Latest Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough Guide | Microsoft Intune Admin Center

Intune Admin Portal is one of the first things you have to learn. From this post, you understand what is where in the Intune admin portal (aka Microsoft Intune Admin Center). The official name of the Intune admin portal is Microsoft Intune Admin Center.

Intune has gone through several portal migrations in the last decade. The Intune admin portal journey started with the Silverlight portal. The Intune admin portal’s performance, look, and feel have improved much with this journey to the Intune Admin center portal.

Microsoft recently changed the brand name from MEM (Microsoft Endpoint Manager) to Microsoft Intune. You can also refer to the Top 50 Latest Intune Interview Questions and Answers, and if you are interested, check out the Top 50 Latest SCCM Interview Questions and Answers.

Intune is a ready-to-use SaaS (Software-As-A-Service) solution for device management from Microsoft. Almost all the features can be configured and managed using the Intune Admin portal. There are scenarios where you want to use Graph API to configure settings.

Patch My PC

Read More -> 63 Episodes of Free Intune Training Endpoint Manager for Device Management Admins

New Intune Home Page Redesign

Let’s check out the New Intune Admin Portal Home Page Redesign Review with the new Intune Admin Portal Journey. Also, check out the Dynamic Home Page for Intune Admins, Spotlight options to highlight premium features, and Intune Learning and What’s New details.

Microsoft Intune is an Enterprise Mobility Management (UEM) solution from Microsoft. Microsoft Intune helps manage all flavours of devices (Windows, iOS, Android, and macOS). This solution helps to deliver network settings and other device management settings.

Latest Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough Guide | Microsoft Intune Admin Center – Video 1

What is the Microsoft Intune admin center?

Microsoft Intune gives you easy access to the cloud’s device and client app management capabilities. It enables secure productivity across all device types, including Windows, iOS, macOS, and Android. In Microsoft Intune, you can:

Adaptiva
Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig. 1.1
Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig. 1.1
  • Enroll and configure your devices
  • Upload and distribute your apps
  • Protect your organization’s data
  • Cloud-enable computers enrolled with Configuration Manager
  • Monitor and troubleshoot your deployments

Video on the Intune Admin Center Walkthrough is given below to get the latest updates:

What is the Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal?

History of Intune Admin Portal

Let’s check the history of the Intune Admin Portal. It all started with the Silverlight console/portal. It was not easy to access this portal because of Silverlight components. This SilverLight portal was the first Intune admin portal.

  • https://manage.microsoft.com
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 1 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 1 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal

After a few years, Microsoft migrated from the Silverlight portal to the Azure Portal with Intune workflow integrated into the Azure portal. This migration was messy because the Intune SilverLight portal had independent groups to target apps and policies.

  • https://portal.azure.com
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 2
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 2 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

There was a moment when we thought everything was settled now, and this was the new Intune admin portal home. But Microsoft proved us wrong. For good, the admin portal is changed again and separated from the Azure Portal.

  • https://devicemanagement.microsoft.com/
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 3 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 3 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

The Device management portal was the first version of the current portal and was built on the same architecture principles and components in the backend. But this device management portal was also short-lived. Microsoft changed the URL again to align with the products and services name.

  • https://endpoint.microsoft.com

This portal is home to Intune Admins, and it’s called Microsoft Intune Admin Center (Intune Admin Center).

Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 4 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 4 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal

In this section, let’s check the Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal. This section of the post gives you a very high-level overview of the Intune Admin portal. In the later sections, you get an end-to-end Intune admin portal walkthrough experience.

You can run this Intune admin center portal from any of the browsers. It works with Windows, Android, macOS, iPad OS, and iOS devices. This is the first-class web portal for device management. You can also manage some of the workflows of SCCM from the Intune admin center portal.

The supported SCCM workflows for SCCM client devices are aligned with the helpdesk use case. You need to enable SCCM Tenant Attach feature to take advantage of the Intune admin center portal for SCCM client device management.

The Intune Admin center portal is also home to Windows 365 and Security admins. Security and Windows 365 Cloud PC workflows are part of the Intune Admin center (Intune Admin) portal. The following three (3) are the admin center portal’s additional workflows.

  • Azure AD Users and Groups
  • Endpoint Security
  • Windows 365
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 5 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 5 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

Login to the Intune Admin Center Portal

It’s time to log in to the Intune Admin Center Portal with your Azure AD credentials. You can use Azure AD or Hybrid accounts (AD user accounts synced to Azure AD using AAD Connect).

