Office Online Server April 2017 Release

[Lorena Huang Liu]

We are excited to announce our second major update of Office Online Server (OOS), which allows organizations to deliver browser-based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote to users from their own datacenters.

In this release, we officially offer support for Windows Server 2016, which has been highly requested. If you are running Windows Server 2016, you can now install OOS on it. Please verify that you have the latest version of the OOS release to ensure the best experience.

This release includes the following improvements:

• Performance improvements to co-authoring in PowerPoint Online
• Equation viewing in Word Online
• New navigation pane in Word Online
• Improved undo/redo in Word Online
• Enhanced W3C accessibility support for users that rely on assistive technologies
• Accessibility checkers for all applications to ensure that all Office documents can be read and authored by people with different abilities

More about Office Online Server

Microsoft recognizes that many organizations still value running server products on-premises for a variety of reasons. With Office Online Server, you get the same functionality we offer with Office Online in your own datacenter. OOS is the successor to Office Web Apps Server 2013 and we have had three releases starting from our initial launch in May of 2016.

Office Online Server scales well for your enterprise whether you have 100 employees or 100,000. The architecture enables one OOS farm to serve multiple SharePoint, Exchange and Skype for Business instances. OOS is designed to work with SharePoint Server 2016, Exchange Server 2016 and Skype for Business Server 2015. It is also backwards compatible with SharePoint Server 2013, Lync Server 2013 and, in some scenarios, with Exchange Server 2013. You can also integrate other products with OOS through our public APIs.

How do I get OOS/download the update?

If you already have OOS, we encourage you to visit the Volume License Servicing Center to download the April 17 release. You must uninstall the previous version of OOS to install this release. We only support the latest version of OOS with bug fixes and security patches, available via the Microsoft Updates Download Center.

Customers who do not yet have OOS but have a Volume Licensing account can download OOS from the Volume License Servicing Center at no cost and will have view-only functionality, which includes PowerPoint sharing in Skype for Business. Customers that require document creation, edit and save functionality in OOS need to have an on-premises Office Suite license with Software Assurance or an Office 365 ProPlus subscription. For more information on licensing requirements, please refer to our product terms.

[Xiaolin Xi]

Is there a channel we can ask OOS scalability and reliability questions? Do you have any PM alias, Yammer Group for customers?

[Deleted]

Where can I download the new OOS if I only have Office Pro Plus 2016 subscriptions via O365 E3 licenses?

Now that we are O365 subscribers, I do not have on-prem Office Pro Plus 2016 liceses to download it from the VLSC like I could do with my old Office Pro Plus 2013 liscenses and Office Web Apps 2013. But, from what I understand, we are entitled to the software since we have O365 Office Pro Plus 2016 subscriptions. 

[Lorena Huang Liu]

@Deleted what was the channel that these licenses were purchased through?

@Xiaolin Xi do you have a TAM that you could reach out to?

[Deleted]

Our Office365 Office 2016 Pro Plus was purchase as part of our E3 license directly from Microsoft.

[Gary Schultz]

Where can I download the language pack for the April 2017 release? No matter what I try I cannot run the Novmeber 2017 release, always falls into an unhealthy state. The latest language pack does not install with the April release.

[Lorena Huang Liu]

Hi @Gary Schultz,

Thank you for bringing that issue to our attention and apologies for the frustration it might have caused. You can only download the latest language pack (November 2017). However, we have a patch going out on December 12 that should solve the unhealthy machine issue. So you need to download the November release, install the patch and then the language pack.

Thanks!
Lorena

[Gary Schultz]

Thank you for the information. Unfortunately this does not help me as our agency is now without Office Online capabilities. Microsoft should make available immediately the language pack for the April Release. 

[Gary Schultz]

How will Microsoft notify customer of the patch coming out on Tuesday? This is a critical patch.

[Gary Schultz]

Ran more updates on servers. Uninstalled and reinstalled Office Online Server. Still unhealthy.

Does anyone have the language pack for the April release?