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Soon Microsoft are to release an update to the Office 2016 Volume License installer on VLSC.
15.006.30527 Planned update, Aug 11, 2020; 15.006.30523 Planned update, May 12, 2020; 15.006.30518 Planned update, March 17, 2020; 15.006.30510 Planned. Dec 15, 2020 For devices using MacOS 10.13 or above and Office 2016 versions, users will see notifications of Office 2016 reaching end of support. If the apps Word, Excel and Powerpoint do not have a window open, and the device is in Microsoft AutoUpdate's Automatic mode of updates, users will not need to quit these apps to apply updates. Microsoft Word 2016 for Mac 15.17.1.pkg Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac This update is available from Microsoft AutoUpdate. AutoUpdate is provided together with Office. All Office 2016 for Mac users received an update to the new '16.xx' build. While these builds contain advanced new features, some existing third-party extensions may have compatibility problems with the new version. Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, Office 2019, and Office 2016. HKEYLOCALMACHINE software policies microsoft office 16.0 common OfficeUpdate. HKEYLOCALMACHINE software Wow6432Node microsoft office 15.0 common OfficeUpdate. Examine the following registry values under the OfficeUpdate key.
This update is 15.17 & is the first that has a few changes that may affect the way you deploy Office 2016.
These changes are going to be later enforced in 15.20 & onwards. Below are some details on the changes, some of the why & how via the power of the MacAdmins.org Slack & the awesome @pbowden that some of us have had a sneak peek.
Contents
- 1 What’s Changing?
When you download the .iso from VLSC you’ll notice two packages within it:
The change is the new second pkg: “Microsoft_Office_2016_VL_Serializer.pkg”
What’s that about?
Well, for a while now it’s been fairly common practice to deploy the Office license to Macs outside of the Office installers or updates.
This came about as on occasion an Office Update or Installer would delete the file.
However, whilst the deletion itself was a bug, the ability to use the license.plist across Macs was also a bug.
What is it & should I use it?
With Office 2016, Microsoft are moving to a device based serialisation method. Which means that deploying the plist /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.licensingv2.plist will no longer work.
This device based serialisation is based around the generating a license on the Mac that is to be running Office 2016.
So if you employ monolithic imaging or deploy Office 2016 via a Composer snap shot etc, the serialisation will not work. (Please don’t deploy Office 2016 via a Composer snap shot, use the pkg).
Also, if you install Office 2016 whilst booted to another volume (as in when installing via a NetBoot or NetInstall volume or something like Target Mode Imaging), again the serialisation will not work.
To install Office 2016 from another volume & have the serialisation work, cache it locally on the Mac being imaged & install on first boot or if using Casper Imaging check “Install on boot drive after Imaging” for the PKG from within Casper Admin.
Office 2016 Mac
However, to enable Office 2016 to be correctly licensed in the multitude of deployment scenarios that we mac admins employ, @pbowden & his team have created the “Microsoft_Office_2016_VL_Serializer.pkg”
How To Go Back To Office 2016 For Mac 15.xx Versions From 16 ...
Running this will correctly serialise the Office 2016 suite, & should be run from the Mac that’s running the suite. So again, can be added post imaging & then the suite will be correctly serialised.
To be clear, this will only affect you if using the Volume Licensed version of Office 2016 & not the Office365 version.
What happens if I carry on copying the licensing.plist?
For now, not much.
15.17 is the first release with the “Microsoft_Office_2016_VL_Serializer.pkg”, from 15.20 (scheduled for Q1 2016) you will have to use the correct license.
How did people find this out?
Download Office 2016 Mac
Well a little over a month ago a gentleman with the nick @pbowden hopped into the #microsoft-office channel on the MacAdmins.org Slack, this was awesome as @pbowden is a: Software engineer for Office for Mac/iOS at Microsoft, a fellow Brit & nice guy.
It’s been a great few weeks with the community sharing feedback with @pbowden & some of us being able to test pre-release installers for Office.
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I hope this warning has been as helpful to you, as it was when @pbowden shared it with us.