In this blog post, I’ll guide you through the steps to deploy MSIX applications using Intune. MSIX is a modern packaging format developed by Microsoft that simplifies app installation and management on Windows devices, ensuring applications stay up to date.
MSIX offers several advantages, including a high installation reliability rate, reduced impact on network bandwidth by downloading only the necessary 64k blocks, and lower disk space usage due to the elimination of duplicate files across apps.
Just like deploying MSI-based applications via Intune, you can also deploy MSIX-based apps. In this tutorial, I’ll use the line-of-business app deployment method. However, before you begin, make sure to download the application in MSIX format. Keep in mind that not all vendors provide MSIX installers, as many still rely on MSI and EXE package formats.
For demonstration purposes, I’ll use Slack as an example application, since it is available in .MSIX format. Let’s check the steps:
Contents
Download MSIX based application
To get started, let’s download an MSIX application installer that we’ll use for deployment through Intune. For this example, we’ll use Slack. Go to Slack’s download page and click on the Download .MSIX (64-bit) button to begin the download.
Create MSIX Intune Deployment
After the .MSIX file is downloaded. Follow below steps to create an Intune deployment.
- Sign in to the Intune admin center > Apps > All Apps > Add.
- Using the App type drop-down, Select the Line-of-business app option.
- Browse the downloaded .MSIX file.
- Name, Desciption and Publisher information will be automatically populated for you. You can modify it as per your requirements or leave it as is and click Next.
- Assignments: Add an Entra security group containing users or devices to deploy this app.
- Review + create: Review the app deployment summary and click on Create.
Sync Intune Policies
The device check-in process might not begin immediately. If you’re testing this policy on a test device, you can manually initiate an Intune sync from the device itself or remotely through the Intune admin center.
Alternatively, you can use PowerShell to force an Intune sync on Windows devices. Restarting the device is another way to trigger the Intune device check-in process.
Monitoring MSIX App deployment
- Sign in to the Intune admin center > Apps > All apps.
- Click on the app deployment and check the Overview tab to find the deployment status.
- Click on Device install status and User install status under monitor to get the status of app deployment per device and user.
End User Experience
After the deployment is completed successfully, verify and confirm the installation by searching for the app in the Start menu. You will find an icon for the Slack app. Launch the application to start using it. Based on my testing, the installer does not create a desktop shortcut for the app, as I could not find one for my deployment. If you want to create a desktop shortcut for Slack using another Intune deployment, refer to the post: Create Desktop Shortcuts in Intune.
Uninstall MSIX Apps using Intune
As we have seen in the previous sections of this post, deploying an MSIX-based application using Intune is straightforward. Once you have created the deployment, uninstalling it is even easier. Simply create an Entra group of users or devices from which you want to uninstall the app, and add the group to the Uninstall assignment section of the Intune deployment. Let’s review the steps:
- Sign in to the Intune admin center > Apps > All Apps > Find and Open the app deployment.
- Go to the Properties > Click on Edit next to Assignments.
- Add the group in the Uninstall assignment section. Ensure that the same user or device is not a part of the Required assignment section as well.
