Forum Discussion
Office 365 Commercial, First Release, Slow Ring, what version?
That paragraph is just saying First Release for Current Channel is equivalent to the consumer Office Insider program. It doesn't relate to First Release for Office 365 (select or everyone).
First Release for Deferred Channel is more to do with testing the next Deferred Channel and getting ready for it. Here is what https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Best-practices-Planning-for-enterprise-managed-98799ea9-3b93-46b4-b399-b9fcab3e1d80:
1% get Current Channel
10% get First Release for Deferred Channel
89% get Deferred Channel
The https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/What-s-new-for-Office-Insiders-c152d1e2-96ff-4ce9-8c14-e74e13847a24 in first release for current channel.
The way to force your Office install to use the First Release for Current Channel, is specifically to use a configuration.xml file similar to what I mentioned when installing Office. Then Office will be on this channel and receive the appropriate updates. I have also switched channels with https://officedev.github.io/Office-IT-Pro-Deployment-Scripts/XmlEditor.html (Install Toolkit) before:
How the tenant is configured with First Release has no bearing on how the Office client (Office 365 ProPlus) is configured or what updates it will receive. So that's definitely worth knowing. This is more to do with how the Office client was deployed and what settings were included at the time. This can also be configured centrally with Group Policy settings.
However, if a user downloads the Office client from the portal, assuming they had admin rights to install, what channel they will be put on is influenced by how the tenant is set up:
"You can also provide users with First Release for Deferred Channel by selecting them for the First Release program for Office 365. If you do this, those users can install First Release for Deferred Channel directly from the Software page in the Office 365 portal."
So users on First Release (tenant or select I think), who download and install Office 365 ProPlus will get First Release for Deferred Channel. Also, there are wider settings available in the admin portal Service & add-ins -> Office software download settings, for those downloading Office:
My dev tenant is on First Release and when I go to https://portal.office.com/OLS/MySoftware.aspx it confirms I get new features sooner (First Release for Deferred Channel):
This is what the Office account information will be displayed as if your on First Release for Current Channel:
Which I specifically installed with this configuration:
<Configuration>
<Add OfficeClientEdition="32" Channel="FirstReleaseCurrent">
<Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
<Language ID="en-us"/>
</Product>
</Add>
</Configuration>Or Channel="InsiderFast" for Insider Fast builds - https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/How-Office-365-commercial-customers-can-get-early-access-to-new-Office-2016-features-4dd8ba40-73c0-4468-b778-c7b744d03ead.
If you on 1706 that probably means you are on the current channel, which is up-to-date but let us know if that isn't the case.
Hi Cian, thanks for your reply. However, my understanding based on what I have read is different to what you describe.
You mention that the Office 365 tenant's First Release setting doesn't affect which Office client version you receive. However, the second paragraph on the page https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/How-Office-365-commercial-customers-can-get-early-access-to-new-Office-2016-features-4dd8ba40-73c0-4468-b778-c7b744d03ead says:
"First Release for Current Channel builds provide your selected users with preview builds of Office containing the same features, at the same time, as those that are available to Office 365 consumer subscribers participating in the Office Insider Slow level of the https://products.office.com/office-insider program".
I believe the https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Overview-of-update-channels-for-Office-365-ProPlus-9ccf0f13-28ff-4975-9bd2-7e4ea2fefef4?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US#bkmk_frcbb is for organisations that only want to receive Office 365 desktop updates every 4 months rather than every month, but want some users to receive them sooner.
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Version-and-build-numbers-of-update-channel-releases-ae942449-1fca-4484-898b-a933ea23def7 lists the release dates and version numbers for the current channel, first release for deferred channel and the deferred channel. It doesn't show the version number for the first release for current channel.
It looks like the settings you mention would allow me to force my Office install to use the First Release for Current Channel, but I'm wondering why this isn't happening automatically when I use the Update feature on the Office Account page. I assume I have misunderstood how this all works, I'm curious to figure out the answer.
Here is what I see on my Office Account page, which would make sense if our tenant's Organisation Profile was set to Standard release instead of First release for everyone:
That paragraph is just saying First Release for Current Channel is equivalent to the consumer Office Insider program. It doesn't relate to First Release for Office 365 (select or everyone).
First Release for Deferred Channel is more to do with testing the next Deferred Channel and getting ready for it. Here is what https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Best-practices-Planning-for-enterprise-managed-98799ea9-3b93-46b4-b399-b9fcab3e1d80:
1% get Current Channel
10% get First Release for Deferred Channel
89% get Deferred Channel
The https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/What-s-new-for-Office-Insiders-c152d1e2-96ff-4ce9-8c14-e74e13847a24 in first release for current channel.
The way to force your Office install to use the First Release for Current Channel, is specifically to use a configuration.xml file similar to what I mentioned when installing Office. Then Office will be on this channel and receive the appropriate updates. I have also switched channels with https://officedev.github.io/Office-IT-Pro-Deployment-Scripts/XmlEditor.html (Install Toolkit) before:
Thanks for your patience Cian. Can I go through my understanding based on your replies:
- You can specify whether to use the Deferred Channel (default?) or the Current Channel of the Office 365 desktop software by going to Settings - Services & Add-ins - Office Software Download Settings
- If you want to use the First Release for Deferred Channel, you also need to go to Settings - Organization Profile - Release Preferences and set Release Track to "First Release for everyone" or "First Release for selected users"
- Alternatively, you can specify the Channel and Release Track using the Office Deployment Tool or using a configuration.xml as you described. This will allow you to specify the First Release Current Channel. However this requires you to run the setup application rather than using the Update Now button on the Office application Account screen.
If this is correct, it seems strange that you cannot opt for the First Release Current Channel using the two settings on the Admin portal.
- You can specify whether to use the Deferred Channel (default?) or the Current Channel of the Office 365 desktop software by going to Settings - Services & Add-ins - Office Software Download Settings
