MBAM 2.0 plus other MDOP updates

The Redmond machine really is in high gear at the moment as lots of other products and solutions start to recieve tweaks and new features, mainly in preperation for Windows 8 and Server 2012.

One set of tools getting some love is the Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP).

Microsoft had already previously announced that MDOP was seeing a new component being added called UE-V which along with App-V makes MDOP a desirable solution to have in any environment looking to have a fantastic dynamic desktop, but today MS announced MBAM will also be getting some new features.

The Microsoft Bitlocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) will be updated to include new options such as:

• Used Space Only Encryption where only the part of the drive containing data will be encrypted instead of the full disk to save time
• Integration with hardware encrypted hard disks
• Complex PIN enforcement
• Self Service Key Recovery (I would prefer to see some SCSM integration here)
• Management of fully FIPS compliant configurations/designs
• Some SC 2012 Configuration Manager integration for reporting

Microsoft have also promised another update to UE-V very soon but so far during my tests I've seen no issues other than some poor documentation around its setup/configuration (hint... watch out for Offline Files or rather the lack of...)

App-V 5 is in Beta with new features such as shared cache which is amazing for VDI infrastructure.

Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) 4.0 SP1 beta is also available with mainly bug fixes and Windows 8/Server 2012 support rather than new features.

DaRT is also getting an update, again mainly to support Windows 8.