Key Takeaways:
- Microsoft has launched a public preview of alerts for Windows Autopatch policy conflicts.
- The update reports feature now provides detailed views and summaries of conflicting policies, affected devices, and specific recommendations for resolution.
- A new reliability report feature offers insights into the performance of Windows updates, including a reliability score and common issues, to help maintain device health post-update.
Microsoft has announced the public preview of alerts for policy conflicts in Windows Autopatch. The Windows Autopatch service is designed to simplify the update management process for Windows, Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft has enhanced the update reports feature to help administrators identify devices with conflicting policies, which could cause issues with device management. This new feature provides a detailed view of all devices impacted by conflicting policies.
Additionally, IT admins can view a list of all Windows Autopatch policies that conflict with other policies within the same tenant. The feature also offers a summarized report detailing conflicting policies, affected devices, and open alerts. These alerts provide specific details about conflicting policies, their settings, and the Microsoft Entra ID groups.
Windows Autopatch continuously monitors policies and generates alerts for missing policies or any changes that affect services. These alerts also include detailed recommendations about actions for resolving these issues. Microsoft notes that IT admins can access the new policy health experience in the Intune admin center.
“Windows Autopatch uses Microsoft Intune policies to set configurations and deliver services. IT admins must respond to service-generated alerts to ensure Autopatch services can be delivered, and service-managed devices remain eligible for the service,” Microsoft explained.
Windows Autopatch adds post-update reliability report
Windows Autopatch has introduced a new reliability report feature in preview to assist administrators in managing and evaluating the performance of Windows updates across their devices. This new feature provides a reliability score for each Windows quality update cycle, which is calculated based on the stop error codes detected on managed devices.
The post-update reliability report for a Windows quality update includes an overall score, the number of affected devices, and a list of common issues categorized by module name. This capability could be particularly useful in maintaining device health by ensuring updates do not negatively impact performance.
To access the reliability report, head over to the Microsoft Intune admin center, and then go to Reports > Windows Autopatch > Windows quality updates. Then, click the Reports tab and select Reliability report. The reliability report feature only applies to quality updates and doesn’t currently support Windows feature updates.
These new capabilities are part of Microsoft’s broader strategy to equip IT admins with advanced tools for keeping their devices secure and up to date. Microsoft aims to simplify device management and enhance operational efficiency by providing detailed insights into policy conflicts and post-update performance.