News in Configuration Manager 1710 Technical Preview

Technical preview 1710 of Configuration Manager is packed with new great improvements. Every time a new Technical Preview is released it is always a great time playing around with the new features that are available and testing them out.

This time around there are many great new features long asked for like support for 512×512 resolution icons in Software Center. Windows Defender Application Guard, Windows Defender Exploit Guard and Application control are great new additions in managing Windows 10 1709.

Let’s look at the news.

Run Script is a feature which is still being developed and improved and has great potential, in this release there are many news. When creating a script with a parameter we can no specify rules for the values supplied in the parameter and passed to the script as shown below. Security scopes can also be assigned to scripts in the console.

When running the script, we also have a new experience when supplying the parameter.

When the script is run the new way to monitor the result of the script is amazing. There are three different tabs in the result view. All shown below with different chart options, it looks great!!

Windows Defender Application Guard, Exploit Guard and Application Control

A great proof that the next release of Configuration Manager is the one that will support Windows 10 1709 to the full extent with the ability to configure the new features introduced in Windows 10 1709. Windows as a service starts with servicing of Configuration Manager.

Limited support for CNG certificates

Great news for everyone using HTTPS or planning to, support for is coming for Cryptography API: Next Generation (CNG) certificate templates for the following scenarios:

• Client registration and communication with an HTTPS management point.
• Software distribution and application deployment with an HTTPS distribution point.
• Operating system deployment.
• Client messaging SDK (with latest update) and ISV Proxy.
• Cloud Management Gateway configuration.

Support for up to 512×512 icons in Software Center

Software center can now display icons with a pixel dimensions of up to 512×512. Pretty counts!!

Limit Windows 10 Enhanced telemetry

It is now possible to Limit Windows 10 Enhanced telemetry to only send data relevant to Windows Analytics Device Health. This is a great new option which hopefully will make more customers use the new Device Health feature which gives great insight in drivers that causes errors and more.

Device Guard policy improvements

My favorite new Device Guard Policy is this one in the 1710 TP release, “Automatically run software trusted by the Intelligent Security Graph” This is great feature that can increase security with a minimal administrative overhead. You can read more about the Intelligent Security Graph here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/intelligence

More content has been Branchcache enabled like script, Phil over at 2Pint has a really good post about it here: https://2pintsoftware.com/branchcache-mp-configmgr/

Now I will test out all the new features including Co-Management!