Deploy BioEdit in Intune

#Intune #PowerShell

A company I work with is using BioEdit, an old application that's used for DNA sequencing. They recently moved to Intune management for all of their devices and needed this app packaged up for deployment to all of their Windows devices.

I couldn't find any information about this app for deployment or installation, so I had to figure it out on the fly. I wrote this guide for anyone needing to deploy this app in Intune.

Start by creating a clean folder to package the app. I am going to use C:\temp\BioEdit.

Download the BioEdit installer from a trusted source. I was provided this installer from the company—currently, I was not able to find a public link to the tool.

Also download the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 3 RC from Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=52685 and extract the 32-bit installer to the same directory as the BioEdit installer.

You'll need 2 PowerShell scripts for the Intune deployment.

Save this file as Install-BioEdit.ps1:

# Install-BioEdit.ps1
# Tim D'Annecy 2023-06-23
# Intended to be used with Intune package deployment

try {
    Start-Process -FilePath '.\vc_redist.x86.exe' -ArgumentList "/quiet" -Wait
    Start-Process -FilePath '.\setup.exe' -ArgumentList "/v/quiet" -Wait
    Rename-Item -Path "$env:Appdata\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\BioEdit\New Shortcut 1.lnk" -NewName "BioEdit.lnk"
    exit 0
}
catch {
    Write-Host "Error: $($_.Exception.Message)"
    exit 1
}

Save this file as Remove-BioEdit.ps1:

# Remove-BioEdit.ps1
# Tim D'Annecy 2023-06-23
# Intended to be used with Intune package deployment

try {
    Start-Process -FilePath '.\vc_redist.x86.exe' -ArgumentList "/uninstall /quiet" -Wait
    Start-Process -FilePath 'msiexec.exe' -ArgumentList "/x  {} /qn" -Wait
    Remove-Item -Path "$env:Appdata\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\BioEdit\BioEdit.lnk"
    exit 0
}
catch {
    Write-Host "Error: $($_.Exception.Message)"
    exit 1
}

Place all of the files in the directory C:\temp\BioEdit:

Screenshot of the C Temp Bioedit folder

Run the Win32 Content Prep Tool and point it towards the C:\temp\BioEdit directory. Use the following options:

When the process is complete, you'll have a file ending in .intunewin in the same directory and you'll be ready to upload the file to Intune for app deployment.

In Intune, navigate to the Apps blade and click on Windows. Click the “Add” button to create a new app with the “App type” setting as “Windows app (Win32)”.

On the App information tab, upload your .intunewin package. Intune will fill in some information and you can change these fields as appropriate. I would recommend at least updating the Name field to “BioEdit”.

On the Program tab, enter the following information:

On the Detection rules tab, change the option of “Rules format” to “Manually configure detection rules” and click the “Add” button and enter the following information:

Alternatively, you can use the following detection rules:

After adding info on the Program and Detection rules tabs, assign the app to a Group. You can leave the rest of the tabs as default.

Create the deployment in Intune and your app will be installed on your devices within a few minutes.

I hope this helps! There's not much information about this old app, so I wanted to share the info with anyone who might need it.

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