5.3 Windows Bundles

Bundles are different than standard applications, such as Windows Notepad, that already reside on your device. When you double-click a bundle to launch it, the Endpoint Agent might first complete a variety of distribution tasks before the application is launched, including installing the application files, running scripts, and changing the device’s registry specific INI files, or environment variables. These tasks are all configured by your administrator to ensure that the application runs correctly on your device.

In some instances, a bundle’s icon appears dimmed or grayed out. This indicates that your device does not meet the requirements that the administrator defined for the application, or the bundle is not scheduled to be available to you at that time. The Endpoint Agent does not distribute the application to your device until the requirements are met or the schedule is appropriate.

There are three ways for accessing bundles on a managed device assigned to you:

Applications Portal

The Applications Portal is a standalone application that you can launch from the Start menu, or you can click the Agent Tray icon from the system tray.

The Applications Portal left pane displays the following:

• [All] folder: Contains all bundles that have been distributed to you, regardless of the folder in which they are located.

• Folder: Contains all bundles that have not been assigned to a different folder. The folder is the default folder for bundles; however, your administrator can create additional folders in which to organize bundles, and can even rename the folder.

• Favorites: Contains all bundles that have been set a favorite. This folder will be displayed only if the setting Enable Users to manage Favorites is enabled in the Application Explorer Configuration Policy.

When you select a folder in the left pane, the right pane displays the bundles that the folder contains You can:

• Install a bundle or launch an application for an already installed bundle.

• View the properties of a bundle. The properties include a description of the bundle, information about people to contact for help with the bundle, the times when the bundle is available for use, and the system requirements established for the bundle.

• Repair an installed application.

• Uninstall an application. This is an administrator-controlled feature that might not be enabled.

• Postpone Operation. This feature allows a user to postpone the download of contents until the next refresh. The postpone operation appears only when the content being downloaded is fairly large in size.

Application Explorer

Application Explorer is an extension to Windows Explorer that enables bundles to be displayed in Windows Explorer, on the desktop, on the Start menu, on the Quick Launch toolbar, and in the notification area. The following graphic shows bundles displayed in Windows Explorer.

The following graphic shows bundles displayed on the desktop.

You can perform the same tasks on the bundles in the Application Explorer as you can in the Applications Portal. You can also view the Favorites folder in the Application Explorer window, which will be displayed only if the setting Enable Users to manage Favorites is enabled in the Application Explorer Configuration Policy.

Endpoint Agent

To open the Endpoint Agent on a Windows device, right-click the Agent Tray Icon in the notification area, and select Technician Portal. This is an administrator-controlled feature that might not be enabled.

The Bundles link, located in the left navigation pane of the Endpoint Agent, lets you view the bundles that are assigned to your device.

The bundle list includes the following information:

• Name: Displays the name of the bundle. Click the name to display the properties for the bundle, including such information as the version, folder, icon, help contacts, and the time schedules. Based on the configuration of the schedules for the bundle in Endpoint Management Console, the time schedules are as follows:

  Time Schedule	Details
  No Schedule / Default	No schedule is configured for the bundle
  On a Specific Event	Runs the scheduled action when the specified event is triggered such as user login, user logout, or device boot
  Relative	Runs the scheduled action relative to a specified number of days, hours, and minutes from when the device is refreshed
  Daily	Runs the scheduled action daily at the specified time
  Weekly	Runs the scheduled action on the selected day of the week
  Monthly	Runs the scheduled action on the selected day of the month
  Yearly	Runs the scheduled action on the selected day of the year
  Specific Date and Time	Runs the scheduled action once on the date and time specified
  Specific Time Interval	Repeatedly runs the scheduled action every xxx months, weeks, days, hours, and/or minutes from the start time
  On Refresh	Runs the scheduled action on device refresh
  Always	The scheduled action is always active.
  Date Specific	Runs the scheduled action on the specified date
  Day Range	Runs the scheduled action during the specified time interval

• Version: Displays the version of the bundle.

• Status: Displays the installation status for the bundle.

• Effective: Displays whether or not the bundle can be used on the device. If the Effective box is selected, the bundle meets all system requirements and schedule constraints to be used. You can click the bundle icon to launch the bundle.

  If the box is not selected, the bundle cannot be used. To find out why, click the bundle name to display the system requirements and schedule properties.

A bundle icon changes to reflect the current status of the bundle. The following table shows the bundle icons using the default light blue background icon. Your administrator might choose to use a different background icon; however, the status icons such as remain the same.

You can choose to hide or display the overlay icons that appear over the bundle icons in the agent. To change the overlay icon settings, in Endpoint Management Console, go to Configuration > Device Management > Application Explorer Configuration, and select Disable Icon Overlays.

Icon	Status
	Available. You can launch the bundle.
	Unavailable. You cannot launch the bundle. Either the device does not meet the system requirements established for the bundle.
	Installing. The bundle is installing to the device. Downloading. The bundle is downloading from the network location where it is stored. Uninstalling. The bundle is being removed from the device. Running. The bundle is currently running.
	Downloaded: Downloaded but not installed: The bundle has been downloaded on the device. However, it has not been installed as yet.
	Blocked. The bundle is blocked on the device. You cannot perform any of the actions on the bundle other than viewing its properties.
	Favorite: The bundle is set as a favorite.

By default, the Endpoint Agent does not distribute (download and install) a bundle to your device until the first time you launch it. The distribution process might include installing the bundle’s files, running scripts, and changing the device’s registry, specific INI files, or environment variables. Or, the process might include nothing more than providing a shortcut to the application's executable file on your local device or a network server.

If the bundle has an Install MSI or Install Network MSI action, you might be prompted to enter the password when the bundle is launched on the device. To launch the bundle, you must log in to the device by using an user account that has a password configured.

If, after you launch a bundle, it begins to download and you need to stop the download, you can postpone the download to a later time. When you resume the download, it continues from the point where it previously stopped.

If an installed application is not functioning correctly or you think it might be outdated, you can repair that the application’s bundle information is still correct. If it is not, the Endpoint Agent reinstalls the bundle to your workstation.

You can view a bundle’s properties to see its version number, current installation status, and help contacts. In addition, if the bundle is unavailable, you can see if it is unavailable because of system requirements or schedule restrictions.

Uninstall is an administrator-controlled feature. By default, uninstall is not enabled, which means that you can only uninstall bundles if your administrator has enabled the feature. Uninstall is enabled on a per-bundle basis. Depending on what your administrator enables, you might be able to uninstall some bundles but not others.

When you uninstall a bundle, the Endpoint Agent removes all files from your device and undoes all configuration settings made to your device during the bundle installation. Only files that the Endpoint Agent installs specifically for the bundle are removed. For example, the Endpoint Agent does not remove any shared files (files used by another application) or any user-created files such as word processing documents or spreadsheets.

After you uninstall a bundle, the bundle’s icon remains on your device. This enables you to install the bundle again whenever necessary.

You can set a bundle as a favorite, to enable easy access to these bundles. You can set bundles as favorites from the desktop, from the file explorer, or from the Applications Portal window. To add a bundle as a favorite, right-click the bundle icon and select Set as Favorite. A badge icon is appended to the bundle icon that is marked as a favorite. All bundles that are marked as favorites can be viewed in the Favorites folder displayed in the left pane of the Applications Portal window and in the Application Explorer window. You can also view a bundle as a favorite in the Start menu of your device (only if the bundle is pinned to the Start menu). Also, the bundles that are marked as favorites will be displayed as favorite bundles on other devices on which the user has logged in, if these bundles are available on those devices.

To remove the favorite tag from a bundle, right-click the bundle icon and select Remove as Favorite.