Microsoft Edge for Mac - Any way to force updates?

[PEBKAC]

We are planning to deploy Microsoft Edge for mac soon in our org. One my main worries is having a way to ensure the app is always auto updated. What is the best way to go about enforcing this?

[sh856531]

I know this is a fairly equivocal answer but we used Instalomater to rollout Edge and we also use it to update Edge on a recurring basis to the latest version. This and Edge's own update mechanism does seem to keep it fairly up to date. I can't say the same for many other apps but I haven't been able to tell the exact reason that they don't update well yet.

[jcarr]

Have you tried using the Jamf App Catalog?  I have a few different apps deployed this way and they appear to be staying up-to-date.

[ysdevgan]

You could use a script or config profile. Here is link that has info - Update Microsoft applications for Mac by using msupdate - Deploy Office | Microsoft Docs

[Utilizator]

Can you not use the Patch Management part of Jamf Pro?

We use this to keep most of the browsers our users install up to date... download the PKG from the vendor (in this case Microsoft), upload it to Jamf, define it in Patch Management and scope to All Managed Clients (which will only target devices with Edge installed). Set it and forget it.

[sh856531]

Hey

Its possible I've misundestood how this works

Do you just need to upload the package once and Jamf then somehow keeps that application up to date in perpetuity? When I've looked at this area, the act of uploading a package (which Jamf could surely do for us for common software types) gave me the impression I would have to do that for all apps and all updates, which would be unmanageable.

If it is the case that once packaged and uploaded jamf somehow then manages to update the software in perpetuity going forward, I'm not sure what the purpose of thousands of people all uploading Firefox (for example) to Jamf is? Why wouldn't Jamf facilitate the whole end to end process?

Thanks in advance

[Utilizator]

There's basically 2 ways to approach this:

1. Patch Management - you need to keep the definitions updated manually (so when a new version is released, download the PKG from the vendor, upload it to Jamf and define it in Patch Management then create a Patch Policy for it)
   
   
2. Jamf App Catalog - add the Application from the Catalog and then (as far as I know) Jamf Pro takes care of the rest, keeping it up to date as and when new versions become available.
   
   

I believe the Jamf App Catalog is still in beta (could be wrong), but it's also a fairly new addition to Jamf Pro and I have only had a brief look at it. For now, my workflow uses the first way (Patch Management), I like to have control over when I update Applications.

[sh856531]

Thanks

I almost got excited there when you gave me hope that App Catalog might actually work. I want to specifically avoid needing to try and manage specific versions of apps. If a critical security update is released, I just want it on every machine with a short space of time.

Unfortunately my experience so far of trying to get App Catalog to works is 0 for 2. I've tried to get it to install Zoom and Firefox and it has gone nowhere. To be fair - this is roughly the experience I am coming to expect from Apple and Jamf when trying to automate things at enterprise scale. 

It seems like numerous other users are having similar issues:

https://community.jamf.com/t5/jamf-pro/jamf-app-catalog-mac-apps-not-installing/td-p/268719 

[Justin13579]

What we do is use the Microsoft Office Preferences Configuration Profile and target external applications: com.microsoft.autoupdate2

Then in the config of that - target Edge and set Enable AutoUpdate: True.

It also allows us to mandate how often the updates are checked for (we set it to every 4 Hours). 
You can configure a bunch of other settings in there. 

Then we created a self service app called "Run Microsoft AutoUpdate" and targeted 
open /Library/"Application Support"/Microsoft/Mau2.0/"Microsoft AutoUpdate.app"

This allows us to have the user trigger an update anytime they want without having to be in an app and knowing where to go.