How do deploy Company Portal App to Windows 8 in Configuration Manager

Overview:

In this post, I’m going to go through the process to deploy the Company Portal Application to Windows 8/8.1 clients. The Company Portal app essentially allows you to install available deployments to users from the application directly (Like the application catalog website).

Prerequisites:

  • Must be running ConfigMgr 2012 R2 site
  • Application Catalog Web Service and Application Catalog Website Point roles must be installed in the site
  • Machines must be domain joined
  • User must be logged in with domain credentials
  • Clients must have the R2 client for the company portal app to work
  • If you are running Windows 8 Pro, you will need a sideloading key (This isn’t required for the enterprise edition of Windows 8/8.1 will be using enterprise here)
  • Download the Company Portal App from: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40795

Steps:

After downloading the Company Portal Application (SCCMCompanyPortal.exe), you will need to run it. This will extract the actual .appx file for the Company Portal after accepting the license agreement.

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Once it’s extracted, you will need to copy the SCCMCompanyPortal.appx from the extracted path to a UNC location so you can create an application for it.

Add it as a new application in SCCM and distribute the content to a DP.

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By default, Windows 8/8.1 computers will not be able to install .appx application unless they come from the Store.

You will need to allow all trsuted apps to install https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj822984.aspx for information on this topic.

The easiest way to do the is setting the following setting the Local policy or Group Policy: Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > App Package Deployments > Allow all trusted apps to install = Enabled.

If you look at the Install Instructions here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40795 you will see we the following registry Value for the Company Portal needs to be set for it to work correctly

Key = [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\CCM]

Value Name = PortalPackageFamily

Type = REG_SZ

Value = Microsoft.CorporateAppCenter_8wekyb3d8bbwe

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Create the Key and Value if it doesn’t exist

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Now we need to create a configuration baseline to deploy these settings to a collection of computers.

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I deployed this baseline to All Desktops and Servers (Note configuration item is set to only apply on Windows 8/8.1 and Server 2012/2012 R2 since theses modern app settings don’t apply to any previous OS)

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On my client, I updated machine policy and evaluated the configuration baseline to verify the applied the registry settings

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Now you will need to deploy the Company Portal application to any machines that you want to have it. In my lab, I created a required deployment to a collection containing my Windows 8.1 test machine.

Assuming all your registry settings got applied from the configuration baseline if should install the Company Portal Application just fine

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You should see the Company Portal app in the start menu

Here is what the Company Portal app looks like in my environment, I have a few application deployed as available to a user collection my account is in.

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Now that you have the app you can go ahead and install any application that are available to you!

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If you want to download the configuration baseline I created you can here: Allow Company Portal Baseline

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