Windows Autopilot
Device enrollment

Remove a Windows Autopilot device association

In brief

The new article explains how to remove pre-associated devices from Intune and how to clear Device Link UEFI variables before deleting associated devices from Intune.

What Intune admins need to know

Administrators decommissioning or transferring devices can use the documented process to remove tenant affinity. Associated devices must be unenrolled from MDM and have their UEFI association cleared before deletion.

This summary was assembled from the tracked documentation change. Verify important details in the full Microsoft Learn article.

Documentation change

The comparison below shows only the changed extract. Use the full-page view for complete context.

new file mode 100644

title: Remove a Windows Autopilot device association description: Remove a Windows Autopilot device association by deleting the device from the Device association list in Intune or by clearing the Device Link UEFI variables on the device with sample PowerShell commands. ms.date: 08/07/2026 ms.topic: how-to appliesto: - ✅ Windows 11

Remove association from a device

When a device permanently leaves your organization—for example, when it's decommissioned or transferred to another organization—remove its Windows Autopilot device association so the device is no longer tied to your tenant. For an associated device, removal clears the trusted tenant affiliation from the device's UEFI storage. How you remove the association depends on whether the device has completed association in the out-of-box experience (OOBE).

Remove device in a pre-associated state

If the device hasn't completed association in OOBE yet (its state is Pre-associated), delete it directly from the device list:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center.
  2. Go to Devices > Enrollment > Device association > Devices.
  3. Select the device, and then select Delete.

The device is removed from the list immediately.

Remove device in an associated state

If the device already completed association (its state is Associated), the tenant affinity is stored in the device's UEFI firmware. Clear the association information on the device first, and then delete the device from Intune.

Before clearing the association, make sure the device is no longer enrolled with its mobile device management (MDM) provider as part of your decommissioning process. If the device remains enrolled, the MDM provider attempts to re-associate it on its next check-in.

The association is stored in Device Link UEFI variables, which bind the device to your tenant.

Read and clear these variables with the UEFI PowerShell module. The following sections show sample commands that you can run interactively or adapt into your own removal script. Run them from an elevated Windows PowerShell prompt on the device.

Prerequisites

Install the UEFI module from the PowerShell Gallery (first run only):

Install-Module UEFI -Force

Define the namespace and variable names for the Device Link variables:

# Device Link (tenant association)
$deviceLinkNamespace = "{B3DE75DA-819C-4FD5-9F01-C3D49E8CBBD7}"
$deviceLinkVariables = "DeviceLinkId", "DeviceLinkBlob", "DeviceLinkUtc"

Query the current association

Before you clear anything, confirm which variables are set on the device. Querying doesn't require an elevated session:

Write-Host "Device Link:"
foreach ($name in $deviceLinkVariables) {
    Get-UEFIVariable -Namespace $deviceLinkNamespace -VariableName $name -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}

Clear the Device Link variables

Clearing the Device Link variables removes the tenant association:

foreach ($name in $deviceLinkVariables) {
    Set-UEFIVariable -Namespace $deviceLinkNamespace -VariableName $name -Value $null
}

Delete the device from Intune

After you clear the association information on the device, remove the device record from Intune:

  1. In the Microsoft Intune admin center, go to Devices > Enrollment > Device association > Devices.
  2. Select the device. The Association state changes to Pending removal.
  3. Select Delete to remove the device from the list.

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