Updating to Office LTSC 2021

[mrstrong]

I am sold on the xml config e.g. so far I've just deployed word, excel and powerpoint to a few manually

then teacher comes along and says I need publisher, so just copied xml and edited to remove ""

re-run setup with new xml, job done.

 

Just a shame not as robust mass deploying compared to msi via GPO (from my experience so far anyway).

 

Had another nasty surprise this morning when teacher laptop stuck updating. On a quick investigation

looks like it was trying to install an office 2016 update even though 2016 removed via ODT

[mrstrong]

just checked on another laptop I manually updated to 2021,

it's still got loads of updates at pending install e.g. Security Update for Microsoft Word 2016

We use wsus, is there any way to "clear" these as I've now uninstalled 2016 !

 

They are failing to install with error 0x8024001e which could be "missing .dll files"

which would make sense as office 2016 isn't installed anymore!

[Koldov]

If you use WSUS would it work if you just 'Approve' for removal?* **

 

Also would a quick check on WSUS before you deploy 2021 show you that these machines haven't installed all their updates for 2016?

 

*Obviously depending on how granular your OUs are in WSUS as it would remove from all machines in the OU, maybe create a test OU and move the machine to it and 'Approve' for removal from that OU...

 

** Depending on how you have WSUS set up to discover machines and put them in their respective OUs...

Edited May 25, 2023 by Koldov

[mrstrong]

yeah I did think about approve for removal but decided to try setting back to "not approved" first

for all office 2016 updates, will have a look tomorrow time permitting.

 

Yes with hindsight should have checked wsus first for machines needing patching.

Been a bit lax on checking wsus status of late:o

[mrstrong]

well the good news is that wsus seems to have sorted out the 2016 updates.

 

not so good: can't activate: "... you have activated up to the limit of your Multiple Activation Key"

 

A phone call to Microsoft and apparently this is quite common (we haven't reached our limit yet)

and we managed to activate over the phone.

 

Still we are close to limit and not sure why, maybe from my testing / activating on VMs etc.

 

Is there a way to deactivate to reduce the count, e.g. got an old PC I'm going to recycle

but I put 2021 on it for testing so I need to reclaim license.

[TwistedHelixis]

Is there a way to deactivate to reduce the count, e.g. got an old PC I'm going to recyclebut I put 2021 on it for testing so I need to reclaim license.

 

I also need to know this

[ticktock]

Give Microsoft a call and get them to increase the licence count. I've done this a few times and never had any issues.

[robintech]

PowerShell is what I used for 365 and I think it will work the same.

May have to copy the XML and setup.exe files to the computer as it cycles through them and set restrictions to unrestricted temporarily

[mrstrong]

spoke to MS and they have increased the MAK activation count for us.

The guy said the count reflects how many times the key has been used

so you can't reduce it e.g. to "reclaim" the license. The current actual number

of licensed devices is not stored by microsoft so there is an element of trust.

 

He also said if you have bought say 60 licenses as part of an OVS agreement

with an FTE user count of 60 you can only install on 60 devices !?

 

I thought on the old OVS agreements where you calculated your FTE and bought

that number for windows/ office e.g. 60 that was for 60 users (e.g. teachers / admin staff) so you

could install on more then 60 devices e.g. a teacher user could have a classroom

PC and a staff laptop so would need office and windows installing on two devices ?

[Steve21]

spoke to MS and they have increased the MAK activation count for us.

The guy said the count reflects how many times the key has been used

so you can't reduce it e.g. to "reclaim" the license. The current actual number

of licensed devices is not stored by microsoft so there is an element of trust.

 

He also said if you have bought say 60 licenses as part of an OVS agreement

with an FTE user count of 60 you can only install on 60 devices !?

 

I thought on the old OVS agreements where you calculated your FTE and bought

that number for windows/ office e.g. 60 that was for 60 users (e.g. teachers / admin staff) so you

could install on more then 60 devices e.g. a teacher user could have a classroom

PC and a staff laptop so would need office and windows installing on two devices ?

 

Sounds like a random Level 1 tech who doesn’t know

 

You can certainly have a lot more than your FTE, you just need to request it (or just ask for the KMS key instead)

 

As it covers all student machines as well as staff you could easily have 1000 devices but only 60 FTE etc

 

Steve

[Koldov]

Was going to post in the 'annoying things' thread but then remembered this one...

 

Had half an hour spare at the end of the day, so decided to get a job done that I ran out of time for in half-term. Started the install off on an ICT suite and let it run while I got on with other stuff. 15 minutes later I checked a few as they'd all finished, but found after a few they'd stopped activating stating we'd run out of licenses...

 

Thought I'd have time to ring the MVLC 'hotline' and have it all sorted in a few minutes... however, it wouldn't connect me from the school phone as apparently we aren't in the UK.... so called on my mobile and after waiting nearly 20 minutes I apparently made a wrong choice on the multiple 'press number to speak to...' choices! I explained the problem but couldn't really understand what the call centre person was saying, only caught the end of it, something about it being the 'activation line' and to call the correct number, then "thank you for calling Microsoft, goodbye"...

 

 

EDIT: Just to mention it appears most of our product licenses are set at our FTE amount. Admittedly I haven't looked at it for a long time, but I don't ever remember it being so strict before...?

Edited February 28, 2024 by Koldov

[Koldov]

Got through to VLSC again this morning only to be told I have to give the details to them and they will make a case for escalation...

 

So I guess raise a ticket which might get picked up at some point, apparently could take 48 hours, maybe longer...

 

Called our reseller to see if they had a 'secret' phone number to get through on but they didn't (apparently they have to ring the same numbers as the rest of us) and they also said they couldn't do it on our behalf either.

 

So.... I call MS back... not sure if I chose a different number from the menu, but at least I could understand the support operative this time and they understood my issue and after taking some details resolved it with a couple of clicks!

 

I hate MS licensing (it's so complicated I'm sure most of their support staff don't understand it either), but I also hate how hit and miss getting any support is...

 

Interestingly I checked on our VLSC admin portal for the actual activation numbers/limit and 'Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021' is the only version that has 50 as it's activation limit, all the other versions (2019, 2016, 2013 & 2010) have a limit of 100 (and looking back through all our previous contracts Office has always had a 100 activation limit)...