Earlier this year, Microsoft said it was bringing its Windows Autopilot feature to the HoloLens platform. Specifically, the tool has been in private preview on HoloLens 2 since then. Now Microsoft says that preview is shifting to public and will become more widely available.
Windows Autopilot is a bundle of features that help IT professionals setup Windows 10 PCs across a network without the need for custom images. On HoloLens 2, admins working with the AR headset can use Autopilot to pre-configure new headsets.
Windows Autopilot is a “Self-Deploying mode” which provides more zero-touch tools when deploying a device. Users will no longer need to do anything to set their Windows 10 device up in an enterprise environment.
Windows Autopilot also has a handy reset feature. With this ability, the service can integrate with Microsoft Intune on a Windows device to reset the hardware and redeploy it in a business setup. The service has been available on Windows 10 since it launched with the Fall Creators Update in 2017.
Setting Up Devices
Microsoft points out HoloLens users can access Autopilot’s self-deployment features through the following steps:
- Join the device to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Note that Autopilot for HoloLens does not support Active Directory join or Hybrid Azure AD join.
- Use Azure AD to enroll the device in Microsoft Endpoint Manager (or another MDM service).
- Download and apply device-targeted policies, certificates, networking profiles and applications.
- Provision the device.
- Present the sign-in screen to the user.
Windows Holographic, version 2004 (released May 2020) or newer is required to use Windows Autopilot. If you want to know more about Autopilot in HoloLens, check out Microsoft’s page here.