The Microsoft Intune admin center is the single web portal where IT teams enroll devices, deploy apps, enforce compliance policies, and manage endpoint security across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android — all from one console at intune.microsoft.com. Whether you are setting up device management for the first time or hunting for one specific setting, this guide walks through everything you need to access, navigate, and get real value out of the Intune admin center in 2026.
What Is the Intune Admin Portal?
The Intune admin portal is the same tool as the Microsoft Intune admin center — both names refer to the web-based console at intune.microsoft.com that IT administrators use to manage devices, apps, and policies across their organization.
- URL: https://intune.microsoft.com — this is the official Intune admin portal address.
- What you can do: Enroll and manage Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices; deploy applications; enforce compliance policies; and configure security baselines.
- Who needs access: Any IT admin or helpdesk role assigned an Intune license (Intune Plan 1, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, EMS E3/E5, or Microsoft 365 E3/E5).
What Is the Microsoft Intune Admin Center?
The Intune admin center is Microsoft’s cloud-based console for unified endpoint management (UEM). It consolidates device enrollment, app deployment, configuration profiles, compliance policies, conditional access, and endpoint security into a single web interface, replacing the patchwork of separate consoles IT teams used to juggle.
Because it is fully cloud-hosted, there is nothing to install locally. Any administrator with the right permissions can sign in from a browser and manage the organization’s entire device fleet — corporate-owned, personally owned (BYOD), or shared kiosk devices — from anywhere.
For organizations managing more than a handful of endpoints, this centralization is the point: one place to answer “which devices are out of compliance,” “did that app actually install,” and “who has access to what.”
How to Log Into the Intune Admin Center (Intune Admin Login)
To log into the Intune admin center, go to intune.microsoft.com and sign in with a work account that has an Intune role assigned.
- Open your browser and navigate to https://intune.microsoft.com.
- Sign in with your Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) work or school account — personal Microsoft accounts are not supported.
- Accept MFA if your organization requires multi-factor authentication (recommended).
- Verify your role: You must have at least the Intune Service Administrator, Help Desk Operator, or a custom Intune RBAC role assigned. Global Administrators also have full access.
- First-time setup: If prompted, complete any tenant onboarding steps such as selecting your MDM authority (set to Intune).
Intune admin login URL shortcut: Bookmark https://intune.microsoft.com — it redirects correctly regardless of whether you type it as the admin center URL or portal URL.
Navigating the Intune Admin Center
The left-hand navigation pane is organized into the following core sections.
Home
A landing page with shortcuts to the most common administrative tasks: creating a device configuration profile, adding an app, and reviewing recent enrollment activity. Useful as a jumping-off point, but most day-to-day work happens deeper in the console.
Dashboard
A visual snapshot of tenant health — enrollment trends over time, compliance status across your device fleet, app installation success rates, and alerts that need attention. Worth checking weekly to catch drift before it becomes a support ticket.
Devices
The hub for everything enrollment-related: enrollment restrictions, enrollment status pages, corporate device identifiers, configuration profiles, compliance policies, and the full inventory of enrolled devices with their current state. If you are getting started, see our detailed walkthrough on how to enroll a device in Intune.
Apps
App deployment and lifecycle management — adding line-of-business apps, assigning store apps, configuring app protection policies, and monitoring installation status per device and per user. This is also where you retire apps cleanly rather than leaving orphaned installs across the fleet.
Endpoint Security
Security baselines, antivirus and firewall policies, disk encryption (BitLocker and FileVault), endpoint detection and response integration with Microsoft Defender, and conditional access policy management. Security baselines are particularly valuable for smaller teams: they provide Microsoft-recommended configurations without building every policy from scratch.
Reports
Built-in and custom reporting across device compliance, app installation, and operational data. Essential for audits, and the fastest way to spot devices quietly falling out of compliance.
Users and Groups
Manage which users and Entra ID groups your policies and apps target. Nearly everything in Intune — apps, configuration profiles, compliance policies — is assigned to a group rather than to individual devices, which is what makes the platform scale.
Tenant Administration
Tenant-wide settings: role-based access control (RBAC), connector configuration, tenant status, and audit logs. The audit log is often overlooked and is the first place to look when a policy changed and nobody remembers who changed it.
Troubleshooting + Support
Look up a specific user or device to see policy assignment status, enrollment errors, and diagnostic logs. This should be your first stop when something is not deploying as expected — most failures surface a specific error code here that turns a vague problem into a searchable one.
