise?

Go to Start > Settings > Accounts > Access work or school. To see this setting, you need to have administrator rights to your device (see local administrator).

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If you are already connected to a domain, click the existing account and then click Disconnect. Click Restart Later.

Click Connect, then click Join this device to Azure Active Directory.

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Enter your Olympia corporate account (e.g., username@olympia.windows.com). Click Next.

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Enter the temporary password that was sent to you. Click Sign in. Follow the instructions to set a new password.

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Update it 😉

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When asked to make sure this is your organization, verify that the information is correct. If so, click Join.

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Setting up some things 😉

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Restart and you can login with your Olympia account. The device is now a Olympia managed device. You will get policies and stuff 😉
Jippie!

First thing you will notice is the Bitlocker wizard stating that you will need to encrypt your harddrive.

You can find the proces here!

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Your Windows 10 Enterprise license will not be renewed if your device is not connected to Olympia.

So and then you logon!

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Enroll in Olympia corp – Keep current edition (1) #WindowsInsiders

Posted on 25/01/2019 by Stephan Wibier

Find the Apply phase here.

Microsoft has a test and acceptance environment for the Windows 10 Insiders. It’s called Olympia. It’s a complete solution, with a website, Office 365, Intune et cetera.

You will find the website here: https://olympia.windows.com

In the previous blog we applied for the Olympia corp, and now it is time to enroll in it!

Enroll

So you got the message that your Olympia account and it is time to Enroll! Find the details here!

There are 2 ways to Enroll:

Choose one of the following two enrollment options:

– Keep your current Windows 10 edition

Please see Olympia Corp enrollment – keep current edition.

– Upgrade your Windows 10 edition from Pro to Enterprise

Please see Olympia Corp enrollment – upgrade to enterprise edition.

* Please note that your Windows 10 Enterprise license will not be renewed if your PC is not connected to Olympia.

So what is the experience you get with Option 1 – Keep your current Windows 10 Edition?

Go to Start > Settings > Accounts > Access work or school. To see this setting, you need to have administrator rights to your device (see local administrator).

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If you are already connected to a domain, click the existing account and then click Disconnect. Click Restart Later.

Click Connect and enter your Olympia corporate account (e.g., username@olympia.windows.com). Click Next.

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Enter the temporary password that was sent to you. Click Sign in. Follow the instructions to set a new password.

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And then update it!

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If you choose a to common or frequently used password, well that won’t work 😉
This is VERY good! Let’s keep it safe.

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If this is the first time you are logging in, fill in the additional information to help you retrieve your account details.

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And you need to provide the requested information. As you can see at the bottom, you have limited time for this step (15 minutes).

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Then accept the Terms.

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The device gets registered.

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And you’re all set!

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Apply for Olympia corp. #WindowsInsiders

Posted on 25/01/2019 by Stephan Wibier

Apply for Olympia corp!

Find the Enroll phase here or here

Microsoft has a test and acceptance environment for the Windows 10 Insiders. It’s called Olympia. It’s a complete solution, with a website, Office 365, Intune et cetera.

You will find the website here: https://olympia.windows.com

What is Olympia Corp?

Windows Insider Lab for Enterprise Program is intended for Windows Insiders who want to try new experimental and pre-release Enterprise features*. To get the complete experience of these Enterprise features, Olympia Corp, a virtual corporation has been set up to reflect the IT infrastructure of a real world business. As an enthusiastic Windows Insider you can complete quests which guide you through these cool new Enterprise features. As an IT professional, you can better understand the end-user perspective of features like WIP (Windows Information Protection), WDAG (Windows Defender Application Guard), and Windows Defender ATP (Advanced Threat Protection).

So now we know what it is 😉
How do apply and enroll in it?

