App confidence: Monitor app health and fall back on App Assure
Published Mar 22 2023 10:00 AM 4,666 Views
Microsoft

We are wrapping up our blog series on Windows app confidence by diving into Endpoint analytics in Intune as a solution to help you during deployment and beyond. And we'll outline how App Assure engineers are here to support you in the 0.3% chance that you encounter an issue at any point in your process.

Windows deployment rings and monitoring

Whatever update management solution you use, you likely update your devices through deployment rings. It's the safest approach that supports your organization's productivity, provides essential monitoring insights to your organization, and prevents compatibility issues along the way. For example, you can Configure schedules to gradually roll out Windows Updates in Intune. Alternatively, learn about other solutions at Windows client deployment resources and documentation.

Your apps will perform just as well on Windows 11 as they do on Windows 10. However, you may want extra assurance by regularly monitoring your apps' performance. To do a health check on your foreground, active apps, use the Application reliability report built into Intune.

Requirements. Let's first check that you meet the requirements to take advantage of endpoint analytics.

Application reliability report. This report provides insights and recommendations into the top desktop applications that are impacting end-user productivity on managed devices. All details are provided for the latest 14-day period. Zoom in or zoom out of application reliability in your tenant at the application level or the device level. See insights across app versions, device models, or OS versions.

Follow these steps to get to this report:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center.
  2. Choose Endpoint analytics > Application reliability.
  3. Find relevant insights under the App reliability score or App performance tabs.

Application reliability report in endpoint analytics showing app reliability scoreApplication reliability report in endpoint analytics showing app reliability score

You can learn more about the ins and outs of this report in Application reliability in endpoint analytics. Check out the corresponding learning module for a deeper understanding of endpoint analytics: Explore Endpoint analytics. Finally, improve your reporting skills with Generate inventory and compliance reports.

 

App Assure for all the rest
Microsoft is committed to ensuring your apps work on the latest versions of our software. If you encounter any issues, we will help you fix them at no additional cost! This is App Assure's promise to all Microsoft users.

How App Assure helps with Windows compatibility

Today, our global team of App Assure Managers (AAMs) are your points of contact, capable of troubleshooting and resolving many of the app compat issues that you may encounter. However, if your issue is really complex, the App Assure Managers engage our engineers who are able to troubleshoot the most complex issues with expertise. App Assure supports you no matter where you are around the world in 10 languages and across all time zones.

App Assure resolves issues with your line-of-business or LOB apps (customer in-house developed applications), independent software vendor (ISV) apps, and Microsoft first-party apps.

App Assure's AAMs and engineers will work with you to help troubleshoot and remediate issues. And, if an issue is encountered with a Microsoft product, we'll work directly with the product team to release a product update with the resolution.

Some examples of how App Assure resolves cases include the following:

  • Application configuration change recommendations: This can include suggested changes in registry values or XML files to resolve an issue.
  • Application code change recommendations: This includes analyzing the developer's code and suggesting code updates that will resolve the issue.
  • Apply compat shims: For example, apply a shim to modify app privileges on execution.
  • Update GPO settings: This includes recommended updates to Group Policy Object (GPO) settings to resolve app compat issues.
  • Application upgrades: Most of the time, an issue can be resolved by upgrading to the latest app version, as covered in our earlier inventory article.

App Assure reports on over 1.1 million evaluated apps, unblocking nearly 146 million devices, preventing 55.5 million escalations, and saving an estimated 9.6 billion dollars in customer costApp Assure reports on over 1.1 million evaluated apps, unblocking nearly 146 million devices, preventing 55.5 million escalations, and saving an estimated 9.6 billion dollars in customer cost

To date, App Assure engineers have evaluated over one million different applications and discovered that only 0.3% of 1 million-plus apps assessed actually encountered issues when upgrading to the latest versions of Microsoft products. As you can see from our most recent analysis, application compatibility is not a frequent issue with the latest versions of Microsoft products.

How to use App Assure

While our contact information is at the bottom, let's learn from two specific examples of the mighty impact of App Assure.

Windows on Arm

Recently, several Microsoft customers contacted App Assure to inquire if a specific American cybersecurity company's product was supported on Windows on Arm. App Assure investigated and discovered that this company's security product was not currently supported on Arm.

What happens in cases like this? App Assure contacted the ISV, letting it know about the requests for Arm® support for its application. App Assure AAMs, engineers, and Microsoft's antivirus team worked to provide detailed Arm® platform documentation and technical guidance to enable the ISV's application to be supported on Arm®. As a result, the ISV acknowledged that the guidance provided by App Assure was critical to its Arm® development and released an Arm-compatible version of the app for Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Now you know what can happen if you contact us with a similar issue! Consult our growing body of knowledge:

Microsoft Edge and IE mode

IE mode is a component of Microsoft Edge that allows organizations that still need to use IE11 to do so in Edge. If your organization needs backward compatibility with existing websites but also needs a modern browser, you can meet these requirements with Edge and IE mode. Edge and IE mode allow you to utilize a single browser for legacy web apps and sites, as well as for modern web apps and sites.

If that's your case, you might identify with the following case. A large American healthcare provider contacted App Assure about display issues with multiple line-of-business (LOB) apps after upgrading from IE11 to Microsoft Edge. Note: We've discussed preventing this sort of issue with interoperability testing in App confidence: Optimize app validation with Test Base. Our AAM investigated and quickly discovered that all of the LOB apps required an older document mode in order for the apps to render properly. Furthermore, the customer's current Site List configuration did not specify the appropriate document mode. The AAM showed the healthcare provider's IT team how to update the Enterprise Mode Site List for the server where the apps resided so that they could render properly. In addition, the AAM instructed the customer on how to use several troubleshooting tools while in IE mode on Edge. Just like this customer, we're sure you'd also be thrilled with the outcome and with the speed with which the issues are resolved.

Cases like this help us provide you with useful resources. For example, see below for self-help links for IE mode on Edge:

Contact App Assure

To learn more about our service, see our service description. If you encounter an issue after upgrading to the latest versions of Microsoft products, request help from App Assure by submitting a request for assistance. If you have any trouble submitting the form, you can contact us through email at achelp@microsoft.com. As easy as that!

We have expanded scope from supporting issues with Windows 10 and Office (now Microsoft 365 Apps) to include support for Windows 11, Windows on Arm®, Edge, Azure Virtual Desktop, and Windows 365. If you weren't sure about your app compatibility in upgrading to Windows 11, we hope this blog series has helped you feel ready. Revisit App confidence: from our compatibility story to yours for the behind-the-scenes look at our approach and 99.7% success rate. And if you've missed it, see how we support you at inventory and testing stages. Deploy today and call on App Assure at any stage of your deployment journey!


Continue the conversation. Find best practices. Bookmark the Windows Tech Community and follow us @MSWindowsITPro on Twitter. Looking for support? Visit Windows on Microsoft Q&A.

Version history
Last update:
‎Mar 22 2023 09:52 AM
Updated by: