Viio’s Desktop Agent gives you complete visibility into the usage of locally installed desktop apps, which cloud-only discovery mechanisms (such as OAuth logs or direct integrations) might miss.
By running on the endpoint, the agent captures real usage data from these hidden apps, giving you a more complete view of your SaaS environment and helping you identify shadow IT.
Capabilities
✅ Desktop App Discovery | Detects usage of desktop applications present on Windows, Linux and macOS devices.
Ex. Adobe Creative Cloud apps (Photoshop, etc), Autodesk apps (AutoCAD, Revit, etc), Microsoft 365 apps (Word, Excel, etc). |
Prerequisites
Can be deployed on devices running Windows 10+ or macOS 11+
You'll need your Viio Customer Key (contact your Account Manager or [email protected], if you don't know your customer key)
(Optional) An MDM such as Microsoft Intune or Cisco Meraki, if you prefer an automated rollout.
Installing the Desktop Agent
There's two ways to roll out the Desktop Agent:
MDM Deployment — ✅ Recommended
Manual Install (via script)
MDM Deployment
Microsoft Intune / Cisco Meraki:
Log into Viio, go to Integrations and connect either Microsoft Intune or Cisco Meraki
Head over to our MDM and run the following scripts on all targeted devices (replacing the customer key as noted)
Windows
([scriptblock]::Create((Invoke-RestMethod -Uri 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/viio-io/agent-installer-scripts/main/windows.install.ps1'))).Invoke("SPECIFY_CUSTOMER_KEY_HERE")macOS
VIIO_CUSTOMER_KEY="YOUR_CUSTOMER_KEY" \
bash -c "$(curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/viio-io/agent-installer-scripts/main/macos.install.sh)"
Important: Replace YOUR_CUSTOMER_KEY with your actual Viio Customer Key
If you need any assistance with the actual deployment of the Agent in Intune or Cisco Meraki, please read these articles: Intune and more coming soon.
Please note that these are general guidelines and might not fit in your MDM configuration, these have been created with the kind assistance of our IT team, however each MDM slightly differs and if you experience any issues, as always please reach out.
Other MDMs:
Create a parameter for EMPLOYEE_EMAIL in your MDM, which you can include when you iterate over and run the script.
Run the following script on all targeted devices (replacing the parameters as noted)
Windows
([scriptblock]::Create((Invoke-RestMethod -Uri 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/viio-io/agent-installer-scripts/main/windows.install.ps1'))).Invoke("SPECIFY_CUSTOMER_KEY_HERE", "SPECIFY_EMPLOYEE_EMAIL_HERE")macOS
VIIO_CUSTOMER_KEY="YOUR_CUSTOMER_KEY" VIIO_EMPLOYEE_EMAIL="EMPLOYEE_EMAIL" \
bash -c "$(curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/viio-io/agent-installer-scripts/main/macos.install.sh)"
Important: Replace YOUR_CUSTOMER_KEY and EMPLOYEE_EMAIL with your actual Viio Customer Key and the device owner's email address. This links the device to the correct employee in your Viio tenant.
Manual Install (via script)
If you don not have an MDM, or your MDM does not support creating parameters, you'll need to manually run the script.
Run the following script on all targeted devices (replacing the parameters as noted):
Windows
([scriptblock]::Create((Invoke-RestMethod -Uri 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/viio-io/agent-installer-scripts/main/windows.install.ps1'))).Invoke("SPECIFY_CUSTOMER_KEY_HERE", "SPECIFY_EMPLOYEE_EMAIL_HERE")macOS
VIIO_CUSTOMER_KEY="YOUR_CUSTOMER_KEY" VIIO_EMPLOYEE_EMAIL="EMPLOYEE_EMAIL" \
bash -c "$(curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/viio-io/agent-installer-scripts/main/macos.install.sh)"
Important: Replace YOUR_CUSTOMER_KEY and EMPLOYEE_EMAIL with your actual Viio Customer Key and the device owner's email address. This links the device to the correct employee in your Viio tenant.
Troubleshooting
1. Check installation status
To verify if your Desktop Agent was deployed successfully, log into Viio and go to Integrations > Desktop Agent. Here you can see the status of each deployed agent.
🟢 Installed | Agent is installed successfully and transmitting data |
🔴 Failed | Device enrolled but agent cannot connect – see troubleshooting tips below |
⚪️ | Agent has not yet been installed on this device |
2. Gather debugging details
If one or more devices a failing, you'll need to gather some debugging details for the Viio support team to help.
First, choose a device that is failing from the list. Then run the following script to find the configuration file for the Desktop Agent on that device:
macOS
sudo cat /etc/viio.conf
Windows
C:\Program Files\Viio Desktop Agent\ conf.json
In addition, please also gather the device name, device ID and employee email.
3. Run a Troubleshooting script
To check Agent installation we've prepared troubleshooting script for each supported OS.
4. Reach to Support
Send the configuration file, device name, device ID and employee email to [email protected], along with a description of the issue you're facing and the file that the troubleshooting script will produce.
We’ll dig in, and help you resolve the issue as quickly as possible!
Uninstalling the Desktop Agent
Windows:
Open Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a Program
Search for “Viio”
Select and click Uninstall
macOS:
On macOS, the uninstall has to happen through the Terminal. Run the following script to uninstall the agent:
sudo launchctl remove io.viio.agent.metalauncher
sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/io.viio.agent.metalauncher.plist
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/viio
sudo rm /etc/viio.conf
Technical Details
The Viio Agent is read-only — it makes no changes to devices.
Built on OSquery (an open source project maintained by the Linux Foundation) and uses a minimal set of queries specific to app discovery.
All queries are securely published from Viio’s servers, and certificate pinning ensures only Viio can communicate with the agent.
No sensitive data is collected.
We only collect the following data:
Device ID
Date of app access
Application name
This data is visualised within your Viio environment — and never shared or stored externally.
Need Help?
Reach out to [email protected] or your Account Manager for:
Custom deployment assistance
Bulk rollout planning via Intune or Meraki
Security review documentation