Intune and Entra ID Rollout – License Pathing and Enrollment Troubleshooting

Objective

Establish production-grade device onboarding using Microsoft Entra ID and Intune, ensuring compliance, license alignment.

Activities

  • Device Enrollment
    • Began onboarding two new laptops.
    • Verified automatic MDM enrollment prerequisites; confirmed Premium Entra ID licensing required for auto-enroll.
    • Proceeded with manual enrollment for testing.
  • Windows Edition Upgrade
    • Identified one device running Windows 11 Home.
    • Attempted in-place edition upgrade to Pro using both generic key and purchased license.
    • Encountered error 0xc004f050 → determined cause: edition mismatch / invalid key injection.
    • Documented correct path: deploy Pro image or use digital license tied to MS account before tenant join.
  • Tenant Join / Intune Link
    • Confirmed successful Entra ID join on one device with valid license.
    • Confirmed Intune enrollment with baseline compliance policies active.
    • Confirmed Company Portal access and sync verification.

Findings

  • Automatic MDM enrollment fails without Entra ID Premium P1/P2.
  • Licensing status directly affects policy propagation and compliance visibility.
  • Using consistent Pro image from the start eliminates activation friction.

Lessons / Best Practices

  • Maintain a golden image with Windows 11 Pro pre-licensed and all corporate certificates.

  • Validate hardware hash collection early for Autopilot readiness.

Status: Production pilot live — first endpoint successfully managed through Entra ID + Intune stack.