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:

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:

1. Move the installer into an empty folder

2. Optionally, copy there also the config.ini file with your desired settings

3. 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:

If upgrading Desktop Client via Intune, it is recommended to add any installation parameters previously specified, otherwise installation can fail in specific cases.

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.