Microsoft today announced that the next release of Windows Intune is available. If you are already running Windows Intune, you don't need to do anything. The new features will automatically show up in your console. Some of the key new features include:

- Software Distribution: Deploy most Microsoft and third-party updates or applications to PCs nearly anywhere over the Internet to Windows Intune managed PCs.

- Remote Tasks: You can now remotely perform the following tasks on Windows Intune managed PCs from the administration console: Full scan, Quick scan, Update Malware Definition, and Restart.

- Read-Only Access: You can now can give select administrators read-only access to the administration console so they can view PC information as needed, but not perform any configuration tasks if you choose to.

- Enhanced Reporting: You can create hardware reports based on new hardware filters for common hardware characteristics. Additionally, you can now create and save report parameters to make it easy to run a report again in the future.

- Alerts & Monitoring: You can now configure alert types to be reported according to a specified threshold, frequency, or percent of computers affected.

In order to try out these new features, sign up for a free 30-day trial for up to 25 PCs.