Keep it Simple with Intune – #4 Deploying a Win32 app

In the fourth entry to the Keep it Simple with Intune series, I take you through the process of creating a Win32 app for deployment.

Let’s start off by listing the pre-reqs you need in place:

• Win 10 version 1607 minimum – Ent, Pro or Education
• Azure or hybrid AD joined
• enrolled in Intune
• Win32 app size a maximum of 8GB

With the pre-reqs sorted you will need to download the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool. This tool is available from GitHub here and the tool is used to convert application installs into the .intunewin format.

The IntuneWinAppUtil.exe is a command line tool and you can query the full set of available command line parameters by running IntuneWinAppUtil.exe -h

For my example I am going to create an installer for Sonic Pi, the Live Coding Music Synth for Everyone. Go check it out at https://sonic-pi.net/.

The parameters I need to use to create my Intune installer are:

IntuneWinAppUtil.exe -c (location of my setup files) -s (the name of the installer file) -o (the output folder for my resultant Intune setup file).

So the command I issued for my app is:

IntuneWinAppUtil.exe -c “C:\Users\paul.winstanley\Downloads\Intune” -s Sonic-Pi-for-Win-v3.1.0.msi -o “C:\Users\paul.winstanley\Downloads\Intune\SonicPiIntune”

Once complete I have my .intunewin file ready for consumption.

Open up the Azure Portal and navigate to Intune>Client Apps>Apps and click Add.

From the list of App types, select Windows app (Win32).

Next, click Select file from the App package file section.

Click the browse icon and upload the .intunewin file. Click OK to confirm.

Click Configure in the App package file section.

Enter the relevant app information.

You can even upload a snazzy logo for the app for display in the company portal.

Now click Configure in the Program section.

Make any necessary adjustments to the Install/Uninstall commands.

Next click Configure in the Requirements section.

Set any requirements that devices must meet to install the app. Operating system architecture and minimum O/S are required here.

Click Configure in the Detection rules section.

In my example, I am checking for the MSI product code, but you can also do registry and file checks on the target device.

You can also configure optional Return codes and Scope Tags but at this point you are able to click the Add button to create the Win32app.

The application will be uploaded to Intune. You will have to wait for the app to be ready in the meantime.

With the application uploaded and ready, create an assignment to deploy out to the intended target devices. You can decide whether to show toast notifications for the application install or not.

You can use cmtrace to check the IntuneManagementExtension.log in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\IntuneManagementExtension\Logs to keep track of the app install progress.

and you will get the relevant toast notifications, if you have enabled them.

Hopefully, by the end of the install attempt, you will have your Win32app ready for use.

Look out for more in the Keep it Simple with Intune series soon.