Is 'Project Online Desktop Client' another name for 'Project Pro for Office 365' ?

[Don Pickard]

I'm a little confused about the deployment of the bits for subscription licenses.
Is 'ProjectProRetail' the correct productID to use, if I need to deploy 'Project Online Desktop Client' ?

We have an O365 E3 plan, which give us O365 ProPlus bits, that I deploy.

Some users will need to add Visio to their machines, other users will need to add Project to their machines.

The Office Deployment Tool allows me to download the bits for deployment to machines.

The ODT, when invoked in 'configure' mode (sort of the equivalent of 'installation') requires that I specify in the configuration.xml which bits to deploy. The defined list of 'product IDs' permitted by the ODT doesn't list 'Project Online Desktop Client' but it does list 'ProjectProRetail' :

- O365ProPlusRetail
- O365BusinessRetail
- VisioProRetail
- ProjectProRetail
- SPDRetail (SharePoint Designer 2013)

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2842297

Here's some of the articles I've been reading (none of which make it any clearer to me :(

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/install-project-7059249b-d9fe-4d61-ab96-5c5bf435f281?ui=en-...

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Get-started-with-Project-Online-e3e5f64f-ada5-4f9d-a578-130...

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt599788(v=office.16).aspx

Help?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Yes, they renamed "Project Pro for Office 365" to "Project Online Desktop Client" recently. You would still use the ProjectProRetail option in your configuration.xml file.

[#3]

Confusing: I understand that I now need to move to the subscription version (formerly Project Pro for Office 365, now Project Online Desktop Client) in order to get thelatest Timeline features (label swimlane and show progress on the time line). The new name confused me because I will not be using the newly branded client for anything on-line. 

I wish I didn't have to uninstall my existing MSP Pro 2016 desktop client in order to get the Timeline features I need.

[#4]

My understanding is that you cannot order standalone Project anymore as a subscription offering. They bundled it in the Project Online Professional and Project Online Premium licensing SKU's. Both of those are Project Online offerings so you'd have a Project Online tenant somewhere to get it in the first place. Then it is up to you if you want to use it 'offline'.