Intune for shared devices

[TheLion]

Hi,

We've run into a few challenges when configuring (self-deploying) intune devices for shared computer labs, and I was hoping to get some advice from those who have achieved this.

We've learned the hard way that certain policies just don't work as expected on machines that are in self deployment mode. For example, Microsoft Office activation fails, and OneDrive doesn't automatically log in. While we've configured many of these settings for devices rather than users, it's still not applying. 

Given this, what’s the best approach for setting up devices for shared student use, where no single user "owns" the device? If we were to revert to user provisioning, it seems like we'd still need a primary owner, which isn't ideal in this case.

What solutions have worked for your student labs?

 

Thanks

[DWilson1997]

We deploy devices using a dedicated enrolment account with the Microsoft Entra Joined Device Local Administrator role. Just use it to login to Windows on the OOBE (not autopilot). This works well for us and all software and policies deploy and work correctly. 

 

[itskdog]

Are you using any of the Shared PC settings or just leaving it without a primary user? (Both are termed "Shared PC" in the docs, confusingly)

 

If you're using a Shared PC policy, note that there are 2 shared PC modes, you'll want EnableSharedPCModeWithOneDriveSync to make OneDrive work. (Not sure if that's in settings catalog or not as we don't use it). Alternatively you could leave OneDrive off due to sync times and use Cloud Drive Mapper to do the folder redirection.

 

Is Office activating with Shared Computer Activation? If not, it will eat into the user's limit of 5 devices.

 

Here we just have PCs with no primary user, Office installs with Shared Computer Activation, and policies are targeted to the device rather than the user.

[Bugzi]

We've been using Intune in Shared PC mode since September. Has been a bumpy ride, but most of our policies are based on the Open Intune Baseline ones.

 

OneDrive works on all devices fine all though I can't find a way of stopping this on exam accounts

 

Our devices have no primary user set and Office is working fine too. We use M365 for staff and Office LTSC for students (for now).

 

I can't remember the exact term User-driven or Self-deploy we have, but it's the mode with no interaction by anyone.

[TheLion]

Thanks everyone. Our issue was because of 2fa blocking automatic login so we are using the web sign-in now which works great. 

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/identity-protection/web-sign-in