Key Features of the Intune Admin Center
- Device enrollment — Windows Autopilot, Apple Automated Device Enrollment, Android Enterprise, and manual enrollment paths
- Configuration profiles — push settings such as Wi-Fi, VPN, certificates, and device restrictions at scale
- Compliance policies — define minimum OS version, encryption, and security requirements, then feed that status into conditional access
- App deployment — deploy, update, and retire applications across every supported platform
- Conditional access — allow or block access to company resources based on real-time device compliance
- Endpoint security — antivirus, firewall, disk encryption, and EDR policy management in one place
- Reporting and audit logs — compliance, enrollment, and change history for troubleshooting and audits
Intune Admin Center Roles and Permissions
Intune uses role-based access control (RBAC) so you can scope precisely what each administrator can see and do. Built-in roles include Intune Administrator, Application Manager, Endpoint Security Manager, Help Desk Operator, Policy and Profile Manager, Read Only Operator, and School Administrator.
For larger organizations, custom roles can be created under Tenant administration > Roles, scoping permissions down to specific device groups or geographic regions. This matters when regional IT teams should only manage their own devices — scope tags let you enforce that boundary rather than relying on convention.
A practical habit: review role assignments quarterly. Admin access tends to sprawl as people change roles, and RBAC only protects you if it reflects who actually needs access today.
Intune vs. Microsoft Endpoint Manager: What Is the Difference?
This trips up a lot of administrators searching with older terminology. Microsoft Endpoint Manager was an umbrella brand introduced in 2019 to unify Intune (cloud-based management) with Configuration Manager (on-premises management) under one console.
Microsoft has since retired that branding. The portal is now simply the Microsoft Intune admin center, and beginning with Configuration Manager version 2303, Microsoft removed “Endpoint” from that product’s name as well. If you encounter references to the “Endpoint Manager admin center” in older documentation or blog posts, that is the same portal you use today at intune.microsoft.com.
In short: Intune is the cloud-based endpoint management service. Endpoint Manager was a temporary umbrella term that no longer appears in the product.
What Is the Microsoft Endpoint Manager Admin Center?
The Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center was the former name for what is now simply the Microsoft Intune admin center. Microsoft rebranded the product family in 2022, and the old URL (endpoint.microsoft.com) now automatically redirects to intune.microsoft.com.
There is no functional difference — it is the same console, same features, same licensing. If you have a bookmark or documentation that references the Endpoint Manager admin center, it still works.
- Old URL:
https://endpoint.microsoft.com(still resolves via redirect) - Current URL: https://intune.microsoft.com
- Why it changed: Microsoft consolidated the Endpoint Manager brand (which included Intune + Configuration Manager) back into the Intune name to reduce confusion, effective 2022–2023.
What Is Intune Administration?
Intune administration is the practice of managing an organization’s devices, applications, and security policies through the Microsoft Intune admin center at intune.microsoft.com. Intune admins use the portal to enforce compliance, deploy software, and protect corporate data on both corporate-owned and personal (BYOD) devices.
- Device management: Enroll, configure, and remotely wipe Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android devices using MDM and MAM policies.
- Application management: Deploy, update, and retire apps — including Microsoft 365, line-of-business apps, and third-party software — to managed devices and users.
- Security and compliance: Create compliance policies, configure security baselines, integrate with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and enforce Conditional Access rules via Microsoft Entra ID.
Best Practices for Intune Administrators
- Assign to groups, never to individuals. Targeting individual users or devices does not scale and makes your assignment logic impossible to audit six months later.
- Establish a naming convention early. Something like
Win-Compliance-AllUsersoriOS-Config-Sales. Once you pass a dozen policies, unnamed sprawl becomes a real cost. - Pilot before you deploy tenant-wide. Assign new configuration profiles and compliance policies to a test group first. A misconfigured compliance policy combined with conditional access can lock out your entire workforce.
- Use Troubleshooting + support before opening a ticket. Most enrollment and deployment failures expose a specific error code that resolves faster than a support queue.
- Review RBAC quarterly. Confirm admin access still matches current responsibilities.
- Document your baseline. Record why each policy exists. Future you, or your successor, will need the reasoning and not just the setting.
Once your devices are enrolled and compliant, the next step is keeping them patched automatically — see our guide to Windows Autopatch for automating update management across your fleet.
Common Tasks in the Intune Admin Center
Most administrators spend their time on a handful of recurring workflows. Knowing where each one lives saves a surprising amount of clicking.
