How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune

Let’s learn how to deploy Front App using Intune. Front is an operations platform that helps teams streamline communication and deliver exceptional service at scale.

The Front Platform allows you to create and manage apps directly in Front. These apps can be private to one customer or be made available to all customers through the App Store. Whether you build backend integrations with the Core API, create a UI element with a plugin, or add a new channel to Front.

You can easily download the Front Application machine installer from the Front official site. Teams that use Windows and require a machine-wide installation for all users to access Front, as opposed to each user installing onto their own profile, will need an admin or your IT team to install the Front desktop app.

If you are looking for the general Front installer that most users download for Windows, it is available at  https://frontapp.com/download. This will install a per-user copy of Front to the user’s  %LOCALAPPDATA% directory.

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Prepare INTUNEWIN Win32 App

Before adding a Win32 app to Microsoft Intune, you must prepare the app using the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool. You use the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool to pre-process Windows classic (Win32) apps.

Let’s first identify the command line to perform the silent installation or uninstallation of the Front App.

  • Installation Command
  • Uninstallation Command
  • Detection Method

Important – I would recommend performing manual testing to ensure scripts are properly executed before converting and uploading files in Intune.

Install CommandUninstall Command
FrontSetupMachine.exe /SFrontSetupMachine.exe /uninstall /allusers /S
Table 1 – How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune

Download the updated IntuneWinAppUtil.exe from GitHubRun IntuneWinAppUtil.exe file Run as administrator.

  • Please specify the source folder – Enter the folder that contains your application setup files. (For Example, C:\Users\JiteshKumar\Downloads\Source)
  • Please specify the setup file – Enter the setup file name (such as setup.exe  or setup.msi) For Example – FrontSetupMachine.exe
  • Specify the output folder – Add the output folder for the generated .intunewin file.
  • Do you want to specify catalog folder – Type N.

Note – Please wait a few minutes while running the Win32 Content Prep Tool. Once it generates the .intunewin file, the status indicates 100% at the bottom of the command prompt.

How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.1
How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.1

Once the process completes, Browse to the output folder (For Example, C:\Users\JiteshKumar\Downloads\Output) to collect the Intune Win32 app deployment file.

Deploy Front App using Intune

Let’s follow the steps below to upload the Front App machine installer executable file for deploying to managed devices.

  • Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center https://intune.microsoft.com/.
  • Select Apps > All apps > Add, or you can navigate to Apps > Windows > Windows Apps.
  • On the Select app type pane, select Windows app (Win32) under the Other app types and click Select.
How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.2
How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.2

On the Add app pane, click Select app package file. Select the browse button. Then, select the prepared file with the extension .intunewin. The app details appear. When you are finished, select OK on the App package file pane.

Enter the Name of the Windows App Win32 (For Example – Front App), and Enter the Description of the Windows App.

Enter the Publisher name – Front, and You may specify the additional app information here. Upload an icon for the app. This icon is displayed with the app when users browse the company portal and click Next.

How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.3
How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.3

The most important part is to specify the commands. On the Program, configure the app installation and removal commands for the app:

  • Install base: Add the complete installation command line to silently install Front App.
  • Uninstall command: Add the complete command line to uninstall Front App.
  • Install behavior: Set the install behavior to System or User.
  • Allow available uninstall: Select Yes or No.

You can also specify the Device restart behavior and Post-installation behavior. Click Next to continue.

How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.4
How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.4

On the Requirements page, specify the mandatory requirements that devices must meet before installing the update and click Next.

  • Operating system architecture: Choose the architectures needed to install the Front.
  • Minimum operating system: Select the minimum operating system.

There are some built-in and custom requirements rules when creating your Win32 application. Explore Intune Win32 App Requirement Rules.

How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.5
How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.5

On the Detection rules pane, configure the rules to detect the presence of the app. You can choose to add multiple rules. Here I selected the Manually configure detection rules format.

Click on the Add button, and A popup will appear showing the Detection rule. This detection rule format provides three detection rules MSIFile, and Registry. Here you can check the file path for the applications. For Example, Check for file or folder existence for the front.exe app.

%ProgramFiles%/Front

You can also specify app dependencies where the applications must be installed before your Win32 app can be installed.

How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.6
How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.6

In the scope tag section, you shall get an option to Configure scope tags for this Windows App Win32 application.

Under Assignments, In Included groups, click Add groups and then choose Select groups to include one or more groups to which you want to deploy the Front App. Click Next to continue.

How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.7
How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.7

Review your settings and select Create to add the app to Intune.

How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.8
How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.8

Here you can see the status Uploading is in progress, How much time will it take to complete the upload? It depends on the size of the application and the speed of internet connectivity.

Please wait some time to complete the upload process, and you can check the progress by clicking on the Notification icon. Once the Intune package is uploaded and finished, you will get the status “Upload finished.”

End User Experience – Application Installation Status from Company Portal

Your groups will receive targeted applications when the devices check in with the Intune service the policy applies to the device.

On the client machine, In the Company Portal, You can click on the apps to track the details and check the progress. Here you can see that the Company portal is downloading the Front App.

How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune 1
How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.9

Monitor Front App Deployment

To monitor the application installation from Intune Portal, select the application, and here you can check the device and user check-in status. Additional details are displayed if you click on the Device install status for this application.

How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.10
How to Deploy Front App for Windows using Intune Fig.10

Track Application Installation Status

Let’s check the Application Deployment status from the logs in the client machine. To confirm the application has been installed successfully, you can also check it in Event Viewer or Registry.

Once the application installation starts, the “Detection rule” will be evaluated. Checks were performed against the rules configured, and the app “Install command” will be triggered.

You can track the details logged at IntuneManagementExtension.log located C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\ IntuneManagementExtension\Log.

Here are the highlighted parts from the logs that help you track the application activity in client devices. You can get through an excellent article on Intune Win32 App Issues Troubleshooting for more details.

Troubleshooting Win32 App References

Let’s learn Intune Win32 App Troubleshooting Client-Side Process Flow. You can look at the Level 3 deep dive troubleshooting Intune Management Extension (IME) Level 3 Troubleshooting Guide. For troubleshooting Intune client-side events, you can refer to three logs.

  • IntuneManagementExtension.log: Tracks the Intune Management extension component events.
  • AgentExecuter: Track any PowerShell execution events.
  • ClientHealth.log:  Track client-health related events.

Author

About Author – JiteshMicrosoft MVP, has over six years of working experience in the IT Industry. He writes and shares his experiences related to Microsoft device management technologies and IT Infrastructure management. His primary focus is Windows 10/11 Deployment solution with Configuration Manager, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), and Microsoft Intune.

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