Update OS settings (configuration profiles) guide (#37982)

noahtalerman · web-flow · commit f0be639474b9 · 2026-01-27T09:19:19.000-05:00
- Main goal is to clarify "Verifying" v. "Verified" for user-scoped
Windows profiles
- Also reorganize/update the heading to improve the guides flow
- "user-scoped" and "device-scoped" get a hyphen
diff --git a/articles/connect-end-user-to-wifi-with-certificate.md b/articles/connect-end-user-to-wifi-with-certificate.md
@@ -598,7 +598,6 @@ You can add any other options listed under Device/SCEP in the [Microsoft documen
 </Exec>
 ```
 
-> Currently only device scoped SCEP profiles are supported for Windows devices.
 </details>
 
 ## Custom EST (Enrollment over Secure Transport)
@@ -754,9 +753,9 @@ Fleet automatically retries each failed macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Windows certific
 
 ## Advanced
 
-### User scoped certificates
+### User-scoped certificates
 
-You can deploy a user scoped certificate on macOS and Windows hosts using a user scoped configuration profile.
+You can deploy a user-scoped certificate on macOS and Windows hosts using a user-scoped configuration profile.
 
 1. Follow the instructions above to connect Fleet to your certificate authority (CA).
 2. Create a certificate [configuration profile](#example-configuration-profiles). For Windows, replace `./Device` with `./User` in all `<LocURI>` elements. For macOS, set `PayloadScope` to `User`.
diff --git a/articles/custom-os-settings.md b/articles/custom-os-settings.md
@@ -28,11 +28,14 @@ Fleet API: Use the [Add custom OS setting (configuration profile) endpoint](http
 
 ### Device and user scope
 
-Currently, on macOS hosts, Fleet supports enforcing OS settings at the device (device-scoped) and user (user-scoped) levels. User-scoped declaration (DDM) profiles and iOS, iPadOS, and Windows configuration profiles are coming soon.
+Currently, on macOS and Windows hosts, Fleet supports enforcing OS settings at the device (device scoped) and user (user scoped) levels. The iOS, iPadOS, and Android platforms only support device-scoped configuration profiles. User-scoped declaration (DDM) profiles for macOS are coming soon.
 
-If a host is automatically enrolled (via [ADE](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102300)), user-scoped profiles are delivered to the user that was created during first time setup. For hosts that enrolled and turned on MDM manually, user-scoped profiles are delivered to the user that turned on MDM on the **Fleet Desktop > My device** page.
+If a macOS host is automatically enrolled (via [ADE](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102300)), user-scoped profiles are delivered to the user that was created during first time setup. For Macs that enrolled and turned on MDM manually, user-scoped profiles are delivered to the user that turned on MDM on the **Fleet Desktop > My device** page.
 
 How to deliver user-scoped configuration profiles:
+
+#### macOS
+
 1. If you use iMazing Profile Creator, open your configuration profile in iMazing, select the **General** tab and update the **Payoad Scope** to **User**.
 2. If you edit your configuration profiles in a text editor, open the configuraiton profile in your text editor, find or add the `PayloadScope` key, and set the value to `User`. Here's an example `.mobileconfig` snippet:
 
@@ -49,13 +52,19 @@ How to deliver user-scoped configuration profiles:
 </plist>
 ```
 
-#### Upgrading to 4.71.0
+#### Windows
+
+1. Head to the [Windows configuration profiles (CSPs) documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/mdm/policy-configuration-service-provider) to verify that all the settings in your Windows profile support the user scope. For example, the [SCEP setting](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/mdm/clientcertificateinstall-csp#devicescep) supports both the device and user scope.
+2. To make your Windows configuration profiles user scoped, replace `./Device` with `./User` in all `<LocURI>` elements.
+
+#### Upgrading from below 4.71.0
+
+Fleet added support for user-scoped macOS configuration profiles in Fleet 4.71.0. If you're upgrading Fleet from a version below 4.71.0, here's how to prepare your already enrolled hosts for macOS user-scoped configuration profiles:
 
-When upgrading to 4.71.0, here's how to prepare your already enrolled hosts for user-scoped configuration profiles:
 1. If the host automatically enrolled to Fleet (via ADE), you don't need to take action. Fleet added support for the user-scoped configuration profiles on these hosts.
 2. To deliver user-scoped profiles to hosts that manually enrolled and turned on MDM, first turn off MDM and ask end user to [turn on MDM](https://fleetdm.com/guides/mdm-migration#migrate-hosts:~:text=If%20the%20host%20is%20not%20assigned%20to%20Fleet%20in%20ABM%20(manual%20enrollment)%2C%20the%20end%20user%20will%20be%20given%20the%20option%20to%20download%20the%20MDM%20enrollment%20profile%20on%20their%20My%20device%20page.) through the **My device** page.
 