You need to have appropriate permissions, such as Intune admin, to log in to the Intune Admin Center Portal. You don’t have to assign Intune licenses for admin users as per the latest updates from Microsoft. More details -> Allow Unlicensed Admin to Access Intune Portal.

  • Open the https://intune.microsoft.com/ portal from any browser.
  • Enter the User Name and click on the Next button. Enter the password to log in.

NOTE! – Depending on the Intune RBAC permissions and scope tags, the admin’s portal experience would be different.

Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 6 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 6 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

HOME Page of Intune Admin Portal

Let’s check the information you can get on the HOME Page of Intune Admin Portal. This is the landing page for Intune admins.

Intune is tightly integrated with the Azure AD tenant, and hence it shows you the Default Directory details (AAD directory details) on the HOME page itself. I don’t know why is this AAD Default Directory information very important for Intune admins if you are part of an internal IT organization.

The following are the other main sections available on the HOME page of Intune Admin Center. There is an additional tab to check Microsoft Managed Desktop (MMD) workflows.

  • Status -> Status of the Intune environment.
  • News -> Promotional materials/Marketing blog articles from Microsoft.
  • Guided Scenarios -> Simplest method to create policies using predefined templates.
  • What is happening in Intune -> New features and other useful articles?

The left pane of the Intune Admin portal follows the same standard as Azure portals. You will be able to see all the Intune workflow items in the left pane of the portal.

Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 7 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 7 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

Intune Admin Center Dashboard

Let’s see the Intune Admin Center Dashboard and how you can customize it. How many of you know you can customize the admin center Dashboard as per your preferences? Your Dashboard is a private one for you.

Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 8 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 8 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

You can customize the Dashboard from this page and share your Dashboard with other admins in this subscription. There are rich customization options available within the Admin Center portal.

The custom options for creating an Intune Admin center dashboard are the same as the Azure Dashboard. Intune and Azure use the same framework. You can Drag and Drop or select a tile and click “Add.” You can add other parts of the portal to the dashboard by pinning it.

Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 9 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 9 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

You can have more than one Dashboard for the Intune admin portal. You can select the custom dashboard from the drop-down menu options. I have added the HTMD Forum Support link to the Dashboard to show you how much customisation you can do.

Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 10
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 10 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

All Services | Other Consoles

The next menu item on the left pane is All Services | Other Consoles. I have never used this node or menu item. I don’t think many Intune admins are going to use this. The Search All option on this screen is not a global search but a search for this page.

The following are the other shortcuts menu items available on the All Services | Other Consoles page:

  • GENERAL
    • Devices
    • Apps
    • Desktop Analytics
    • Endpoint security
    • Reports
    • Users
    • Groups
    • Tenant administration
    • Troubleshooting + support

The other console option is useful if you have Intune for Education and Enterprise subscriptions. The AAD portal short is available here, but most of the AAD functionalities, such as groups and users, are available in the Intune Admin center or Intune portal itself.

  • OTHER CONSOLES
    • Intune for Education
    • M365 Azure Active Directory
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 11
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 11

Devices Blade Intune Admin Center | Intune Admin Portal

Let’s see the details of Devices Blade Intune Admin Center | Intune Admin Portal. The device is one of the most used nodes or blades in my experience. This Devices blade gives you an overall view of Intune device management.

This part of the Device blade gives you an overview, including Intune enrolled devices, Enrollment alerts, Compliance Status, Configuration Status, Software Update Status, etc.

The All Devices node is one important node I use a lot, and this is the node/blade where you can see all the Intune-managed and SCCM-managed (if tenant attach is enabled) devices. You can get into Intune remote actions etc. are managed from this blade.

  • Devices | Overview
  • Search (Ctrl+/)
    • Overview
    • All devices
    • Monitor
Devices Blade MEM Admin Center | Intune Admin Portal
Devices Blade Intune Admin Center | Intune Admin Portal

The screenshot shows that you can segregate the device and workflow view based on the platform. If you are responsible for managing Windows devices, select the Windows platform. This helps to concentrate only on Windows-related workflows in the Intune Admin portal.

  • By platform
    • Windows
    • iOS/iPadOS
    • macOS
    • Android
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 12 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 12 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

Device Enrollment

The Device enrollment is where you get all the Windows Autopilot, Enrollment Status Page, and Co-Management Settings options. Learn about the seven ways users or admins can enrol a Windows 10/11 PC into Intune.

