Office 365 is subscription based cloud service from Microsoft, with multiple options and licenses, including a range of productivity applications, cloud storage, email and collaboration tools, under a single sign on.
The deployment is straight forward for any of the plans, but in a business environment, the Office package might need customization for offline installation or mass deployment.
Using the Office Deployment Tool, it’s possible to define which products and languages are installed, update patterns and silent deployment.
Microsoft created not only great manuals but also a portal that allows anyone to create a custom configuration XML file.
config.office.com/deploymentsettings
For example, to create an offline Office 365 ProPlus 64-bit deployment on a pen-drive, with Polish and English proofing and menus, without Teams and OneDrive, pin icons to the taskbar, without logging, user activation… we can use the Office Customization Tool to create the configuration XML. It would look like this after exporting:
<Configuration>
<Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="Monthly" ForceUpgrade="TRUE">
<Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
<Language ID="en-us" />
<Language ID="pl-pl" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
<ExcludeApp ID="OneDrive" />
<ExcludeApp ID="OneNote" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Teams" />
</Product>
<Product ID="LanguagePack">
<Language ID="en-us" />
<Language ID="pl-pl" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
<ExcludeApp ID="OneDrive" />
<ExcludeApp ID="OneNote" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Teams" />
</Product>
</Add>
<Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="0" />
<Property Name="PinIconsToTaskbar" Value="TRUE" />
<Property Name="SCLCacheOverride" Value="0" />
<Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="0" />
<Property Name="FORCEAPPSHUTDOWN" Value="TRUE" />
<Property Name="DeviceBasedLicensing" Value="0" />
<Updates Enabled="TRUE" />
<RemoveMSI />
<AppSettings>
<User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="51" Type="REG_DWORD" App="excel16" Id="L_SaveExcelfilesas" />
<User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\powerpoint\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="27" Type="REG_DWORD" App="ppt16" Id="L_SavePowerPointfilesas" />
<User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\word\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="" Type="REG_SZ" App="word16" Id="L_SaveWordfilesas" />
</AppSettings>
<Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="FALSE" />
<Logging Level="Off" />
</Configuration>To download the Office suite to the pendrive, plug it in, open Command-Line, change the directory to it (for example E:) and create a directory called “OfficeDeploy”.
mkdir E:\OfficeDeployDownload the Office Deployment Tool to the OfficeDeploy folder. Use the Office Customization Tool to create the configuration XML (for example with the name configuration.xml), and export it to the same folder. Then in the Command-Line type in:
E:\OfficeDeploy\setup.exe /download configuration.xmlTo install it on the go, plug in the pen-drive to the target computer, open the Run tab and type in:
E:\OfficeDeploy\setup.exe /configure configuration.xmlSimple and easy!
