Kevin Malinoski

That’s right—Assigned Access April is taking a quick breather this week. We’ve packed the month with deep dives into cloud-native Intune management for both internal and public-facing kiosks, and we’re building toward a strong grand finale before the month ends.

Before we wrap up the series, I wanted to share something special that happened this week: the Workplace Ninjas user group meetup in Boston, organized by Microsoft MVP Jon Towles—the literal OG of Assigned Access.

If you live anywhere near the Northeast and missed signing up for this free event… rookie mistake. These in-person user groups deliver a level of community, knowledge sharing, and real talk that you simply can’t get on LinkedIn or in a Teams call.

The Day Started Strong with Security and AI Governance

Mona Ghadiri (MVP) kicked things off with a sharp session on the new challenges and common pitfalls of cybersecurity and governance over AI in organizations. Starting the day with security was the perfect way to grab everyone’s attention.

We learned about emerging attack surfaces where traditional vulnerabilities are being exploited through AI—scary stuff. More importantly, Mona gave the room a practical, sensible plan for securing and governing AI in your tenant, moving beyond the lightweight “guardrails” approach often pushed by smaller providers. If you’re adopting a true cloud-native, zero-trust strategy with AI, definitely follow Mona at monaghadiri.com.

Enterprise App Lifecycle Mastery with Tim Mangan

Next up was Tim Mangan (another MVP), who delivered a workshop and practical framework for adopting an enterprise application pipeline. His core message: if you don’t have a standardized process from intake through packaging to runtime validation, you’re introducing serious risk into your environment.

Tim shared actionable steps you can implement tomorrow, along with eye-opening data on hash and digital signature compromise times in a post-quantum world. He also highlighted why MSIX is heading for mainstream adoption. If you manage enterprise applications, bookmark Tim’s blog: https://www.tmurgent.com.

The morning was packed with MVP-level insights, and then it was time for lunch. Jon doesn’t do anything halfway—custom t-shirts, a catered Brazilian steakhouse lunch, and a happy hour to close the day. In terms of creature comforts, this was easily one of the best user group experiences I’ve ever had.

My First Speaking Slot – Assigned Access in the Wild

After lunch, it was my turn for my very first speaking engagement at a user group event. Topic? Assigned Access, of course—with a heavy focus on the common pitfalls of cloud-native kiosk provisioning through Autopilot.

This is still one of my favorite topics. When I started this blog last July, I severely underestimated how unfamiliar most Intune tenants still are with proper kiosk management. One message I keep repeating:

If you are still using Intune Kiosk Templates on Windows 11, you are going to have a really bad time.

My personal highlight of the day came when Jon (the Assigned Access OG himself) pushed back on a few of my suggestions around CSPs and SkipUserESP. Standing on stage in front of a room full of professionals I’d never met—after a midnight drive from Upstate New York with a toddler in tow—was already intense. Hearing the disagreement was slightly jarring at first.

But then it hit me: this is exactly why we do these events.

We got to experience the scientific peer-review process that’s been missing from so many tech conversations. The Assigned Access experience has evolved significantly in the past year, and it’s genuinely confusing a lot of people in the community right now.

We talked through real issues like:

• Unsanctioned system tray icons; like OneDrive
• AppLocker errors caused by Windows 11 preinstalled resources (CrossDeviceResume.exe)
• Third-party apps sneaking into the “Recommended” section of the Start menu

The general consensus from Microsoft docs and many MVP resources still says “NO EXTRA CSPs”—but in practice, that’s becoming increasingly unrealistic. These kinds of honest, in-the-trenches discussions are gold.

Why These Events Matter

This is why user groups like the Workplace Ninjas are so valuable. You hear perspectives from engineers, Microsoft employees, and MVPs all in the same room. It can feel intimidating as a regular engineer standing in front of that crowd, but as Steve Jobs said:

“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use.”

Growing up, my dream was to work at Apple and be part of that culture of limitless human potential. Fast-forward to 2026, and while I’d never turn down a job at Apple, I’m genuinely fulfilled being part of the Microsoft community. The world runs on Microsoft 365 and Windows—and together we can shape the future and make things better.

Final Thoughts + Save the Date

Huge thank you to Jon Towles for the incredible community he’s building. If you’re anywhere near the Northeast, make sure you catch the next Workplace Ninjas event.

And for everyone following along with Assigned Access April—book your ticket to Arizona now. Every Intune MVP you follow will be gathering in the US in January 2027. You won’t want to miss it.

I’ll be back next week with the next (and final) deep-dive post to close out Assigned Access April—focusing on CSPs and complementary policies that actually work with Assigned Access on Windows 11.

In the meantime, enjoy some of the images from the last week in Boston below & until then, safe travels, and I’ll see you in Arizona!