Enrolling a New Device
Navigate to Devices > Enrollment. The path you choose depends on platform and ownership model. Windows Autopilot handles zero-touch provisioning for corporate Windows devices shipped directly to employees. Apple Automated Device Enrollment covers corporate iOS and macOS hardware purchased through Apple Business Manager. Android Enterprise offers work profile enrollment for BYOD and fully managed enrollment for corporate devices.
Before enrolling at scale, confirm your enrollment restrictions are configured. Restrictions control which platforms and ownership types are permitted, and they are far easier to set correctly up front than to retrofit once devices are already in the tenant.
Deploying an Application
Go to Apps > All apps > Add, then select the app type — Microsoft Store app, line-of-business app, Microsoft 365 apps, or a web link. After uploading or selecting the app, assign it to a group with one of three intents: Required (installs automatically), Available for enrolled devices (appears in Company Portal for users to install), or Uninstall (removes it from targeted devices).
Deployment is asynchronous. Check Apps > Monitor > App install status to confirm the rollout succeeded rather than assuming it did — install failures are common and usually silent from the administrator’s perspective.
Creating a Compliance Policy
Under Devices > Compliance policies > Create policy, select the platform and define your requirements: minimum OS version, encryption required, jailbreak or root detection, password complexity, and Defender threat level. Then decide what happens when a device falls out of compliance — mark it noncompliant immediately, or grant a grace period before enforcement.
Compliance policies only deliver value when paired with conditional access. On their own they report status. Combined with conditional access in Microsoft Entra ID, they actively block noncompliant devices from reaching company data, which is where the security benefit actually materializes.
Building a Configuration Profile
Configuration profiles under Devices > Configuration push actual settings to devices: Wi-Fi credentials, VPN configuration, certificate deployment, browser settings, and device feature restrictions. The settings catalog offers granular, searchable control over thousands of individual options, while templates provide pre-grouped configurations for common scenarios.
Troubleshooting Common Intune Admin Center Issues
A few problems account for the large majority of support time.
A device shows as noncompliant with no obvious reason. Open Troubleshooting + support, search for the device, and review its compliance policy assignments. The most frequent cause is overlapping policies from different groups, where the strictest setting wins and produces unexpected results.
An app will not install. Check Apps > Monitor > App install status for the specific error code. Common culprits include insufficient disk space, a dependency that has not deployed yet, or an app targeting a device group when the app requires a user context.
Enrollment fails. Verify your enrollment restrictions permit that platform and ownership type, confirm you have not hit the device limit for that user, and check that the user holds a valid Intune license. Unlicensed users cannot enroll, and the resulting error message is not always explicit about the cause.
A policy is not applying. Confirm the assignment targets a group the device or user actually belongs to, and remember that policy application is not instantaneous. Devices check in periodically, so allow time or force a sync from the device itself before concluding the policy is broken.
Licensing and Prerequisites
Access to the Intune admin center requires an Intune license, which is included in Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, Enterprise Mobility + Security E3 and E5, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, and standalone Intune plans. Education tenants have equivalent A-series licensing.
Every user whose devices you manage needs a license, not just administrators. This catches organizations out during planning — budget for the full managed user count rather than just the IT team. Before enrolling any devices, confirm Intune is set as your MDM authority, as enrollment will fail otherwise.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Intune admin center URL?
The Intune admin center is located at intune.microsoft.com. Older bookmarks pointing to endpoint.microsoft.com will automatically redirect to the current portal.
How do I log into Intune admin?
Go to intune.microsoft.com and sign in with a work or school account that has been assigned a role granting Intune access — such as Intune Administrator or Global Administrator. Personal Microsoft accounts cannot access the portal.
What is the difference between Intune and Endpoint Manager?
Endpoint Manager was an umbrella brand covering both Intune and Configuration Manager. Microsoft has retired that branding, and the console is now called the Microsoft Intune admin center. They refer to the same portal.
Who can access the Intune admin center?
Any account assigned a role with Intune permissions — Global Administrator, Intune Administrator, Endpoint Security Manager, Help Desk Operator, or a custom RBAC role — can sign in, scoped to whatever that role permits.
Is the Intune admin center free?
Access to the console is included with any license that includes Intune, such as Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5, or Enterprise Mobility + Security. There is no separate charge for the admin center itself.
Can I manage macOS and Linux devices from the Intune admin center?
Yes. Intune supports Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android, with Linux support available for Ubuntu Desktop. Available policy options vary by platform, so verify feature parity before standardizing a workflow across operating systems.