Speaking of the word vPro, Xiao Bai is mostly "shaking his head three times", computer old bird I believe I have 100% heard of, but the specific thing, the high probability will say "seems to be related to security" "but it seems to have little to do with us", the other is not clear. I used to think that vPro, an enterprise-oriented commercial technology, was some distance from our daily lives, but then I found that vPro is actually all around us, and it has an increasingly profound impact on each of us!
Let's talk about something a few days ago: I accompanied my relatives to the doctor, and after two hours of waiting, I finally arrived at us, and the doctor frowned, "Yo, why doesn't the (diagnosis and treatment) system respond?" Then he started calling for help. I thought to myself, such a big hospital, IT (administrator) came to the fastest ten or twenty minutes, but also to diagnose the problem and solve, if the hardware problem to re-take the hardware to replace, then you have to wait! At the same time, several waiting patients crowded outside the door also began to grunt, and within a minute, the patients outside the clinic began to mutter, anxious. But in just three or four minutes, the doctor fiddled with the computer again and said, "Now you can use it"...
When I left the clinic, out of sensitivity to IT, I asked the doctor why I recovered, and the doctor said, "Remotely." Later, I found out from my classmates at this hospital that the computer system they used was based on Intel vPro — it turned out to be all around us.
Seemingly simple "remote management" is of great value
The story above touches on an important feature of vPro: remote management!
See this old bird laughing - QQ remote assistance that existed more than ten years ago to understand!
No, no, no! vPro's remote management capabilities are much more powerful than QQ Remote Assistance, not at one level, to be precise.
QQ remote assistance such applications are only based on the Windows system KVM (keyboard screen mouse) takeover, it can only be under the premise of normal operating system, after a single authorization from the operator, take over the computer KVM to solve the soft problem.
The remote management of vPro is a super powerful and perfect system, with "active management mode" and "response management mode", of which the "active management mode" can manage the device from the remote end. Whether it is installing software or patching for the device, or erasing the disk, reimating the disk, restarting the remote device, etc., it can be directly connected to the remote computer through the management end, even if the remote computer is turned off (as long as the power is plugged in and the network is smooth)! And the remote computer has an intranet with a firewall on the extranet! And administrators don't have to be in a fixed place, anywhere in the world with any networked computer can solve! Even with the blue screen of the terminal computer, IT can remotely view the problem code and solve it to a certain extent!
However, this sounds like something tall, and when you think about it carefully, it seems a bit vain! Isn't IT on-site maintenance more intuitive?
·That's true! But in many cases, it is "too expensive" for IT to go directly to the terminal computer for maintenance, or it is completely impossible!
● In the previous hospital case, IT will take more time to go to the scene, and too many patients can't wait! Moreover, a large hospital, outpatient clinics, wards, operating rooms, pharmacies, testing centers, offices... Thousands of computers have to be "run to repair", so how many IT staff must be deployed? In addition, wards, operating rooms and other places are not casual, involving epidemic prevention and safety issues! IT has to get in, and the cost and cost are too great to be impossible – then it has to be remote!
There are also a large number of industries, such as nuclear power plants, many computers in high-risk areas, people can not enter casually. For example, in oil and mines, there are both problems of scattered terminal computers and security problems - is it necessary for IT to go deep into the bottom of the mine to solve the problem? For example, wind power plants span tens of kilometers of area, and IT cannot wade through mountains and waters every time to the terminal to deal with problems.
The above industry cases sound "somewhat extreme", so let's point "not extreme":
● Digital signage of the subway system (such as billboards, vehicle information displays, etc.), the number is huge and distributed throughout the city, maintenance and content update is it necessary to run throughout the city?
In addition, let's not talk about large companies with tens of thousands of employees and multinational companies on the top, let's take a look at the most common situation: small and medium-sized enterprises with dozens of hundreds of people, because of the epidemic, employees work from home abound. Can be in the home office also need IT services and technical support, computer hardware to buy reliable, may not be easy to break, but how to do soft problems? The epidemic is blocked, and IT can't get through it!
All of the above must be managed and maintained remotely, and Intel vPro is the "foundation" for doing this! Through the remote management of vPro, not only can you greatly improve efficiency, huge savings (for example, a few IT staff, you can manage and maintain hundreds of computers of various forms located in different regions), and even turn a lot of "impossible" into "possible".
There are also security stories
Speaking of "computer security", the old bird laughed, so many people pretended to be not so safe "security butlers", what is the real security problem?
But "computer security" is really a serious and realistic topic!
Some Internet cafes find that their computers have suddenly implanted "mining software" to help people "mine" - but it consumes their own electricity and hardware life!
