In particular, administrators who have grown up with SCCM have waited a long time for this feature. With Intune Enhanced Hardware Inventory, Microsoft finally offers a solution that is similar to inventory in SCCM and creates transparency for effective device management and well-founded decisions. In today's digital landscape, it is essential for IT departments to have a clear overview of the hardware being used. Without precise inventory, security gaps can arise, unnecessary costs arise and operational processes can be affected.
The most important things in brief
- Microsoft Intune captures comprehensive hardware data such as network adapters, hard drive status, and processor information to give IT administrators a efficient device management to enable.
- Real time updates and concise reports provide valuable insights and facilitate analysis as well as strategic planning.
- Die seamless integration The inventory data in existing systems enables a uniform and optimized IT infrastructure.
- Future extensions for macOS, iOS/iPadOS, Android and Advanced analytics provide even deeper insights and improved administrative processes.
More transparency for your device fleet: We help you set up and use the Enhanced Hardware Inventory in Intune.
1. What is Microsoft Intune Hardware Inventory?
Enhanced Hardware Inventory allows you to collect and view detailed information about the hardware of your Windows devices. With the help of a device configuration profile, you can select specific hardware properties and record them for individual devices or groups of devices.
This data is available in Resource Explorer available from the Intune portal. In Resource Explorer, the collected information can be viewed individually for each individual device. This helps you with troubleshooting, when making hardware decisions and even when negotiating with hardware vendors.
2. Intune hardware inventory features
Intune Enhanced Hardware Inventory offers IT departments a powerful solution that goes far beyond previous data collection. It makes it possible to collect comprehensive information about the hardware of the managed devices and to analyze it efficiently in order to make well-founded decisions.
With the Enhanced Hardware Inventory, you can answer important questions about your devices, such as:
Do your devices have TPM 2.0?
Are your devices ready to update from Windows 10 to Windows 11?
Is battery life coming to an end and can you plan maintenance to maintain productivity?
A key element of Intune inventory is the detailed data collection.
Intune collects a wide range of hardware information, including:
- network adapter and MAC address,
- battery and health status,
- BIOS,
- hard drive,
- BitLocker,
- CPU,
- system,
- TPM,
- and video components.
In addition, Intune provides basic data such as producer, sitter and operating system version as well as deeper insights into processor data, Memory (RAM), Storage status and network information like IP and MAC addresses. This data helps IT administrators to efficiently monitor devices and identify weak points at an early stage.
“With Intune Enhanced Hardware Inventory, IT teams finally have a tool that provides detailed hardware insights and streamlines strategic decisions. ”
Dorian Garbe, managing director of SOFTTAILOR
Reports and real-time updates
The collected data is regularly synchronized and clearly displayed in the Intune portal. Reports facilitate analysis and support the planning of strategic measures. Real-time updates allow you to react to changes immediately.
Integration into existing systems
The collected data can be seamlessly integrated into asset management or security solutions. Thanks to APIs, you can export and further process inventory data to create a uniform and optimized IT infrastructure.
3. Set up and configure Intune Hardware Inventory
Activating Enhanced Hardware Inventory in Intune takes just a few steps:
that Enhanced Hardware Inventory allows you to collect detailed hardware data from your devices and evaluate them in a targeted manner.
1. Logging in to the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center
Get in touch with Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center to adjust the settings for the Enhanced Hardware Inventory.
- In the menu on the left, navigate to Devices → Konfiguration.
- Click on Create Profileto create a new configuration profile
2. Creating a Properties Catalog Profile
Select the desired hardware properties that you want to capture. This selection is made via the Properties Picker:
- Select the platform you want the profile to apply to (e.g. Windows 10 and later).
- Under Profile type Do you choose Properties catalog (preview).
- Click on Createto start configuring.
3. Selecting hardware properties
In Properties Picker Can you define specific traits that should be collected, such as:
- Core Count, CPU status, Disk Drive
- battery information, network adapter and more.
Tip: Only select the properties that are relevant to you to keep the synchronization efficient. Then click on Selectto save the selection.
4. Assigning the profile
Assign the created profile to a specific device group or to all Windows devices:
- Select from the menu Devices select the device groups that should use the profile.
- Click on Assignto complete the assignment.
5. Checking data in Resource Explorer
After about 24 hours, the first data is available in Resource Explorer available.
- Navigate to Devices → Monitor → Resource Explorer and select a device.
- Here you can view the collected data such as CPU information, battery status or hard drive capacity.
4. Benefits of Enhanced Hardware Inventory
The use of Enhanced Hardware Inventory Intune provides IT departments with several benefits:
5. Challenges and usage tips
Despite the benefits, there can be challenges when using Enhanced Hardware Inventory:
- Data inconsistencies: Irregular synchronization can result in outdated information.
- Incomplete reports: Misconfigured profiles could not capture important data.
Tips for overcoming these challenges:
- Check synchronization settings regularly: Make sure that data is updated at scheduled intervals. This is done automatically as long as the synchronization intervals are set up correctly in the Intune Admin Center.
- Careful configuration of profiles: Dial in Properties Catalog Profile Target the hardware properties that are relevant to your company. This configuration is carried out via Properties Picker done in the Intune admin center.
Potential problems can be minimized by taking proactive measures.
6. Future prospects: What are the benefits of the development of the Intune Enhanced Hardware Inventory?
From the beginning of next year, this will Enhanced Hardware Inventory also be available for macOS, iOS/iPadOS and Android devices. This allows IT teams to use the same detailed collection and management of hardware data across different platforms that was previously only possible for Windows devices.
The Resource Explorer provides a central view of all captured hardware details, for example for iOS devices, and reduces the need for additional tools. For IT departments, this means huge time and effort savings, as all important information is bundled in one place across platforms.
In addition, Microsoft plans to Intune Advanced Analytics to integrate to enable advanced data queries across multiple devices These new features give you deeper insights and significantly increase the efficiency of your device management. With a single tool that centralizes all relevant information, there is no need to use multiple systems — a major advantage for IT teams that want to simplify and optimize their processes.
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7. Conclusion
Intune Enhanced Hardware Inventory brings familiar inventory features SCCM toward Intune. It provides a central database, improves device management and makes security planning easier. Companies that use Intune effectively benefit from a more efficient IT infrastructure and clear strategic advantages.
Dorian has been involved in corporate and IT strategy since 2011. Due to the endpoint security deficiencies of many companies and the information overload, he developed the endpoint strategy. Dorian is co-founder of the “Endpoint Management” expert group at IAMCP e.V.
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