Egnyte Desktop App for Windows Mass Deployment

Mass deployment tools allow organizations to install and update software for multiple users at once. Common examples of tools include Microsoft SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) or deployments using Group Policy Objects (GPO). Mass deployment tools can allow admins to control deployments of software and updates for larger customers. 

This guide will provide step-by-step instructions on setting up a Mass Deployment of the Egnyte Desktop App on Windows. 

Mass deployment of the Desktop App is split into three phases:

1. Installation or Upgrade: The app is installed on the machine using an account with admin privileges. If only setting up a single drive per user, admins can specify command-line options during installation to specify details like the domain being connected to, the drive letter and label to use, and whether SSO is being used for signing the user in.
2. Scheduling Upgrade After Reboot: Best practices for deploying scheduled upgrade which is performed on next system reboot and doesn’t interrupt user’s flow.
3. Configuration: Drives are configured on behalf of users after installation using a new command-line tool shipped with the product. If configuring more than one drive per user, admins must use the command-line tool.

Prerequisites

1. Download the latest version from the Desktop App Installers page
   OR
   Use the static link for mass deployment script: Egnyte Connect for Windows
2. Review System Requirements.

Installation or Upgrade

To install or upgrade, ensure admins run the installation in the context of a user with admin privileges on the machine when using a tool. When upgrading, we recommend admins use the same command-line parameters that were used at install to ensure the same user experience. Suppressing a reboot during installation or upgrade is not supported, unless running in ED_UPDATE_ON_BOOT=1 mode. Please refer to instructions in the Scheduling Upgrades After Reboot Section.

Recommendation: if supported by a software distribution system, it is recommended to mass deploy using transform (.mst) file together with the original msi package. Transform takes the same parameters as msiexec command. 

Examples of command-line installation calls that can be used:

• Standard installation - users will be prompted to add their own drives.
  msiexec /i EgnyteDesktopApp_v3.x.x.msi /passive Here EgnyteDesktopApp_v3.x.x.msi is name of the downloaded installer file.
   
• Standard installation with silent launch - users will not be prompted to add drives, and admins will be adding drives using the command-line tool (see Configuration section below).
  msiexec /i EgnyteDesktopApp_v3.x.x.msi ED_SILENT=1 /passive
• Standard installation using a non-standard installation directory with silent launch - installation on admin preferred directory; users will not be prompted to add drives, and admins will be adding drives using the command-line tool.
  msiexec /i EgnyteDesktopApp_v3.x.x.msi ED_SILENT=1 INSTALLDIR="C:\ProgramData\Egnyte Desktop App" /passive
• Installation using the standard install directory where admins want to add one drive for each local user account on the machine and force SSO login to the acme.egnyte.com domain.
  msiexec /i EgnyteDesktopApp_v3.x.x.msi ED_DRIVE_DOMAIN=acme ED_DRIVE_LABEL=acme ED_DRIVE_SSO=1 ED_DRIVE_LETTER=Z
  

Any combination of the following command-line parameters can be used at install:

Property	Values
INSTALLDIR	Installation directory Default: C:\Program Files\ Egnyte Connect\ 32-Bit Application Versions (3.31.1 and below) Default: C:\Program Files (x86)\ Egnyte Connect\
ED_DATA_STORAGE_DIR	Defines data storage location. Default: %localappdata%\ Value: If the specified path under C:\Users\<username>, the structure will be C:\Users\%username%\<rest of chosen path>\<data>   If selecting a path outside of C:\Users\<username>, the structure will be <chosen path>\<%username%>\<data>
Upgrade on Reboot
ED_UPDATE_ON_BOOT (Available on version 4.2.1 and higher)	Schedules the Desktop App upgrade to take place after the next system restart. This option is intended for use in environments where reboot is suppressed during deployment. When used, the installer stages the upgrade and completes installation automatically after the device is restarted. It has no effect on fresh installations and can be safely used for both first deployment and upgrade scenarios. MUST be used together with reboot suppression options such as /norestart or REBOOT=ReallySuppress. Note: When ED_UPDATE_ON_BOOT=1 is used, the upgrade is staged during deployment and finalised on the next system restart. If other software installations or Windows Updates are pending a reboot on the same device, Windows may defer or block the upgrade until all pending installer sessions are resolved, which may require multiple reboots. Admins should ensure devices are rebooted promptly after deployment to avoid extended pending states in management consoles such as Intune or SCCM. Value: 0 or 1 Default: 0.
Silent Launch
ED_SILENT	Defines whether login prompts should be suppressed when the application is started without drives. ED_SILENT = 1 suppresses all prompts, such as onboarding new features prompts. Note: This should not be used if using the install parameters starting with ED_DRIVE_ to configure drives. If using the command-line tool to add drives, this must be set to 1. Value: 0 or 1 Default: 0
Proxy settings
ED_PROXY_SERVER	By default, proxy settings are not used. To configure proxy settings by mass configuration proxy server must be defined.
ED_PROXY_PORT	Defines proxy port for connection settings (will be only applied if ED_PROXY_SERVER is defined). Value: Between 0 and 65535 Default: 0
ED_PROXY_PASSWORD_REQUIRED	Proxy setting required password (will be only applied if ED_PROXY_SERVER is defined). Value: 0 or 1 Default: 0
Drive settings  Note: These options can be used if only adding a single drive for each user. For adding multiple drives for the same user, use the command-line tool detailed in the Configuration section of this article.
ED_DRIVE_DOMAIN	Default account domain.
ED_DRIVE_LABEL	The label that will be shown at the mounted drive. Forbidden characters: ? < > / , * + = | \ [ ] " Maximal characters length: 30
ED_DRIVE_LETTER	Drive letter at which default account drive should be mounted. Value: E:, F:, … X:, Y:, Z: Note: If the letter is already in use, an available letter will be used. Default: none
ED_DRIVE_MOUNT	Mounting point for the drive (e.g.,/Shared/). Case sensitive.
ED_DRIVE_SSO	Defines if SSO authentication should be used. Note: This will be only used if one of ED_DRIVE_DOMAIN, ED_DRIVE_LABEL, ED_DRIVE_LETTER, ED_DRIVE_MOUNT is defined. Value: 0 or 1 Default: 0
ED_SUPPORT_VDI	Enabling this flag allows Desktop App to disregard local machine configuration if it does not match the current user configuration. This is necessary if the VDI environment supports assigning machines at runtime. Note: Ensure that each of the possible machines has Desktop App installed. Values: 0 or 1 Default: 0
ED_SEC_ATTRIBS (Not available for versions prior 3.15.0)	Enabling this flag will make a drive mount as an NTFS instead of FAT32. Additionally, fixed folders attributes set in WebUI will be respected by Desktop App. This needs to be set only once and application updates will keep this setting. Values: 0 or 1 Default: 0
ED_ADMIN_ACCESS	Enabling this flag allows elevated processes access to files on Egnyte drives. This needs to be set only once and application updates will keep this setting. Values: 0 or 1 Default: 0
ED_MASS_CONFIG_FILE_PATH	Specify a filepath to a JSON configuration file that should be used to set up Desktop App drives. Please see Desktop App for Windows Mass Configuration Capabilities article for details on how to prepare configuration file. Example: ED_MASS_CONFIG_FILE_PATH=D:\Configuration\mass_config.json

Scheduling Upgrades After Reboot

Starting with Desktop App version 4.2.1, when deploying the Egnyte Desktop App in managed environments, administrators may choose to suppress automatic system restarts during installation.

Because upgrading the Desktop App requires a system restart to complete, deployments that suppress reboot can use a dedicated installation option to ensure the upgrade completes successfully.

ED_UPDATE_ON_BOOT Option

The installer supports the following option:

ED_UPDATE_ON_BOOT=1

When this option is used, the installer will:

• stage the upgrade during installation
• complete the upgrade automatically after the next system restart

This allows administrators to deploy the update without interrupting active user sessions.

