WS1 Feature Tracker

This page is for tracking Windows 10 features by release. The complete Release Notes page for each release is here. I will just be highlighting the Windows related items.

2010 – Cloud Only

  • Faster Windows 10 certificate delivery for escrowed SMIME certificates.
    Moving to an event driven model to notify UEM when certificates are uploaded to the Credential Escrow Gateway greatly enhances the speed with which we can deliver escrowed certificates to Windows 10 devices.
    Note: Any certificates uploaded to Escrow Gateway (EG) prior to version 1.2 are no longer compatible. After you have migrated Redis data to EG 1.2+, upload the certificates again using either a v1 or v2 endpoint to be retained for the entire length of your configured retention period.
  • You can now edit the When to Call Installation Complete criteria for Windows app deployments. This one was a LONG time in coming and it allows you to change how the app is “detected” on the device after it has already been deployed. Previously you had to completely add a new version so this is a great time saver! Use caution when using this on an app that is deployed to a large number of devices as the app install detection will need to be re-processed on every device.
  • Check out the Technical Preview for Workspace ONE Drop Ship Provisioning (Online).
    Workspace ONE Drop Ship Provisioning for OTA eliminates the need to create and share PPKGs with your hardware manufacturer. Simply assign your payloads to a tag in the Workspace ONE UEM console, and then place an order with your Windows 10 hardware manufacturer using that Workspace ONE UEM tag. Technical preview features are not fully tested and some functionality might not work as expected. However, these previews help Workspace ONE UEM improve current functionality and develop future enhancements. See this article for more info.
  • Introducing Freestyle Orchestrator (Preview).
    Freestyle Orchestrator is a low-code IT orchestration platform that gives you the flexibility to create workflows for resources such as apps, profiles, and scripts and apply them to devices based on granular criteria. This functionality provides customers the ability to define complex onboarding workflows, go through multi-step processes like upgrading BitLocker with a one-time setup and can additionally be used to target devices based on any device-related criteria. Want to know more? see What is Freestyle Orchestrator.

2008 – Cloud and On-Prem

No new features added to Windows in this release.

2007 – Cloud Only

  • Disable user notifications while installing and removing applications on your Windows 10 Devices.
    When you deploy some applications, such as security, infrastructure, or frequently changing apps, you might want to prevent notifications from appearing to your end-users. You can now choose to hide the installation notifications for auto-deployed apps from the Action Center in Windows and the Installation Monitor in the Intelligent Hub and Workspace ONE app. For details, see Add Assignments and App Policies to your Win32 Applications.
  • Updated SCEP profile for Windows Desktop.
    To enhance our support of certificate authorities (CAs) for Windows 10, we’ve removed the requirement to enter an Issuer of your CA. Also, you can now use SCEP certificates that use SAN attributes with non-AirWatch Certificate Authorities. The system sends the added SAN attributes with the certificate request through the SCEP profile. Find the SCEP profile for Windows 10 devices in Devices > Profiles.
  • Added support for Registered Mode for Windows 10 devices.
    Windows 10 devices that enroll with Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub or OOBE can also enroll without MDM management with Registered Mode. Registered Mode is also known as Management Mode and you can assign this enrollment method by organization group or by a smart group. Find the settings for Registered Mode in Devices > Devices Settings > Devices & Users > General > Enrollment > Management Mode. For details, see Enroll with Registered Mode.
  • Get your most popular enterprise applications added quickly and easily with Enterprise App Repository.
    Adding and assigning the most common windows applications just got easier with Enterprise App Repository. For details, see Add Applications from the Enterprise App Repository.

2006 – SaaS Only

Release Date: June 17, 2020
Release Notes
What’s New Video

Windows 10 Features

  • Workspace Intelligent Hub for Windows now supports Workspace ONE Access.
    This finally brings the full unified catalog to Windows Hub. When you configure the source of authentication for Intelligent Hub, select Workspace ONE Access. Configure these settings in Devices > Device Settings > Devices & Users > General > Enrollment. For details, see Configure Enrollment Option.
    NOTE!! This does impact silent enrollment as most staging users are basic users. To mitigate this, you can turn on “Basic User Sync” in UEM to sync basic users into WS1 Access. However, this can negatively impact the user experience of enrollment on mobile devices so make sure you test thoroughly. Stay tuned on when/if the product team implements a fix this issue.
  • Workflows is Tech Preview.
    • Workflows adds the ability to sequence the install of applications on Windows 10 systems (think task sequence in SCCM or MDT). It also adds the ability to target app upgrades on devices that meet certain criteria. You’ll need to work with your Account reps to turn on these feature flags at a customer OG: AppTargetingWorkflowFeatureFlag, AppSequencingWorkflowFeatureFlag
  • PSADT Support now adds the ability to defer 12 and 24 hours (in addition to 2,4,8). Check out my blog for more details.

