(bright music)
- Coming up, I'll answer your top questions
for Office and Microsoft 365 app deployment and servicing.
Now, if you're running Office 2016 or earlier right now,
I'll explain what's different
and your best options to configure Office for deployment.
Then once everything is deployed,
I'll show you how you can predictably manage updates
for newer versions of Office,
whether you're targeting a few dozen
or a few thousand users.
Now first, if you have experience with Office 2016
or earlier versions,
let me explain what's different and what's the same.
Now it's important to know
that both the Microsoft 365 desktop apps
as well as Office 2019 and newer on-prem versions
use Click-to-Run installation packaging
and software update delivery for servicing.
That also means that MSI-based Office installation packages
have not been available since the Office 2016 release.
Click-to-Run uses a more modern technology stack
to install and service Microsoft 365 and Office apps
and all apps will run from the local disc.
And Click-to-Run is also used
to install both subscription
as well as perpetual activation versions of Office,
and it also works for both 32- and 64-bit installs
along with your existing Office COM-based add-ins
as well as macros.
So it's designed to be compatible even if
you're coming from 2016 or previous versions of Office.
Now Click-to-Run Office packages use a different type
of XML-based configuration file
compared to what you might be used to
using MSP-based configuration files for the MSI
when you deploy Office at scale.
So that covers what's new and different
for deployment and configuration.
So let's move on to tooling.
Now, as you move to newer versions of Office,
you can, of course, use your preferred
software distribution tools to configure and deliver
Office apps to your devices and users.
That said, another tool you should know about
gives you even more control and visibility.
This is the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center,
where you'll find everything you need
to configure the core apps and experiences
across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Outlook, and more.
You can get to it directly
by navigating to Office configuration
from the Microsoft 365 admin center
or using its direct address at config.office.com.
Here you can see that it includes capabilities
to create configuration files
used to customize the installation,
along with the policy management service
to enforce policies on a user's device.
Now, unlike the settings preferences
that you might be used to with MSI versions of Office,
these policy controls enforce your required settings
even if that device isn't domain joined
or enrolled in your device management.
For example, if a user self-installs Office desktop apps
from Office.com
on a personally-owned device and it's unmanaged,
then when they sign in
into their Office 365 work or school account,
your policy settings will get applied and enforced
for the Office apps.
And if the PCs you're deploying Office to
have existing Office apps,
you have the flexibility
to just uninstall the core Office apps
but keep other apps like Visio,
Project, SharePoint Designer, or InfoPath
running on those devices.
So those are some highlights
of core Office configuration controls
for newer versions of Office.
Now another area to understand is how updates are managed.
Now, there are a few choices here
and you might be wondering,
well, what's changed, and what are the options?
While you're creating the Office configuration file,
here in the Update channel control,
you can select from the Current channel, Monthly Enterprise,
or Semi-Annual Enterprise,
along with preview options for testing purposes.
Now let me explain how these updates and channels work.
Office updates are designed to deliver three things:
security and quality fixes, as well as new capabilities.
And as I mentioned, there are three primary channel options.
First, the Current channel,
where updates can be delivered more frequently
than once per month.
Next, there's the Semi-Annual channel
where feature updates are delivered twice per year
with additional security updates delivered monthly.
And in between those channels
is the Monthly Enterprise channel
with a predictable once-per-month release schedule.
Now, this channel gives you the best balance
between keeping the experience stable
and staying up-to-date with new capabilities.
This includes things like new security controls
for data loss prevention
or Microsoft Information Protection updates.
Now looking at the options,
you might think that the semi-annual option
seems like the way to go,
but here's the thing.
So with the Semi-Annual channel,
you might get stuck on a particular version
for six to 14 months while it's supported,
and during that time, you'll receive security updates
but only select quality fixes.
So you could be missing out on many of the
performance and reliability fixes
as well as new features
that your power users especially will want.
And the Semi-Annual channel is really intended
for specialized devices like PCs on the factory floor
or shared medical devices.
The Monthly Enterprise channel,
with its predictable delivery
of performance and quality updates,
is really what we recommend as the default
for most large organizations.
Update management for the Monthly Enterprise channel
also has the broadest set of admin controls
with a new option that's called servicing profiles.
Now, these let you automatically deliver
monthly Office updates for specific users or groups
and manage everything directly
from the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center.
I'll walk you through the steps to create one.
So first I'll choose the devices or groups that I want.
In this case, I'll target all devices.
And you can also set exclusion dates,
for example, if you don't want updates delivered
during busy periods for your organization.
So here in my example, I'll set one up for fiscal year end,
which I'll start at June 28th
and I'll have that run through July 6th.
Next, update deadlines let you configure
the number of days after an update is available
when installation is enforced.
In my case, I'll go ahead and set this to seven days.
And now I can review my settings and create my profile.
And then once you've set up servicing profiles,
there are additional controls.
So for example, you can pause updates
from the servicing profile at any time.
In settings, to customize rollout waves
to roll out updates over time,
you just need to select your groups.
In my case, I'll do this and choose finance.
Now I'll go ahead and choose my marketing group.
And those will be for the first wave
and then all remaining devices
will be in the second wave in my case.
And I can pick the number of days in between waves,
and I'll go ahead and choose three here.
Then after your servicing profile is running
and the updates get applied,
you can also track update progress over time
across the devices in scope,
along with any issues that might arise.
And if necessary, you can even roll back updates
to a previous update for specified devices.
Now, the primary advantage of using this model
versus traditional management tools
is that the success rate of updates according to our data
increases from 73%, if you're using traditional methods,
to 94.5% using servicing profiles.
And by the way, everything that I've shown you today so far
in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center
gives you more control
than what you're probably using today
with Endpoint Manager or Configuration Manager.
And the good news is that both experiences
can work together.
So for example, you can use your configuration XML files
from the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center
as part of your deployments with those other tools.
Now let me show you a few more controls
in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center
that are currently exclusive to this experience.
So here I'm in Security Update Status,
which gives you a nice 360-degree view
of the updates for all your devices
with Office or a Microsoft 365 apps,
as long as they're signed into your Office 365
or Microsoft 365 tenant.
Now, even though in my case I have a few days remaining
for my update goal of 95%,
I can easily see that devices are not up to date
and take action.
So I'm going to go ahead and open up Inventory,
and this gives me a complete dashboard
of the Office builds and channels deployed to devices
signed into my Office 365 tenant.
And you can also see a complete list of devices.
Now, if I go back, you get access
to a complete list of even all the COM add-ins
in use in your organization as well.
Now, these are views that aren't currently available
through Endpoint Manager's software inventory,
which is based on add/remove programs data
of only those devices that are enrolled
under device management.
But don't worry,
we're working on integrating these views and others
into Endpoint Manager without requiring any migration,
and until then, you can use them right from here.
And finally, you might be wondering,
well, what's the urgency
to move to a more recent version of Office?
Well, for that, there are a few support dates
that you'll want to consider.
So first, as a reminder for how Mainstream
and Extended Support work,
during Mainstream Support, typically for five years,
Microsoft provides software updates
that include both quality fixes and security updates.
Now in Extended Support,
Microsoft only provides security updates.
So let's translate that into Office versions
that you might have running now.
So for Office 2013, we'll reach the end of Extended Support,
meaning no more security updates,
as of April 2023.
Now, for Office 2016 and Office 2019,
we'll stop supporting the connection to our cloud services,
including Exchange Online,
in October 2023,
but you'll continue to get security updates
until the end of Extended Support for those products.
So check out aka.ms/SupportMechanics for more information.
That was a quick overview
of how you can use the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center
to configure and manage your favorite Office apps.
To learn more and try it out for yourself,
go to config.office.com,
and for more Office deployment deep dives,
check out aka.ms/ODInsidersVideos,
and be sure to subscribe to Microsoft Mechanics
for all the latest updates.
Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time.
(bright music)