Is there really an advantage for using Autopilot as opposed to a company image to deploy laptops
Question
Hello All – Is there really an advantage for using Autopilot (as opposed to a company image) to deploy laptops if we have all employees report to the corporate office to onboard anyway. Meaning we do not ship the laptops .
Answers ( 4 )
Hi All,
That’s a great and very practical question. The short answer is yes, there can still be advantages to using Autopilot, even if all employees report onsite for device onboarding, but it depends on your organization’s goals and IT strategy.
In the Hybrid Approach, Many organizations start onsite with imaging, then adopt Autopilot for lifecycle events (e.g., reset/reassign, or break/fix scenarios), gradually moving to modern provisioning. This avoids a full rip-and-replace.
To conclude, if your long-term vision involves modern management (Intune, cloud-first, zero trust), Autopilot is a better investment, even if people are onboarding onsite today. But if you’re operating just fine with traditional imaging and have no plans for remote provisioning or cloud management, it may not be worth the operational shift yet.
Replied by David Olvera
Yep, just set it one time and forget it; you can reset the computer through the Intune console.
Replied by Jimi McNear Jr.
Yes, I feel it streamlines things.
For more details Step-by-Step Guide Windows Autopilot Process with Intune-https://www.anoopcnair.com/guide-windows-autopilot-process/
Replied by JoLester Arcala
you got a line of sight to the domain controllers
Replied by Andy Blanton
We use hybrid and love Autopilot. Yes, it’s not ideal, but it still works well and allows my service desk to fire machines out without hardly thinking about it.
Replied by Dan Stradling
If you rely on on-prem infrastructure, you don’t need to be hybrid!
Replied by Kenneth Cutt
The limitation of Autopilot is no task sequence. You can’t order the sequence of app installs, but if it’s simple, the desktop should not matter also, slower deployment of apps to the desktop I found with a native intune enrolment, i.e. not joined to the domain
Replied by Papa Kash
Autopilot harnesses the cloud technologies as compared to traditional imaging
Replied by Mike Leach
Yes. For one, if you need to reset it, you can do it from anywhere. There’s no need to connect to a DP to download an image. It’s also easier and quicker to move it to another user.
Replied by Peter Cashen
Modernise! Move away from Hybrjd; your life will be so much easier!