What is Application Inventory in Intune?
Written by Connor Dean | Modern Workplace Specialist
Intro
Microsoft have always provided details of installed apps via Discovered Apps which typically provided limited info around app name and the version.
They're now pushing us towards the App Inventory and 'All Apps' page:
Similar to how we gather details for the device using the 'Properties Catalog' we can use it to collect details of the applications.
This has gone slightly under the radar due to the Intune Suite and other features being added to enterprise licensing.
How to implement the properties catalog
Log into https://intune.microsoft.com.
Navigate to Configuration under the Windows Devices and click Create, then New Policy.
Then choose the following:
Platform - Windows 10 and later
Profile type - Properties catalog
Give your policy a name (if you have an existing properties catalog you could either edit this, or create a new one specifically for apps) and a description.
Then you can setup your properties picker.
For the apps look at selecting 'Application Properties' which contains all the necessary details you'd need.
Apply these properties to a group of your choice, or to all devices if you're feeling confident and watch the data roll in.
What does it look like?
Once the policy has applied to your devices, give them some time to sync and the next time you check hopefully there will be some results.
Going back to our device, if we navigate to Tools and reports (within the new device view) we can click on All apps.
Then our new application data is visible! You can see we have much more visibility in terms of application details.
Extra columns are also available such as MSI Product Code, Uninstall Command and Installed Location.
I've implemented it, but what can it help me do?
Although it is a simple policy, it does give us a lot of useful detail.
You may be looking into Shadow IT, or into some suspicious device actions which involve a new process or package.
This catalog of applications can really help to dig into where it's embedded, what's new and who installed it.
For such a quick setup I'd recommend all Intune Admins consider this.
