Getting Started with Intune for Endpoint Management
A walkthrough of setting up Microsoft Intune for device management in a mid-size enterprise.
TL;DR: Intune setup is straightforward once you understand the enrollment flow and compliance policies.
Getting Started with Intune for Endpoint Management
Setting up Microsoft Intune for a mid-size enterprise is more approachable than most documentation suggests. Here's the path I followed when deploying it across 3,000+ devices.
The Basics
Intune lives inside the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center. The first step is connecting your Azure AD tenant and configuring automatic enrollment for Windows devices.
Enrollment Flow
The enrollment flow matters more than most people think. We went with:
- Autopilot for new devices — zero-touch provisioning
- Bulk enrollment for existing fleet — enrollment package via USB
- User-driven for BYOD — Company Portal app
Compliance Policies
Start simple. Our initial compliance policy checked three things:
- BitLocker enabled
- Windows Defender active
- OS version within support window
Devices that failed compliance got a 7-day grace period before losing access to corporate resources via Conditional Access.
Lessons Learned
- Test your compliance policies on a pilot group first
- Detection rules for Win32 apps should use registry keys, not file paths
- Keep your device groups dynamic where possible — manual group management doesn't scale