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Application Management ​

This section describes how Turbo Launcher discovers, organizes, and manages applications using discovery providers and policy.

What You'll Learn

  • How to configure discovery providers, priorities, and scopes
  • How to filter, deduplicate, and group applications across ecosystems
  • How policy and discovery work together for application management

1. Discovery providers configuration ​

Use discovery provider configuration to decide which ecosystems are in scope, how they are prioritized, and which entries are allowed into the catalog. In practice, this is where you turn on desktop, web, SaaS, CLI, and workspace sources and order them so the most trusted or most complete providers win.

Discovery is configured under configuration.discovery.providers.

The example below shows a typical enterprise configuration that enables desktop, web, SaaS, CLI, portable, and workspace providers with explicit priorities and filters:

json
{
  "configuration": {
    "discovery": {
      "providers": [
        { "type": "windows.msix", "enabled": true },
        { "type": "windows.shortcuts", "enabled": true },
        { "type": "macos.launchservices", "enabled": true },
        { "type": "linux.freedesktop", "enabled": true },
        {
          "type": "web.pwa",
          "enabled": true,
          "options": {
            "browsers": ["edge", "chrome"],
            "requireInstalled": true,
            "defaultBrowser": "edge"
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "web.bookmarks",
          "enabled": true,
          "options": {
            "browsers": ["edge", "chrome"],
            "includeProfiles": ["Default", "Profile *"],
            "importRules": {
              "allow": ["*.contoso.com/*", "*.microsoft.com/*"],
              "deny": ["*.example.net/private/*"]
            },
            "defaultBrowser": "edge"
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "saas.okta",
          "enabled": true,
          "options": {
            "domain": "contoso.okta.com",
            "preferDeepLink": true,
            "defaultBrowser": "edge"
          },
          "filters": {
            "include": ["Salesforce*", "Workday*"],
            "exclude": ["*Sandbox*"]
          }
        },
        { "type": "cli.path", "enabled": true },
        { "type": "portable.apps", "enabled": true },
        {
          "type": "turbo.workspaces",
          "enabled": true,
          "options": {
            "domains": ["portal.example.com"],
            "requireLogin": true,
            "offlineMode": "subscribedOnly"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Filters:

  • include / exclude patterns apply to canonical name, id, and provider ref.
  • Provider-specific filters further constrain scope (folders, hosts, remotes, channels).

See: Application Discovery

2. Providers catalog (summary) ​

Discovery providers cover desktop, web/SaaS, CLI, portable, container, and workspace applications across Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Use provider priority and filtering to:

  • Prefer PWA entries over OS shortcuts where appropriate.
  • Exclude unapproved catalogs, remotes, or channels.
  • Restrict entries to approved hosts, remotes, channels, or workspaces.

For the complete providers catalog, including all provider types, options, and configuration examples, use the canonical reference:

3. Grouping and presentation ​

The Applications tab groups entries by OS and source:

  • Windows – START MENU, DESKTOP, APPS
  • macOS – APPLICATIONS (System/User)
  • Linux – APPLICATIONS (System/User)
  • Web – PWAs, SaaS, BOOKMARKS

Start Menu folders are flattened unless they contain multiple allowed apps; Desktop is a flat list. Bookmark folders may be grouped depending on configuration.

4. Troubleshooting application visibility and launch ​

See:

Typical checks:

  • Confirm providers are enabled and properly configured.
  • Validate policy JSON and ensure at least one allow rule matches.
  • Review launcher logs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Turbo\Logs.

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