Microsoft has announced the general availability of Desktop Analytics, its tool designed to help businesses keep their machines up-to-date without as much stress. The tool entered public preview a few months ago, in July, and it integrates with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) to offer insights and help administrators make more informed decisions about how to deploy new updates to Windows endpoints.
As Microsoft puts it, Desktop Analytics offers the following features:
- Get a comprehensive view into the endpoints, applications, and drivers under management in your ecosystem.
- Assess application and driver compatibility with the latest Windows feature updates and receive mitigation recommendations for known issues, as well as advanced insights for line of business apps.
- Optimize the set of pilot devices that adequately represents your overall estate using the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Microsoft cloud.
Since entering public preview, a few improvements have been made to Desktop Analytics in preparation for general availability. For example, an update in August lifted the need to manually evaluate certain software that's known to be compatible with newer versions of Windows. Last month, another update made it possible to migrate data from Windows Analytics Upgrade Readiness during the onboarding experience for Desktop Analytics. The 1906 release of SCCM also added deeper integration with Desktop Analytics, making it possible to automate deployment for both pilot and production devices.
If you're interested in learning more about Desktop Analytics, you can head here, or you can start using it if you're ready for it.
