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Manually enrolling a device into FileWave Windows MDM

What

Windows MDM allows you to manually enroll a device based on appropriate Microsoft Entra ID credentials.

When/Why

Enrolling a device in this manner isn't scalable. You would probably never use this method for a production rollout, but it is exceptionally handy to test your initial configuration to ensure you can enroll.  And it doesn't have the AutoPilot complexity added. 

How

Manual Device Enrollment

At this point, the hard part of the setup of the link between FileWave and Microsoft Entra is behind us, and we just simply have to enroll our devices. These steps are similar for both new (not previously enrolled in FileWave) and existing (via fwcld) FileWave clients.

Make sure your client can communicate with your server (you can ping server, correct ports are opened on firewall, etc.)

Also make sure you are not using Windows Home or Starter editions because they do not allow you to bind them to Microsoft Entra in this way.

  1. Navigate to Settings → Accounts → Access work or school

  2. Click on Connect button

  3. In the opened dialog, click on the Join this device to Microsoft Entra ID Active directory.
    EntraID.png

    WindwosAzureDirectory.pngWindwosAzureDirectory.png

  4. From here, just enter your Microsoft Entra credentials (as the user who wants to enroll their device) and follow the steps in the wizard until you're done.

  5. You can verify the details of the MDM enrollment by clicking on the new account and opening Info

If your device is newly enrolled, after a few minutes, you should be able to see the client show up as new on the FileWave Serve. Add it to your server.

Device EnrolledAnywhereWindowsMDM.pngDevice EnrolledAnywhereWindowsMDM.png

Existing FileWave clients will not show up as a new client. They simply are updated to the new version.

You can verify if a device is truly MDM enrolled by checking the enrollment type in device info in Native Admin, as seen below:

Device DetailsWindowsMDM.pngDevice DetailsWindowsMDM.png