FileWave Release History

FileWave Management Suite

User preferences in main views will be stored on the user account (Web Console):

• Pinned columns
• Width of the columns
• Visibility of the columns
• Order of the columns

User preferences in main views will be stored in the active session (Web Console):

• Filters
• Quick filters
• Search
• Applied sorting on a column

Profiles section error handling improvements (Web Console):

• Error handling in the profiles is more user friendly and the mandatory fields are better highlighted

Apple

Apple Silicon Support

Client and Booster components are now fully Universal - run natively on mac with Intel or Apple Silicon chips.

The server component is mostly Universal (Dashboard using Grafana still requires Rosetta)

Apple Spring 2022 Release support

• Profile changes:
  • New macOS restriction to disable AirPlay Receiver
  • New macOS firewall options (finer settings to allow application connectivity and logging options)
  • New tvOS restriction to disable automatic screen saver

VPP changes

• When adding a VPP token, FileWave will now check if already imported tokens are not from the same location to prevent adding the same location twice.
• When renewing a VPP token, FileWave will now check that the new token has been generated from the same location as the one it replaces.

Windows

Wipe

• Windows devices can be wiped from the Web Console

Software update view improvements

• Apple and Microsoft patches have separate sections now
• The list can be sorted by the assigned subtype (e.g. successful, remaining, warning, error)
• Visual improvements in the software update section

Software updates MDM profile

• Different software updates settings can be applied to the Windows devices via MDM
  • Deadlines, grace period, automatic update behavior, restart check, option to pause updates, option to check for updates

Automatic MDM certificate renewal

• Windows devices will get the MDM certificate automatically renewed before they expire

Imaging (IVS)

• FileWave Networking Imaging 14.8.x brings compatibility with FileWave 14.8.x.
• PXE Kernel: 5.17.1
• Grub: 2.06

Deprecated Features

The following features are deprecated in FileWave 14.8.0 and will be removed in a future version:

• Apple profile management is deprecated in the Native Admin Console.
• DEP profile addition and creation are deprecated in the Native Admin Console.

Decommissioned Features

The following features have been removed from FileWave 14.8.0:

• Clever is not available as an SIS source anymore.
• Engage is not supported anymore.
• Observe Client functionality has been replaced by the TeamViewer integration

Software Update improvements

• Client Info reports (extended) Software Update information in a new tab (native admin)
• Windows Software update improvements:
  • Devices now report "online" updates
  • More information (category, support URL, KB article number...) is reported
  • Devices now report on already installed updates, even if they haven't been installed via FileWave
    • Provides independent confirmation outside of the fileset/payload mechanism
  • Read more about Windows Software Update improvements here
• FileWave is now reading information from Apple Software Lookup Service (GDMF).
  • Read more here

Web Console

• Improvements for Deployments: added the possibility to "add to deployment" from the device/device details views
  • Allows for adding a group to an already existing deployment for instance
• FileWave policies can now be managed in the Web Console
• Packages (MSI, PKG) files can be dragged from explorer/finder and dropped onto the Payload list

Internals

• Improved internal code related to object identifiers to avoid possible identifiers exhaustion for large installations

Remote Control

• Unattended access is now possible for macOS and Windows devices with the use of the TeamViewer integration
  • You can read more about your TeamViewer options here

Apple Fall Release

Support for macOS 12 Monterey, iOS, iPadOS and tvOS 15:

• Support for macOS 12
• Additional Inventory data reported by MDM DeviceInformation Command (IsAppleSilicon, DeviceId for Software Update)

• App portal (for Kiosk) native application has been updated for iOS 15:

  • Minimum iOS supported version is now iOS 12.5
  • Retrieving geo-location is now processed in the background. On iOS 13 and later, the native portal uses the native background task to retrieve more frequently the position even if the application is not in foreground.
  • Preparation for Remote Session using Team Viewer.

DEP changes:

• new Skip Key "Unlock your Mac with Apple Watch"

Profile changes:

• Skip Unlock with Apple Watch and Skip Accessibility in macOS Login Window profile (Setup Assistant)
• System Extensions have additional "Removable" option
• New Restrictions:
  
  • On device only translation
  • Requires Managed Pasteboard
  • Allow iCloud Private Relay
  • Touch ID timeout before asking password
• DNS Proxy profile is available on macOS 10.15+
• TVRemote profile has new "Device Name" Field
• A new command policy option has been added to configure Software Update Policy (Update for current Major version, previous Major version, both)

VPP new API support (Technical preview)

Apple introduced a new version of the VPP API ; FileWave 14.6.1 allows to use the new API as a technical preview (read more):

