Alternative to manage Apps Installtion/Updates via Endpoint Manager - intune

I am currently using Endpoint Manager to install Apps on employees machines.
However, from time to time apps need to be updated. With MSI apps it quite strightforward. The issue is with EXE apps, is there is a manual process that requires to go and create a package.
I was wondering if there is a better option to manage it? So I can trigger app installation without preparing it manually. Maybe with another tool that integrate with Endpoint manager and will save us some time.

Related

service worker cache files with TWA app install

I've successfully created a TWA application and it is working as expected! the .aab file is almost 2 MB in size.
I have some big files that the service worker caches on the install event, it would be desirable to include these files with the TWA application on google play so that they got installed with the app rather than waiting for the user to open the app to start another installing process.
is there a way to achieve this? or maybe a workaround where I let the service worker start caching right after the TWA app is installed on the device (before the user opens the app)?
Currently, there isn't a solution that will allow you to ship files with the .aab/.apk or trigger the Service Worker upon the application being installed.
There is a discussion about enabling shipping files with the application package, that would allow bootstrapping the application at https://crbug.com/816798. Please, do star the issue if that's interesting to you and share your use-case.

Protecting Side-load UWP apps from distribution online

If I want to give an appx app package to someone to sideload on a windows 10 pc with a developer account, is there any way to prevent the appx package from being distributed online?
When it is in the Windows store, the store handles payment and basic licensing. There is no strategy whereby I could revoke a side-loaded app???
Thanks...
The appx package doesn't provide anything for you to verify the usage of it. Anyone can install with your package.
But you can create your own account system by setup a server and ask your user to login to use your features. If they are not licensed user when you verify their account, you can disable the navigating behavior from your app to prevent they use your functions. This means although they can install your app, they may not able to use the functions you provided behind your verification. Does this make sense to you?
If you intend to deploy the app in the store you should submit an .appxupload. The .appx is only used to sideload the app on a device.
Of course anyone that has access to the .appx can do whatever they want with it - like for example side-loading it - just like they can do whatever they want with an .exe. There is no functionality within the .appx deployment technology that allows you to "revoke a side-loaded app" from an unknown computer that you don't have access to if that's what you are asking.
If you want to restrict the access to your app, or rather the app content, you should implement some kind of authentication and/or authorization within the app itself. You could for example connect to a remote service that grants access to user's at startup.

How to distribute an update for an nw.js app

With the forthcoming demise of Chrome Web Store Apps, I have successfully transitioned my app to nw.js I was amazed at how easy it was and how it ran first time. About the only tricky thing I encountered was how to get my app icon showing on mac.
However I am somewhat worried about app updates. Does anyone know what happens to persistent data (indexed-DB etc) when a user updates a nw.js app with a new version that I publish to my web site for download?
Also if anyone can help me with how to achieve automatic updates. I mean the full works here. What code is needed to check for an update, what code do I need to write to deliver the update, what code is needed to install the update. Chrome did all of this for me and I know absolutely nothing about server side coding.
For mac there is a mac store support:
http://docs.nwjs.io/en/latest/For%20Users/Advanced/Support%20for%20Mac%20App%20Store/
IndexedDb, localstorage, etc. will persists until the app name will not change.
For automatic updates:
There is an ongoing pull request going on for auto updater.
https://github.com/nwjs/nw.js/pull/5722
Till then, the easiest way for auto update Your application code is to host your app code on the web and open the web page with nw.js.
If You want to autoupdate the nw.js itself then you will have to provide an installer for that and tell the user to download and run the installer if there is a new update.
The documentation (http://docs.nwjs.io/en/latest/For%20Users/Advanced/Autoupdates/#autoupdates) recommends node-webkit-updater and nwjs-autoupdater. Wherein node-webkit-updater the oldest solution, which is not maintained anymore. It's also has flaws (e.g. unpack via unsigned unzip and system specific apps)
As for the second one (nwjs-autoupdater), I personally do not like the idea to install golang just to have my NWJS app autoupdate...
As an alternative one can consider https://github.com/dsheiko/nw-autoupdater
It provides an API (like node-webkit-updater, but cleaner with use of async/await) to customize auto-update flow in one's app including download/install progress

Redmine on Windows 8

Trying to install Redmine on Windows 8 on this tutorial. Getting this errors:
Tried Bitnami's installer too, but I already have IIS Web Server and don't need the bundled Apache webserver. The installer doesn't give me to choose it's components. It installs Apache by default. So, Bitnami's Redmine is not for me.
What am I missing?
Is there any other good bug & request tracking software? Please don't Google and advise me to some random results. Advise something that you used and really good as Redmine
Once you get the error above, make sure that new WebSite's AppPool has write access to site's folder on the harddrive to complete the install process.
Then open the website in a browser and the installation will complete.
Set security accordingly after the install completes.
Use WebIssues multi-platform bug & request tracking software that fits all your needs instead of Redmine.
WebIssues is an open source, multi-platform system for issue tracking and team collaboration. It can be used to store, share and track issues with various attributes, comments and file attachments. It is easy to install and use but has many capabilities and is highly customizable.
Main features:
The Desktop Client application can run natively on Windows, Linux
and OS X
The Web Client can be used to access the system using a web browser
The server can be installed on any host with PHP 5.2 or newer and
MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQL Server
Issues can be filtered using public and personal views with
configurable filtering criteria
Email notifications can be sent and the Desktop CLient can
periodically check for new and modified issues meeting various
criteria
Various reports can be printed directly from the Desktop Client or
exported as HTML and PDF documents

Wix update - How can I restart my service but no other apps that are using my dll?

I have created an installer and I put out the update every now and then. FYI, my program has two parts: service application and dll. Some of other client applications use my dll and my service application runs constantly.
Because some of client applications use my dll, if I run the update, restart manager restart those client apps but I would like to make sure that they do not restart so I disabled restart manager by setting MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL to be 'Disable' in my wix script.
So this prevents other client apps from restarting and that is great. But the side effect of it is that my service application does not restart either after the update procedure.
So basically my question is that I would like to find a way to prevent other client apps from restarting but I want to make sure that my service does restart after the update.
What would you recommend? Any advice will be appreciated.
You need to postprocess the MSI package emitted by your setup build. You will need to add entries to the ServiceControl table so that Windows Installer will stop the service when your component is installed and then start it up again after the new DLL is installed. You'll also need to ensure that the StopServices and StartService actions are scheduled in the InstallExecuteSequence table.
You'll need to use the wirunsql.vbs tool to run the relevant INSERT queries to add the necessary records.

Resources