What's New in K12Panel: A Big Update Worth Getting Excited About

We've been busy. If you've logged into K12Panel today, you may have already noticed some of the changes. But there's a lot packed into this update, and some of it is easy to miss if you aren't looking for it. So let's walk through everything that's new and why it matters for you and your team.

Natural Language Search: Find Anything, Just by Asking

This one is our favorite, and we think it's going to change the way you work in K12Panel on a daily basis.

Natural Language Search lets you find assets using plain English instead of stacking filters and dropdowns. Instead of figuring out which combination of criteria gets you to the right result, you just... describe what you want.

"Chromebooks with less than 4GB of RAM not seen in the last 30 days."

"Dell laptops checked out at Lincoln Elementary."

"Windows 10 devices with more than 256GB of storage."

That's it. Type it in, press Enter, and K12Panel figures out the rest. A blue bar below the search box shows you exactly how the system interpreted your query, so you always know what you're looking at.

Natural Language Search is available on both the Assets screen and the new Cross Org Search screen (more on that in a moment). You'll see the Natural Language Search tab right next to the Quick Search tab in the search bar.

For tips on getting the best results and to understand how your data is handled, check out the full Natural Language Search documentation.

See What PCs are "On" via Real-Time Windows Client Connections

The K12Panel Agent running on your Windows PCs has gotten a significant upgrade (in agent version 0.4.3). Agents now keep a persistent connection open to the K12Panel cloud console, and this changes a lot.

First, you can now see at a glance which PCs are online and which are offline, in real time. No more guessing whether a device is just slow to check in or actually unreachable.

Second, when you need to run a quick command against a PC, it happens nearly instantly. No waiting for the next check-in window. The connection is already there and ready to go.

If you manage a large fleet, this is a big deal. You now have a live view of your environment rather than a snapshot.

To take full advantage this feature, make sure to enable the "ON" column in assets:

Budget Reporting Improvements

Budget conversations with administration just got a little easier. Budget reports in K12Panel now include additional information, giving you more to work with when you're sitting across the table trying to make the case for your next technology investment.

We know those conversations can be tough. The more data you can put in front of decision-makers, the better. Pull your budget report and take a look at what's new.

Cross Org Search: Search Across All Your Organizations at Once

If you're an administrator in more than one K12Panel organization, you know how tedious it can be to search one org, switch, and repeat. Cross Org Search puts an end to that.

From a single screen, you can search across all of your organizations at the same time. A dedicated Organization column in the results tells you exactly which org each asset belongs to. Click any asset and K12Panel takes you straight to its detail page, automatically switching your active org to match.

You can narrow your search to specific orgs by unchecking the ones you want to exclude, and Cross Org Search supports both Quick Search and AI Search, so all of the natural language magic applies here too.

Cross Org Search is available in the left navigation menu under the globe icon. You'll only see it if you're an Admin or higher in two or more active organizations. Learn more in the Cross Org Search documentation.

Faster Connections After Reimaging

This one may sound small, but anyone who has spent time standing next to a cart full of freshly reimaged laptops waiting for them to show up in Panel will appreciate it.

After being reimaged, PCs now connect to the K12Panel cloud console much faster once they establish network connectivity. In the past, you might have needed to wait a while or even reboot to get a freshly reimaged PC to check in. That wait is gone. As soon as the PC gets network, it's in Panel.

New ReimageAny Base Image and MakeStick Process

Speaking of reimaging: there's a new ReimageAny base image available, and the MakeStick process has been updated to go along with it.

Our recommendation is to rebuild your ReimageAny USB drives from the ground up, including creating a fresh RUFUS drive, to take full advantage of everything in this update. If you're still using older sticks, you won't get the full benefit of the faster connection speeds mentioned above. It's worth the time to start fresh.

Reporting, Performance, and a Whole Lot of Little Things

This update includes a long list of smaller improvements that don't fit neatly into a single headline, but collectively make K12Panel noticeably better to use.

Take a look at the People screen and you'll find new information displayed there. Head into Settings and pull a Full Export to see how much additional data is now available in that output. And throughout the app, there are UI improvements that make things cleaner, faster, and easier to navigate.

We'll be honest: there are too many small changes to list them all. The best way to find them is to just spend some time in the app. We think you'll notice the difference.

As always, thank you for being part of the K12Panel community. This update reflects a lot of feedback we've received from administrators just like you, and there's plenty more in the pipeline. If you have questions about any of these features, the K12Panel Knowledge Base is a great place to start.