2005 – SaaS and On-Prem

Release Dates:
SaaS – May 14, 2020
On-Prem – June 11, 2020
Release Notes
What’s New Video

Windows 10 Features

  • Edit app versions for exes and zips file types in Software Distribution
    • Previously, the internal versions for exes or zips were arbitrarily incremented in whole numbers (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc). Now you can edit the application version to match the actual file version. This is applicable only when you upload a new EXE or Zip file.
  • New “Repair Hub” Feature
    • This super handy features automatically re-installs the Intelligent Hub without breaking enrollment. It fixes communications problems like HMAC errors, repairs failed or damaged upgrades, and restarts any services required by Hub. You can access it on Device Details page > More Actions > Repair Hub (at the bottom). Note that you need to have “Publish Intelligent Hub” checked at the OG in order for this to show up.
  • Hub Services Branding Support
    • Now the new Intelligent Hub catalog supports branding as configured in Hub Services
  • Hide Notifications on Software Deployments (Tech Preview)
    • This allows for an automatic deployment of an App to be silently deployed to the device without toast notifications.

2004 – Cloud (Saas) Only

Release Date: April 3, 2020
Release Notes

While this release is mostly for bug fixes and stability improvements, there are some notable Windows Highlights:

  • Dell Provisioning for VMware Workspace ONE is now called Factory Provisioning.
    • This is to make it more generic in order to support other OEM’s in the future.
  • Updated Anti-Virus (Windows Defender) profile
    • Adds a bunch more configurable settings that were previously missing.
  • App Install Deferrals (PSADT support)Tech Preview
    • This adds native support for PSADT (and really any other powershell based or custom app) that has a defer function. You can put in the “defer” exit code after enabling “Allow User Install Deferral” on the new Assignment page. Check out my blog for more details.
  • New App Assignment Page
    • There is now a new UI for the assignment page for apps.

2003 – Cloud (SaaS) Only

Release Date: March 6th, 2020.
Link to documentation and “what’s new” video

  • New Intelligent Hub for Windows 10
    • This brings the first iteration of the Intelligent Hub for Windows 10. It only supports win32 apps at the moment, but feature parity with the existing “Workspace ONE Catalog” (from the Store) will be coming over the next few months. I’ve got a separate blog post on how to enable this.
  • Desired State Management (aka “Required” apps)
    • This now enables certain Win32 apps (app deployed via Software distribution) to be set as “required” meaning that they will re-install automatically if they get manually removed. This is especially useful for security products or apps that must always remain on the device.
  • P2P (BranchCache) Statistics in console
    • Very helpful to see how much data is being used by peers vs downloading from internet on each deployment
  • Improved smart groups – set based on Azure AD enrollment type
    • I’ve been wanting this one for a long time! This allows you to set a smart group for only AAD devices and thus assign things to devices that go through OOBE and not impact existing devices already in the environment. When a device goes through OOBE (and thus be AAD joined), it needs to receive all apps, profiles, baselines, certificates since they will be provisioned from vanilla state. However, you don’t necessary want all of those payloads going to existing devices since it’s not needed and some payloads you might only want to install during deployment.
  • Automatic HMAC recovery
    • This just helps the Intelligent Hub to “self-repair” when there are HMAC (authentication token) issues
  • Dell Command Update 3.1 support
    • Updates the “OEM Updates” profile to support DCU client version 3.1.
  • Bug Fixes
    • All bug fixes for Windows are located under the AMST-[*****] format. One important fix is AMST-24710: BranchCache falls back to DS when no peers are available instead of CDN. This was causing client to download from DS which is super slow instead of CDN when no peers are available. So if you have been using BranchCache and noticed very slow download speeds for software distribution, this is probably why.

2001 – Cloud(SaaS) and On-Prem

Link to “What’s New”

  • Define your Baseline assignments with the new Exclusions feature.
    • You can now exclude specific smart groups from assignment when assigning Baselines to your Windows 10 devices. This feature allows you to assign the Baseline to a large smart group and then refine the assignment to exclude specific, smaller smart groups.
  • Ensure your data is protected even after a device wipe.
    • The Encryption profile now supports keeping the system encrypted at all times (” Keep System Encrypted at All Times “). This includes after removing the profile, wiping the device, or any break in communication with Workspace ONE UEM to your Windows 10 devices.
  • SCEP proxy support
  • DCU support for custom XML URL location
    • This allows you to host your own xml and configure DCU to look their for updates. It gives you more granular control over what driver/bios updates are available for your Dell devices.