Microsoft released the 1906 version of Configuration Manager recently and as is now the norm, the product group team have been very busy these last few months. I’m going to cover some of the highlighted features in their own posts which are linked below as I work through them, this post will summarise what’s in and what’s out.

The official link for the what’s new article can be found here – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/core/plan-design/changes/whats-new-in-version-1906

Worth remembering that this doesn’t necessarily include every little change, just the documented features.

First things first, we have a few deprecations. These things rarely come as a surprise as Microsoft tend to announce them around 12 months in advance so we can’t say we weren’t warned.

What’s out?

Deprecation of the classic deployment of a Cloud Management Gateway (CMG)

Don’t worry, CMGs are not deprecated. In earlier releases of CMG the provisioning was done in what is known as a ‘classic’ service deployment as opposed to the more modern Azure Resource Manager (ARM) deployment. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has kept up on the releases as 1810 was the last version to support a classic CMG deployment. More info on ARM and classic deployments of CMG can be found here – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/core/clients/manage/cmg/plan-cloud-management-gateway#azure-resource-manager

Deprecation of Application Catalog role installations

Again, this one shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Application Catalog roles have been in the product since the 2012 versions to allow user self service of applications through a web site. In more recent times that same functionality has been absorbed into other site components and the user only needs to use the Software Center application to achieve the same functionality. This being the case, you’ve simply don’t need them any more and from 1906 you can no longer install them either. If you want a trip down memory lane or want to know a bit more about what application catalog offered, go here – https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Configuration-Manager-Archive/Introducing-the-Application-Catalog-and-Software-Center-in/ba-p/273065

No more support for some Mobile Operating Systems
Configuration Manager drops support for a client installed on the following mobile or embedded OS’s.

• Windows CE 7.0
• Windows 10 Mobile
• Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise

Again, no surprise to most but I must ass here that I’ve seen a little resurgence and reminiscing about Windows Phones recently, I hear it pretty often on my travels. As much as I’s also like to see it, I’m not so sure Microsoft have any immediate plans to revisit this though.

What’s in?

Site infrastructure

• Site Server Maintenance Task Improvements
• Configuration Manager Update database upgrade monitoring
• New Management Insights rule for NTLM fallback
• Add a SQL AlwaysOn node

Cloud-attached management

• Azure Active Directory User Group Discovery
• Synchronize collection membership results to Azure Active Directory groups

Desktop Analytics

• Readiness Insights for desktop apps
• DALogsCollector Tool

Real-time management

• Add joins, additional operators and aggregators in CMPivot
• CMPivot Standalone
• Added permissions to the Security Administrator role

Content Management

• Delivery Optimisation download data in client data sources dashboard
• Use your distribution point as an in-network cache server for Delivery Optimisation – DOINC!

Client management

• Support for Windows Virtual Desktop
• Support Center OneTrace – Preview
• Version 1906 client requires SHA-2 code signing support
• Configure client cache minimum retention period

Co-management

• Improvements to co-management auto-enrolment
• Multiple pilot groups for co-management workloads
• Co-management support for government cloud

Application management

• Filter applications deployed to devices
• Application Groups
• Retry the install of pre-approved applications
• Install an application for a device
• Improvement to application approvals

OS Deployment

• Task sequence debugger
• Clear app content from client cache during task sequence
• Reclaim SEDO lock for task sequences
• Pre-cache driver packages and OS images
• Improvements to OS deployment

Software Center

• Improvements to Software Center tab customisations
• Software Center infrastructure improvements
• Redesigned notification for newly available software
• More frequent countdown notifications for restarts
• Direct link to custom tabs in Software Center

Software Updates

• Additional options for WSUS maintenance
• Configure the default maximum run time for software updates
• Configure dynamic update during feature updates
• New Windows 10, 1903 and later product category
• Drill through required updates

Office Management

• Office 365 ProPlus upgrade readiness dashboard

Inventory

• Improvement to Asset Intelligence

Protection

• Windows Defender Application Guard file trust criteria

Configuration Manager console

• Add SMBIOS GUID column to device and device collection nodes
• Role based access to folders
• Administration service support for security nodes