This week, Microsoft announced that its Surface Tools for IT have been updated to support the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop.

“This update includes new versions of the Surface Enterprise Management Mode (SEMM) tools Surface UEFI Configurator and Surface UEFI Manager, Surface Dock Updater (SDU), Surface Data Eraser (SDE), and Surface Deployment Accelerator (SDA),” Microsoft’s Brandon Records explains.

The Surface Tools for IT are designed to help IT admins create custom OS images for enterprise deployments that mirror those used for non-Surface devices. Note, however, that these tools do not run on Windows 10 S. So those using Surface Laptop in a corporate environment will want to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro (or Enterprise), just like everyone else.

Available tools include:

Surface Deployment Accelerator. This tool helps IT reimage Surface devices using a simple, wizard-based interface.

Surface Data Eraser. This tool boots from a USB stick and lets you securely wipe all of data off of a Surface device.

Surface Dock Updater. This tool allows you to check the firmware status of a Surface Dock and to manually update the Surface Dock firmware. (If you’re on Surface Laptop with Windows 10 S, you can simply get these updates through Windows Update.)

Surface Enterprise Management Mode. This feature lets IT admins create custom UEFI configurations with Surface UEFI Manager or Surface UEFI Configurator and install them on Surface devices.

As usual, you can download the Surface Tools for IT from the Microsoft Download Center.

Tagged with Surface Laptop, Surface Pro (2017)