ScrewDrivers® v7: Spotlight on Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory) Support

ScrewDrivers® v7 will introduce support for Microsoft Entra ID in a Q4 update to bring increased authentication support for cloud desktops and mobile use cases.

What is Microsoft Entra ID?

Azure Active Directory is becoming Microsoft Entra ID Over the past year, Microsoft has been migrating various identity and access management products into the Microsoft Entra branding, and by the end of 2023 will fully re-brand Azure Active Directory as Microsoft Entra ID. All aspects of Azure AD, including capabilities, tiers, pricing, and configuration will remain unchanged except for the rebranding.

ScrewDrivers Printer Assignments

Seamless Print Management with ScrewDrivers and Microsoft Entra ID Active Directory has always been at the core of user and group printer assignments in ScrewDrivers. Similarly, with Entra ID, users, groups, and devices can be listed, allowing for easy definition of dynamic printer assignments for personalized sessions.

Three Types of User Assignments

Traditional Active Directory: Traditional active directory will continue to work for on-prem environments, or cloud environments that include a full domain within the cloud.
Microsoft Entra Domain Services: ScrewDrivers has and will continue to work with Microsoft Entra Domain Services. This service used to be named Azure ADDS, and provides all features of domain services on top of an Entra ID (AAD) identity service. With the domain services in place, applications such as ScrewDrivers have full LDAP support within the tenant, acting similarly to a traditional AD setup.
Support for Native Entra ID / AAD Environments: The new feature is support for Native Entra ID/AAD environments, including AAD-joined desktops. The most common areas this is seen is in AVD or W365 Cloud PCs when administrators do not require the full set of domain services for those desktops. Additionally, an increasing number of desktops and mobile workstations are authenticating as Entra joined desktops which will now also be fully supported in ScrewDrivers.

Key Components to Enhance Compatibility with Entra ID

User Recognition During Installation: During the installation process, ScrewDrivers now identifies users authenticated with Entra ID, automatically adding them to the list of superusers within ScrewDrivers.
Seamless User and Group Management: The ScrewDrivers Administrator seamlessly displays the Entra ID user and group list, much like the current browsing of Active Directory or Entra ID Domain Services. This allows administrators to effortlessly associate printers with Entra ID users or groups by simply dragging and dropping.
Enhanced User Login: For users with Entra ID accounts on Entra-joined (AAD-joined) computers, the user login process has been updated to ensure a smooth and secure authentication experience.

Conclusion

Where the traditional Active Directory has long served as the foundation for on-prem identity management, Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) is becoming increasingly popular for cloud workloads and on-prem mobility scenarios. ScrewDrivers support for native Entra ID identities, in addition to its existing support for Entra Domain Services (AADDS) and Active Directory, broadens its environment compatibility and eases deployment. Alongside support for Azure Databases and AVD, Microsoft Entra ID support continues Tricerat’s commitment to complete printer driver management across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid deployments.