Microsoft announced Windows AutoPilot last June as a tool to deploy PCs without IT administrators ever having to touch the device. Starting with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, the device ID could be uploaded to the OEM, along with Azure AD and Intune configurations, and everything will be automatically set up.
Back at Microsoft's Ignite 2017 conference in September, the company announced that HP and Lenovo will be the first third-party OEMs to use the feature, coming in January. Neither company provided an update until Lenovo announced last week that it had begun testing AutoPilot, and that it will be available to everyone in the coming months.
HP now says that it's planning on offering Windows AutoPilot this fall, and that it's already tested the service with a large customer.
"For more than a year, HP has been collaborating with Microsoft on Windows AutoPilot. We remain committed to bringing seamless deployments of Windows 10 through AutoPilot on HP PCs in the Fall," said Michael Park, General Manager and Global Head of Emerging Compute Solutions at HP, in a statement to Neowin. "We recently completed a successful pilot with a large customer and simplified the PC setup so it’s as simple as turning on a smartphone for the first time. By combining HP DaaS with AutoPilot and Azure Active Directory Premium, we can streamline the out-of-the box PC experience for our customers, while establishing a secure endpoint when they first power on."
Currently, Windows AutoPilot is only offered for Surface devices, including the latest Surface Pro, Surface Book 2, Surface Laptop, and Surface Studio. While HP and Lenovo devices will offer the service later this year, no other OEMs have publicly signed on for AutoPilot, although Microsoft could make an announcement at its Build 2018 developer conference in a couple of weeks.
