MECM & Intune Lab Links

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 ‘Twas the night before #MMSMOA, when all thro’ the house, all sorts of nerdy creatures were stirring, especially a mouse. Hundreds of lucky attendees and speakers were giddy with excitement. What will we learn? Who will we meet? For some it’s their first time, for others it’s a family reunion. But one thing is certain. This is the biggest tech event of the year for all things endpoint management. A huge thank you to all the sponsors for making this event happen, especially Patch My PC for their continuous support of our profession and for their commitment to making the best damn patching product you could ever ask for!

Let’s cut to the chase. DON’T F***ING TEST IN PRODUCTION THIS WEEK!!! You’ll make a lifetime of connections at an event like this, and you’ll also see a lifetime of shiny cool tricks all in 4 jam packed days of beer drinking and learning. USE A LAB! This week does not need to be a resume generating week. And if you’re not at MMS, you should still setup a lab just so you can try all the cool things you see on your Twitter feed.

Straight from the horse’s mouth, we have a great write up from Microsoft on how to configure a lab for testing out all the cool things you’ll hear from MMS. Microsoft Endpoint Manager evaluation lab kit now available as free download - Microsoft Tech Community

If you want to get a fully functioning Windows 11 based MECM lab and an Intune preview so you can do everything, go to Microsoft Endpoint Manager Evaluation Lab Kit | Microsoft Evaluation Center. You can also find links to the latest production and TP builds of MECM at this link for those of you that still think you have time to build it from scratch. It's worth noting that as of publishing time, the evaluation kits expire on Friday, May 6th. So this apparently isn't the best timing on Microsoft's part, but it will get us through MMS. The Windows 10 lab in the next paragraph expires 10 days later on May 16th.

If you want to pick from a Windows 10 lab versus a Windows 11 lab, you can visit an older download link. Windows 11 and Office 365 Deployment Lab Kit | Microsoft Evaluation Center. Yes, the link says Windows 11, but if you scroll on this page, you’ll get options for Windows 10 as well.

Want to add 1,000 fake clients to your brand-new lab? Check out Ryan Ephgrave’s (Twitter @EphingPosh) CMMessaging on GitHub at https://github.com/Ryan2065/CMMessaging. 

And if you're going to MMS, don't forget to swing by all the sponsor booths to say hi and score some swag. Rumor has it that Patch My PC has so much swag that they rented a trailer and had to get a suite just to have room for all of it! Drink responsibly my friends!



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