[ms office - 2019] Anyone had any luck with Office 2019?

[Davida1992]

I received an email recently stating that Office 2019 is now available to our organisation on our Volume Licensing programme. Wanting to try this out I logged in and downloaded the 2019 package. When installing from the ISO it gave me a few errors stating that IIS needed to be installed, I was confused but installed the role anyway on my PC and went through the install again. After installation I noticed that it has actually installed something called "Microsoft Office Online Server". After reading online this seems to be essentially a web based version of the office package...

 

Is this correct? Is this what Office 2019 is now? Or am I doing something wrong here.

 

We currently have Office 2016 pushed to all users at the moment, and I was under the impression that 2019 would potentially be the last physical version of office, but now I'm not too sure if I am just being stupid or if it is all web based now?

 

Help and comments appreciated

 

Thanks

[sted]

its not web based but it is basically the click to run version that office 365 version of office 2016 was so it "installs" sandboxed versions of word etc as far as i understand it rather than the more normal versions we have been used to. That said ive not tried deploying it yet as to me its more aimed at people using azure ad/intune etc rather than traditional ad networks

[itwitch]

I'm looking at Office 2019 at the moment and found these instructions:

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/DeployOffice/office2019/deploy#download-the-office-2019-installation-files

[chris_uk]

This is the simplest version for how to install, you will need to make changes. Microsoft are now using "Click to Run" this means they are not supplying an MSI for Office.

Download the EXE from VLSC. Run it, it will extract and leave you with three files, two XML and one EXE. The two XML files are example config files for downloading the install files for Office 2019. This is the point you decide if you are going to be running 64 or 32 bit Office.

Load up an elevated command prompt, run the command "setup /download configuration.xml" swap out configuration.xml to the name of the config file that you are selecting to use. This will take a few moments depending on the speed of your internet connection.

Now to install you will need to run: "setup /configure configuration.xml" again, this will need to be from an elevated command prompt.

 

Notes:

you will need to remove previous office versions, this will not automatically remove it.

You will need to configure the XML file to decide what licensing you are doing.

 

Read this for full information - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/office2019/deploy. You will no longer be able to deploy using Group Policy, it will now need to be something like SCCM.

 

If you are licensed for it, I would seriously consider deploying the Office 365 version. This will mean that you are always running the latest version. Again, recommend SCCM so that you have greater control over updates.

[chazzy2501]

I think the Office 2019 new install process is a way for Microsoft to Punish Admins for not installing office365. Of course this is true for all prior versions of office as they've changed their deployment method every time just to waste our time. The old office install needed a script deployed as you couldn't use a straight msi anymore.

[chazzy2501]

I don't have ADFS or SCCM so it looks like I'm bundling office 2016 with windows 2019 LTSC.

[Garacesh]

I think the Office 2019 new install process is a way for Microsoft to Punish Admins for not installing office365. Of course this is true for all prior versions of office as they've changed their deployment method every time just to waste our time. The old office install needed a script deployed as you couldn't use a straight msi anymore.

 

The old office wasn't too bad, sure it was a pain to not use an msi but "Here's there installation media, here's the configuration file, go!" was acceptable. I set it as part of our task sequence and it worked flawlessly.

This new one is a bit of a pain though.. You've got to download everything with a config xml.. Then apply that config xml because apparently specifying the xml doesn't configure it so why do you have to specify the xml on the download then?

 

Still.. All our staff are fine on 2016 so unless there's some kind of sizable upgrade I think we'll likely wait until next summer to do the upgrade.

 

Edit: OK, I did the thing and now I have no idea what's going on.

I made the config and downloaded it, ran the /configure, and all I have are a handful of .cab files and two .dat files. Not exactly helpful.

Why you gotta be so awkward, Microsoft?

And /packager only seemed to make an AppV package for Visio

Edited October 5, 2018 by Garacesh

[FishCustard]

I'm probably gonna shove 2019 in our Win 10 1809 image for deployment at Christmas - assuming you can still do that, and MS haven't made that impossible too.

[Garacesh]

I can't seem to get 2019 to install on my test machine.

 

Once you have a copy of the ODT and have edited your configuration.xml file, you can download the Office 2019 Preview installation files to your local network. To do that, open an elevated command prompt, go to the folder where you saved the ODT and the configuration.xml file, and type this command:

setup /download configuration.xml

Done that, all it got me was:

• .\Office (Folder)
  
• .\Office\Data (Folder)
  
• .\Office\Data\v64.cab (17 KB)
  
• .\Office\Data\v64_16.0.10336.20044.cab (17 KB)
  
• .\Office\Data\16.0.10336.20044 (Folder)
  
• .\Office\Data\16.0.10336.20044\i640.cab (26,078 KB)
  
• .\Office\Data\16.0.10336.20044\i641033.cab (75 KB)
  
• .\Office\Data\16.0.10336.20044\s640.cab (3,841 KB)
  
• .\Office\Data\16.0.10336.20044\s641033.cab (717 KB)
  
• .\Office\Data\16.0.10336.20044\stream.x64.en-us.dat (360,924 KB)
  
