Office 365 - Device Based Activation/Shared Computer Activation

[Gobstopper]

Evening all.

 

I am hoping someone can clarify some questions I have around licensing, I have been in contact with a few resellers to try and find the answers but this has caused a bit of confusion on my end, we are currently sorting our volume licensing out and I want to make sure I have everything needed.

 

All of our schools are currently using Entra and what I'd like to do is use device based activation/shared computer activation for Office 365 as we are currently using Office Pro Plus 2019 and Staff and Students are only using the standard A1 licensing.

 

I was under the impression that to make use of the Office 365 in this way I needed A1 plus for Facuty and Student but I have since been informed that these iare being discontinued by Microsoft later this year.

 

Some resellers have told me that I now need to buy the A3 plan for all Staff and Students which isn't free but other resellers have told me that I need the following which is apparently free.

 

M365 Apps Enterprise Open Faculty

M365 Apps Enterprise Open Student

O365 A1 Edu Open Faculty

O365 A1 Edu Open Student

 

My goal is to simply deploy Office 365 and use the device based activation/shared computer activation methods on our Staff and Student devices. Can someone please give me some guidance on how to proceed please? It's all a tad confusing!

 

Thanks Guys!

[DavR]

Hi @Gobstopper,

 

I can't advise on shared computer activation, but I'm sure someone here will be able to. Out of interest, what has made your mind up to move to the O365 client on machines over Office 2019? I'm probably sticking with Office 2019 or 2021 here, but, have been thinking about using the full O365 client one day.

 

Regarding licensing though, I think I can help explain.

 

Re the Office 365 A1 Plus license, this used to allow your users to use all the online bits of Office 365 (the A1 part), plus install and license the software locally (the plus part) on the understanding that you've purchased Office licensing though a Microsoft OVS deal or similar. So, O365 A1 Plus was A1 + (OVS or similar Office entitlement). Because this was just so damn useful, Microsoft have, of course, decided to discontinue it.

 

However, assuming you're still buying your Office licensing through OVS or similar, there is a second way to achieve the same outcome as O365 A1 Plus / A3 - the "free" Enterprise Apps you've been told about. Essentially, this is another way of taking your OVS Office entitlement, and translating it into the online sphere. So, Office 365 A1 + M365 Apps for Faculty / Student will create pretty much the same outcome, allowing you online applications plus install rights for no extra purchase. Your normal reseller can add these on for you at no cost - in theory, they should only give you as many as your OVS entitles you too, but most are happy to give you as many as you need.

 

Hope that helps!

[TRSJon]

Afternoon - @Gobstopper

 

Did you ever get Device based licencing working? As i'm looking at it now, rather than a per user licence, and struggling - everything looks correct - just "computer says no"

[jmak]

We have it working on a subset of our devices.

 

Method was:

 

Apply for licences from reseller

Create Entra group in M365 and apply licences

Add devices to group

Create and apply group policy

 

I can check our policy settings tomorrow. There are options to set it up using the Office Deployment Toolkit or Intune. The GPO option seemed most straightforward so that's what I went with.

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-apps/licensing-activation/device-based-licensing#steps-to-configure-device-based-licensing-for-microsoft-365-apps-for-enterprise

[CHiLL]

When Microsoft started to switch to C2R and the monthly channel version of Office, using a device based license was restricted to ESS customers, which left us OVS customers high and dry. That is no longer the case and we've been using it fine with just the A1 license for at least a couple of years now. Looking at my config file, we aren't actually using DBL, but just "SharedComputerLicensing". Here's a copy of our config file:

 

 

Each user has the A1 faculty or A1 student license assigned and that's it.

[supportman]

When Microsoft started to switch to C2R and the monthly channel version of Office, using a device based license was restricted to ESS customers, which left us OVS customers high and dry. That is no longer the case and we've been using it fine with just the A1 license for at least a couple of years now. Looking at my config file, we aren't actually using DBL, but just "SharedComputerLicensing". Here's a copy of our config file:

 

 

Each user has the A1 faculty or A1 student license assigned and that's it.

 

Just looking at this myself but isn't ShareComputerLicensing meant for Remote Desktop app rollouts?

 

Configuration options for the Office Deployment Tool - Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft Learn

 

I've tested and it doesnt work here with latest office 365 installs. We are on ESS though.

Edited October 21, 2024 by supportman

[CHiLL]

Just looking at this myself but isn't ShareComputerLicensing meant for Remote Desktop app rollouts?

 

Configuration options for the Office Deployment Tool - Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft Learn

 

I've tested and it doesnt work here with latest office 365 installs. We are on ESS though.

I don't think there's a difference between activations between OVS-ES and ESS now that they allowed shared device licensing on OVS-ES (which was our original issue), though I may be wrong. I'm pretty sure I remember we used to use the SharedComputerLicensing flag on Office 2016 ProPlus and earlier versions of Office for shared devices. We are deploying M365 Apps via the MECM using the configuration file I posted. However, looking at the date modified of the files, they're dated January 2023, which is presumably the last time I had to reconfigure the apps in MECM. That must mean we're deploying an out of date M365 package, which is then updated by MECM Software Updates or Intune WufB, depending on the client and their update settings.

[supportman]

Just tried again and it definitely does not work.

 

I even raised a call with Microsoft and the only way to license Office 365 according to them is if you have an EES agreement and the specific license for Office 365 devices in Billing >> Licenses

 

Device-based licensing for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise - Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft Learn

 

We've decided to just use Office 2024 which works fine on shared machines with a standard key. Only exception to that is a computer that needs Visio on it which needs the latest Office 365 to install.

Edited October 24, 2024 by supportman