Deploying win32 applications with Intune is, for the majority of the time, a straightforward procedure. Some times however the download or the installation of them fails and users or administrators should wait some time in order for the application to be redeployed. The same goes for custom Powershell and Proactive-Remediation scripts.
In this post we will explore ways to force the redeployment of these applications or scripts. But before moving to the practical part lets discuss briefly how the applications and scripts are delivered to the endpoints and how often a device “asks” for them.
Intune Management extension is a service that is available on enrolled devices and is responsible for the management of the download of applications and scripts.
Intune management extension (IME) policy cycle is every 60 minutes.
Many times we need to redeploy applications or scripts without needing to wait for the above interval.
Redeploy applications
When an application is deployed to an endpoint a registry value is created depicting the installation state of it under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\IntuneManagementExtension\Win32Apps.
Under this key we can see the ID of the user connected to the device and after extending the user, the IDs of the applications deployed.
The IDs of the applications are shown in the URL, when opening an application in Intune.
What we can do to force the redeployment of an application is:
- Delete the registry key for the application we want to force redeployment
- Restart the Intune Management Extension service
Most of the time the above steps work perfectly, the Intune Management Extension communicates with Intune and the application is re-downloaded.
If the above doesn’t work initially, then it is suggested to perform a restart after deleting the registry key.
This is a good trick to know for administrators when performing test deployments to a test device and want to try multiple times in a short period of time.