Introduction
In the last “MSIX Modern Packaging – Part 4” we did some ninja tricks to be able to use context menu to right click a file and open with Notepad++ captured into MSIX. As you probably also experienced, context menus are something that are not going very well in MSIX. YET. Let’s see if the team behind, can do some magic to fix that in the future.
In this chapter it is time to see how we can centrally deploy this application.
Requirements
- Microsoft Endpoint Manager (Configuration Manager or Intune)
Importing MSIX to MEMCM
Startup Configuration manager console
Click on Software Library
Find Application Management and right click Applications
Create Application
Choose Manually to specify the application information and click next
Fill in information and click Next
Fill in information and click Next
Click Add
Choose MSIX in the dropdown and browse for your MSIX file
Click Next
Information will be taken from the package. Click next
If not chosen already, limit operation system requirement to Windows 10. Click Next
We have no dependencies. Click Next
Click Next
Press Close
Press Next
Click Next
Press close
Right click and deploy
In collection choose “All Users” and click next
Add content to your distribution point and click next
Install and make it available. Click Next (You could also make it required to push the software, but you should never do that to all devices or all users before thorough testing.)
Click Next
Click Next
Click Next
Click Next
Well that was an awful lot of steps just to create an application Click Close
On our client we now see the software available
Install it
Importing MSIX to Microsoft Intune
Start by going to https://endpoint.microsoft.com/
Choose Apps
Click Windows
Click Add
Choose Line-of-business app and click select
Select app package file
Browse for you package and click ok
Add information as you go along. It is always a good idea to include logo to let your users be able to find the product faster when going into the company portal. Click Next
Next
We will make the app available for all users in the company portal
Click Create
By going through this app import you can quickly see the how the team have simplified and improved the experience.
Going to the company portal I now see my app coming from Intune.
(The reason you see also the Notepad ++ from Configuration Manager is because I have a Co-managed environment where I flipped the switch for applications. I can then have the best of both worlds.)
Summary
Going through the 2 examples of how to centrally deploy MSIX packages, it is clear to all that Microsoft have upgraded the experience when adding MSIX applications to Intune. Configuration manager had 24 steps where Intune had 8 and a much leaner version of creating packages for deployment.
Stay tuned for part 6
