In this post I will show you how to deploy Company portal forcefully on a device using Intune. Company Portal is an application which can be downloaded from Microsoft Store. Once installed, you can get list of applications targeted by Intune, we can see the list of devices user is having and we can sync the Intune policies as well.

This is how Company Portal will look like once installed and sign in with school or work account.

Intune Company Portal

For a complete list, what Intune Company Portal can do:

• Manage apps
• Rename your device
• Remove your device
• Reset your device
• Reset your device passcode
• Remotely lock a device
• company support’s contact information
• Check compliance status
• Remotely manage a PC

Do we really need Company Portal to get installed ?

The answer is no, it is not mandatory, but still a very important application if you are pushing applications as available deployment.

For required applications (mandatory deployments), applications will be installed automatically, but for the applications which are made available only will be displayed under Company Portal for you to install.

As discussed previously, this not the only thing which Company Portal can do, we can see list of all devices we have, can see and contact company support with information provided, we can sync the device, remove/rename  / reset the device and others.

How to install Company Portal

By default Company Portal doesn’t get installed automatically. There are multiple ways we can install it. 1) we can install it manually 2) we can push it using Intune / MEM Portal.

Install Company Portal Manually

Launch Microsoft store, search for Company Store and install it. While first time launching the application, user needs to provide the credentials to start using the application.

Install Company Portal using Intune

We will cover the topic on How to deploy Company Portal using Intune, hence we are talking about pushing the Company Portal application using Intune which requires offline files for mandatory / required pushing the application. For that we need to get the binaries downloaded / source downloaded for Intune. Login to Microsoft Store for Business.

Under Microsoft Store for Business, navigate to Manage > Settings. Under Shop experience, enable the option Show offline apps.

We are enabling this option because of the reason: By default applications are available online only which can be assigned to the user, but that doesn’t force the application to install. For installation we need source, hence enabling offline apps.

Under Microsoft Store for Business webpage, search for Company Portal, click on Get the app.

Once clicked, you will be greeted with the message “Company Portal has been purchased and added to your inventory”

Under Licence type, we have 2 options online and offline. Select the Offline and click on Get the app.

This will take you to the Download package for offline use page, select the options:

Platform: Windows 10 all devices
Minimum version: 18362
Architecture: X64
Download app metadata: English (United States)

Download button next to it is just a json file which is not the actual download.

Scroll down to see AppxBundle which we are looking for Microsoft.CompanyPortal_2021.1008.825.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.AppxBundle

Download rest of the dependency packages as well.

I struggled downloading the file:

With Chrome Browser: Files were not at all downloading, no error message, seems some security settings are not allowing to download .AppxBundle and .Appx files
With Edge Browser: I got error “.AppxBundle can’t be downloaded securely”, “.Appx can’t be downloaded securely”, atleast I was able to see error message
With Firefox Browser: I got message “File not downloaded: Potential security risk” , but once clicked on Allow download, I was able to download the content.

I am pretty much sure with some tweaking we can download the files from Chrome and Edge browser as well, however for me Firefox helped me.

I downloaded all the required file as follows:

Microsoft.CompanyPortal_2021.1008.825.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.AppxBundle
Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.2.2_2.2.29512.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx
Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.2.2_2.2.28604.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx
Microsoft.Services.Store.Engagement_10.0.19011.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx
Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.3_2.32002.13001.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx
Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_14.0.30035.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx

Login to MEM Admin Center, navigate to Apps > Add App blade and click Add.

On Select app type select Line-of-business app which supports

Android (APK)
iOS (IPA)
macOS (.IntuneMac)
Windows (.msi, .appx, .appxbundle, .msix, and .msixbundle)

Click Select.

Select app package file, browse and select Microsoft.CompanyPortal_2021.1008.825.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.AppxBundle

Once selected the app package file, it will show list of all dependency app files, select downloaded appx files all together.

Once selected we can see Dependency Needed application for x64 showing with green mark:

Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.3
Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.2.2
Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.2.2
Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00
Microsoft.Services.Store.Engagement

Click OK.

This will take you to App Information page, specify the following information:
Select File: Already selected
Name: Company Portal
Description: Company Portal
Publisher: Microsoft

Click Next.

On Assignments page, under Required select a group and click Next. Adding the group under Required will push the application as forceful deployment / mandatory deployment.

On Review + Create page, verify the information and click on Create.

You need to wait for files to get uploaded if you see the message

Your app is not ready yet. If app content is uploading, wait for it to finish. If app content is not uploading, try creating the app again.

Notification panel will show you Uploading application.

Once done, wait for policy to sync on workstation. Wait for sync or initiate it forcefully by going to Settings > Accounts > Access work or school > Info >  Sync.

This is all we require, once policy arrives, Intune Company Portal will be installed.