  • Device enrollment
    • Enroll devices

The following are the menu options from the Device Enrollment blade under the DEVICES node in the Intune admin portal.

  • Automatic Enrollment – Configure Windows devices to enrol when joining or registering with Azure Active Directory.
  • Windows Hello for Business – Replace passwords with strong two-factor authentication.
  • CNAME Validation – Test company domain CNAME registration for Windows enrollment.
  • Enrollment Status Page – Show app and profile installation statuses to users during device setup.
  • Co-management Settings – Configure co-management settings for Configuration Manager integration​
  • Manage Windows Autopilot devices.
  • Intune Connector for Active Directory
  • Configure hybrid Azure AD joined devices

This section also contains the following non-Windows and generic enrollment policy configuration options. This is why Intune is a platform that can manage all kinds of devices with many options/configurations.

Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 13
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 13

Windows Autopatch

Windows Autopatch is a cloud service that automates Windows, Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft Teams updates to improve security and productivity across your organization.

More customizations are added to Windows Autopatch – Customize Windows Update Autopatch Settings for Automatic Patch. Once you’ve enrolled devices into Autopatch, the service does most of the work for patching your managed devices.

Latest Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough Guide | Microsoft Intune Admin Center Fig 21.1
Latest Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough Guide | Microsoft Intune Admin Center Fig 21.1

Windows 365 Cloud PC

Windows 365 helps you quickly provision dedicated, highly available Cloud PCs for your organization. You can upload custom Windows images or use an optimized Windows 365 image to let people in your organization use their Cloud PC from anywhere, on any device.

Windows 365 Cloud PC is the home for all Windows 365 admins. This is the place in the Intune admin center where Windows 365 admins create provisioning policies for Cloud PCs and assign them to Azure AD groups.

This is where the on-prem network connection settings are configured for Cloud PC scenarios. You need to have a valid Windows 365 Cloud PC license to use this section.

Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 14
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 14

Intune Policy Configuration

Intune Policy Configuration blade is very important for policy management of Windows, Android, iOS, macOS, and Linux platforms. As you can see in the below list, different types of policies are available to manage different workloads.

You can manage this node’s security, device restriction, and Settings Catalog policies. You have the option to manage the export and import of Group Policy from this section of the Intune admin portal.

Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 15
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 15

Intune Filters, Device clean-up, and device category configurations are available in this part of the Intune admin (Intune Admin Center) portal.

Apps Workload for Intune Admins

All the Intune Apps-related workloads are part of this APPS blade in the Intune Admin center. I don’t know why the following text is there on the home page for APPs Microsoft Intune recommends managing Microsoft 365 Apps with Current Channel.

You can create, deploy, and upgrade applications from this blade. Similar to Devices Blade, Apps blade supports platform-based filtering of workflows.

There are different types of application creation and deployment options for Windows, iOS, Android, macOS, and Linux (coming soon) platforms. Intune Win32 application deployment is the most powerful deployment option in Intune. This is similar to the SCCM application model.

  • Apps | Overview
    • Search (Ctrl+/)
    • Overview
    • All apps
    • Monitor
  • By platform
    • Windows
    • iOS/iPadOS
    • macOS
    • Android
    • Linux (coming soon)?
  • Policy
    • App protection policies
    • App configuration policies
    • iOS app provisioning profiles
    • S mode supplemental policies
    • Policies for Office apps
    • Policy sets
  • Other
    • App selective wipe
    • App categories
    • E-books
    • Filters
  • Help and support
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 16 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 16 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

Endpoint Security Intune Admin Center

You can protect and secure Windows and other platform devices in one place from the Intune Admin Center (Intune) portal. You can Enable, configure, and deploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to help prevent security breaches and gain visibility into your organization’s security posture.

The following are some of the highlights available in the Endpoint security node of the Intune Admin center.

  • Microsoft recommended security settings – Assign baselines quickly and securely using our recommended settings.
  • Simplified security policies – Select any of the following categories to jump right in and start securing your devices.
  • Antivirus
  • Disk encryption
  • Firewall
  • Attack surface reduction
  • Endpoint detection and response
  • Account protection
  • Remediate endpoint weaknesses – Remediate endpoint vulnerabilities reported by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Threat and Vulnerability Management.
  • Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

The Endpoint security | Overview and Search (Ctrl+/) are common workflows available across all the blades on the Intune admin center. The following are the main workflows available under the Endpoint security node.

