Office 365 Pro Plus - Updating via GPO (without SCCM)

Iron Contributor

Hello all,

 

Question about updating Office 365 pro plus via gpo / registry settings from a UNC share.  It is my understanding that there is a scheduled task that runs at each logon and a couple of times during the week, overnight that triggers Office Pro Plus to check for updates.

 

We just configured a GPO to point to a UNC share for a handful of machines to test this process in hopes of using it to keep our product up to date.  

 

As for the GPO - it turns office updates on, sets the target version, sets the unc path and sets a deadline.  We verified that these settings exist both with an RSOP and  in the registry.  

 

We are not seeing the product update though??  I am not sure where to start looking?  In the task scheduler, it appears that the task is running.  Is there a log that I can view to see what is happening?  What does the updater look for in the UNC path?  Is it just the Office folder (similar to installing)?  

 

Anyone have any experience they would like to share?

 

Thanks

Steve

6 Replies

Hi Stephen,

 

Are you doing this process ?

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Configure-update-settings-for-Office-365-ProPlus-a073ea21-6...

 

You need to see the logs

To enable verbose logging, launch cmd as administrator and run the following command:

reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ClickToRun\OverRide /v LogLevel /t REG_DWORD /d 3

ULS log file is created both in the %temp% folder and the %windir%\temp folder.  The file name is of the following format:

<machinename>-<date>-<time>.log

For example Keith-201420141610-1434.log.  Once these logs have been retrieved and analyzed, verbose logging should be disabled by running the following command from an administrative command-prompt:

reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ClickToRun\OverRide /v LogLevel /f

 

 

 

Hi Nuno,

 

Yes that is the guideline we are following.  We found that our original issue was that the scheduled task runs under the SYSTEM account.  The upgrade was on a file server that the user also had a mapped drive to.  I am pretty sure there is a "rule" that says windows will not allow an SMB connection to a server from a the same PC using two different accounts.  

 

With that being said - we moved it to a different server and it worked one with one of the machines in our pilot.  However - it hasn't happened on any of the other machines in the pilot??  If we manually hit the Update Now button in one of the pro plus applications, the update is installed...

 

This seems way more complicated than it should be -- or we must be missing something?!?!

 

Thanks

Steve

Hi We are also trying to do this. I made gpo with updates enabled /current/ update path. MY path is \\server\odt\ALLLang\Office\Data In that folder is have 1 folder with the version name and the dat file in it. and 2 cab files. Is it correct that i need to refer to this folder the data folder ?

Cause it doesnt seem to work now.

I have the gpo applied and checked in regedit the path is there but update isnt comming .

i also force the task in task sheduler.

 

Regards, David

Hi David,

 

Our GPO is set up to point to \\server\share

 

The only thing in \\server\share is Office.

 

Within office we have combined the 32 and 64 bit versions...for example

..\Office\Data\v32.cab and ..\Office\Data\v64.cab, etc.

 

HTH,

Steve

Hi sorry i didnt respod.

Its working now.

Like you say jus link to the root where wich contains office\data.

Thanks !

 

 

Don't mix v32 and v64 in the same folder and make the path points to the folder that contains the .\office\data folder and not to include those folders.

The v32.cab file just contains a pointer to the version folder that is also created in .\office\data. If you download v64 to the same folder that v32 is already in, it will overwrite stuff.

So have a directory structure like \\server\share\office2016\v32 in your configuration.xml, run setup to download your binaries and these go into \\server\share\office2016\v32\office\data and use \\server\share\office2016\v32 in your GPO. Repeat for v64 with a different download.

ProPlus and Business versions, same bitness, can share a folder (a single download) but Office2013 and Office2016 cannot not can 32 and 64 bitnesses. Not sure how Office2019 will go.