Best practice - Win10 App Deployment - Update Management

[PatrickF11]

Hello,

as mentioned in another thread i started with a few win10 devices in a pilot phase using Intune. (iOS & Android are already in use).

Now i'm facing the first situation where some apps are outdated.

For example i deployed 7zip MSI earlier to some devices, which was Version 18.06 (MSI).

Now the Version 19.0 of 7zip was released and i want to push this one out to my clients computers and replace the old version.

What is the best way to manage this?

Just uploading the new intunewim package into the old configuration in intune? (I don't think so.)

I would be really pleased if anyone has some good ideas 🙂

Just to give you a better insight at the current config:

App package file

7z1806-x64.intunewin

App information

Name: 7-Zip 18.06 (x64 edition)
Description: 7Zip
Publisher: 7Zip
Category Data management; Productivity
Display as a featured app Yes

Program

Install command: msiexec /i "7z1806-x64.msi"
Uninstall command msiexec /x "{23170F69-40C1-2702-1806-000001000000}"
Install behavior System

Requirements

Operating system architecture: 64-bit
Minimum operating system Windows 10 1607

Detection rules

Rules format: Manually configure detection rules
Rule type: MSI
MSI product code: {23170F69-40C1-2702-1806-000001000000}
MSI product version check: No

[#2]

Arn't there any suggestions? 😉 I'll bet there must be some ideas out there.

[#3]

@PatrickF11 From my understanding, you would need a supersedence rule which is how System Center handles this scenario but is not yet available for Intune apps. The only mention of upcoming support is in the following guide stating it is "Coming Soon." https://www.anoopcnair.com/intune-win32-app-deployment/ Obviously not an official source. Being able to add dependencies was just recently added, so hopefully supersedence isn't too far behind. Perhaps someone from the Intune team can provide a timeline for supersedence support in Intune? @Michael Niehaus

[#4]

There is no support for supersedence in Intune, so I think you would have to figure out a detection rule that trigger an update, perhaps a registry key?

- Jens Tore Fremmegaard -
https://modernworkplace.fremmegaard.no

[#5]

I opened up a ticket at MS:

The first answer was, that this should be possible just by uploading the newly packed intunewim file.

As i mentioned earl, this is not working.

Currently i'm waiting for a new response to my ticket.

[#6]

The MS ticket is now closed.
Unfortunately there is no current solution to updating win32 apps. 😞

[#7]

@PatrickF11 You should be able to upload a new package file, but you need a detection rule that checks for version to trigger the install/upgrade. 

You should try that. I haven't testet the upgrade scenario yet myself, but it is interesting to get an answer to.

[#8]

 @jenstf I guess you'd have to remove the old detection rule completely, then add a new rule to detect the version you'd like to upgrade to, then upload the new package. 

The deployment status wheel might look a bit messy until it's had a chance to install on all the devices, mind.

[#9]

@PatrickF11 I also noticed that you had 7z1806-x64.intunewin.

The 32-bit app deployment does not support deploying x64 versions of software.  You can deploy 32-bit apps to x64 systems, however.

[#10]

@cjitsolutions Thanks for your suggestion, i will try this later today and give a feedback on this.

@Steve Bucci Thank you for your response. So do you mean, i'm not able to distribute x64 apps via the app type "Windows app (win32)"? I already used that and it was working pretty good. 

What way should i use to deploy apps like that?

And: What is the difference between Win32 and LOB Apps? Shouldn't LOB only be used for inhouse written applications?

[#11]

@PatrickF11 the documentation on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/intune/apps-win32-app-management used to be more explicit to say x64 apps are not supported.  I'll get that corrected.  It does say that 32-bit apps on x86 and x64 architecture are supported.

You may very well have been able to get it to work, but unsupported means that the design doesn't mean it will work consistently.

As far as when to use the 32-bit deployment or LOB method, I'd say LOB when the app is x64 for sure.  As the link above says, " Intune-only customers will have greater management capabilities for their Win32 line-of-business (LOB) apps."  So, based on the functionality documented on the link (scripts, etc) that are required for a successful install I would take that into consideration.  Otherwise, if the LOB deployment works, just go with that.

[#12]

@Steve Bucci Thank you for your recommendations.

The reason why i used Win32 instead of LOB was just that i have much more options available when using Win32, such as detection rules etc.

When using LOB Apps, i'm still not able to have a proper application update management.

I'm going to do some testing and report it back. 🙂