Commercial driver and firmware servicing is publicly available!

This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: Microsoft Tech Community - Latest Blogs - .

We are excited to announce the public availability of commercial controls for driver and firmware updates in the Windows Update for Business deployment service. Our platform empowers organizations with control over the deployment of drivers from Windows Update to eligible cloud-attached commercial devices.

Note: "Drivers and firmware" are abbreviated as "drivers" for the remainder of the post, and indicate both driver and firmware updates.

Driver servicing capabilities

When we first announced the deployment service for drivers, we started a conversation about the importance of drivers servicing. The hardware ecosystem constantly publishes new drivers and fixes to Windows Update that address security incidents and improve hardware operability. We launched a vibrant community of admins, CTOs, and partners from over a thousand organizations globally, all passionate about the goal of ongoing servicing of drivers.

What we've learned from you

Together we identified the lack of tools to achieve this goal. The feedback from organizations and partners was clear:

  • You look to Microsoft to help identify when driver updates are needed and which ones are recommended, and you expect the Windows Update service to host the full catalog of drivers for your devices.
  • You need Windows Update for Business to provide innovative capabilities for deploying drivers, made available through the management tools you are already using.
  • You need analytics and reporting tools that don't only confirm the success of deployments, but also inform you on failures and how to address them.

Later we announced our plans for public availability and launched our private preview. Hundreds of you actively engaged in the program and we couldn't have reached this milestone without all your feedback. For that, we want to say thank you to the community for your enthusiasm and diligence.

What you can do with the Windows Update for Business deployment service

With the capabilities we are making public today, if you are a Windows E3/E5/A3/A5 or Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscriber, or a developer building solutions for them, you can take advantage of the deployment service to:

  • Gain access to the list of recommended drivers curated for your enrolled devices, powered by the intelligence of Windows Update to pick the right drivers for the right devices.
  • Control which drivers are offered to which devices in your managed environment, and when, as well as instruct Windows Update to pause offering individual drivers when circumstances call for it.
  • Access deployment status with Windows Update for Business reports to track progress and identify devices that need attention.

 

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All the drivers you need are on Windows Update

The deployment service integrates directly into Windows Update and provides control over content published there by our hardware ecosystem partners. We collaborated closely with top OEMs and IHVs to ensure they will publish all drivers to Windows Update.

Microsoft has a dedicated pipeline to certify and validate drivers before they are made available in Windows Update. Once there, Windows Update will identify the best drivers for devices enrolled in the deployment service, giving you control over how and when to deploy them.

We are honored to be joined today by the following partners, with whom we've worked closely to make the deployment service and Windows Update the platforms of choice for organizations and hardware ecosystem partners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The deployment service is a platform

The Windows Update for Business deployment service is a platform available in Microsoft Graph.

Late last year we shared with admins and developers the many ways to try Windows Update for Business with Microsoft Graph and even showcased how a Teams chatbot could be used to help admins deploy Windows 11 in their environment with the deployment service.

Starting today, you can manage driver approvals using the Windows Update for Business deployment service API from any application. Alternatively, you can take advantage of the updated Graph Explorer examples (under "Windows Updates" in the "Sample queries" pane) to enroll, view drivers, and deploy them to devices. We recommend you explore the complete reference documentation of our deployment service Microsoft Graph API.

Our private preview was powered by a web application that integrated with our platform to allow participants to try drivers servicing. This application is now available publicly on the Microsoft Graph organization in GitHub as an example of how to use our API and as a tool to embark on your servicing adventure today. Remember that Windows Update for Business reports is a valuable reporting solution to track the progress of driver deployments taken via Microsoft Graph and the web application.

Our platform is collaborating with the following MDMs, who are joining us in today's announcement, to bring you driver servicing in the tools you are already using.

 


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"Our customers consistently ask us for more, and better, control over drivers and firmware updates. We are excited to collaborate with the Windows Update for Business deployment service, to bring these management controls to our Windows E3 and E5 customers, leveraging Microsoft Graph, in Intune later this year. We look forward to our continued partnership with the Windows team in helping organizations simplify endpoint management and protect their cloud and hybrid workforce."

- Steve Dispensa, VP of Product Management, Microsoft Intune

 


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"Control and flexibility over driver and firmware updates are key requests from IT leaders and admins. VMware Workspace ONE plans to leverage the Microsoft Graph API to deliver end-to-end control of driver and firmware update services for Microsoft Windows E3 or E5 subscribers. We're excited to support this new capability in the Windows Update for Business deployment service, agnostic of OEM, so customers can keep devices secure and employees productive from anywhere."

- Bharath Rangarajan, GM and VP of Products, End-User Computing (EUC), Workspace ONE

Keep the feedback coming

Thanks again for your continued support and partnership on our journey to help you keep your devices up to date and secure. We look forward to getting additional feedback from the larger community over the coming months as we refine the solution for general availability.

If you have not done so already, please join our engineering neighborhood.


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