Introducing the PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit

Updated 23/08/2013

Myself and my good friend Dan Cunningham have been working on an exciting PowerShell project together. Here’s a bit of the blurb:

The PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit provides a set of functions to perform common application deployment tasks and to interact with the user during a deployment. It simplifies the complex scripting challenges of deploying applications in the enterprise, provides a consistent deployment experience and improves installation success rates.

The PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit can be used to replace your WiseScript, VBScript and Batch wrapper scripts with one versatile, re-usable and extensible tool.

For more information and to download the toolkit, visit http://psappdeploytoolkit.com

Here are a few screenshots of the user interface:

User Interface Screenshots

Installation Progress

The installation progress message displays an indeterminate progress ring to indicate an installation is in progress and display status messages to the end user. This is invoked using the “Show-InstallationProgress” function.

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The progress message can be dynamically updated to indicate the stage of the installation or to display custom messages to the user, using the “Show-InstallationProgress” function.

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Installation Welcome Prompt

The application welcome prompt can be used to display applications that need to be closed, an option to defer and a countdown to closing applications automatically. Use the “Show-InstallationWelcome” function to display the prompts shown below.

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Welcome prompt with close programs option and defer option:

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Welcome prompt with close programs options and countdown to automatic closing of applications:

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Welcome prompt with just a defer option:

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Block Application Execution

If the block execution option is enabled (see Show-InstallationWelcome function), the user will be prompted that they cannot launch the specified application(s) while the installation is in progress. The application will be unblocked again once the installation has completed.

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Custom Installation Prompt

A custom prompt with the toolkit branding can be used to display messages and interact with the user using the “Show-InstallationPrompt” function. The title and text is customizable and up to 3 customizable buttons can be included on the prompt, e.g.

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Installation Restart Prompt

A restart prompt can be displayed with a countdown to automatic restart using the “Show-InstallationRestartPrompt”. Since the restart prompt is executed in a separate PowerShell session, the toolkit will still return the appropriate exit code to the parent process.

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Balloon tip notifications

Balloon tip notifications are displayed in the system tray automatically at the beginning and end of the installation. These can be turned off in the XML configuration.

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