Windows Apps (Win32) in Microsoft Intune / Endpoint Manager provide us with greater control over the deployment of applications.
The Win32 apps allow us to configure additional parameters similar to Configuration Manager application model features such as Detection methods, Dependencies & Supersedence.
In this blog post, we will understand what application dependencies are and how we can install a dependent application during the deployment.
What are Win32 App Dependencies
App dependencies are applications that must be installed before your Win32 app can be installed. You can require that other apps are installed as dependencies. The app dependency must be a Win32app. You can’t add other application types such as a LOB app or a Windows Store app as a dependency for a Win32 application. A dependency can have sub-dependencies, and each sub-dependency will be installed before the main dependency is installed.
We have created the following Win32 application in Intune for this demonstration.
Notepad++ is the main application that we will deploy on the test device. The application has been created with default settings without any dependency. Check How to Deploy Google Chrome for Enterprise with Intune Win32 App if you need any help on Win32 app creation.
Visual C++ Redist is another Win32app which we will use as a dependency for Notepad++. Though this is not a real dependency for Notepad++, we will use this as a dependency for this demonostration.
We have captured the information below by installing the Visual C++ redistributable on a Windows 10 device to use it for detection methods in the Visual C++ redist win32 app.
DisplayName : Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 X64 Minimum Runtime – 14.30.30708
Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{AE043016-3897-41D4-870B-1DAEE62CF152}
It’s not required to assign an app dependency to users or devices. Hence, we have not assigned Visual C++ Redistributable to any user or device.
How to Add Win32 App Dependencies
Now we will edit the Notepad++ application and add an app dependency.
To edit the app, navigate to Apps > Windows, select <application>, and click on Properties.
Scroll down to the Dependencies section and click on Edit. Click on Add in the Dependencies tab.
Type the app dependency application name in the search box to quickly find the application and select the same. Click on Select.
In the next screen, ensure that Automatically Install is set to Yes. Click on Review + save.
| Note: When the Automatically install option is set to Yes for a dependency, Intune will install the app on the device automatically even if the dependent app is not targeted to the user or device. |
In the Review + save tab, review the details and click on the Save button.
Click on Dependency Viewer to see the graphical view of all dependencies for the application.
Now, we will assign the application to a test device.
To edit the app, navigate again to Apps > Windows, select <application>, and click on Properties. Scroll down to the Assignments section and click on Edit.
In the Assignment page, click on Add group in the Required section and add the Azure AD (AAD) group where you want to target this application. We have added “IT Department Devices” in our case. Click on Review + save.
In the Review + save page, validate the setting and click on Save.
The Win32 app will now deploy to all targeted users or devices. We will now see the end user experience for this deployment.
End User Experience
Once the policy is updated on the client machine, the dependency applications will be downloaded and installed. As you can see in the screenshot, the app dependency ( Visual C++ Redistributable ) was downloaded and installed.
Once the app dependency installation was completed, the Intune client downloaded and installed the application, which was targeted to the device.
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