Accessing Application Pack Tasks

In order to customize app packs fully you will need to open Application Manager. This can be done either by editing an existing app pack, or by creating a new app pack via the advanced method. 

Types of Application Pack Tasks

Once in Application Manger. Right Click the Tasks to see the available app pack tasks like in the screenshot below

Configure Office 365

This pack is used to deploy office 365. More details on how this task works here. The options in that task mirrors the what you would see in https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings that generates xml files. This task is going to do the following when deployed to a device:

1. Download the officedeploymenttool.exe
2. Create the "Office_365_Config.xml" for you with the settings set in the app pack task

3. Run the following command to initiate the 365 Office install with the customized xml when deployed to the target device.

   "C:\ProgramData\Smartdeploy\setup.exe" /configure "C:Program\Data\Smartdeploy\Office_365_Config.xml"

Copy File

This task acts as a way of copy/pasting files to the target computer. Usually this task will be used to copy over files that are zipped into the app pack. Or copy files from over the network after running the "Map Drive" task. Some notes about how to use this task, as file paths must be accurate.

• Always include the “\” at the end “Existing File” if you wish to copy a directory over (including all files/subdirectories)
• Include the “\” at the end of the target location (”New File/Folder Path” line).
• Use “Select” on “Existing File” to copy single files that are zipped in your app pack
• Manually type the correct path in “Existing File” to copy a directory

• New directories will be made if they don’t already exist on the target computer under “New File/Folder”
  
  Example of copying an entire directory with all subfolders and files.
  
  Result of copying an entire directory with all subfolders and files
  

  Example of copying over a single file (shortcut file) to the public desktop.

  

  Result of copying over a single file to the public desktop.
  

Reboot Computer

This pack runs a simple reboot command to the target computer. You have a few settings here like "reboot Wait Time" to set a number of seconds to wait before the reboot executes. Enabling "Prompt User" will automatically enable the wait time with 60 seconds (this can be edited). Users will see this popup and the machine will then reboot. Users cannot defer this reboot.

Run Command

This is probably the most common type of task we use. Selecting a script or exe file with the guided app pack method will generate this task by default. This task is used to run executables or script files. Selecting a script file (bat, ps1, or vbs) will automatically populate the correct Command Line syntax for running those types of scripts. When Running an exe file you will want to refer to that program's documentation for how to perform a silent install as exe files do not have standardized switches.

Run MSI Package

Very similar to the Run Command. This leverages msiexec.exe on the target machine to install a program using an msi file. We automatically populate the quiet installation switch for you in a check box, among a few others that are standard command line switches for msixexec. We do recommend still reviewing the app developer's documentation for any additional custom switches they may have for their MSI file. Key examples would be for applying licenses, or referencing config files with the msi installation.

Set Registry Value

This is a handy task that allows you to either create a new or edit a single existing registry value. This task can only edit a single Registry value per task. If you need to do many registry edits, it is going to be more efficient to do a Run Command task with a script changing those entries.

Map Network Drive

As the name suggest, this allows an app pack to map a network drive. This network drive is going to be invisible to the end user, and will only be active as long as the app pack is running. This task is ideally used in the following scenarios:

1. The application you are deploying is more than 5GB in size. This allows you to map a drive to a network location to either install over the network or to copy the files over to the target computer, and install locally.

2.  You have scripts that need to refer to network resources. The scripts will need to point to the mapped drive letter to work.