Deploy RuckZuck Applications using the Intune Management Extension

After almost a year I started at itnetX I finally writing my first blogpost. Hopefully it will not take another year for the second one! 😊

Intune still a lack of functionality when it comes to Applications Deployment. You are able to deploy only MSI Applications, no EXE, MST or others are possible. But after Intune gets his Microsoft Intune Management Extension (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/intune/intune-management-extension) you are able to run Powershell scripts. Because you can do almost everything with Powershell lets try to install some Applications. Unfortunately, you can’t include additional source files to a Powershell Script like most of us is used to it with ConfigMgr. By the way the same applies for Software Deployment in Intune, only one MSI file is allowed.

So, thinking about other possibilities I remembered about a tool called Chocolatey. Peter van der Woude has already a great blog post about it wihich you can find here: https://www.petervanderwoude.nl/post/combining-the-powers-of-the-intune-management-extension-and-chocolatey/

After I used this at a customer I did have some problems for example with the Teamviewer installation, I always get this error:

“TeamViewer 12 (MSI Wrapper) — Installation requires Admin-Rights” described here

So why not try the awesome RuckZuck tool from my fellow Roger Zander. RuckZuck is a free Software Package Manager with a huge Repository of almost 500 Software Packages. You can find more information here: http://ruckzuck.tools/about.aspx (If you are not using the RuckZuck Add-on for ConfigMgr do it right now, it will save you a lot of time with packaging and updating default Applications!)

For unattended installation you will need the RuckZuck OneGet Provider. More infos and the download you can find here: https://github.com/rzander/ruckzuck/wiki/RuckZuck-OneGet-Provider

After I did deploy the RuckZuck OneGet Provider (MSI) with Intune I’m able to install

Applications using Powershell. For Teamviewer the command line would looks like this:

Install-Package -ProviderName RuckZuck -Name “TeamViewer 13”

You can add your Powershell script under Device Configuration > Powershell scripts.

You can choose if the script should run under the System or User Account.

After trying I always get this error:

Fail, the details are install-Package: Unable to find package providers (RuckZuck).

Of course, I did try the command manually first to make sure it works, to be sure I also tried the script manually, and of course it worked like a charm. The next thing I tried was a different application but still the same error. After banging my hat against the table and complaining about Roger why RuckZuck is not working like Chocolatey, I found this part at the IntuneManagementExtension.log under C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\IntuneManagementExtension\Logs, where you find also other log files. The interesting part is that Intune is running the 32-bit Powershell and it I try to run the install command I’m getting the same error:

With 64-bit Powershell it’s working:

After looking around for a solution a found a blog post also from Peter van der Woude Using the Intune Management Extension, on a 64-bit platform

And this did the trick, I was finally possible to deploy RuckZuck applications using the Intune Management Extension. The script would now looks like this:

If ($ENV:PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432 -eq “AMD64″) {
Try {
&”$ENV:WINDIR\SysNative\WindowsPowershell\v1.0\PowerShell.exe” -File $PSCOMMANDPATH
}
Catch {
Throw “Failed to start $PSCOMMANDPATH”
}
Exit
}
install-Package -ProviderName RuckZuck -Name “TeamViewer 13”

cheers
Jakob