Desktop MSI Installer and Group Policy Installation Guides (Beta) 

Available in Mattermost Free and Starter subscription plans. Available for Mattermost Self-Hosted deployments.

This guide provides steps to install the MSI and use Group Policies in Windows Professional or Enterprise. The MSI installer package can be downloaded here.

Note

The Mattermost MSI installer and Group Policy (GPO) definitions are in Beta. If you are using this installer or GPOs and have feedback, particularly if you are an organization executing remote deployments, please contact us in the MSI Installer channel on our Community server or on our community forum. We hope to promote this installer out of Beta when the known issues are addressed and we are confident that the various deployment scenarios expected in production environments are tested sufficiently with the help of organizations using this Beta. Feedback is highly appreciated.

Installation Guide 

Download Group Policy and MSI Installer files 

  1. Using a newly created Windows VM or dedicated Windows computer, make sure to use a Windows version that supports Edit group policy out of the box (i.e. Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise).

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00001.png

  2. Navigate to the Mattermost Desktop repo on Github.com.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00002.png

  3. Navigate to the release page for version v5.0.4 and download the appropriate installer for your version of Windows (32bit vs. 64bit).

  4. Download the source.zip file as well to extract group policy files.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00003.png

Installing Group Policy files locally 

  1. Browse to the folder the above files were downloaded to and unzip the desktop-5.0.4.zip file in place.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00004.png

  2. Navigate to the unzipped desktop-5.0.4\resources\windows\gpo folder and copy the contents.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00005.png

  3. Navigate to the C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions folder and paste the files copied in the last step.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00006.png

  4. Verify the mattermost.admx file is in the C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions folder.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00007.png

  5. Verify the mattermost.adml file is in the C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US folder.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00008.png

Notes:

  • \\FQDNDomain\sysvol\FQDNDomain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions can be used instead of C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions if available.

  • \\FQDNDomain\sysvol\FQDNDomain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\en-US can be used instead of C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US if available.

Configure Mattermost using Group Policy settings 

  1. Run the Edit group policy application by clicking Start, typing gpedit into the search field and clicking on the resulting Edit group policy search option.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00009.png

  2. In the Edit group policy window, navigate to Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Mattermost. A list of the available policies can be found here. In this example, double click on DefaultServerList to set one or more default servers that will appear on app launch.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00010.png

  3. In the resulting window for DefaultServerList, click on Enabled to turn the feature on and then click on the Show… button in the Options: section of the window to add default servers.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00011.png

  4. In the resulting window, add desired Mattermost servers using a memorable name (i.e. Community) and the web url of the Mattermost server (i.e. https://community.mattermost.com).

  5. Click the OK button twice and close the Edit group policy application.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00012.png

Verify Group Policy settings have been applied 

  1. To verify the settings applied correctly, open up the Registry Editor by clicking on the Start button, typing Registry Editor in the search field and selecting the Registry Editor option in the search results.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00013.png

  2. In the Registry Editor window, navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mattermost\DefaultServerList and verify the servers you added using the Edit group policy app are listed.

  3. Close the Registry Editor once verified.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00014.png

Install Mattermost Desktop using the MSI installer 

  1. Back in the folder the MSI installer was downloaded to, double click on the MSI installer to begin the Mattermost Desktop installation process.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00015.png

  2. Installation of the MSI requires admin permission, so accept the resulting request to allow the installer to make changes to your device.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00016.png

  3. Click the Finish button when the installation is complete.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00017.png

Verify Group Policy settings in the installed Desktop app 

  1. Launch the newly installed Mattermost app from the Start menu.

  2. Verify the app loads the first server defined in the Edit group policy app.

    ../_images/msi_gpo_installation_test_00018.png

Silent Installation Guide 

Perform a silent installation of MSI by running the following command:

msiexec /i mattermost-desktop-v5.0.4-x64.msi /qn

Note: Current version is 5.0.4. In the future, you may need to change this command accordingly.