Keep Your Apps Updated Automatically via Intune

Manually keeping dozens of apps updated across dozens of machines is simply unsustainable. Each app's auto-updater is different, often disabled in the enterprise, and leaves whole devices lagging behind without anyone realizing it. Automation through Intune lets you treat the fleet as a coherent whole rather than one machine at a time, and closes the window during which a flaw stays exploitable. It is the shift from reactive, hands-on management to an industrial, reliable process.

Automating does not mean delegating blindly to a machine: it means setting up a reliable, measurable and reversible cycle that applies patches without manual work but always under control. The goal is not to remove humans from the loop, but to free them from the repetitive, error-prone parts so they can focus on decisions rather than mechanics.

What automation must cover

A real automatic-update process is more than launching an installer at random on a few machines. It covers the whole update lifecycle, from watching for releases to the final verification.

• Watching for new versions released by vendors.
• Triggering deployment as soon as a version is available.
• Deploying in waves to limit the risk of regressions.
• Verifying the result and automatically retrying on failed devices.

Relying on official installers through Intune

Deployment should use the vendors' real installers, pushed by Intune, rather than depending on winget on endpoints, often absent, disabled or restricted in managed environments. This guarantees the installed binary is authentic, signed by the vendor, and not sourced from an intermediary whose chain you do not control.

1. 1Select the apps to keep updated as a priority.
2. 2Let the platform automatically detect new versions.
3. 3Deploy the official installer through Intune to the affected devices.
4. 4Review the reporting to confirm coverage and spot failures.

Why avoid winget on endpoints

Many tutorials suggest relying on winget to automate updates, but this approach is fragile in a managed environment. The tool is frequently absent from images, disabled by group policy or restricted for standard users. Pushing the official installer directly through Intune offers a single, consistent and verifiable channel, independent of whether a third-party tool happens to be present on each machine.

Staying in control despite automation

Automating does not mean losing control. It remains essential to target specific groups, stagger rollouts to test before going wide, and track exactly which devices are up to date, in progress or failed — for both security and compliance.

This level of control is also what reassures teams: an update can always be deployed first to a pilot group, then extended once validated, with no surprises for business users. Reversibility and gradual rollout are the safeguards that make automation acceptable, even in the most cautious organizations.

A concrete automated-cycle example

Take a conferencing app installed across the whole fleet. The vendor releases a new version fixing a flaw. The platform detects it, triggers deployment to a first pilot group of about ten machines, then, after a few hours with no incident, automatically extends to the rest of the fleet. Powered-off or remote devices receive the update as soon as they reconnect, and any that fail are retried without intervention. Within a day the flaw is closed everywhere, with a complete record of the deployment for later proof.

The concrete day-to-day benefits

Beyond security, automating updates frees up valuable time and reduces friction with users. The gains show up quickly, for the IT team as well as for the rest of the organization, and they compound month after month as manual work disappears. Time that once went into chasing versions and repackaging installers can be redirected to higher-value work, while users simply stop noticing the updates happening quietly in the background.

• Fewer tickets tied to outdated or malfunctioning software.
• A shorter vulnerability window between a patch's release and its application.
• A homogeneous fleet that is simpler to support and troubleshoot.
• Update evidence readily available for audits and insurers.

Common mistakes to avoid

Automating badly can create a false sense of security. A few precautions avoid the most common disappointments.

• Deploying to the whole fleet at once, with no pilot group, risking a fleet-wide regression.
• Never checking the reporting and assuming everything went fine.
• Ignoring failed devices, which then stay vulnerable for a long time.
• Relying on winget or auto-updaters, with no centralized proof of application.

Choosing which apps to automate first

Not every application deserves the same level of attention. To reap the benefits of automation quickly, it is best to start with the software that combines both a wide presence across the fleet and a history of vulnerabilities. Take an SMB of fifty machines: its browsers, conferencing tool and PDF reader are installed everywhere and regularly patched by their vendors. Those are the ones to automate first, because they offer the best ratio between setup effort and risk reduction.

1. 1List the most widespread apps on the fleet using the inventory.
2. 2Spot those whose vendor frequently publishes security fixes.
3. 3Automate first that intersection of massive presence and frequent vulnerabilities.
4. 4Gradually extend automation to the secondary applications.

This priority-based approach avoids trying to automate everything at once, which would scatter the effort. By handling a handful of critical applications first, you quickly shrink the most exposed attack surface while running in the process on high-stakes cases. Rarer or more stable applications then join the automated cycle without particular urgency. You thus build a growing coverage, measurable at each step through the deployment reporting rather than merely assumed.

How AuPoint helps

AuPoint gives SMBs and MSSPs this automation: the platform inventories installed apps, tracks the versions vendors release and automatically deploys official installers through Intune, with no winget on endpoints. Deployment runs by group, with automatic retry on failures. You keep the fleet continuously updated, with a dashboard showing the real state of every app on every device.

Frequently asked questions

Does automation risk causing regressions?

The risk exists for any update, but it is controlled through wave-based deployment: you validate first on a small pilot group, then extend. This gradual approach limits the impact of any problem to a handful of devices, never the whole fleet at once, and it gives you time to pause or roll back before a wider rollout.

Can I automate while keeping control?

Yes. Automation does not take the reins away: you choose the apps, the target groups and the deployment pace. The reporting constantly tells you which devices are up to date, in progress or failed, leaving the final decision to you.

What happens to a machine powered off at deployment time?

The update is applied as soon as the device reconnects, and an automatic retry handles failures. This is precisely the advantage of a deployment driven through Intune over a fixed maintenance window that would leave those machines behind. Remote and occasionally used devices, which are often the most neglected, are handled the same way as any other.

Should users be warned before an automatic update?

For most silent updates, no interruption is needed and the user has nothing to do. When a restart or the closing of an application is required, it is better to leave a grace window and an informational message. A deployment driven through Intune lets you stagger these constraints to minimize disruption, while ensuring the fix eventually applies everywhere.

Free your team from manual, machine-by-machine updates. With AuPoint, automate the patching of your third-party apps through Intune, keeping control and proof of every deployment. Request a demo to see automation at work across your fleet.