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1 VOTE
Status Future consideration
Categories User Experience
Created by John Yoakum
Created on Feb 23, 2024

RELATED IDEAS

Ability to customize the Application Name in ConfigMgr

It would be nice if the application name that is published in ConfigMgr through Application Manager matched the rules for how it is displayed in the Software Center. This would make it so that any person that may be performing dynamic installations would be able to reuse the existing application name instead of having the manual process of modifying their workflows for every application name change as they get updated.

Product Application Manager
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  • Admin
    Juha Haapsaari
    Reply
    |     Mar 14, 2024

    We will introduce a Application Manager Standard/Enterprise feature to automatically update ConfigMgr Task Sequences, that we already have for legacy Application Manager. You can check documentation of this feature in legacy version to get an idea how it works: https://docs.recastsoftware.com/help/application-manager-mecm-task-sequences

    For many reasons we decided to develop a way to manage Task Sequences from Application Manager rather than change the logic of naming items in ConfigMgr, copying source files etc.

  • John Yoakum
    Reply
    |     Mar 7, 2024

    So... In my last employment, we used dynamic variables to install applications. This was reliant on having consistent application names in ConfigMgr... At the same time, if applications are placed in a Task Sequence, it uses the Application ID as a reference. In AM right now, it generates a new application (and such a new Application ID) every time there is a new release. This alone breaks anyone that has used that Application reference in a task sequence. And with the name in ConfigMgr always changing, it breaks dynamic variable application installs.


    The best solution to this would be to identify a more consistent naming convention and when new "updates/applications" are deployed, it moves/copies source files to "older" application and overwrites existing files in "newest" release...


    Using Google Chrome as an example, the application names in ConfigMgr could look like the following:

    Google Chrome (current)

    Google Chrome (minus 1)

    Google Chrome (minus 2)

    etc...


    And just moving files around and reusing the Google Chrome (current) for only most current version and not recreating the application (just the deployments on the application), you would solve both issues.

  • Admin
    Juha Haapsaari
    Reply
    |     Mar 7, 2024

    ConfigMgr requires applications to have unique names so there can't be two applications with same name. Name that application is showing in Software Center does not have this unique restriction.


    With dynamic installations, do you mean like Task Sequences installing always the latest version to new devices, or do you mean available installations that are started by end users from Software Center?