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drawson's avatar
drawson
Brass Contributor
Aug 21, 2019

Initiating Office Updates Without User Intervention

I've deployed Office 365 Pro Plus using ODT at the beginning of the year. At first I expected O365 updates to flow through WSUS as there are options for Office 2016/2019/365 client products. But after doing some reading it appears WSUS does NOT push out O365 Pro Plus client updates. 

 

I spoke to someone who is under the impression that I in order for me to update my existing O365 client installations I need to reconfigure my ODT setup and ask each of my users to re-run this install. But I'd rather not get the users involved if at all possible. They also mentioned I could ask everyone to manually request updates from within the O365 client. But, again, this requires user intervention.

 

So my questions, that I can't seem to find concrete answers to.:

 

1.  WSUS no longer can be used to facilitate Office client updates?

 

2. We're on O365 1902 (build 11328.20146). I manually run updates and am now on 1902 (build 11328.20392). The latest version is 1906 (build 11727.20230). Is 11328.20146 the equivalent of 11727.20230? If not how can I move to the latest 1906 (11727.20320)?

 

3. Is there anyway to get any of these updates done without user intervention? Is there possibly a setting I can change in the installed client via GPO, powershell or registry to remotely and silently kickoff an update inquiry?

 

4. If not is there a silent way to modify the ODT settings on the client? My Org Profile is already set to Standard release - broadly. My ODT .xml file channel = broad and ForceUpgrade=True. 

  • drawson 

    Couple of key decisions IT Pro needs to take:

    1. What channel? (determines the rate of change in terms of feature\fixes)

    If you don't declare a channel, Semi-Annual Channel is used.  Basically you get a build every month for security.  Two special months of January\July you get security+feature+fixes

     

    2. Where from? (CDN which is default or SCCM)

    By default, the Automatic Updates scheduled task updates client on behalf of user without any intervention.  If you disabled Automatic Updates this would explain why updates are not happening.  

     

    Can you take a look at my two blog articles which I hope will address concerns in detail?

     

    Understanding Office 365 ProPlus Updates for IT Pros (CDN vs SCCM)
    How to manage Office 365 ProPlus Channels for IT Pros

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