Office 2016 - Auto sign in to Office 365

[Iain.Faulkner]

Morning all,

 

We currently use Office 2013 but are working on updating our OS to Windows 10 and also updating to Office 2016.

 

In Office 2013, when a user logs in and accesses Word/Excel etc they are already signed into Office 365 and can access their One Drive etc. In Office 2016 the auto login doesn't seem to work. The user only has to click on "Sign in to get the most out of Office" to login, but i'd like to get rid of this step if possible.

 

Has anyone any suggestions on how to get past this?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Iain

[FN-GM]

It should work by default. Have you prevented any sign in via group policy?

[Iain.Faulkner]

It should work by default. Have you prevented any sign in via group policy?

 

That's what I thought, we've not changed any policies that impact on Office (the same policies that are set for 2013 are currently being used for 2016 whilst we're in testing)

[FN-GM]

Are you using ADFS?

 

(the same policies that are set for 2013 are currently being used for 2016 whilst we're in testing)

 

You do know that Office 2013 polices won't apply to Office 2016?

[Iain.Faulkner]

Yes we do use ADFS.

 

Apologies on the settings, we have recreated the policy recreating the settings for 2013 in 2016 as best we can but nothing out of the ordinary.

[FN-GM]

Is ADFS functioning via OWA on these machines?

[Iain.Faulkner]

Is ADFS functioning via OWA on these machines?

 

OWA looks to be working fine on our test PC's

[HCC]

Hi,

 

We have a similar but slightly different problem with Office 2016 on W10. It does auto sign in but there are no connected services, or file history. The odd thing is if you sign out, then in again to office, it works and doesn't prompt for password. OWA in IE or edge does SSO.

We only have a few office policies

Microsoft Office 2016/Miscellaneous

Block signing into Office Enabled

Block signing into Office Org ID only

Microsoft Office 2016/Privacy/Trust Centerhide

Disable Opt-in Wizard on first run Enabled

[Iain.Faulkner]

This is beginning to drive me round the bend now.....

 

Office 2013 is deployed through SCCM and on a PC in a test OU with no GPO inheritence, logged on as a user in a test OU with no GPO inheritence connects immediately to office 365 and the user picks up one drive and sharepoint as save locations. With Office 2016 with the same customised deployment settings as we have for 2013 on the same PC and same user, it doesn't automatically connect to Office 365. If I click on "Sign in to get the most out of Office" and enter the email address of the user, it will then connect. But why doesn't it do it automatically? Everything I've read suggests this should be normal behaviour for Office 2013 & 2016.

 

Anyone had a similar issue?

[kestrel1]

Have you managed to sort this one out?

I am having the same issue. The settings that worked on Office 2013, don't seem to work correctly with Office 2016.

Trying to sort this out before I deploy Windows 10.

[Iain.Faulkner]

Have you managed to sort this one out?

I am having the same issue. The settings that worked on Office 2013, don't seem to work correctly with Office 2016.

Trying to sort this out before I deploy Windows 10.

 

No, we got no further with this :-(

[kestrel1]

OK, I will continue my search and see what I find

[synaesthesia]

For this to work you need the Click to Run version of Office 2016, the stuff you download from Office 365 rather than the Volume Licensing center. That has it's own caveats which I'm now working on; for instance that then activates the software against that user - which is limited to 5 concurrent activations. So there's shared and/or device activation to deal with, which I'm trying to get my head around now. We're doing SSO with Azure AD Connect, it's working well (Windows 7) on my test machine.

[kestrel1]

Why did MS have to mess around with these things, makes our lives so much more difficult.

[synaesthesia]

Indeed. I've love the SSO ability in standard 2016 as I don't like the idea of things going a bit sour if there's no internet connection and it's unable to activate. Even with the world's most solid internet connection I don't want that a prerequisite. So will make do with 2016.

[kestrel1]

The activation shouldn't be an issue as I can get Office 2016 to activate with our KMS server, its just getting the sign in to 2016 to work which is the problem. Doesn't make sense that we can't do this with our version of office.

[synaesthesia]

Click to Run is activated by user by default, you can't activate it via KMS/volume licensing.

[kestrel1]

I use our KMS server for activation, so having to use the Office 365 download just doesn't make sense. Don't particularly want to go through setting up SSO on Office 365 if it wont work with the version we are using. Most annoying.

[synaesthesia]

Wouldn't mind if the full version worked with ADFS, could happily set up the latter.

[abaxter2]

Office 365 now has Device Based Activation. *You must have Office 365 ProPlus*

 

https://mix.office.com/watch/1loil4fauhero

 

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/nzedu/2017/05/03/device-based-activation-for-office365-proplus-great-for-education/

 

http://boards.microsoft.com/public/prism/80710?token=f55452094b

[synaesthesia]

Indeed, and it's already a ballache for such a simple task!

[Blue_Cookeh]

What am I missing here?

 

I've just signed up for Device Based activation (we use Office365 in our school) and it looks like I can now deploy Office365 ProPlus across our school with it.

 

What are the licensing implications? We currently have Office 2016 on our EES agreement, yet here I've just been given Office365 ProPlus for no cost.

[Arthur]

What are the licensing implications? We currently have Office 2016 on our EES agreement, yet here I've just been given Office 365 ProPlus for no cost.

I might be wrong, but I thought the Office 365 Pro Plus that students and staff can download for free through the portal isn't licensed for installation on school-owned computers?

 

When I last looked into licensing Office 365 Pro Plus instead of Office 2016 it worked out prohibitively expensive to add it to our EES agreement (£20 +VAT per device) since we currently have the "Desktop Education" bundle.

 

Perhaps the situation will change when Microsoft 365 is available later this year, but it's not clear at the moment how much this would cost for education.

[3s-gtech]

We currently have Office 2016 on our EES agreement, yet here I've just been given Office365 ProPlus for no cost.

 

If I remember correctly, you have O365 Pro Plus because you have Office 2016 licensed. It's a freebie on top, not instead of. No money to be saved there.

[Blue_Cookeh]

If I remember correctly, you have O365 Pro Plus because you have Office 2016 licensed. It's a freebie on top, not instead of. No money to be saved there.

 

I've got unlimited license for Office365 Edu Pro Plus on our Office365 account - I thought all schools got this? I certainly haven't done anything to link our volume licensing account and Office365 tenant - surely MS weren't *that* on the ball... *shrugs*

 

@Arthur I thought that too, but then why would Microsoft be releasing tools for us to do device-based activation using the click-to-run version? Unless you can license devices through Office365 now?

Edited August 6, 2017 by Blue_Cookeh