Migrate EXE-based Apps

Applies to: Patch My PC Cloud

Important This documentation is for a pre-release feature still under development and, therefore, incomplete. As a result, both functionality and documentation are subject to change. Once this feature is released, it will be announced and this banner removed. Patch My PC (PMPC) Cloud evaluates ConfigMgr applications using an initial full scan when the environment.

When applications are inventoried from ConfigMgr, PMPC Cloud analyses the application metadata to understand how the application is installed and how it should be migrated. As part of this process, the installation command line is evaluated and the primary installer file is identified from the application’s content source folder.

Identifying an EXE-based App

ConfigMgr does not explicitly label an application as EXE-based. In most cases, the easiest way to confirm that an application is EXE-based is to select the application from the Migration dashboard and review the Installation Program field.

If the Installation Program contains an .exe file reference, the application can be considered EXE-based.

Note

When evaluating EXE-based applications, references to helper executables such as msiexec.exe, powershell.exe and the PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit (PSADT) are not classified as EXE-based installers, and will be treated as MSI-based, Script-based or PSADT-based instead.

During the migration deployment flow, the Installer Type field also indicates when an application is being treated as EXE-based.

If the application is identified as EXE-based, as much of the existing metadata as possible is captured to support migration. This includes analysing the install command line, the main installer file, and any supporting content to ensure the application behaves the same way after it is migrated to Intune.

Migration Behavior of EXE-based Apps

The information analysed is used to determine how the application is migrated and how the installation is executed. Any custom command line arguments defined in ConfigMgr are preserved, and all supporting files found in the original content source folder are included as part of the migration.

Note

The only exception is the primary installer itself when the application is migrated as a PMPC Catalog App, in which case the latest installer is supplied directly from the vendor. When migrating as a PMPC Custom App, the original installer is retained and used.

When the application is migrated, PatchMyPC-ScriptRunner.exe becomes the new primary installer and invokes the original EXE using the existing command line arguments. This approach preserves the original installation behaviour while allowing the deployment to take advantage of additional Patch My PC customisations that would not be available with a "lift and shift" migration.

In the example below, an older version of Notepad++ has been matched to a PMPC Catalog App. The original ConfigMgr application included an additional command line argument, /noupdater, which has been preserved and carried through into the migration flow to ensure the application is deployed with the same installation behaviour.

Preserved Properties of EXE-based Apps

The following information indicates the properties that are carried forward from the ConfigMgr application to the migration deployment flow when the application is either matched to a PMPC Catalog App or a PMPC Custom App. See How Migration Type is Determined to understand how Configmgr applications are matched during migration.

PMPC Catalog App Properties Preserved

• Source Files

• DisplayName

• Additional Arguments

• Return Codes

• Vendor

• Description

• Information URL

• Privacy URL

PMPC Custom App Properties Preserved

• Source Files (the main exe-based installer will be replaced with the current version of the matched application in the Patch My PC catalog)

• DisplayName

• Vendor

• Description

• Version

• Silent Install Prameters

• Installer Type

• Additional Arguments

• Return Codes

• Information URL

• Privacy URL

• Detection Rules