• In 14.6.1, this will be an in-place replacement, no feature change
• Future versions will benefit from the new API's additional features (better bulk license management, notifications based communication with Apple service)

MDM Software Update Improvements (read more):

• MDM Command OSUpdateStatus is now used to report download progress
• Both macOS and iOS updates are now deployed in two steps (one command to have the device downloading the update, one command to have the device installing the update) as this process is more reliable than requesting the device to handle the whole process automatically

Web Admin Updates

There are three main changes to the Web Admin Console in this release:

• The web admin now has a great looking script editor
• And in-progress deployment definitions are now saved when you navigate away from them
• Lastly, VPP application updates can now be controlled much more easily

Native FileWave Admin Changes

Verify for Desktop devices can now be triggered from the native admin without direct network connection (within the Client Info window).

TeamViewer Integration (Technical Preview)

Version 14.6 introduces TeamViewer as the eventual replacement for Observe Client.  You can read much more about that integration here.

Imaging Mac Address

A new inventory field has been added to assist with Windows Imaging for devices with pass-through MAC addresses.  You can read about this change further here.

IDP Changes

Version 14.6 introduces the much-demanded Google as an IDP source.  Specific instructions for setting up that integration can be found here.  Additionally, you can now also setup easy smart groups using IDP group membership.  That topic is covered in this kb article.

New Features

FileWave 14.5.4 primarily updates Apache to Version 2.4.51 to fix a critical CVE and addresses several small FileWave-related bugs.

See below for new features introduced with FileWave 14.5:

FileWave Management Suite:

• Device enrollment conflict improvements (read more):
  • It is now possible to solve multiple conflicts at once
  • There is a new setting to automatically solve conflicts with a predefined option (ignore new device, remove previous client before enrolling new, replace old client with new client).
  • Placeholder replacement is more robust
• Windows client fingerprint is persistent during imaging process ; this avoids conflict in case the hardware setup (on which fingerprint is based) has changed.
• Fileset (Payload) Status in Inventory (read more)

Apple:

• Profile changes:
  • New restrictions:
    • macOS now allows you to define different DeferUpdate delays for major, minor and non-OS software updates
• Device Information reports additional information:
  • LocalHostName, Hostname (macOS)
• New options for share iPads:

  • Shared iPads can now be configured as "Guest mode" only

  • It is possible to define logout timeouts for normal or guest mode users

Web Admin:

• Software Update enhancements (read more):
  • Deploy to groups
  • Install in specific time windows
• NAT Support for Client Monitor & Verify (read more)
• Perform Actions on Multiple Devices (read more)
• MSI & PKG Payload Creation (read more)

Windows MDM (read more):

• Support for manual and AutoPilot MDM enrollment
• Guidance on importing devices into AutoPilot
• Creation/deployment of Windows MDM Policies (Profiles)

New Features

FileWave Management Suite:

• Booster upgrade mechanism (see related KB Articles: Booster Auto-Upgrade):
  
  • Starting from FileWave 14.4.0, it will be possible to upgrade boosters directly from admin console. Boosters will report if an update is available and upgrading it will be a one-click action. 
  • When several boosters are defined to be upgraded, they will be upgraded one after the other to avoid situation where all boosters are down at the same time.
• As Windows device names have limitations, a device used in imaging can't be renamed if the new name does not respect those limitations, and devices not respecting those limitations need to be renamed before being used in imaging

Apple:

• Per-Account-VPN support: it is now possible to associate a Per-App-VPN payload (from same or different fileset) to an "account" payload (Mail, Exchange, CalDav....), which enables corresponding VPN when device contacts corresponding account.
• Profile changes:
  • New "Certificate Revocation" Profile
  • New restrictions:
    • AllowNFC (iOS)
    • AllowAutoUnlock (iOS)
    • allowGameCenterFriendsSharingModification (iOS, macOS)
    • allowUnpairedExternalBootToRecovery (iOS)
    • allowWallpaperModification (macOS)
    • forceOnDeviceOnlyDictation (iOS)
  • New setting "EnforceRoutes" and "ApplicationExceptions" for VPN (and Per-App-VPN) profile
  • Web Content Filter is now available on macOS
  • Single App Mode payload is not restricted to tvOS system applications anymore
• Device Information reports additional information:
  • SupportsiOSAppInstalls (macOS)
  • Security Info fields (macOS)
• Restart MDM macOS has a new setting to notify user instead of rebooting immediately
• DEP: " Auto Advance", and regional options are now available for macOS
• macOS MDM state is now reported into inventory, allowing to detect properly MDM enrollment issues
• Associated domain management:
  • Associated Domain profile has new "Enable Direct Downloads" option
  • App Store and Enterprise applications have new options for Associated Domains