How to manage private applications in Microsoft Intune?
We get this question a lot. First, it could be that people have a different understanding of what are private apps or what are public apps. Private applications are applications: where the sources can’t be downloaded from the internet without providing personal information. that require a license key or license file. Private applications are not monitored for new versions. Note: It’s the customer or partner’s responsibility to provide Scappman any resources for the initial packaging or any update afterwards together with a procedure on how to install the application. Scappman can package these applications, but these are billable. Prices are listed on the platform. Public applications: Public applications are applications where Scappman has access to the sources on the website of the vendor. Public applications are monitored for new versions and are updated by Scappman on the platform. Note: Public applications that do not support silent installs can only be requested as a private application. Scappman will package these applications for free for subscribed customers. Private application management in Microsoft Intune Prepare the application installation file for upload Before you add a private app to Microsoft Intune to be able to manage it, you must use Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool in order to prepare the app for upload. The tool wraps the application installation file into the .intunewin format. Also, it detects some of the parameters that Intune requires to determine the application installation state. After that, your application is ready to be uploaded to Intune. Let’s use the app <yourprivateapp> as an example. Download Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool from GitHub . The .zip file contains IntuneWinAppUtil.exe, Microsoft License Terms, Read me file and Release notes. Use the latest version of the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool otherwise, you’ll see a warning that says the app was packaged using an older version of the tool. Create a folder that contains the private application installation files Create an installation file yourprivateapp.cmd that contains the installation command and put the file in the directory with other installation files. Now open a Command Prompt and go to the location of IntuneWinAppUtil.exe: cd/<name of the folder> Run IntuneWinAppUtil.exe and provide the requested information: Source folder Setup file Output folder 6. Once the installation file is converted, you’ll see the message Done!!! Now the private application is ready to be uploaded to Microsoft Intune. Add a private app to Intune Sign in to the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center On the pane go to Apps -> All apps -> Add In Select app type menu choose Windows app (Win32) In the Add App menu you have to select the app package – the file that we created – yourprivateapp.intunewin in click OK In the App information menu add the details for your private application: Name Description Publisher Category Show this as a featured app in the Company portal Information URL Privacy URL Developer Owner Notes Logo 6. In the Program tab you can configure the application installation process using commands, install and device restart behavior. Install command – normally, it’s filled in automatically. If it’s not the case – use yourprivateapp.cmd Uninstall command – msiexec /x “{12345A67-89B0-1234-5678-000001000000}” Device restart behavior – here you can select one of 4 options: Determine behavior based on return codes No specific action: Choose this option to suppress device restarts during the app installation of MSI-based apps. This is preferred if you don’t want to reboot the device after the app installation App install may force a device restart Intune will force a mandatory device restart Specify return codes to indicate post-installation behavior: add the return codes that are used to specify either app installation retry behavior or post-installation behavior. Return code entries are added by default during app creation. But you can add more return codes or change existing ones. Code types: Success – the return code was successfully installed Retry – the return code will be attempted to be installed the application 3 times. It will wait 5 minutes between each attempt. Soft reboot allows the private app to be installed without a reboot. However, reboot is necesssary to complete application installation. Hard reboot does not allow the application to be istalled on the device without a reboot Failed – the application is failed to be installed 7. In the Requirements section you can specify the requirements that the device must meet before the application is installed: Operating system architecture : 32-bit / 64-bit Minimum operating system Disk space required (optional) Physical memory required (optional) Minimum number of logical processors required (optional) Minimum CPU speed required (optional) 8. When deploying the private app you must specify the detection rules – how the availability of the private application will be detected. It can be done manually or by using a custom PowerShell script. Manual detection rules format: MSI: this rule type enables the admin to create a detection rule that must detect a specific MSI product code or even a specific MSI version. This detection rule type can only be used once. File rule type enables the admin to create a detection rule that detects a specific file or folder, date, version, or size to determine the installation of the private app. Requirement rules: Path – specify the full path of the folder that contains the application file File or folder – specify the file or folder that should be used to detect the app Detection method – choose the option that should be used to detect the installation of the app (File or folder exists, Date modified, Date created, String (version), Size in MB) Registry: with this detection rule the Intune admin enables detection of the application installation based on the value, string, integer, or version. Requirement rules: Key path – identify the full path of the registry entry containing the value that should be used to detect the installation of the app. Ex.: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\YourPrivateApp Value name: if this property is empty, the detection will happen on the default value. The default value will also