First there are a few prerequisites:

You must be a Windows Insider. Go here to learn more and register
You must have an Olympia corporate account. Don’t have an account? We are currently providing a limited number of accounts to qualified Windows Insiders. To request an account, please complete our brief survey at http://aka.ms/RegisterOlympia.
Your PC must be running Windows 10 Insider Preview build 17025 or later. Note: Participation in the lab requires that machines are always up to date with the latest Insider Preview build (Slow Ring or newer).
If your PC is currently domain joined, disconnect from the domain and login using your local (admin) account. You may (but is not required) login using the MSA associated with your Windows Insider account.

Apply

You can apply by filling out a brief survey which can be found here: http://aka.ms/RegisterOlympia. Then you wait until you get a message from Olympia@Microsoft.com that your application is approved.

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And from here we go to the Enroll phase!

Windows 10 ‘Friendly dates’

Posted on 21/01/2019 by Stephan Wibier

So a little gem in Windows 10 is the Friendly date notation!

you can now see a friendly date in Windows Explorer, something like 20 minutes ago, Yesterday a 4:01 PM or Januari 12.

This is so nice 🙂

Also, in the ‘Downloads‘ folder there is a change. The standard sortation is now ‘Date Modfied‘, that is the latest first! Super, now I don’t have to click the sortation any more to find the latest download. Me happy 😉

Of course you can always go back to the old notation. Why should you, nah..

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Turn it on or off. Right-click on the Date column!

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The old, standard.

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A different Windows Insider Program Settings page – #18317

Posted on 17/01/2019 by Stephan Wibier

From the flight notes!

We are introducing a simplified Windows Insider Program Settings page via Settings > Update & Security > Windows Insider Program with Build 18317. The goal is to make the end-to-end experience of signing up for the Windows Insider Program and setting up your PC to take new builds much easier by simplifying the experience and removing some of the clutter. You’ll find that all the same functionality is still there.

And here it is, in beautiful Black theme of course :/

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Under ‘Pick your Insider settings’ are the choices.

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Quick tip – default tab in Task Manager

Posted on 17/01/2019 by Stephan Wibier

In Windows 10 you can now select a default tab when you open Task Manager.

It’s in ‘Options‘ – ‘Set default tab‘
I prefer ‘Details‘ 😉

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Windows 10 Insider Build #18317 Sign-in options crashing (BUG?) – #WindowsInsiders

Posted on 17/01/2019 by Stephan Wibier

Hi!

So when testing and playing around with the various Windows Insider Builds, yesterday the new and latest came out. We are at Build #18317!

To test I have serveral machines installed, from a couple of Virtual Machines (on Server 2016, 2019 and Windows 10 – 1803) to physical devices like a Lenove Thinkpad 10 and Microsoft Surface 🙂

During the first look in this build I found that when I was opening Settings – Accounts – Sign-in options, the dialog would crash, hmm not good.

At first I thought, well can happen, let’s do a restart. But same behaviour. Oke, let’s dig in deeper. In the meanwhile a little discussion had started on Twitter (thanks all!) and a couple thing drew my attention. There was a mention of ‘Only on a remote RDP session’….

Well then let’s test that, and aha when I physically login a device (my Thinkpad) then I do not see the Sign-in options crashing. When I do a RDP to a VM, voila crash!

So the steps are described here:
I will start with the failing scenario and then the working one.

Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) – NOT WORKING

I come to the login screen:
There is already something missing, I normally login to this machine with a PIN! But that option is not given.. (see the good login experience in the next chapter!)

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I login with my password and goto Settings – Accounts

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If I now click on sign-in options most of the times the Windows directly closes again!

But when I tried this on a little bit slower computer this is visible for a couple of seccond, and then crashes!

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Also here are some options not available, but that is ok over a RDP connection…?!

If you want to send data to Microsoft (I do!) then it is good to send the data from the ‘Reliability Monitor‘. To get there just type Reliability Monitor in the Search field. Yes it is improved and really good.
You can also find it at: Control Panel – System and Security – Security and Maintenance – ‘View archived messages‘

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