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Context:

We want to force the installation of new versions of our MSIX bundled apps. Because of risk of data loss, we don't want to force close them but give users the option to save their work and install the update. Sometimes critical updates happen and we want to update the app ASAP (not wait until next morning).

The solution we have thought of is, using Intune to distribute .appinstaller files, which then will be in charge of installing and updating the app, using the built-in updating system.

Uploading a .appinstaller file via the portal is not supported (AFAIK)

Questions:

  1. Is it possible to distribute .appinstaller files via Intune
  2. Can you schedule app updates in Intune
  3. Is it possible to gracefully close the app in stead of forcing it
  4. Are we looking at it all wrong and are there better ways for facilitating our use case

Thank you for any help in advance!

Warrantor
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  • have you managed to install the .appinstaller file using Intune? We have contacted Microsoft support and they recommend deploying it using an executable (MSIX) file. I also want to auto-update the app but not by uploading a new update to intune. Instead, I would like to use built-in feature of MSIX auto-update. Please share your experience in this regard. – Ashish Oct 18 '22 at 05:58

1 Answers1

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This is a partial answer that focuses on questions 2 and 3. I am mostly using Azure as opposed to Intune, so I have no idea how to distribute it via Intune. Anyways, you can add a Package.appinstaller file to your MSIX project and specify both what schedule you want to have to update and to allow the user to save their data before the application shuts down and updates. The cool thing here is that this all seems to be handled through configurations as opposed to any code changes. For more information, see the two comprehensive resources that I found useful for one of my questions.

The link below really explains the answer for questions 2 and 3.

http://thewindowsupdate.com/2019/02/22/handling-application-updates-with-app-installer-and-msix-in-windows-10-19h1/

The link below explains some of the context too the answer above as it relates specifically to the version of Windows that is being targeted. This is relevant because if you target a lower version of Windows, then these features and configurations will not work.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/app-installer/update-settings

J Weezy
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