If you are an admin and organize a lot of devices, it will be hard to manage them if you do not have the right tools. It will be a challenging task to deploy and manage devices in your organization across various locations and versions. To simplify the process and help organizations and admins streamline the deployment and management, Microsoft has released Surface IT Toolkit, a modern desktop application that helps you manage your devices from within a single application.
Microsoft Surface IT Toolkit to manage devices released
The Surface IT Toolkit is developed and released by Microsoft to streamline Surface device management for IT admins in a single application. It is a modern desktop application that comes with essential commercial tools to deploy and manage multiple Surface devices. It provides simplified access to help with the traditional and cloud management of devices. Along with the features to manage devices, Surface IT Toolkit also makes sure you are using the latest versions of all the tools and installers. It uses the MSIX which checks for updates automatically and installs them on your devices.
Some of the important features of the Surface IT Toolkit are:
- Data Eraser: Using NIST (Special Publication 800-88 Revision 1 NVM Express), the Data Eraser feature removes the data on the Surface device. It also comes with an option to create certificates of sanitization for record-keeping and auditing purposes. You can make sure no data remains on Surface devices when you retire the device, or recycle it. You can even verify the disk after wiping it to make sure no data remains on it.
- UEFI Configurator: With UEFI Configurator, admins can apply Surface Enterprise Management Mode (SEMM) UEFI configurations on all supported devices and docks to ensure IT staff enable or disable components on devices at the firmware level. This feature helps enhance the device’s security and prevents unauthorized changes.
- Recovery Tool: When any of the Surface devices are facing issues and need to undergo troubleshooting, the Recovery tool can help reset it back to the factory settings state. This tool helps admins work with existing or newly built images to make sure the device is free of errors.
- Tool Library: The Tool Library contains all the additional tools and installers to deploy to the end users when needed along with their purpose and documentation. Some of the tools included in the Tool Library are the Surface Asset Tag Tool, Surface Diagnostic Toolkit for Business, Surface Brightness Control Tool, etc.
Surface IT Toolkit is available for download from the Microsoft website as an MSIX package.