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NamingPilot

Device names for Autopilot and the 15-character limit

The 15-character limit, the allowed characters, the %SERIAL% and %RAND% macros, and patterns that fit.

Portrait of Maksymilian Olowski

By Maksymilian Olowski

Microsoft Intune Administrator · Updated · LinkedIn

The rules you cannot bend

Device names are the tightest names in Intune. Whatever pattern you choose has to fit these rules, so start with them.

In an Autopilot deployment profile, a device name template must produce names of 15 characters or less. Names can have letters, numbers and hyphens, and cannot be all numbers. The setting requires the Microsoft Entra join type.

Source: Configure Windows Autopilot profiles, Microsoft Learn.

Two macros are available: %SERIAL% adds the hardware serial number, and %RAND:x% adds a random string of numbers, where x is the number of digits. For hybrid joined devices you can only provide a prefix, in the domain join profile.

Source: Configure Windows Autopilot profiles, Microsoft Learn.

Fifteen characters go quickly

Count before you decide. Every hyphen is a character too.

PatternExampleLength
Scope - Platform - NumberCORP-WIN-000113
Site - Platform - NumberBER-WIN-00111
Scope - NumberKIOSK-000710
Prefix + 8 random digitsCORP-%RAND:8%13

A four-digit number and two hyphens already use six characters. That leaves nine for everything that says what the device is, which is why device names use short codes and nothing else.

Open the device name pattern in the builder

Serial number or running number?

  • %SERIAL% ties the name to the hardware. You can find the device from the sticker on its case. Serial numbers differ in length from one manufacturer to the next, so check that the longest one you buy still fits in 15 characters with your prefix.
  • %RAND:x% always has the length you ask for, but says nothing about the device.
  • A running number (0001, 0002) is easy to read and to say out loud, but someone or something has to hand the numbers out. A naming template cannot count.

What belongs in a device name

Only what stays true for the life of the device. A name that changes when the device moves desk is a name nobody trusts.

  • Good: ownership (CORP, KIOSK), platform, site if devices stay put, a unique number.
  • Risky: the user’s name or department. People move; devices get handed on.
  • Leave out: the model. It is in the inventory, and it uses characters you do not have.

BER-WIN-001

Site - Platform - Number, for devices that stay at one location

Open the site pattern in the builder

Naming the profile itself

The deployment profile needs a name as well, and it is not bound by the 15 characters. Say how the device joins and who drives the setup:

WIN-AP-UserDrivenEntraJoin

Platform - Policy type - Purpose

A tenant can have up to 350 Windows Autopilot deployment profiles.

Source: Configure Windows Autopilot profiles, Microsoft Learn.

More on naming profiles and policies in the Intune naming convention guide.

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