When to Use This Option?

Use ED_UPDATE_ON_BOOT=1 when:

• deploying upgrades via Intune, SCCM, or other MDM tools
• suppressing reboot during installation
• scheduling updates to complete during planned restarts

Usage Requirements

When using ED_UPDATE_ON_BOOT=1, reboot suppression must also be enabled.

This can be done using:

/norestart

OR

REBOOT=ReallySuppress

Example

EgnyteDesktopApp.msi /quiet REBOOT=ReallySuppress ED_UPDATE_ON_BOOT=1

In this example:

• the installation runs silently
• the system is not restarted during deployment
• the upgrade completes after the next system reboot

Troubleshooting - Upgrade Does Not Complete After Reboot

If the Desktop App does not upgrade to the new version after a system restart, verify the checks below:

1. Another installation was pending reboot at the time of deployment - Windows allows only one MSI installer session to run at a time. If a prior installation had not been fully committed by a reboot, the scheduled Egnyte upgrade may have been blocked. In most cases, a subsequent system restart will allow the upgrade to proceed automatically.
2. Egnyte Update Service is not running - The upgrade on reboot mechanism relies on the Egnyte Update Service to complete the installation after restart. Verify the service is present and running on the affected device.

If none of the above resolves the issue, perform a clean reinstall of the previous Desktop App version before re-attempting the upgrade deployment.

Disabling Updates

Admins can control whether they want the app to notify and update users to the latest version of the Desktop App with the configuration setting in the web interface.

Configuration

The Desktop App includes a command-line tool that is run from the installation directory. The command-line tool can be used in the second phase of deployment to automatically add and configure drives on behalf of users. If the command-line tool is being used after a mass installation, admins must use the ED_SILENT=1 flag to suppress the Desktop App prompting users to log in.

Any calls to the command-line tool should be run in the context of the user for whom drives are being configured. This allows different deployment strategies for different types of users on the same machine. For example, a marketing user might be used to seeing an M: drive that is mapped directly to the /Shared/Marketing folder in the organization while an employee from HR might be used to seeing an H: drive that shows all content in the domain.

• In regular environments (where user profiles are not wiped after logout), drives only need to be added once. The configuration remains persistent across sessions. Running the drive setup script after every login is not required in such setups. 
• In environments where user profiles are reset after logout, the drive script must be executed during each login to re-establish the drives.

Documentation

To see more information about what is possible with the command-line tool, run the following commands in the installation directory of Egnyte and a popup window will appear providing additional information.

Installation parameters: msiexec EgnyteDrive.exe --help

Configuration parameters: EgnyteClient.exe --help

Examples Of Commands For Other Desktop App Features 

Set Desktop app to online mode

EgnyteClient.exe -command online

Set Desktop app to offline mode

EgnyteClient.exe -command offline

 

Update Desktop App Configuration using config files

Refer to Desktop App for Windows Mass Configuration Capabilities article for details on how to prepare configuration files.

EgnyteClient.exe -command managed_configuration_update -p <path_to_source_path>

This command uses a file under the specified path as a configuration file.

EgnyteClient.exe -command managed_configuration_clear

This command clears all configuration files.

Disable hardware-accelerated rendering

In some virtual machine environments, the Desktop App UI could fail to render correctly due to conflicts with certain Intel Iris graphics drivers.

To resolve the issue, there is a command to run Desktop App for Windows with hardware acceleration disabled or re-enable it again:

launches the app with hardware acceleration disabled.

--rendering=software

 re-enables hardware acceleration.

--rendering=hardware

This setting is retained until explicitly changed.

Best Practices

Egnyte's recommendation is to use mass deployment tools and strategies that allow scripts to run against the command-line tool on user login. If running a command would have no impact (e.g., because it was already run previously), the command will simply be ignored.

