What is New with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager Software as Service ?

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 1511 What is New

Configuration Manager now has the ability to differentiate a Windows 10 computer that is directly connected via Windows Update for Business (WUfB) versus the ones connected to WSUS for getting Windows 10 updates and upgrades.

Configuration Manager now supports using a SQL Server AlwaysOn availability groups to host the site database. When you install a new site, you can direct setup to use the availability group instead of a normal instance of SQL Server.

Service a server cluster : You can now create a collection that contains servers in a cluster, and then configure the cluster settings to use when you deploy updates to the cluster. You can control the percentage of servers that are online at any given time, as well as to configure pre-deployment and post-deployment PowerShell scripts to run custom actions.

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 1512 What is New

Device Health Attestation :Device health attestation lets the administrator ensure that client computers have trustworthy BIOS, TPM, and boot software configurations. To support device health attestation, client devices must be running Win10 with TPM 2 enabled. Device health attestation displays the number of devices enabled for each of the following: Early-launch antimalware,BitLocker,Secure Boot,Code Integrity In order to preview the device health attestation view, in the Configuration Manager console go to the Monitoring workspace of, click Security node, and then click Health Attestation

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 1601 What is New

Improvements to Endpoint Protection policy settings:   Real-time protection: Block Potentially Unwanted Applications at download and prior to installation   Scan settings: Scan mapped network drives when running a full scan   Auto sample file submission settings:

Improvements to Microsoft Intune integration :Conditional access support for PCs not for windows 10

Client online status: shows in green and gray Limitations Client online status is only available for Windows computers with the Configuration Manager client installed. Client online status is not supported for Mac computers, Linux or UNIX computer, or devices managed with On-premises Mobile Device Management.

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 1602 What is New

Improvements to mobile device management: iOS Activation Lock System Center Configuration Manager can help you manage iOS Activation Lock, a feature of the Find My iPhone app for iOS 7.1 and later devices. Activation Lock is enabled automatically when the Find My iPhone app is used on a device. After it is enabled, the user's Apple ID and password must be entered before anyone can: Turn off Find My iPhone Erase the device Reactivate the device

Improvements to Software Center in the 1602 release: Refresh PC machine and user policy from Software Center A new option, Sync Policy has been added to the Options > Computer Maintenance page of Software Center that causes the PC to refresh it’s Configuration Manager machine and user policy.

Improvements to Windows 10 Servicing New filter options for Servicing Plans. You can now filter for Language, Required, and Title. Only upgrades that meet the specified criteria will be added to the associated deployment. When you select the Upgrades classification for software updates synchronization, a warning dialog is displayed to let you know that WSUS hotfix 3095113 is required to successfully synchronize software updates and for the Windows 10 Servicing to work properly. From the dialog, you can go to the knowledge base article for the hotfix. Available Windows 10 upgrades now only display in the Windows 10 Servicing \ All Windows 10 Updates node of the Configuration Manager console. These updates no longer display in the Software Updates \ All Software Updates node. End-users that start a Windows 10 Upgrade package will be prompted with a dialog that lets them know they will be upgrading their operating system

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 1603 What is New

New tiled view for apps :End users can now choose between a list of apps, or a tiled view of apps in the Applications tab of Software Center

Select multiple updates in Software Center : In the Updates tab of Software Center, you can now select multiple updates, or select Update All to begin installing multiple updates simultaneously.

Improvements to remote control:Limit shared clipboard access in a remote control session You can now enable the new remote tools client setting Prompt user for shared clipboard file transfer permission to limit access to the shared clipboard in a remote control session. When enabled, the end user who is sharing a remote session must grant permissions to the viewer of that session before the viewer can transfer files from the session to their local machine via the shared clipboard. This adds a layer of protection for the end user as previously, if the viewer was granted full control of the end user’s computer, they would be able to use the shared clipboard to transfer files from the session to their local computer in a way that was entirely transparent to the end user.

Customize the RamDisk TFTP block size and window size on PXE-enabled distribution points: In the 1603 Technical Preview, you can customize the RamDisk TFTP block size and window size for PXE-enabled distribution points. If you have customized your network, it could cause the boot image download to fail with a time-out error because the block or window size is too large. The RamDisk TFTP block size and window size customization allow you to optimize TFTP traffic when using PXE to meet your specific network requirements. You will need to test the customized settings in your environment to determine what is most efficient. TFTP block size: The block size is the size of the data packets that are sent by the server to the client that is downloading the file (as discussed in RFC 2347). A larger block size allows the server to send fewer packets, so there are fewer round-trip delays between the server and the client. However, a large block sizes leads to fragmented packets, which most PXE client implementations do not support. TFTP window size: TFTP requires an acknowledgment (ACK) packet for each block of data that is sent. The server does not send the next block in the sequence until it receives the ACK packet for the previous block. TFTP windowing is a feature in Windows Deployment Services that enables you to define how many data blocks it takes to fill a window. The server sends the data blocks back-to-back until the window is filled, and then the client sends an ACK packet. Increasing this window size reduces the number of round-trip delays between the client and server and decreases the overall time that is required to download a boot image.

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 1604 What is New

Windows Store for Business synchronization

Improvements to Microsoft Passport for Work management:You can now deploy Passport for Work policies to domain-joined Windows 10 devices managed by the Configuration Manager client

switch to a new software update point

Client settings to manage Client Cache Settings and client Peer Cache

Support for Passport for Work as a KSP

On-premises Device Health Attestation

SmartLock setting for Android devices

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 1605 What is New

Per-app VPN for Windows 10 devices:For Windows 10 devices managed using Configuration Manager with Intune, you can add a list of apps that automatically open a VPN connection that you have configured through the Configuration Manager admin console. You have the option of restricting VPN traffic to those apps, or you can continue to allow all traffic through the VPN connection.

Improvements to the Install software updates task sequence : New TS variable :A new task sequence variable, SMSTSSoftwareUpdateScanTimeout, is available to give you the ability to control the timeout on the software updates scan during the Install software updates task sequence step. The default value is 30 minutes. There have been improvements to logging. The smsts.log log file will contain new log entries that reference other log files that will help you to troubleshoot issues during the software updates installation process

Improvements to the Prepare ConfigMgr Client for Capture task sequence step: The Prepare ConfigMgr Client step will now completely remove the Configuration Manager client, instead of only removing key information. When the task sequence deploys the captured operating system image it will install a new Configuration Manager client each time.

Grace period for required application deployments:On the Computer Agent page of client settings, configure the new property Grace period for enforcement after deployment deadline (hours) with a value between 1 and 120 hours. In a new application deployment, or in the properties of an existing deployment, on the Scheduling page, select the checkbox Delay enforcement of this deployment according to user preferences, up to the grace period defined in client settings. All deployments that have this check-box selected and are which are targeted to devices to which you also deployed the client setting will use the grace period.

New experience for remote device actions:The experience for performing remote device actions from the Configuration Manager console has been improved. Common actions such as Retire/Wipe, Reset Passcode, Remote Lock, and Bypass Activation Lock can now be found in the Remote Device Actions menu accessed from the Assets and Compliance workspace.

Windows Store for Business apps: The Windows Store for Business is where you can find and purchase apps for your organization, individually or in volume. By connecting the store to Configuration Manager, you can manage volume-purchased apps from the Configuration Manager console, for example: You can synchronize the list of purchased apps with Configuration Manager Apps that are synchronized appear in the Configuration Manager console and you can deploy these like any other apps Every 24 hours, Configuration Manager downloads app licensing information from the store, and you can review this in the Configuration Manager console

Will continue to add ... when I get some time :)