-When upgrading to Fleet 4.71.0, here's how to update configuration profiles that are already installed on hosts so that they're delivered to the user scope:
+Edit user-scoped configuration profiles that are already installed on hosts:
 
 1. Check for profiles with `PayloadScope` set to `User`. Already deployed profiles with `PayloadScope` set to `User` won’t be re-installed on hosts automatically.
 2. To change them to the user-scope, update the `PayloadIdentifier`, re-add the profile to Fleet, and delete the old profile. This will uninstall the device-scope profile and install the profile in the user scope. If you're using [GitOps](https://fleetdm.com/docs/configuration/yaml-files), just update the `PayloadIdentifier` and run GitOps.
@@ -68,23 +77,42 @@ If you want to make sure the profile stays device-scoped, update `PayloadScope`
 
 In the Fleet UI, head to the **Controls > OS settings** tab.
 
-In the top box, with "Verified," "Verifying," "Pending," and "Failed" statuses, click each status to view a list of hosts:
+In the top box, with "Verified," "Verifying," "Pending," and "Failed" statuses, click each status to view a list of hosts.
+
+### Verified
+
+Hosts that applied all OS settings. 
+
+For macOS configuration profiles and device-scoped Windows profiles, Fleet verified by running an osquery query. It can take up to 1 hour ([configurable](https://fleetdm.com/docs/configuration/fleet-server-configuration#osquery-detail-update-interval)) for these profiles to move from "Verifying" to "Verified".
+
+macOS declarations profiles are verified with a [DDM StatusReport](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/statusreport)).
+
+User-scoped Windows profiles are "Verified" after Fleet gets a [200 response](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/oma-dm-protocol-support#syncml-response-status-codes) from the Windows MDM protocol.
+
+iOS and iPadOS hosts are "Verified" after they acknowledge all MDM commands to apply OS settings. Android hosts are "Verified" after Fleet verifies that the settings is applied in the next [status report](https://developers.google.com/android/management/reference/rest/v1/enterprises.devices).
+
+### Verifying
+
+Hosts that acknowledged all MDM commands to apply OS settings. Fleet is verifying. If the profile wasn't delivered, Fleet will redeliver the profile.
+
+For Windows profiles, when Fleet gets a [200 response](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/oma-dm-protocol-support#syncml-response-status-codes) from the Windows MDM protocol, device-scoped profiles are "Verifying" but, currently, user-scoped Windows profiles go straight to "Verified."
 
-* **Verified**: hosts that applied all OS settings. Fleet verified by running an osquery query on Windows and macOS hosts (declarations profiles are verified with a [DDM StatusReport](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/statusreport)). Currently, iOS and iPadOS hosts are "Verified" after they acknowledge all MDM commands to apply OS settings. Android hosts are "Verified" after Fleet verifies that the settings is applied in the next [status report](https://developers.google.com/android/management/reference/rest/v1/enterprises.devices).
+### Pending
 
-* **Verifying**: hosts that acknowledged all MDM commands to apply OS settings. Fleet is verifying. If the profile wasn't delivered, Fleet will redeliver the profile.
+Hosts that are running MDM commands or will run MDM commands to apply OS settings when they come online.
 
-* **Pending**: hosts that are running MDM commands or will run MDM commands to apply OS settings when they come online.
+### Failed
 
-* **Failed**: hosts that failed to apply OS settings. For Windows profiles, status codes are listed in [Microsoft's OMA DM docs](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/oma-dm-protocol-support#syncml-response-status-codes).
+Hosts that failed to apply OS settings. For Windows profiles, status codes are listed in [Microsoft's OMA DM docs](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/oma-dm-protocol-support#syncml-response-status-codes).
 
