We would like to be able to initiate a cached SCCM application (script) through a command line which will probably be delivered through a desktop shortcut. The reasoning is as follows, I welcome any alternate suggestions for the approach.

• We have an application which is essentially a script which works with content (20GB+) managed outside of SCCM. Essentially the script pulls the non-SCCM managed content down to the device (there is some additional complexity in this script)
• The reason for utilising SCCM is the ability to allow the application to re-run and most importantly run under an elevated account
• The application and a desktop shortcut will be managed/delivered through SCCM
• We'd like to initiate the application using the shortcut rather than using the Software Center or App Catalog for ease of use but appreciate we will need to factor in SCCM client agent readiness

Would anyone be able to point us to a documented client command line that will initiate a cached application, in line with clicking install on an available application in the Software Center?

Thanks

Well the thing you need to do know about the CCM cache is that the application will be in a folder that pertain to the number of deployment. SO for example if you deployed 5 application they the folder would be name 1 2 3 4 5. SO this issue here would be to make sure the shortcut you are using point into the right ccmcache folder. 

You would also make sure that the in the deployment type the Persist content in the client cache is check to make the client doesn't remove it.

So your shortcut would need to be a script that find the file you are looking for in c:\windows\ccmcache\incrementalnumber\deployment after that you could start what ever you want.

But honestly i think this method is clunky at best. How you will manage the update to the application how will you make sure that users have the last version and so on. I can`t assure you that the content will remain in the cache and never be overwritten because you are deploying something huge and it need the space.

Hope this help

It will be almost impossible to create a shortcut for this because the cache location will change between clients.

Now you might be able to create a short cut to a script that will trigger the install on the client. However this will not be a easy task and will take time for you to create such a script.

"We'd like to initiate the application using the shortcut rather than using the Software Center or App Catalog for ease of use"

Not sure what you're basing this statement on -- have you asked your users? Is some pointy haired boss saying this? It really can't get any easier, cleaner, and more straight-forward than opening one of these particularly the app catalog as the web browser is where most users spend a large portion of their time in the first place. Making a shortcut to everything that is available on the desktop would make me very mad as a user. The desktop is the user's and should not be cluttered.

Why not put a shortcut to one of these (software center or app catalog) on the desktop? The user's will very quickly learn via word of mouth this where they need to go -- I've seen it happen multiple times in production environments.

Jason, a very fair point and Software Center is by far the technical team preferred approach as it doesn't require complex scripting to identify a content cache location using the app or package ID.

It's been business driven and there has been some consultation. This device is the first experience of a PC for many of our end users and they see this is the quickest and simplest way of finding and launching the "update process". It would be the only desktop shortcut (the desktop is locked down) and would also be added to the Windows 8.1 Start Screen. I've intimated this approach may be possible but will be extremely complex and time consuming to devise and manage. So I said I'd ask the question and the response is much as expected, so I will push the Software Center approach.

Garth, etc. I had reasoned launching from the cache was going to be complex due to the nature of it's structure. I'd hoped to use the client API to query the cache location specific for each device. The complexity of the "script" started to hit home so now I've asked the question I'll hopefully be able to pursue the more rational approach.

Thanks all.