  • Overview
  • Manage
    • Antivirus
    • Disk encryption
    • Firewall
    • Endpoint detection and response
    • Attack surface reduction
    • Account protection
    • Device compliance
    • Conditional access
  • Setup
    • Microsoft Defender ATP
  • Help and support
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 17
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 17

Intune Reports Node – Intune Admin Center

Let’s check the Intune Reports node available in the Intune Admin Center. This is where you can refer to Intune’s different types of reports.

You can monitor the health and activity of your endpoints from the reports node. Use Intune reporting to monitor your organisation’s endpoint compliance, health, and trends.

Read More -> List of Intune Default Reports Reporting Strategies Advanced Reporting Options

  • Organizational reports – Generate a summary report of your endpoints’ latest overall state and apply filters to refine your data.
  • Trends reports – Create a report from historical data to help you identify patterns and trends over time.
  • Advanced reports – Create custom queries and visualizations from raw data with the help of Log Analytics and Azure Monitor workbooks.

The following are the different types of default reports available in the Intune Admin center for Intune admins to assess the health of the environment.

Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 18
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 18

Azure AD Users Node – Intune Admin Center

Let’s check the Azure AD users node from the Intune Admin center/Intune admin portal. This is where you can check the user properties before deploying applications or policies.

The Azure AD Users node in the Intune portal helps to provide a better experience for Intune admins. This helps to avoid jumping between the portals. You need additional permission (Intune admin permissions give only the basic rights in AAD) to check all the following nodes in Azure AD.

  • Users | All users –> anoopcnairo(Default Directory) – Azure Active Directory
    • All users (Preview)
    • Deleted users
    • Password reset
    • User settings
    • Diagnose and solve problems
  • Activity
    • Sign-ins
    • Audit logs
    • Bulk operation results
  • Troubleshooting + Support
    • New support request
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 19
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 19

AAD Groups Node in Intune Admin Center Portal

Let’s check the options available under the AAD Groups blade in the Intune Admin Center Portal. This is also a shortcut to Azure AD groups. The Intune admins normally have permission to create Azure Dynamic Device/user groups.

The following options are available for a Global Admin role on the Azure AD groups node in the Intune Admin center portal. Additional permissions are required for some specific nodes, such as Audit logs and Access reviews.

  • Groups | All groups –> HTMD (Default Directory) – Azure Active Directory
    • All groups
    • Deleted groups
    • Diagnose and solve problems
  • Settings
    • General
    • Expiration
    • Naming policy
  • Activity
    • Access reviews
    • Audit logs
    • Bulk operation results
  • Troubleshooting + Support
    • New support request
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 20 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 20 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

Tenant Administration – Intune Admin Center

Let’s see our configuration and connections in Tenant Administration – Intune Admin Center. I think this is one of the blades in the Intune Admin center that continuously adds new features.

Tenant administration is where Intune or Intune admins perform all the integration work, such as NDES connection, Microsoft Tunnel Gateway, Microsoft Store for Business, Remote Help, etc.

Moreover, this is where Intune RBAC permissions are defined with scope tags, etc. On this node, you can also define end-user experience with custom notifications, etc..

  • Tenant admin | Tenant status
  • Search (Ctrl+/)
    • Tenant status
    • Remote Help
    • Microsoft Tunnel Gateway
    • Connectors and tokens
    • Filters
    • Roles
    • Azure AD Privileged Identity Management
    • Diagnostics settings
    • Audit logs
    • Device Diagnostics
    • Premium add-ons
  • End-user experiences
    • Customization
    • Custom notifications
    • Terms and conditions
  • Microsoft Managed Desktop
    • Tenant enrollment
  • Help and support
    • Help and support
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 21 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 21 Microsoft Intune Admin Center Portal Fig.

Troubleshooting + Support | Intune Admin Center

Let’s find out the Troubleshooting + Support | Intune Admin Center blade details. This blade is the HOME page for all User-based troubleshooting. I think this is useful for the helpdesk admin to assess the issues with a glance.

Read More -> How To Start Troubleshooting Intune Issues | Fix Intune Issues With Easy Steps

  • Troubleshooting + support | Troubleshoot
  • Search (Ctrl+/)
    • Guided scenarios (preview)
    • Troubleshoot
    • Help and support
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 22
Intune Admin Portal Walkthrough 22

Author

Anoop C Nair is Microsoft MVP! He is a Device Management Admin with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is a Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. He writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc.

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