Device hardware inventory is coming soon to Microsoft Intune

The foundation of next-generation endpoint management is data, and deep visibility into your entire device estate is key. This includes corporate and personal, physical and virtual endpoints. From hardware and software to device performance and usage, more information facilitates more actionable reporting, device targeting, and troubleshooting.

Since sharing the news that Microsoft Intune is improving device hardware inventory for Windows devices, we’ve heard a lot of excitement and quite a few questions. We have even more exciting news to share this year (hint, hint). If you haven’t already, subscribe to this blog. This feature will be expanding in the short and long term, so below is a brief overview of what’s coming and our vision for the future.

Troubleshooting hardware inventory issues

As we expand our service, our robust inventory capabilities will help you understand your environment, target devices, make business decisions, and answer critical questions to keep your data secure. Some examples include:

• Does your device have TPM 2.0?
• Are you ready to update your device from Windows 10 to Windows 11?
• Is your device’s battery life nearing its end? Can you schedule a service appointment to stay productive?

Enhanced device inventory capabilities for Windows devices provide key information to help IT professionals answer these questions more efficiently.

Administrators create a device inventory profile, select the Windows devices/groups they want to view, and then select the properties to collect.

The Resource Explorer displays information collected from your profile.

Impact of improved device inventory

Enhanced device inventory can be beneficial in many common scenarios. Consider the following example: The security team determines that the organization should not have passwords for optimal security. Using device inventory, you can:

• IT teams identify devices that do not support biometric login and need to be upgraded or replaced.
• Devices can report on inventory without running third-party applications, improving overall performance.
• Admins can centralize data across IT and security teams without having to learn new software or leave Intune.
• Intune includes your device inventory, so you can budget for the license costs of a dedicated solution without scaling.
• In later stages, device inventory information will be made available to Microsoft Copilot for Security for improved insights, targeting, remediation, and automation.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will device inventory be available to my tenant?
We are testing and finalizing this feature and will be releasing it later this year. We will share more information in an upcoming blog post and you can follow the release of this feature. Microsoft 365 Roadmap.

What properties can I use?
Dozens of individual attributes are available for inventory across a wide range of information categories, including:

• Network adapter and MAC address
• Battery and Health
• bios
• disk
• BitLocker
• CPU
• system
• TPM
• video

Can I use this data to create dynamic groups?
Research and development are actively underway into the ability to create dynamic groups using inventory data.

How does Intune device inventory differ from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint device inventory?
Defender for Endpoint device inventory is designed to help security professionals protect endpoints by providing information about devices that may be at risk. Intune device inventory is designed to help IT professionals manage devices in general, such as determining which devices are ready for an upgrade or which devices need to be targeted with a specific payload. Both inventories provide useful information about devices.

Can this data be exported via API?
This data will not be exportable via the API at initial release, but will be exportable as a CSV file in UX. We will continue to investigate additional ways to provide export and visualization of this data.

Does this include applications or entries in the device registry?
Post-launch inventory includes device properties. We are looking into adding application and registry information to the initial post-launch device inventory.

Is this data available across all devices?
Inventory will be available for Windows devices after launch. Follow this blog and roadmap for announcements about inventory for other devices in the near future.

What’s next?

We’ll be showing off our device inventory demo at Workplace Ninja Summit 2024 next week! We’ll be posting additional blogs in the coming months with more information, including deep dives from engineers, release dates, and updated FAQs.

We want to hear from you. What questions do you have? What are your most wanted stock items? We will monitor comments, so please leave a comment below.

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