What Microsoft Intune Actually Does, Explained Simply
A plain explanation of what it manages, and where it stops
By Shehryar Hassan, Microsoft 365 & Azure Consultant
Someone joins the company, gets handed a new laptop, and by the time they've had coffee it already has the right apps, the right security settings, and access to the right files. If your company runs Microsoft 365, Intune is usually the thing that made that happen, and a lot of people who use it every day couldn't tell you exactly what it does.
Intune is Microsoft's device and app management tool. It lives in the Microsoft Intune admin center (it used to be called Endpoint Manager) and it handles laptops, phones, and tablets, whether the company owns them outright or an employee is using their own.
What it actually controls
Intune pushes out configuration profiles, so you can require a PIN or biometric lock, turn on BitLocker encryption, or block a device from reaching email if it doesn't meet your rules. It also installs and updates apps, Office, line of business apps, anything you package for it, without someone from IT physically touching the machine. And it can wipe just the work data off a personal phone if someone leaves the company, without touching their photos or personal apps.
For company-owned Windows laptops, Intune usually works alongside Windows Autopilot, so a new machine can ship straight to someone's house, and the moment they sign in with their work account, Intune finishes the rest of the setup on its own.
Where it overlaps with Entra ID
People mix up Intune and Entra ID a lot, because the two work so closely together. Entra ID decides who someone is and whether they're allowed to sign in at all. Intune decides what happens to the device once they're in, whether it's compliant, what's installed on it, what's blocked. A Conditional Access policy in Entra ID can actually require an Intune compliance check before letting someone reach email, which is where the two really connect.
Should you be using it
If you're managing more than a handful of devices by hand today, reinstalling apps after a wipe, chasing people down to update Windows, resetting BitLocker keys one at a time, Intune replaces most of that manual work. It's included in most Microsoft 365 Business Premium and E3/E5 plans, so if you're already paying for one of those, you likely have access to it and just haven't turned it on yet.
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