Deploy MDC with Intune

MyQ Desktop Client is a powerful tool that brings convenience to your printing and leverages failover strategies and print accounting.

If you are planning to implement the Desktop Client as part of your printing environment, automatic provisioning is a good option. It makes the Desktop Client instantly accessible on computers in your organization.

This not only unlocks the MDC’s features for your users, but also allows you to automatically provision printers and print drivers.

Mobile Device Management (MDM) enables organizations to control and manage devices, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and computers, by remotely configuring settings, enforcing security policies, and distributing applications, ensuring centralized control and protection of corporate data. You can provision MyQ Desktop Client to your users with MDM deployment tools.

Why provision MyQ Desktop Client?

Convenience

The MyQ Desktop client is installed and configured automatically on users' computers. Alternatively, it can be accessed and pre-configured for installation on the Company Portal if users prefer.

It is recommended to deploy the client automatically to ensure it is available to everyone for download.

Fallback Printing

It is recommended to use the Desktop Client as a fallback print solution in case of server downtime.

This can be achieved by installing the pre-configured client on all workstations to ensure that everyone has access to this method.

Control

Provisioning the Desktop Client means that you have it under control.

You can easily identify which devices have the client installed, update all clients at once if needed, and ensure correct configuration easily.

Deploy MyQ Desktop Client 10.2 with Intune

To provide your users immediate access without them having to install it themselves, deploy Desktop Client with Intune.

Deployment Overview

Before you start, we recommend going through the Microsoft Intune Overview. You will have a better understanding of Intune’s capabilities. After that, look at the Windows deployment guide that focuses specifically on managing Windows desktops and laptops in general.

As a next step, get familiar with Win32 app management in Microsoft Intune which you will use to add the Desktop Client on Intune to be distributed on your managed devices.

Listed below are the basic steps to deploy the Desktop Client over Intune:

1️⃣ Configure your Intune

Enable the management for your users and devices and prepare the prerequisites for running MDC.

2️⃣ Prepare the deployment package

Create a .intunewin file with the MyQ Desktop Client installer which will be uploaded to Intune.

3️⃣ Add the app in Intune

Upload the deployment package file, configure assignments, app settings, and add the MDC configuration for silent installation.

Desktop Client Configuration

Before you start deploying the Desktop Client, you can prepare its configuration and features ahead of time.

You can edit the settings of the Default configuration profile on the server to enable features for all clients, create new configuration profiles to target only specific networks or hostnames, and enable a set of features tailored for this group of computers.

Intune Configuration

Follow the Microsoft manuals to configure your Intune users, groups, devices, policies, and assignments in the Microsoft Intune admin center.

Prerequisites for MDC

Certificates must be installed on the client computers (if you are using custom certificates signed by a certificate authority not automatically trusted by your operating system).
Dependencies (prerequisite software needed to run the MyQ Desktop Client) should be either already installed on the client computers or prepared in Intune to be deployed together with MDC.

If computers where MDC will be installed do not have the required software (namely Microsoft .NET Framework) already installed, you should first:

either deploy the MDC prerequisite software on the clients before MDC deployment, or
prepare and upload .NET Framework to Intune, so that you can later select it as a dependency that will be installed before the Desktop Client itself.

Prepare the Desktop Client Installer for Windows

Preparing the .intunewin Deployment Package

Intune uses the .intunewin file to wrap the installer and the configuration necessary to install the required apps on client workstations. You can use the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool to create the package.

Follow the guide from Microsoft called Prepare Win32 app content for upload.

Prerequisites

Downloaded Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool, link in the manual mentioned above.
Downloaded MyQ Desktop Client’s installer, extracted in its folder.

Creating the Package

Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool is a command line app in which you will specify the location of your downloaded Desktop Client’s installer. Run the tool and follow the instructions.

Select the folder where the MDC .msi installer is located.
Specify the actual installer .msi file.
Define the folder where the tool will output a ready-to-use .intunewin file.

Once the tool finishes preparing the package, you should be able to find it in the defined target folder.

