Forum Discussion
Office 365 Pro Plus - Closes All Office apps when updates are deployed
Rob Fuller A few suggestions:
1. If you suspect there is a custom script calling officec2rclient.exe out of band then use process monitor with filter for process name officec2rclient.exe + drop filtered events to monitor and trap the event to understand who the caller is and turn off the script.
Download latest ADMX
2. You can turn on "Delay downloading and installing updates for Office". This is basically N+Days from Patch Tuesday, for example 5. Roughly five days after build is released updates will be installed. Make the difference in days end up on a weekend.
3. You can turn on Update Deadline. Get buy in from customer on a maintenance window like weekend where installation will take place and users get series of notifications prior to change.
4. Integrate with SCCM with standard Software Update Workflow with restart notifications and so forth. Most customers I speak with include Windows and Office Updates in the same software deployment so there is a single reboot for maintenance window.
5. Make sure this is set or not present, can't be 1. This suppresses the bizbar notifying the user of pending change
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officeupdate
"hideupdatenotifications"=dword:00000000
DaveGuenthner Thanks I shall work though those suggestions. Do you know if the scheduled task Office Automatic Updates 2.0, if I change that via GPP to not run at user logon but maybe after hours or shutdown that would stop the updates installing in 'business hours'?
- DaveGuenthnerSep 18, 2019Microsoft
Rob Fuller Modification of the trigger of Office Automatic Updates is not supported, so I can't support that suggestion. For example, there is a feature to apply updates in CDN scenario which computer is detected to be IDLE which would no longer function.
My suggestion is setup a few test VMs and evaluate GPOs in thread mentioned earlier to get a sense of the normal notification workflow. Additionally, if it wasn't mentioned earlier.. if a new Office build is staged but cannot be installed because Office program is open, by default Office registers a service called "Microsoft Office Click-to-Run Service" that will apply the update on any computer startup. The idea is to apply the update prior to CTRL + ALT + DEL because we know the first thing user will do is launch Office once they reach desktop. You may be able to also resolve through combination of deadline + computer restart during agreed upon maintenance window. (This is what SCCM does in effect)
- DBarnhartSep 18, 2019Copper Contributor
DaveGuenthner Christopher Hadwin You can recreate the configuration file to point to a specific update location. (AKA an Office folder that is manually updated by you / company) You can configure an XML file at https://config.office.com . I made an example for you to look at below. It is the text in Red.
<Configuration ID="9ec530f3-7a38-4a08-a125-fc673c704fba">
<Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="Targeted" ForceUpgrade="TRUE">
<Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
<Language ID="MatchOS" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
<ExcludeApp ID="OneNote" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Publisher" />
</Product>
</Add>
<Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="0" />
<Property Name="PinIconsToTaskbar" Value="FALSE" />
<Property Name="SCLCacheOverride" Value="0" />
<Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="0" />
<Property Name="FORCEAPPSHUTDOWN" Value="FALSE" />
<Property Name="DeviceBasedLicensing" Value="0" />
<Updates Enabled="FALSE" UpdatePath="\\server\shared" />
<Display Level="Full" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
<Logging Level="Off" />
</Configuration> - Rob FullerSep 18, 2019Copper Contributor
DBarnhart out of interest if I installed the Office application with the following setting
<Property Name="FORCEAPPSHUTDOWN" Value="TRUE" />
does this only apply to the installation of Office or does this continue to updates as well?
I will test out some of the suggestions above and report back, thank you all.
- DaveGuenthnerSep 18, 2019Microsoft
DBarnhart Thanks for the suggestion. My take is to never use a on-premises file share because it has so many pitfalls. (IT Pro has to download all content and mirror CDN and when you consider all the different channels and architecture combinations cost of ownership is too high in my opinion) Also, for customers who use SCCM, this breaks it due to UpdatePath having priority. When possible use CDN or SCCM only.
- DaveGuenthnerSep 18, 2019Microsoft
Rob Fuller FORCEAPPSHUTDOWN is used only during install scenario to close legacy click-to-run applications. Remember, there was an older version of C2R based on Office 2013.. since deprecated and gone. This parameter is not relevant to Update scenario.
- DBarnhartSep 18, 2019Copper ContributorFORCEAPPSHUTDOWN" Value="TRUE" will force close office apps while install / update process is being done.
- DBarnhartSep 18, 2019Copper ContributorIn https://config.office.com it will show you the option to add an exception for your SCCM or CDN connections.