Deploy Desktop Client 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.

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

Upgraded Recommendations

When Desktop Client via Intune, add any installation parameters previously specified, otherwise installation can fail in specific cases.
After a silent installation, MDC does not restart automatically. Consider using other means, for example scripts, to restart the application.

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.