I'm trying to find a way to automate the installation and updating of software available in the winget or Chocolatey repositories for Intune deployments. Initially, I thought I could rely solely on winget, but I discovered that it doesn't work well in SYSTEM context, especially when trying to make software available via the Company Portal. This limitation is a significant issue for my setup.
Before I dive deeper into Chocolatey, I want to know if it's possible to distribute Chocolatey across all my PCs and use the Install/Uninstall commands to manage software deployments. My ultimate goal is to establish a streamlined process allowing easy installation of software available through Chocolatey, instead of needing to package each application individually with Win32 methods and constantly searching for .exe and .msi files.
3 Answers
I’m on mobile so I can't give a full rundown, but yes, you can use intunewin to wrap Chocolatey as an app and deploy it through Intune.
I've never had issues with the SYSTEM context. You can create an Intune package using Florian's tool, then use the Winget AutoUpdate tool to keep everything updated automatically. Check out the links for more info:
- [IntuneWin32Deployer](https://github.com/FlorianSLZ/IntuneWin32Deployer)
- [Winget AutoUpdate Intune](https://github.com/Weatherlights/Winget-AutoUpdate-Intune)
Just a heads up, Weatherlights' tool is based on a project by Romanitho, who created a way to directly post Winget installers to Intune. You might want to check that out too: [WingetIntunePackager](https://github.com/Romanitho/WingetIntunePackager)
Honestly, I think Chocolatey is a solution in search of a problem. It baffles me why it’s so popular. If you're not just using public repos, you’ll have to repackage everything yourself. Instead, why not skip Chocolatey and package everything right into Intune using PSADTK? You'll simplify your process and eliminate an extra dependency. At least tools like PMPCpro or Scappman offer libraries of pre-packaged apps, which saves you time.
Thanks for the links to the WinGet AutoUpdate tool! I really appreciate it.