To ensure that the app is running at the time of using the tool, we recommend running the following command at the start of any configuration script to force the Desktop App to start before any commands are sent (the example below assumes admins are using the default install directory for 64-bit systems at %programfiles%\Egnyte Connect - if not, replace the full path to EgnyteClient.exe accordingly).
"%programfiles%\Egnyte Connect\EgnyteClient.exe" --auto-silent

Examples of commands for adding and configuring drives

• Add a single drive (M:) for the 'acme' domain via SSO but don't connect the drive immediately (will prompt the user to log in using their SSO account).
  EgnyteClient.exe -command add -l "Acme Drive" -d "acme" -sso use_sso -t M
   

  Running this command twice in a row will only add one drive as a single user cannot have two drives with the same label (this is a good way to ensure that a login script that runs on every login will avoid adding the same drive every time a user logs in).

• Add a single drive (M:) for the 'acme' domain via SSO and connect the drive immediately (will prompt the user to log in using their SSO account).
  EgnyteClient.exe -command add -l "Acme Drive" -d "acme" -sso use_sso -t M -c connect_immediately
   
• Add a single drive (E:) for the 'acme' domain which will use Egnyte or AD authentication and connect the drive immediately (will prompt the user to log in using their Egnyte or AD credentials).
  EgnyteClient.exe -command add -l "Acme Drive" -d "acme" -t E -c connect_immediately
   
• Add two drives (M: and E:) connected to the Marketing and Engineering folders in the 'acme' domain via SSO and connect both automatically (will prompt the user to login using their SSO account for each drive added this way).
  EgnyteClient.exe -command add -l "Marketing" -d "acme" -sso use_sso -t M -m "/Shared/Marketing" -c connect_immediately
EgnyteClient.exe -command add -l "Engineering" -d "acme" -sso use_sso -t E -m "/Shared/Engineering" -c connect_immediately
• Disconnect an existing 'Marketing' drive and reconnect for remote troubleshooting after installation.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command disconnect -l "Marketing"
EgnyteClient.exe -command connect -l "Marketing"
• Remove an existing drive labeled "Acme Drive".
  EgnyteClient.exe -command remove -l "Acme Drive"
  Modify a drive labeled "Acme Drive" to use the "M": drive letter.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command update -l "Acme Drive" -t M
• Modify a drive labeled "Acme Drive" to use the "Acme Drive Updated" label.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command update -l "Acme Drive" -o "Acme Drive Updated"
• Force silent mode during drive configuration for drive labeled 'Acme Drive'.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command connect -l "Acme Drive" --auto-silent
   

Examples of commands for other Desktop App features 

• Add the /Private/<username> folder to the list of folders the user has synchronized for offline access under the drive labeled 'Acme Drive'
  EgnyteClient.exe -command sync -l "Acme Drive" -a "/Private"
• Remove the /Shared/Engineering folder from the list of folders the user has synchronized for offline access under the drive labeled 'Acme Drive'.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command sync -l "Acme Drive" -r "/Shared/Engineering"
   
• Stop syncing all folders under the drive labeled 'Acme Drive' for offline access.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command sync -l "Acme Drive" -c clear_all
  Note that using ::egnyte_usernmae:: resolves to the Egnyte username of the user who is logged in.
• Set up a Connected folder with the user's Desktop in the drive labeled 'Acme'.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command connect_folder -l acme -a "C:\Users\%username%\Desktop" -r "/Private/::egnyte_username::/Desktop"
   
• Disconnect the user's Desktop in the drive labeled 'Acme'.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command connect_folder -l acme -rm "C:\Users\%username%\Desktop"

• Enable Debug logging - NEW
  EgnyteClient.exe -command log -v on / off 
• Set Desktop App's default starting language to German:
  EgnyteClient.exe -command language -v de_DE

• Set Desktop App's default sync bandwidth to 1,000 KB/s:
  EgnyteClient.exe -command max_bandwidth [max_upload_KBps=1000 max_download_KBps=1000]
   

Uninstall the Desktop App

To uninstall, simply run the same command that was run for the upgrade or install but use /x instead of /i. For example:
msiexec /x EgnyteDesktopApp_v3.x.x.msi /passive