As most of you will already know, Windows 11 is due to release on October 5th which is just a few weeks away.
This post is aimed at those who wanted to give Windows 11 a test drive in the run up to the official launch, but have your updates managed via Intune and have therefore been greeted with the below:
Windows Insider for Business
The first stop on our journey to installing the Windows 11 preview is the Windows Insider for Business program found at the below link:
Once there and signed in using your global admin credentials, you should be greeted with something like the above page, where you’ll want to click register.
Continue through the registration process until you see the below screen.
You’ll now need to head back to Intune to do the rest of the deployment.
Deploying Windows 11 Insider using Intune
Once you’re back in Intune, head to Devices and look for the option called “Update rings for Windows 10 and later”. This is where we will create our update ring that will be used to push out Windows 11.
Create a new update profile and give it a name of your choosing.
Once you’ve named your profile, ensure that the servicing channel is set to “Windows Insider – Fast”, this is what will give you access to install Windows 11. Configure the rest of the options in the way that best suites your enviroment.
Once you’ve finished your profile and assigned it to your test group, sit back and wait for your device to pick up the Windows 11 update. This usually takes a few hours to become available.
Once Windows 11 is installed, you can continue to test it and new Insider Preview releases will be made available via Windows Update for Business as normal.
Initial thoughts of Windows 11
I’ve been fairly impressed with the running of Windows 11 so far whilst testing, the only odd issue I’ve run into so far is being unable to open Windows Defender which has only been a minor inconvenience.
Overall, I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the real Windows 11 on October 5th and seeing some of the new technology such as Direct Storage in action.