New in Windows for Education in 2023

[steve]

Simple Sign-In for Education customers looks interesting:

 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/education-blog/what-s-new-in-windows-for-education-in-2023/ba-p/3728772

[Steve21]

Seems like they missed the boat a bit on it if i'm honest

 

First issue "Starting in Windows 11 SE" Why isn't it available in all versions, considering SE is only on the new cloud-based laptops that are really one-to-one designed

 

"As the end users enter their username, they'll be redirected to the identity provider sign-in page" - So the user still needs to know and type their whole login in the first place, which is half the battle for younger students/emails

 

It's a shame that they haven't just created a QR login option themselves that works direct from login screen (and doesn't require any manual typing etc)

 

Steve

[mavhc]

"Once the policy is enabled, the first user to sign-in to the device will also set the disambiguation page to the identity provider domain on the device. This means that the device will be defaulting to that IdP"

[dmj]

Slow clap. SAML auth for windows.

I think Chromebooks introduced this in like 2013. 10 years late to the party.

[localzuk]

This is a very good step forward - it potentially means that existing solutions like Wonde's SSO will work across Chromebooks and Windows

 

Doesn't look to be limited to SE either "General availability of this feature will be available on Education-focused editions of Windows later this month on Windows 11 Pro Education and Windows 11 Education!"

[CHiLL]

While it sounds like a good idea, I'm somewhat skeptical. Student laptops, especially 1-1 devices where a student carrys it round all the time, it's likely they'll have the QR code in their bag with their laptop. If they leave it on the bus, or it's lost/stolen...isn't it just like leaving a post-it note on the laptop with your username and password, where whoever has it has free access to the laptop?

[dmj]

While it sounds like a good idea, I'm somewhat skeptical. Student laptops, especially 1-1 devices where a student carrys it round all the time, it's likely they'll have the QR code in their bag with their laptop. If they leave it on the bus, or it's lost/stolen...isn't it just like leaving a post-it note on the laptop with your username and password, where whoever has it has free access to the laptop?

 

That's not how it works. All this does is provide access to SAML auth via the login screen. You can choose who your auth provider is, host yourself, and use any of a number of identity providers (multiple if you want). whether you want QR codes, fingerprints, FIFO or whatever is up to the implementation

[mavhc]

I doubt any child who needs a QR code to login has ultra private important documents on their laptop