From the course: Windows 10: Troubleshooting Cloud Integration

Windows Autopilot process

From the course: Windows 10: Troubleshooting Cloud Integration

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Windows Autopilot process

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- [Instructor] Let's now look at the Windows Autopilot process in a little bit more detail. Once you understand the process, you'll then be able to pinpoint which part is causing errors. And then you'll be able to troubleshoot the problems. On screen, you can see a pictorial representation of the Window Autopilot process. It starts with the purchase of a device, where we then extract the hardware ID. And it reaches the end of the process with the device being set up, configured, and ready for the user to use. The process begins with devices being purchased and Windows 10 is already installed by the manufacturer. Windows Autopilot will only work with Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise or Education, version 1703 or later. Your vendor will install all the drivers and optimal settings to make the device perform well. We can remove any bloatware or unnecessary software at a later stage, but we no longer want the device and install our own corporate image. There are several approved vendors who participate in the Windows Autopilot program. And these vendors will provide the hardware ID for the devices that they supply. If you buy a device from a non-approved vendor or you use an existing Windows 10 machine, you can still extract the hardware ID yourself, by using PowerShell. The second step in the process is the iNet administrator needs to pre-configure device profiles and settings on your tenant. You need to upload a list of device hardware IDs to that Windows Autopilot service, if this is not already been done by the vendor. You'll then create a deployment profile to manage the initial set-up steps, for example, the language for the device, you'll assign the devices to the deployment profiles and you'll create device configurations policies and device compliance policies and deploy apps to specific groups. After purchase and set-up, devices are then delivered to your end users. You can distribute the devices to your end users or the delivery can be directly from your vendor, since you don't actually need to touch the device. Imagine when a remote employee unboxes their new or replacement device, there's an element of magic when an employee opens the box for the first time and finds an untouched device in pristine condition which connects to the corporate network and just works. When the end user receives their new device, they'll connect it to the Internet. Windows Autopilot is a cloud-based service and if a device cannot connect to the Internet, then the Autopilot deployment will fail. The user needs to provide connection details to the wifi or local network so that Windows Autopilot service can validate if the device hardware ID is registered with Autopilot. In the next stage, the end user logs in with their Azure Active Directory credentials. The user will enter their credentials which are then authenticated. The device will be joined to Azure AD and auto-enrolled into Intune management. Microsoft Intune will then take over and will automatically deploy the management package to the device. The Microsoft Intune stage is the one which delivers pre-configured policies, settings and apps to the device and can take some time, this could be just a few minutes or a lengthy amount of time, depending on complexity of your security settings, device configuration policies and software that you deploy. You can decide if the device should be made available to the user before all of the settings are in place or only once the device meets all of the corporate requirements. Once the device successfully reaches end of the process, the device is set up, configured and ready to use. I've seen this process deploy thousands of devices to users and it really does revolutionize and modernize how Central IT deploys Windows 10 devices. Windows Autopilot is new and if you want to learn more about it, then you should view my Windows Autopilot Essential Training course in the library.

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