Microsoft has steadily expanded what Intune can do for Windows applications. Recent additions include richer application inventory, continued investment in the Enterprise App Catalog, and deployment plans that introduce reusable, ring-based rollouts for applications and policies.
For enterprises moving more endpoint management into Intune, these developments are useful. They also make it worth looking at where application management is heading overall.
Intune is becoming more capable at discovering applications, providing packaged applications from a catalog, and controlling deployment to endpoints. The challenge for enterprise application teams is connecting those capabilities across the much broader and messier application estate they actually manage.
Intune's newer App inventory capability provides substantially more information than traditional Discovered apps reporting. Administrators can collect details including installation paths, architecture, installation dates, and uninstall commands, with changes reported much more frequently. This gives application teams better visibility into what is installed across managed Windows devices.
For a large enterprise, the resulting inventory is rarely clean. It includes multiple versions of the same product, software that is no longer centrally managed, internally developed applications, specialist software, legacy applications, and products acquired outside normal IT processes. Better discovery gives teams an opportunity to bring more of that estate under management. Doing so requires a path from identifying an application to preparing, validating, and publishing it. Inventory can tell you what exists. Application readiness determines how much of what you discover you can practically bring under control.
Microsoft's new deployment plans, currently in public preview, introduce reusable rollout patterns in Intune. Supported Win32 and Enterprise App Catalog applications can be deployed progressively through defined groups or rings rather than being assigned to the entire population at once. This is familiar territory for enterprises that already use phased application rollouts, but bringing the model directly into Intune should make standardization easier.
It also puts more focus on what happens before deployment begins. An application entering a deployment process needs to have the correct installation and uninstall commands, requirements, and detection logic. Enterprises may also need organization-specific configuration or PSADT wrapping. Ideally, the application has been installed and exercised in a clean environment so there is evidence that it behaves as expected. The rollout mechanism and application preparation solve different parts of the lifecycle.
Microsoft's current implementation also makes an interesting distinction. Enterprise App Catalog applications can now be automatically updated, while deployment plans provide staged rollout through rings. Today those capabilities are separate: catalog auto-update doesn't support rollout rings, and deployments don't support automatic catalog updates.
I expect capabilities across endpoint management to continue evolving rapidly. For application teams, the more durable requirement is having a repeatable way to prepare and validate applications before handing them to whatever deployment mechanism comes next.
Microsoft is also investing in the Enterprise App Catalog. Its published Service Level Objectives target availability within 24 hours for 80–90% of updates that pass automated validation, with updates requiring manual validation generally targeted within seven days. Faster catalog availability is useful, particularly for common third-party applications.
The harder question for most large enterprises is coverage. Public catalogs work best for recognizable commercial applications with publicly accessible installers and relatively standard deployment requirements. Enterprise estates also include internally developed applications, industry-specific software, licensed applications behind authenticated portals, legacy software, and applications requiring organization-specific configuration.
Even catalog applications aren't always consumed exactly as supplied. Enterprises frequently have their own configuration, packaging standards, deployment requirements, and validation processes.
This is why I see catalogs as one input into application management rather than the application management strategy itself. The objective should be to use a catalog wherever it provides the right answer, while maintaining a similar automated path for applications it doesn't cover.
There shouldn't be one packaging process for every application. If a suitable application is already available from a trusted catalog, use it. If an installer exposes a reliable unattended command line, use that. If the organization standardizes on PSADT, automate the creation and maintenance of the wrapper. Where an installer requires repackaging, automate as much of that process as possible. Reserve specialist intervention for applications that genuinely require it. The application team then spends less time operating a packaging production line and more time managing the exceptions, standards, and quality of the overall process.
That is the direction we're taking with Juriba App Readiness. App Readiness can use different preparation approaches based on the application, including command-line packaging, PSADT, and automated repackaging. Managed virtual machines provide a clean environment for packaging and testing, with smoke testing used to capture evidence before an application is published to Intune or Configuration Manager.
Our goal isn't to compete with Intune over endpoint management. Intune is increasingly where our customers want applications to end up. We're focused on everything required to get the complete application estate ready to go there.
As Microsoft adds richer inventory, catalog capabilities, and more sophisticated deployment controls, enterprises can bring more of their Windows application lifecycle into Intune. That raises the bar for the processes feeding it. Application teams need to deal with applications from multiple sources, choose the appropriate preparation method, apply enterprise standards, validate the result, and provide a deployment-ready application with evidence of what happened.
Increasingly, I think the measure of an application operation will be how much of that journey can happen automatically while still giving specialists control over the applications that need their attention. The latest Intune improvements make the destination better. Now application teams need to make sure the rest of their estate can get there.
Microsoft documentation supporting the application inventory, deployment plans, and Enterprise App Catalog capabilities discussed in this article.
Microsoft Learn: App inventory for Windows devices
Microsoft documentation for richer Windows application inventory, refresh frequency, collected properties, and its intended long-term replacement of Discovered apps.
Microsoft Learn: Deployment plans and deployments in Microsoft Intune
Microsoft documentation for staged rollout rings, supported Win32 and Enterprise App Catalog payloads, and the current public preview status.
Microsoft Learn: Microsoft Intune Enterprise Application Management
Microsoft documentation for Enterprise App Management, catalog auto-update and its rollout limitations, and the published Service Level Objectives for catalog app updates.
Microsoft Learn: Add an Enterprise App Catalog App to Microsoft Intune
Additional Microsoft documentation on Enterprise App Catalog applications and app update availability.