Chapter 8. Deploying applications and packages to ConfigMgr clients
Creating and configuring applications in ConfigMgr is all well and good, but ultimately you do this for only one reason: so you can deploy the application out into the big wide world! Deploying software from ConfigMgr requires that you deploy the application against an existing device or user collection, and that the ConfigMgr client can find the software installation files. As you can see in figure 8.1, in this chapter you’ll learn how to deploy software against both devices and users, set up and deploy legacy software packages, and turn those legacy packages into shiny new AppModel-type applications.
Figure 8.1. This chapter is all about getting applications and packages out to where they’re needed.
The user-centric approach to deployment that ConfigMgr promotes gives you great flexibility when it comes to deploying software, ensuring that only the people who need a particular application will be able to access it. But at times you still need to deploy software directly to devices.
For example, if company policy mandates that an application should be installed on every single machine in the organization, deploying that software to physical devices rather than to users makes more sense. That way, regardless of who logs on to whichever system, they’ll be able to access the required application.
Deploying software to users has two primary purposes: