[ms office - 2016] Deploying Office 365 vs Office 2016

[disk]

So we are just now beginning our rollout of Windows 10 and Office 2016, but one of my group brought up an interesting question. Since we have an Office 365 license for the campus, it appears as though we have the ability to push out either version of the desktop suite to our end users. Am I correct in this thinking? Are any of your institutions pushing out Office 2016 using the O365 licensing model?

 

This was brought up due mainly to the feature updates that get rolled out on a monthly basis to Office 2016 for O365 subscribers. They worried about our users wanting/needing some of those features in the future, or at the very least, being confused as to why they have a certain feature on their home PC and not on their work PC.

[xlandhenry]

We haven't gone that route yet but planned to do so. You need to make sure your Office 365 tenant has Office 365 Education Pro Plus licensing so that you can utilize the device-based activation model: https://docs.com/caseyhill/8578/microsoft-office-365-proplus-device-based

 

You may also want to deploy the updates internally so automatic updates won't clogged up the network.

[JasonNVSD]

We're in the middle of deploying Office 2016 VL. It's very similar to Office 2013, so most of the deployment documentation was unchanged. We also have Office 365 cloud and it integrates nicely (with the right configuration).

 

Home users could be using all sorts of things, such as Office for Mac, Office Mobile, Office Web, etc--you can't worry about managing them too.

[snagrat]

Isn't there an issue with deploying Office 365 rather than VL in that each time a user logs in it will activate that machine and count as one of their 5 licenses.

 

If the user uses different machines all the time then the sixth machine will not activate until one machine is removed from their license count?

[disk]

Isn't there an issue with deploying Office 365 rather than VL in that each time a user logs in it will activate that machine and count as one of their 5 licenses.

 

If the user uses different machines all the time then the sixth machine will not activate until one machine is removed from their license count?

 

I'm not 100% sure, but watching the video that xlandhenry posted above seems to indicate that it is not the case if you deploy using device activation. I've not had the time to investigate further so there are a lot of questions. For instance, do device installation licenses come from a separate pool, etc?

[disk]

We haven't gone that route yet but planned to do so. You need to make sure your Office 365 tenant has Office 365 Education Pro Plus licensing so that you can utilize the device-based activation model: https://docs.com/caseyhill/8578/microsoft-office-365-proplus-device-based

 

You may also want to deploy the updates internally so automatic updates won't clogged up the network.

 

Can I ask what made you decide to go with O365 Pro Plus as opposed to the regular VL Office 2016? I asked my group their opinion on the matter and didn't get much of a response. After checking out the information you linked to and some of their FAQs, etc, I'm wondering how much of a pain it will be to deploy O365 Office client to our instructional areas due to potential complications from Deep Freeze. Have you already began testing such scenarios?

[xlandhenry]

Can I ask what made you decide to go with O365 Pro Plus as opposed to the regular VL Office 2016? I asked my group their opinion on the matter and didn't get much of a response. After checking out the information you linked to and some of their FAQs, etc, I'm wondering how much of a pain it will be to deploy O365 Office client to our instructional areas due to potential complications from Deep Freeze. Have you already began testing such scenarios?

 

Main reason for our planned move is the new features and updates which are not delivered to VL version.

 

We've done some small scale tests with this in our MDT deploy task sequence and so far so good. I don't know about Deep Freeze so can't really comment there.

[JRowley]

Isn't there an issue with deploying Office 365 rather than VL in that each time a user logs in it will activate that machine and count as one of their 5 licenses.

 

If the user uses different machines all the time then the sixth machine will not activate until one machine is removed from their license count?

 

Device-based Authentication was introduced specifically for this reason. Here's a blog post on it which explains.

 

We haven't formally decided yet but would prefer to receive the latest feature updates if possible, it just means greater parity between what people will be using at home and on site. Some of the new features look great too.

Edited February 16, 2017 by JRowley

[disk]

This has been a very insightful thread. I think I will have to bring this subject up again at our next meeting now that I have a bit more insight into just how it works and differs from Office 2016 VL.

[HCC]

Hi,

 

I am trying the Office 365 ProPlus device based activation on some new laptops.

It installs OK using the OPPTransition program with our tenant and key. It also creates the device account in 365 user admin.

 

The problem is that when a user logs on then loads any of the office programs it asks for an email to activate. We have SSO for windows 10 set up via Azure Connect, not ADFS. I can see that office has recognised the logged on user, because their name is in the top right corner. If a user puts in their email it works ok, if not they get a unlicensed nag bar.

I could see this not being a big problem for staff, since they have an assigned device and could type in their address; but if we used it on student computers with mandatory profiles this would be a big problem.

 

Is there any way I can stop this activation prompt happening? Has anyone else seen this and managed to stop it appearing?

[HCC]

I managed to fix my activation problem. Office 365 Device based activation doesn't work if shared computer licensing is on.

 

I found this guide https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn782859.aspx

My activation status looked like screenshot A and I checked and shared computer activation was on in the registry. As soon as I set the reg key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration\SharedComputerLicensing key to 0, it then worked as expected. I still got the accept updates and openxml file formats prompts but hopefully I can fix that with a group policy.

 

Now if only Microsoft updated Outlook to make SSO work, and allow WSUS to manage Office 365 updates that would be great

[Scorpio]

Hi

 

Sorry to drag an older thread up but were looking into Device based activation for our schools. How does it work in the sense of how does it know you are licensed, i.e. if you had 50 machines to license, would it work off the 1 pupil license or does it need 50 pupil user licenses, does it convert them ? What if you have Exchange online?

 

Any insight into this would be great, and I assume it works for UK based Tenants as the FAQ i read said US only...

 

Thanks

 

Scorpz

[snagrat]

Hi

 

Sorry to drag an older thread up but were looking into Device based activation for our schools. How does it work in the sense of how does it know you are licensed, i.e. if you had 50 machines to license, would it work off the 1 pupil license or does it need 50 pupil user licenses, does it convert them ? What if you have Exchange online?

 

Any insight into this would be great, and I assume it works for UK based Tenants as the FAQ i read said US only...

 

Thanks

 

Scorpz

 

It is only available if you have the Education Plus licenses which you will have an unlimited number of. Therefore the way it activates won't really bother you.

 

What services you use Office 365 for will not be affected. If you only have Exchange Online licenses then you won't be able to do Device Based Activation

[Scorpio]

Well Office 365 Education comes with Exchange Online part ? You then add the ProPlus Onto this to get Offline Installers for Office Suite. I assume this is the Education Plus is ?

 

So in essence Exchange online needs User licence and these Device licenses are obvious device licenses, so i assume you just install the same version on all the PCs wether SDtaff or Pupils are logging in, except that staff Will utilise Outlook maybe ?

[snagrat]

Education Plus licenses are not the same as Education + Pro Plus

 

If you don't have Education Plus you can't do it

[Scorpio]

How do you get Education Plus ?

 

Thanks

[xlandhenry]

How do you get Education Plus ?

 

Thanks

 

When your school signs campus agreement or other equivalent to purchase Office 365 for faculty with Microsoft. That's how we got it.

[mullet_man]

How do you get Education Plus ?

 

Thanks

 

Am trying to find out this. We’ve got Office Pro Plus and Office 365 Pro Plus but not education Pro Plus?

 

Where do I get this from then?

[mullet_man]

When your school signs campus agreement or other equivalent to purchase Office 365 for faculty with Microsoft. That's how we got it.

 

We’ve got both 365 for staff and students but can’t see anything relating to Education Pro Plus?!

 

Am I missing something, do I need to contact our reseller or MS themselves?

[snagrat]

Microsoft give it to you for free but you need to add the Student/Staff advantage from your OVS-ES agreement initially.

 

I still have schools who don’t have it and MS support can’t help at all

[mullet_man]

Microsoft give it to you for free but you need to add the Student/Staff advantage from your OVS-ES agreement initially.

 

I still have schools who don’t have it and MS support can’t help at all

 

So I need to add it, online? Or I need to ask MS to add it?

[snagrat]

Ask reseller to add Student Advantage licenses to your agreement.

 

Then you get an online code to redeem. This give you the Pro Plus licenses.

 

Then, one day, the Education Pro Plus will automatically appear

[mullet_man]

Is student advantage different than Office ProPlus for Student/faculty licenses?

 

We’ve had them on for a few years now.

[snagrat]

No it’s the same thing.

 

So looks like your in the same boat as many

[mullet_man]

No it’s the same thing.

 

So looks like your in the same boat as many

 

More than likely no doubt, will double check everything tomorrow but doesn’t sound promising.

 

Am only at the testing phase and not in a position to role it out, so it’s something I guess I’ve got time to wait on.