Making Mac Apps Work with Microsoft Intune Policies

Yesterday, I talked about some significant new updates rolled out to Microsoft Intune in the past couple days. The primary focus for the updates involves getting a better handle on managing app capability, separating business and personal data, and enabling centralize policies for what applications can and cannot do. Read about those here: More New Microsoft Intune Updates Rolling Out.

As you read through the list, it might hit you that Intune is becoming a very feature-rich product with full-ranging management capabilities. And, it is. But, it's not perfect yet. And, while Microsoft is investing considerable resources into the product, there are still a couple caveats. One of those is how Microsoft Intune manages (or, rather, can't manage) policies for Mac OS applications.

I'm sure this feature will be enriched soon, but in the interim, Microsoft has developed an add-on for Mac computers so Intune administrators can apply the same rich policies to Mac applications as they can for the other platforms it supports.

Called the Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool for iOS, Microsoft has now made this add-on available for download. On their own, Intune policies cannot be applied to Mac OS applications. This new tool allows administrators to "wrap" Mac applications so they can be managed by Intune.

You can grab the tool here: Microsoft Intune App Wrapping Tool for iOS

Microsoft is busy putting together documentation for the tool and when available will be at this link: http://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn878028.aspx