Exciting Improvements to Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub for Windows
Users and administrators will be excited about the improvements to Intelligent Hub for Windows
A key benefit of Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub is that users are presented with assigned apps that automagically function when clicked. Users don’t know or care what happens in the background, such as the authentication process or whether those apps are local, hosted, or SaaS; they just want fast resource availability and functionality.
Administrators already know that Intelligent Hub for Windows is the heart of centralizing the presentation of user resources, as well as associated functionality, for Windows users. The Workspace ONE engineering team has figuratively applied a defibrillator to the Intelligent Hub for Windows, and the results should pleasantly shock you.
User Interface Performance
From the user perspective, the most notable improvement is the loading time for Intelligent Hub. Users may have been frustrated when delays were experienced and the informational message, “Hang on while we load your workspace,” was presented. Going forward, users typically won’t see that message because loading time is now about 70% faster.
Figure 1: Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub for Windows performance improvement
Intelligent Hub Notifications in Taskbar
Figure 2: New taskbar notification
System and administrator-generated notifications will now appear in the taskbar. For example, if the new multi-user functionality has been implemented and a subsequent user logs in, one or more Intelligent Hub informational notifications will be presented within the taskbar.
Google Conditional Access
Windows devices now support registration with Google BeyondCorp for context-aware access. Device compliance states will be synced with Google to grant user access to Google apps; thus, the device is prevented from unauthorized access based on context-awareness policies. This functionality allows administrators to increase security for user devices where Google integration is in place.
Logging
Logging is now easier for administrators to navigate. In addition to formatting improvements, thread IDs, error levels, and additional errors are now presented. As such, when administrators need to access logs to track down an issue, the details presented should be more helpful. Further, additional logging improvements are planned such that logging will be even more helpful for issue resolution.
Pesky UAC Notifications
Previously, when an application was installed in the user context with administrative privileges and the user was a standard user on the Windows machine, a pesky User Access Control (UAC) message was presented to the user because the user did not have the necessary privileges for app installation and access.
Figure 3: Users will no longer see UAC notifications
Workspace ONE UEM now enables administrative authorization of the Local Security Authority (LSA) for automatic override. As a result, the user is no longer presented with a UAC message, and the app installation occurs without issue.
Software Distribution Failures
When applications are pushed to Windows devices, there is a dependency on a secure URL for download. If some devices were offline for an extended period of time, the security token may have expired, and a software distribution (SFD) failure would occur because the users would not be able to securely access the app. While software distribution failures typically only impacted a small number of devices, it was seemingly an intermittent issue and consequently a frustrating problem.
As part of the associated updates in this Intelligent Hub release, the secure URL is automatically refreshed. As a result, the user can successfully access and download the app at a later time.
Behind the Scenes
In addition to significant improvements within the Workspace ONE testing and development processes, the Workspace ONE engineering team has migrated to WinUI 3 as the underlying framework for Intelligent Hub for Windows. Prior to 2310, the Windows Intelligent Hub leveraged Angular 15 for a hybrid UI experience. Although Angular 15 was suitable for developing applications that required wide accessibility across platforms and devices, it lacked more modern control that enables create rich, performant desktop applications that integrate deeply with the Windows operating system.
While the migration to the WinUI 3 framework took longer than expected, it has laid the groundwork for subsequent exciting enhancements. In addition to the initial advancements discussed herein, further performance and functionality improvements are in the works. For example, the individual tabs, including Favorites and Apps, will be optimized as part of subsequent releases.
Stay tuned for announcements about subsequent enhancements!