More hard "mining" buddies got up early one day to find that the bad guys were eyeing, the computer was locked, and they asked to pay Bitcoin to unlock it!
Large commercial companies are always troubled by constantly being subjected to malicious cyber attacks and ransomware!
Even the computers of ordinary "small bosses" have encountered cases of illegal intrusion that lead to the leakage of trade secrets and even the loss of funds.
Computers that support vPro can put an end to these things. What does it have to do? Simply put, it has a set of "combination punches" based on the underlying hardware and software to maximize the security of the computer.
We know that the average reader doesn't understand so much technology either, just remember "vPro is really great at security"! If you have to use an analogy, you can recall:
When the operating system developed to Win10, the "virus software" thing suddenly decreased in a large area; now with Win11, most users no longer need to install additional antivirus software. On the one hand, this is because Windows comes with anti-virus and network protection software, and on the other hand, because its underlying mechanism eliminates the operation of general virus software. The security protection level of Intel vPro is implemented from the lower hardware level, which can eliminate and block the operation of malware and code to the greatest extent at multiple levels such as BIOS/firmware, memory, and operating system!
So, in essence, what is vPro?
In simple terms, vPro is composed of Core processors (i5 and above specifications, including desktop and notebook processors) supporting vPro + specific chipset + specific firmware. Take the notebook as an example, its shape and performance, daily use, and ordinary home or commercial books are no different, but its motherboard and home books are different, and the BIOS is also different - you can understand that "more functions are hidden". The easiest way to identify it is to see if there is a "vPro" sticker on the C side of its fuselage.
After entering 2022, in the upcoming 12th generation Core processor-based Intel vPro model, vPro is divided into vPro Enterprise (Enterprise Edition) and vPro Essentials (Basic Edition), the former has more functions, such as what we just said at the Windows operating system level to take over the mouse and keyboard and screen image. On the label, only the word vPro is the Enterprise edition, the lower part has the word Essentials is the basic version, and there is a vPro sticker with the word An Evo Design in the lower part, indicating that the machine is both a vPro model and has passed the Intel Evo certification, which is a business notebook with a better experience in all aspects!
Which 12th Generation Core processors support vPro?
This table clearly lists the support of vPro for 12th generation Core processors, and you will find that some common processors in the home book, such as i5 12500H and i7 12700H, support vPro Essentials. Models that are "one size higher" than these processors support vPro Enterprise, such as the i5 12600H and i7 12800H.
But beware: it's not a computer that supports vPro processors, it's a vPro computer! As we mentioned earlier, vPro is a combination of a specific processor + a specific motherboard + a specific firmware, and it must be activated and enabled accordingly to use the vPro platform-based related functions. A computer, when it comes down from the production line, has a qualitative division of "is a vPro computer" and "not a vPro computer"! And in theory, you can't turn a home book or a normal commercial computer into a vPro computer through a "follow-up upgrade" - on the contrary, I guess Intel does not support you to do this ^__#!
Where to buy a vPro computer?
Usually, vPro computers cannot be bought in JD Tmall Taobao and general computer city retail stores (but now there are also individual channel providers selling on these platforms)!
Because for a long time, there are such remote management needs are large enterprises and production units, or users in specific industries and fields, in addition to remote management and security needs, there are many specific industry software to deploy, as well as for different groups of people to set different permissions, so the computer is highly customized (also includes the form of hardware products), therefore, vPro models are carried out in the "commercial procurement" model, and this model has continued for many years - To put it simply: you have to contact PC manufacturers (such as Lenovo Dell HP) or their business computer dealers and tell them that you want to buy a vPro computer, so as to customize the purchase.
(Frankly, though, I think Intel should simplify this procurement model, the global office form has changed dramatically in the past two years, even without the epidemic, a large number of employees of small and medium-sized companies Work at Home/Work from Home, not even in a state and a province, vPro computers have a great "market sinking" opportunity.) ）
Why did I buy a vPro computer and use it? Do you need to pay extra?
Let's talk about money first, everyone cares! According to the foregoing, vPro is a commercial platform technology based on the hardware level, that is, the equipment is already a vPro series-enabled model from the beginning of the procurement, and there is no additional cost.
To use, you need to do some BIOS settings on the "managed computer" side, such as enabling the active management function of vPro and setting up the network (such as setting a fixed IP on the intranet, and setting up DHCP dynamic address assignment on the extranet), which is not too complicated, if it will not be handed over to the dealer or PC vendor to deal with!
▲Some BIOS settings on the managed side. Initially, to activate the vPro function, you need to press the Crtl+P key combination in the BIOS to bring up the corresponding interface - remember this shortcut key, when applying for AN administrator, you can say crtl+P This key combination is the clearance password ^__#.