• .\Office\Data\16.0.10336.20044\stream.x64.x-none.dat (2,420,736 KB)
  

 

Next, their documentation says:

Once you have a copy of the ODT and have edited your configuration.xml file (and downloaded the Office 2019 Preview installation files to your local network, if necessary), you can install Office 2019 Preview. To do that, open an elevated command prompt, go to the folder where you saved the ODT and the configuration.xml file, and type this command:

setup /configure configuration.xml

 

So I have the following batch file:

IF NOT EXIST "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office19\WINWORD.EXE" (
START /WAIT "Office 2019 Setup" "\\SCCM-Server\Share$\Applications\Microsoft Office 2019\Setup.exe" /configure "\\SCCM-Server\Share$\Applications\Microsoft Office 2019\config.xml"
)

Which should work, but this just opens a new cmd window which does nothing for ≈30s, then closes. No files are created in the expected locations (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office, C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office)

 

Config file reads as follows:

 

Anyone able to spot where I've gone wrong? I've gone through all the steps double-checking my process and nothing is jumping out at me.

Edited October 5, 2018 by Garacesh

[Simcfc73]

I've tried to do it on a local drive now, its hung at 28% for an hour... and I cant close the stupid thing... I killed the office clic to run processes but its still going.

[chris_uk]

By the looks of it you are deploying with SCCM, give this link a read, https://www.systemcenterdudes.com/sccm-office-2019-deployment/

[Simcfc73]

Sorted my issue, it hadn't downloaded the whole source to the share.

 

I've managed to deploy it from a local drive but my share install fails.... I think I will be deploying with PDQ Deploy by the looks.

[kennysarmy]

I've created my XML file:

 

and run the command : setup /download configuration-Office365-x64.xml

 

It's downloaded 424Mb of data but the command prompt has n't come back yet - it's been sat (appearing to be doing nothing now for 30 minutes) - is it doing something?

 

 

 

 

 

Also - I'm guessing I should have changed en-us to en-gb ?

[mullet_man]

I've found it takes hours to download, left it overnight in the end.

 

I think it's en-us you need don't think there is an GB version. I might be wrong though

[mullet_man]

I've found it takes hours to download, left it overnight in the end.

 

I think it's en-us you need don't think there is an GB version. I might be wrong though

Details here

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/DeployOffice/configuration-options-for-the-office-2016-deployment-tool#language-element

 

Maybe use match OS and fall back of en-us

[Fazza]

I was about to download, install it and take a look but found out that Captita SIMS.net wont support it until 2020 at the earliest so that's when we'll look at getting it installed as we use SIMS .net on all staff computers and need to student and staff PCs to match.

[kennysarmy]

I was about to download, install it and take a look but found out that Captita SIMS.net wont support it until 2020 at the earliest so that's when we'll look at getting it installed as we use SIMS .net on all staff computers and need to student and staff PCs to match.

 

Seriously?

[LeMarchand]

Seriously?

 

Yep. Capita have really cut the delay down this version of Office. [/sarcasm]

[alfatec]

Have it installed and it works fine with SIMS.net. But I am not brave enough to go full deployment yet. Very quick if you use 64bit version which they now recommend, just abit quirky with the install.

[Arthur]

I was about to download, install it and take a look but found out that Captita SIMS.net won't support it until 2020 at the earliest so that's when we'll look at getting it installed as we use SIMS .net on all staff computers and need to student and staff PCs to match.

How do they manage to support Windows 10 and browsers like Chrome/Firefox which are constantly changing, but not Office? It doesn't make any sense.

 

Is it worth submitting a change request to get Capita to support Office 2019 sooner? If you post a link to it on Edugeek we can all upvote it.

[Simcfc73]

I've got Office 2019 installing via PDQ deploy now... and they have a Offie 2016 uninstaller which works too. Not as slick as SCCM but easy enough to roll out.

 

I use redirected start menus so I use IF / ELSE commands to copy the relevant start menu items. Really ugly fix but works for now.

[Fazza]

Have it installed and it works fine with SIMS.net. But I am not brave enough to go full deployment yet. Very quick if you use 64bit version which they now recommend, just abit quirky with the install.

 

It probably does work fine, just like 2016 did when that first came out and the same goes with 2013 and 2010!

 

However, Capita dont support it yet so any issues and you may end up on your own! In the past we had to uninstall 2013 and put 2010 back on the data entry peoples computers as they had an issue and Capita said they didnt support the version of office we were on, oddly enough the error was still there on the version of office they supported so seems to me like an excuse not to try and fix something.

[Garacesh]

oddly enough the error was still there on the version of office they supported so seems to me like an excuse not to try and fix something.

CAPITA?

Making up excuses?

Never!

[kennysarmy]

https://officedev.github.io/Office-IT-Pro-Deployment-Scripts/XmlEditor.html

[Arthur]

https://officedev.github.io/Office-IT-Pro-Deployment-Scripts/XmlEditor.html

There's also this newer version...

 

https://config.office.com

 

Office 2019 is still not listed in the Products dropdown box however.