Endpoint Services, MECM, Identify Windows Endpoints by Operating System

Overview

This article describes methods of identifying Windows endpoints by Operating System using MECM.

Systems

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (MECM), formerly SCCM

Intended Audience

University of Illinois IT Pros leveraging MECM, hosted by Technology Services' Endpoint Services team

General Information

There are several ways to identify MECM-managed endpoints that are running a specific Operating System. EPS recommends the following

Device Collection

Device collections can be configured to dynamically populate based on a query of managed endpoints within a limiting collection. One of the many criteria that can be queried is an endpoint's operating system. For example, to create a collection for Windows 7 endpoints:
  • Within your unit's node, create a new device collection.

  • Select the desired limiting collection.
    • The limiting collection sets the scope of PCs for MECM to search.

  • Navigate to ‘Membership Rules’ --> Add Rule --> Query Rule.

  • Select ‘Edit Query Statement’.

  • Select 'Show Query Language' and paste in the following:
    • select SMS_R_System.ResourceId, SMS_R_System.ResourceType, SMS_R_System.Name, SMS_R_System.SMSUniqueIdentifier, SMS_R_System.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup, SMS_R_System.Client, SMS_R_System.OperatingSystemNameandVersion, SMS_R_System.Build from  SMS_R_System where SMS_R_System.OperatingSystemNameandVersion like "%Workstation%" and SMS_R_System.Build like "6.1%"

  • Select ‘Show Query Design’.

  • Select the Criteria tab to verify the query is correct.

  • Click OK, then complete the wizard.
 Important - When creating a collection, do not check the "Use incremental updates for this collection" box. Collections will update regularly, and can also be manually updated by right-clicking and selecting "Update Membership".
 

The newly created collection will soon populate with Windows 7 endpoints. This can be confirmed via the "Operating System" and "Build" columns within the device collection view. 

This collection can now be used to monitor the number of Windows 7 endpoints in your environment, and to deploy task sequences to upgrade these endpoints to Windows 10 if desired.

Note that the above query can be modified to meet other criteria. See the table  (have to log in) at the bottom of this article for other common OS build numbers.

Query

Queries can also be used to identify endpoints that meet specific criteria, and return attributes that are not included in the standard collection view. EPS has provided a query for identifying Windows 7 endpoints that can be run against a collection, under "\Monitoring\Overview\Queries\Windows 7 Check".

This query may also be copied and modified to include additional criteria, and/or return additional attributes, via "Edit Query Statement" in the query's properties. Attributes can be edited under the "General" tab, and criteria under "Criteria".

Query results can be selected and copied into an external application such as Excel, but are intended to provide a quick in-console summation of results. See this article for more information.
Reports can be run on-demand or subscribed to on a schedule. They are a useful means of obtaining data external to the MECM console. Report data may be exported to the following formats:
  • XML
  • CSV
  • PDF
  • MHTML
  • Excel
  • TIFF
  • Word
Two reports that can be used to identify endpoints by Operating System within a collection, under "\Monitoring\Overview\Reporting\Reports\Useful Reports, are":

Count devices in collection by OS version: Provides a tally of endpoints by discovered OS major and minor versions. Each may be drilled down into to provide more detailed information about the endpoints themselves.

Devices with a specific OS version by collection: Provides information on endpoints that match a specified OS version within a designated collection.  For example, to identify endpoints with Windows 7, enter "6.1%" into the "version (% as a wildcard)" field. Other Operating System version numbers can be found in the tableat the end of this article. Note that as build numbers share commonalities across Operating Systems (Server, Embedded, etc), the resultant report may need to be filtered to achieve desirable results.

Reports may be run from within the console, or via website. To subscribe to a report from the MECM Console:
  1. Right-click the desired report and select "Create subscription".

  2. Select a delivery method from the "Report delivered by:" drop-down.

  3. Fill in the required fields, and any additional fields as desired.

  4. Select whether to include a link to the report, and/or the report itself from the respective check-boxes.

  5. Select the desired report format from the "Render Format:" drop-down.

  6. Click "Next", and configure the schedule as desired.

  7. Click "Next", and configure the report criteria as prompted.

  8. Complete the wizard.
Active subscriptions can be managed under "\Monitoring\Overview\Reporting\Subscriptions".

Windows Workstation Operating Systems and Version Numbers

The values in the second column of this table can be substituted into the "Build" and "Version" fields of the Device Collection and Query examples, respectively, to return endpoints with the OS of the first column.

 Operating System Build/Version Number (with Wildcards) End of Life
 Windows 7 6.1% January 14, 2020
 Windows 8 6.2% January 10, 2023
 Windows 8.1 6.3.9% January 10, 2023
.Windows 10 1507 10.0.10240% May 9, 2017
 Windows 10 1511 10.0.10586% October 10, 2017
 Windows 10 1607 10.0.14393% April 9, 2019
 Windows 10 1703 10.0.15063% October 8, 2019
 Windows 10 1709 10.0.16299% October 20, 2020
 Windows 10 1803 10.0.17134% November 10, 2020
 Windows 10 1809 10.0.17763% May 11, 2021
 Windows 10 1903 10.0.18362% December 8, 2020
 Windows 10 1909 10.0.18363% May 10, 2022
 Windows 10 2004 10.0.19041% December 14, 2021
 Windows 10 20H2 10.0.19042% May 9, 2023
 Windows 10 21H1 10.0.19043% December 13, 2022

Support

Contact the EPS team