MDT – Application Import
Today we are going to look at how to import applications into the MDT. So lets get right to it and right click on “Applications” and choose “Import Application”. Choose Application with source files
The details pane should be self explanatory however sometimes software can be ambiguous in regards to what to put for version. My personal recommendation is for version to put x86 or 64 and for the application name to have everything else (ie Office 2013 Pro Plus or Reader Enterprise 7.2.0
Here you can specify the source files and whether you wish to move them or just copy them
Here you can specify the directory name.
Now this is where the fun begins. Ideally you need to have some experience with silent installs via command line. There is a wealth of information online for silent installs and I will dedicate a post later on to the intricacies of it but for the time being you can just copy what I have typed below. For the record though if its an “msi” file type you can use the command line: msiexec /i “filename.msi” /qn (do note you need to encapsulate the msi file name in quotes if it is long or has spaces).
The q stands for quiet and the n stands for none (in regards to interface). If its an exe file type see if you can run “filename.exe” /?. If youre lucky you will get a list of instructions for installer command line instructions. Otherwise you can try the generic /S, /Silent, /Q, /QUIET, /VERYQUIET or /VERYSILENT. Nine times out of 10 one of those will work.
Here is an example of an exe file with a silent install command.
And here is another exe file with a quiet installer command (notice this one uses a /s instead of a /quiet)
And this last screen shows the results of my work. I have added 4 applications and all have silent install commands.
Do note that if you dont have silent switches on the install when the task sequencer is in progress the application will hold up the rest of the installation as it is waiting for user import. This defeats the purpose as we want to automate as much of this process as possible. Later on Ill dedicate a post to some common applications and how to use switches, ini files or Orca to silently populate common configuration items where possible. However our next post will look to finish off our hard work by creating a Task Sequence to deploy our operating system, applications and drivers with as little user input as possible.