Adding the Desktop Client App in Intune

You can now upload the installation package you created in Intune and start deployment. You can do this in the Microsoft Intune admin center, navigate to the Apps page, and select All apps.

Find the complete instructions on how to upload the .intunewin file in Microsoft's manual: Add and assign an app.

To get the client to automatically recognize and connect to the MyQ server after it is installed on target computers, specify the connection details with the Install command option on Intune via parameters for MDC silent installation or include this information in a config.ini file which can be placed next to the installer.

The MSI Desktop Client installer needs to be first packed into .intunewin format using Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool. You can either pack it together with the configuration file (config.ini) or the installation parameters can be set later via command line arguments in Intune.

Example of using Content Prep Tool:

Move the installer into an empty folder
Optionally, copy there also the config.ini file with your desired settings
Run the command tool IntuneWinAppUtil.exe -c PathToInstallerFolder -s NameOfMsiFile -o OutputFolder
e.g. IntuneWinAppUtil.exe -c C:\DesktopClient\InstallerFolder -s "MyQ Desktop Client Win 10.2 (Patch 1).msi" -o C -q C:\DesktopClient\OutputIntuneWinFolder\

The converted .intunewin file can be easily uploaded to Intune.

If the configuration file was not packed together with the installer, you need to set the configuration parameters through the Installation command in the same way as for the silent installation. See the example of the installation command below:

Prepare the Desktop Client Installer for macOS

To deploy the MyQ Desktop Client using Microsoft Intune, follow these instructions to configure and upload the installer. This process requires the use of a pre-install script to configure essential client settings.

Upload the Installer

In the Microsoft Intune portal, navigate to Apps > All Apps > Add.
Select the App type as "macOS app (PKG)" and upload the installer file, for example, MyQ Desktop Client 10.2 RTM.pkg.

Intune renames the installer file after upload, so the installer name itself cannot be used directly for configuration.

Configure Installation Parameters via Pre-install Script

Configuration settings, such as server address, port, and security mode, must be defined in a pre-install script. The pre-install script initializes the required parameters by setting environment variables and saves them to a temporary file, which the installer accesses during installation. This script also checks for and installs Rosetta, which is necessary for running x86 applications on macOS.

Configuration cannot be applied by packaging the preference file with the installer due to Intune limitations.

Pre-install Script

Use the following pre-install script to set up the required environment variables:

BASH

#!/bin/sh
# Pre-install script
/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

# Define environment variables
export ServerAddress=print-server.contoso.com
export ServerPort=443
export SecurityMode="Strict"

# Write each variable to a temporary file
cat <<EOF > /tmp/desktopClientEnv.sh
export ServerAddress="$ServerAddress"
export ServerPort=$ServerPort
export SecurityMode="$SecurityMode"
EOF

This script ensures that necessary parameters are available for the installer and enables compatibility with x86 applications via Rosetta.

Post-install Script

Cleaning of the temporary file.

BASH

#!/bin/sh
rm /tmp/desktopClientEnv.sh

App Dependencies

If your computers do not already have the software the MyQ Desktop Client requires installed, you can specify the app’s Dependencies. Those are apps that will be checked for, and if not present, installed before the installation of the Desktop Client itself.

You can select the prerequisite apps from a list of your other Intune apps. to do so, these should already be configured.

Installation of MDC on Client Computers

Once you go through the steps above and create the app’s configuration on Intune, the installation of MDC should start on the selected computers as per your assignments. It may take some time before the Desktop Client starts rolling out – this is solely managed by Intune.

If you correctly included the MyQ server hostname and port in the installer filename, the Desktop Client downloads its configuration automatically once it runs on the client computer after installation.

It will download settings from the configuration profile dedicated to this client based on its IP address or hostname.

Updating the Desktop Client for Intune

To update an installation of Desktop Client that has already been installed on your managed devices, create a new app in Intune with the deployment package containing the new version of MDC, as described above.

In the Add app guide’s Supersedence step, select the instance of the previous MDC version from the list of your Intune apps, and disable Uninstall previous version. This should result in the older app being updated with the newer version you have just added.