 In the list of hosts, click on an individual host and click the **OS settings** item to see the status for a specific setting.
 
 Currently, when editing a profile using Fleet's GitOps workflow, it can take 30 seconds for the
 profile's status to update to "Pending."
 
-For Windows configuration profiles with the [Win32 and Desktop Bridge app ADMX
-policies](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/win32-and-centennial-app-policy-configuration), Fleet only verifies that the host returned a success status code in response to the MDM command to install the configuration profile. You can query the registry keys defined by the ADMX policy. For instance, if an ADMX file defines the following policy:
+### Special Windows behavior
+
+For Windows configuration profiles with the [Win32 and Desktop Bridge app ADMX policies](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/win32-and-centennial-app-policy-configuration), Fleet only verifies that the host returned a success status code in response to the MDM command to install the configuration profile. You can query the registry keys defined by the ADMX policy. For instance, if an ADMX file defines the following policy:
 ```
       <policy name="Subteam" class="Machine" displayName="Subteam" key="Software\Policies\employee\Attributes" explainText="Subteam" presentation="String">
          <parentCategory ref="DefaultCategory" />
@@ -102,27 +130,27 @@ SELECT data FROM registry WHERE path = 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\emp
 
 > If your Windows profile fails with the following error: "The MDM protocol returned a success but the result couldn’t be verified by osquery", and the profile includes `[!CDATA []]` sections, [escape the XML](https://www.freeformatter.com/xml-escape.html) instead of using CDATA. For example, `[!CDATA[<enabled/>]]>` should be changed to `&lt;enabled/&gt;`.
 
-### Broken profiles
+### Special Android behvaior
+
+On Android, if some settings from the profile fail (e.g. incompatible device), other settings from the profile will still be applied. Failed settings will be surfaced on **Host > OS settings**.
+Also, some settings from the profile might be overridden by another configuration profile, which means if multiple profiles include the same setting, the profile that is delivered most recently will be applied.
+
+The error message will provide the reason from the Android Management API (AMAPI) for why certain settings are not applied. Possible reasons are listed in the [AMAPI docs](https://developers.google.com/android/management/reference/rest/v1/NonComplianceReason).
+
+## Broken profiles
 
 If one or more labels included in the profile's scope are deleted, the profile will not apply to new hosts that enroll.
 
 On macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Windows, a broken profile will not remove the enforcement of the OS settings applied to existing hosts. To enforce the OS setting on new hosts, delete it and upload it again.
 
 On Android hosts, a broken profile will remove the enforcement of the OS settings for existing hosts. To enforce the OS setting on existing and new hosts, delete it and upload it again.
 
-### Unmanaged profiles (macOS, iOS, and iPadOS)
+## Unmanaged profiles
 
-Profiles installed manually by the end user aren't managed by Fleet. They're not visible and can't be removed from the host via Fleet. Additionally, if a backup is migrated to a new host using [Apple's Migration Assistant](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102613) and it contains configuration profiles, those profiles aren't managed.
+macOS, iOS, and iPadOS profiles installed manually by the end user aren't managed by Fleet. They're not visible and can't be removed from the host via Fleet. Additionally, if a backup is migrated to a new host using [Apple's Migration Assistant](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102613) and it contains configuration profiles, those profiles aren't managed.
 
 To manually remove unmanaged profiles, ask the end user to go to **System Settings > General > Device Management**, select the profile, and select the **- (minus)** button at the bottom of the list.
 
-### Partial failure (Android)
-
-On Android, if some settings from the profile fail (e.g. incompatible device), other settings from the profile will still be applied. Failed settings will be surfaced on **Host > OS settings**.
-Also, some settings from the profile might be overridden by another configuration profile, which means if multiple profiles include the same setting, the profile that is delivered most recently will be applied.
-
-The error message will provide the reason from the Android Management API (AMAPI) for why certain settings are not applied. Possible reasons are listed in the [AMAPI docs](https://developers.google.com/android/management/reference/rest/v1/NonComplianceReason).
-
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 <meta name="authorGitHubUsername" value="noahtalerman">
 <meta name="authorFullName" value="Noah Talerman">
