Originally posted on Sun Behind the Clouds:
In 2018 Microsoft became the fifth largest PC vendor in North America. Of course much of this is fueled by Surface lineup that has moved rapidly from an enthusiast or secondary device to become the preferred device of many enterprises. I do a lot of work with the Canadian Federal Government and many departments have chosen the Surface Pro as the standard device for all employees.
Of course the combination of Surface and Windows 10 has some distinct advantages such as:
- Windows 10 is tested heavily against Surface Devices
- Configuration Manager has a Surface Device Dashboard built in showing device models, firmware, etc.
- Configuration Manager uses Surface Devices as pilot devices for pre-release testing
- Surface Hardware supports advanced Windows 10 features such as Hello and WiDi
- Inking
As the Surface continues to be more heavily deployed in enterprises, administrators have had special concerns about managing the devices. In response, Microsoft has released a series of tools and utilities to ease the management burden.
| Tool | Description |
| Cisco EAP Supplicant Installer | Enable PEAP, EAP-FAST, and Cisco LEAP on Surface devices |
| SEMM | Surface Enterprise Management Mode tools for managing UEFI firmware |
| SP3_Firmware_Powershell_Scripts.zip | Surface Pro 3 firmware deployment scripts |
| Surface Diagnostics Tools | Investigate, troubleshoot, and resolve hardware, software, and firmware issues with Surface devices |
| Surface Data Eraser | Perform a secure wipe of all data from a Surface device |
| Surface Deployment Accelerator | Rapid re-imaging environment for Surface devices |
| Surface Dock Updater | Check and update Surface dock firmware |
| Surface Brightness Control | App for managing screens of always on devices like POS and Kiosks |
| Surface UEFI Configurator and Manager | Tool for managing SEMM enrolments |
| Surface WOL | Manage Wake-On-LAN for Surface Devices |
The Surface Tools for IT can be downloaded here.
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By Colin Smith
Colin Smith is the Manager of the Microsoft Solutions Practice at Cistel Technology Inc. , a Microsoft Gold Partner headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. Colin is a frequent author and presenter. He is also a dual Microsoft MVP. He is an MVP for Enterprise Mobility (formerly System Center Configuration Manager) who has been working with the product since SMS version 1.0. He is also a MVP for Windows and Devices for IT. In 2017 he was awarded the Windows Insider MVP designation as well. He has over 25 years of experience deploying Microsoft-based solutions for the private and public sector with a focus on mobile, desktop, cloud and data center management.