Turning old laptops into Intune devices

[CHiLL]

We have a bunch of old laptops that we are considering handing out to students in addition to the DfE allocation we've had. Since they're school devices and not been used in a long time, they're on older versions of Windows and they're tied to our SCCM configuration. I'd like to install the latest version of Windows (that they support) and then import them into Intune, so that they become Intune managed devices only, which is exactly how our DfE laptops are. To do this, I'd need to reinstall Windows, but I want to make it as seamless as possible on the install side, as we'll be doing quite a few devices. So automate as much as possible.

 

Ideally, I want it close the OOBE experience that the HP 250 G7 laptops had, where Windows was already installed, just the OOBE setup needed completing. So basically:

1) Install Windows (automated)

2) OOBE setup, mostly automated apart from the join Wi-Fi stage

3) At this stage, use the command prompt to generate a hash to CSV

4) Import the CSV to Intune and wait 15 mins

5) Join the Wi-Fi and it should pull the Intune profile

 

I've used SCCM for such a long time, I'm not sure what the best way to go about this is. Would MDT do this? Or would I need to use the Windows System Image Manager?

 

Also, how is Windows licensing managed on Intune? Our site uses AD Activation/KMS (whatever it is these days) to handle activation of clients, however I don't know how cloud only devices work.

[altecsole]

Good question! I'd like to know this too.

 

I've been installing old laptops from a bootable USB drive, with the latest version of Windows 10. I modified the autounattend.xml file to auto logon the local admin account for the first logon, and then install software (added to the Windows USB drive) and windows updates, via Powershell. It also connects to Wi-Fi as part of the process, so what you say should be possible. I set them up with localadmin and localuser accounts, the same as the DFE ones, with auto-logon for localuser. By the way, I install using a MAK key, rather than KMS. We don't have any Intune licenses, so I can't push out settings from there.

Edited February 3, 2021 by altecsole

[TechMonkey]

I have just been doing a load of HP laptops (could be G7) and I used the built-in wipe that had a cloud install and when I signed on using our domain enrollment account it joined it to InTune.

[computer_expert]

The following post may be of interest for hardware hashes and SCCM: https://oofhours.com/2020/09/28/export-all-your-hardware-hashes-from-configmgr/

[CHiLL]

I'm not sure where I'm going wrong. I've used Windows System Image Manager to create an unattend.xml file and it's working in terms of it's automated the install, to the point where it asks to join the WiFi. I then generated the hash, imported it into Intune, then waited 15 minutes. I joined the WiFi and it just proceeded with the automation process and created the local admin account, defined in the XML and takes me to the Windows log in screen. At no point does it look for policies online, or ask me to sign in with my Azure AD account. I'm not sure how to specify that in the unattend.xml.

[computer_expert]

Does your unattend file have a section for oobesystem?

 

If it does then this is what is triggering the OOBE process and causing it not reach out to intune autopilot.

Edited February 9, 2021 by computer_expert

[CHiLL]

Does your unattend file have a section for oobesystem?

 

If it does then this is what is triggering the OOBE process and causing it not to look online.

Ahh, it does and I've set SkipOOBE=true, because I wanted to avoid stuff like keyboard setup, etc.

[computer_expert]

Autopilot allows you to set the keyboard layout as one of the options in the autopilot profile. It's only applied on newer versions of windows 10 (2004/20H2) though and will only work if you have some form of internet access (ie. connect en ethernet cable) before the oobe starts