Installing the PDQ Connect Agent (Windows)

The focus of this article is how to install the PDQ Connect agent on Windows devices. For macOS installations, see Installing the PDQ Connect agent for macOS.

Downloading the PDQ Connect Agent Installer

From the Devices page, select Install Agent at the bottom of the devices list, then choose Download Windows Installer.

The Agent MSI is unique for each organization and contains a token that expires after one year. This means that the same Agent MSI installer cannot continue to be used one year after initial download.

With any of the following installation methods, it's important to note that while the PDQ Connect Agent is self-updating, we do still suggest periodically updating the installer source used in deployments by redownloading the agent from the PDQ Connect console. As noted above, this must be done at least once per year. 

Manual Installation

To manually install the PDQ Connect agent, copy the PDQ Connect Agent installer to a device, then double on the MSI file it to begin the installation. On the first screen, click "Next" to proceed, then when prompted, check the box next to "I accept the terms in the License Agreement." and hit "Next" again to continue.

Select "Yes" if you are presented with a User Account Control prompt. 

Once the PDQ Connect Agent has been installed, the new device will appear in the PDQ Connect Devices page.

Command Line Installation

The following command may be used to silently install the agent after modifying the installer path to that of your own:

msiexec.exe /i "\\UNCPath\PDQConnectAgent-X.X.X.msi" ALLUSERS=1 /qn /norestart /log output.log

Installing with PDQ Deploy

This section applies to on-prem & VPN connected devices only.

In PDQ Deploy, create a new package with an Install Step.   Select the PDQ Connect Agent installer for the Install File.   Keep all other fields with their default settings.   Deploy the package by right clicking the package and selecting Deploy Once from the context menu or attach the new package to a Schedule.

Installing Through Group Policy

Create the Group Policy Object (GPO) Open Group Policy Management and browse down to the Organizational Unit (OU) that you want to deploy to Right click the OU you want to use and click "Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here..." Give the GPO a name Edit the GPO Right click the GPO and select Edit Browse to Computer Configuration > Policies > Software Settings > Software installation Right click on Software installation and select New > Package Browse to the PDQ Connect Agent .msi file from the UNC path that endpoints will have access to Select Assigned as the deployment method and click OK

Installing Through Intune/Autopilot (Win32 Packaging)

Wrapping the PDQ Connect Agent into a Win32 App

• Create two new directories on your local computer
  • C:\Intune
  • C:\Intune\Connect
• Download the IntuneWinAppUtil.exe from Microsoft's GitHub (more info on this tool here) and place it in the newly created C:\Intune\ folder
• Place the your organizations latest version of the Connect.msi installer in the C:\Intune\Connect folder
• Open an Admin PowerShell window and run the following commands...
  • C:\intune\IntuneWinAppUtil.exe
    • When prompted for a source folder, enter C:\Intune\Connect
    • When prompted for the setup file, enter PDQConnectAgent-X.X.X.msi (using the correct version number of your current agent)
    • When prompted for the output folder, enter C:\Intune
    • When prompted for whether or not to specify a catalog folder, enter N
  • When complete you should see similar results to the screenshot below and have the new PDQConnectAgent-X.X.X.intunewin file in your C:\Intune directory

Upload to Intune and Deploy

Head to Intune and go to Apps > Windows > Add > App type > Windows app (Win32)

Step 1 - App Information

Select your PDQConnectAgent-X.X.X.intunewin file and fill out any required fields. Most of them will be prefilled and the only other required field is "Publisher".

Step 2 - Program

Intune will automatically prefill all fields on this page. You will likely want to change the Allow available uninstall to No to prevent any users from uninstalling the agent. You do not need to modify the Device restart behavior as the agent does not require reboot for install.

Step 3 - Requirements

Choose any operating system architecture and minimum operating system requirements that your organization may have.

Step 4 - Detection Rules

This can be done a few different ways but the easiest is to use the Manually configure detection rules option and the File detection method. This is how Intune determines whether the agent is installed and will periodically check to ensure it still exists and reinstall if missing.

Path: C:\Program Files\PDQ\PDQConnectAgent\

File or folder: pdq-connect-agent.exe

Step 5 - Dependencies

These settings aren't required.

Step 6 - Supersedence

These settings aren't required.

Step 7 - Assignments

In most cases, it makes sense to choose Add all devices for the Required section of the assignments to catch all endpoints. If you have specific Entra ID device groups you can specify those here instead. Though not necessary it is recommended to change the end user notifications to hide all toast notifications to avoid unnecessary notifications to end users.

Step 8 - Review + Create

Give a quick once-over to make sure everything looks good then hit create!

Since the PDQ Connect Agent self-updates you do not need to constantly update the version in Intune but it is recommended to occasionally update the file in case of any major product changes. Intune will also not redeploy the older version over the newest version after it self-updates.

Preparing the PDQ Connect Agent for an Image

In order to include the PDQ Connect Agent in a device image, use the command below to install the PDQ Connect Agent on the machine you are creating your image from. This command will install the PDQ Connect Agent but will not start the service, preventing the device from registering. 

msiexec /i PDQConnectAgent-{version}.msi START=no /qn

The image will need to be created without ever starting the PDQConnectAgent service, and the service should be set to start automatically. This will allow any device that used the image you are creating to start the PDQConnectAgent service for the first time upon the first boot and register in PDQ Connect as a new device. 

Rebooting the image machine with the PDQConnectAgent service set to start automatically will cause it to register with PDQ Connect, and will prevent any machines that use that image from properly registering. Because of this, it is recommended to install the PDQ Connect Agent using the command above after any necessary reboots have already been performed while creating the image. If a reboot must be performed on the machine you're creating the image with, after using the command to install the PDQ Connect Agent, set the PDQConnectAgent service to Disabled first so it will not start when the device boots back up. Before completing the image and after all required reboots have been performed, you will need to set the service back to start automatically.