The management side does not require a vPro computer, any computer that can access the Internet can be managed by installing the management terminal software. For example, a thing called an EMA (Endpoint Management Assistant) can remotely manage and solve the problem of terminal computers in the form of a web page. The list of managed machines is shown in the image above.
This diagram shows the desktop of the remote computer connected through the EMA and restarting the remote computer into the BIOS interface. Of course, you can also set the remote computer to turn on and off at regular intervals, restart various down devices, or repair soft faults and software faults through remote desktop diagnosis.
Of course, EMA is only one of the terminal management interfaces, without this management interface, the same function can be achieved in other forms.
~~Happy small talk~~
Uncle Niu knows that after I told the above stories, everyone still has a lot of questions. Don't worry, first look at the small talk between "beginner rookie" Uncle Niu and Intel engineers, maybe there is the answer you want.
Niu: The computers are turned off, why can I still manage them? Is there anything "unseemly" in this computer^__#?
Worker: Actually, the hardware is there, and there is nothing hidden. You can understand that vPro is "another set of systems that are independent of the foreground operating system, but they share hardware resources such as processors and memory". When the vPro terminal computer (managed end) is closed, it only closes the operating system (such as Windows) in the foreground, but in fact, this set of hardware is still running another set of low-level "small systems" (this is the reason why we emphasized the remote management of vPro is to be plugged in and networked), and the management end of the underlying small system is set before the use of network information, you can understand that "there is a set of networked small computers are still running", so you can implement a certain management of this computer.
Niu: As mentioned earlier, restart the down computer, set the timing to start and shut down, is a person will, what do you want vPro to do?
Gong: These seemingly simple operations can actually solve big problems in real applications! For example, digital signage (various information signs on the road, billboards and vehicle information signs on the station, billboards in buildings, various electronic bulletin boards, etc.) are down, it is impossible for IT to run to the scene one by one, most of the time, through remote restart can be done! In a worse case, the manager can also remotely initialize the device and reload the contents.
The timer switch sounds like a very simple operation, but this can save a lot of power for many remote devices, and can also extend the life of the computer, which is a significant value!
Niu: For example, if I want to deploy or upgrade the company's new software to 100 computers in different places, can vPro handle it?
Worker: vPro actually plays the role of "opening up the channel", or "building a bridge", so that the computers in various parts of the network can be quickly and remotely managed and maintained. If it is based on Windows-level application management, it can be done with other management software (there are many such software), which is why vPro has a large number of industry partners.
Niu: Need additional management software to assist? Didn't there be a quick deployment when there was no vPro before? For example, Internet cafes, such as corporate networks.
Gong: In fact, you also said that in the past, these applications were conditional, mostly local area networks. VPro is cross-network and cross-platform (Linux systems, Chrome systems can also be used). In addition, many times you have to use vPro - such as this application deployment, it is difficult to ask everyone to turn on the computer online at the same time, especially when it is cross-regional and cross-time zone; even if everyone is turned on during the day, your deployment and upgrade will delay the work time. With vPro, you can wake up the computer when you are not using the computer or even when you shut it down, and then through the cooperation of other software, quietly dry it, and then shut down! It doesn't delay users' time at all, and they don't have to worry about anything.
Niu: Anyway, it doesn't feel like vPro is as tall as I thought! Are there any cool features that come out and take two steps?
Gong: Haha, many people think that remote management is doing some tall things, such as clicking a few mouse buttons, and brushing gigabytes of data to hundreds of computers thousands of kilometers away. But the actual IT management is very detailed and specific, sometimes even very awkward. For example, many foreign users do not know how to properly shut down the computer, thinking that pressing the power button should be OK; some users will not start the task manager and device manager; some users will only say that the computer is slow, but can not say any reason. And with some simple management features of vPro, you can help these users solve problems – and thus help businesses solve big problems.
Cool features are also available, such as remote platform wipe. Many north American companies have leased computers or signed a contract with a computer brand to replace them every two years and three years, and the old computers will be recycled in batches when they are replaced. But when recycling, customers naturally don't want to keep any historical data on it. If you let the company's IT go to a computer to reset, it is inefficient and not necessarily successful. And if it's two years of SSD hard drive vPro computer, we can have a command on the management side past, a few seconds, go you - just give a complete initialization ^__^!
Niu: Wow, it's really cool! Thanks to the Intel engineers for telling me so many interesting things about vPro! I'm thrilled that there are 200 more questions to ask you!
WORKER: Ah this.........
Niu: Huh? Why is there a red and blue bar flashing on my computer screen? yes! Why does it shut down automatically!? feed! feed??
Guys, it seems that today I can only talk about it here ~ ~ ^ ___^