Introducing a new and easy way to deploy Office 365 to your classroom devices

[Intune_for_EDU_Team]

Set up School PCs is an app used to quickly set up Windows 10 devices for the classroom and enroll your devices into a mobile device management (MDM) provider such as Intune for Education. We are excited to announce a new and easy way to deploy Office 365 via the Set Up School PCs app.

Now, Microsoft Office will be automatically included on the apps page in Set Up School PCs. Simply check a box to include it in your provisioning package and it will automatically install at the time of provisioning. Your devices will be provisioned with Office 365 ProPlus which includes cloud-connected and always up to date versions of our most valuable apps such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Teams. This version of Office is suitable for Windows 10 Pro and EDU SKUs. We’ve also automatically configured settings suitable for education environments such as provisioning Office in shared mode and blocking users from changing subscription licenses.

This is a great way to deploy Office in an environment where network bandwidth is a concern.

Learn more about Set Up School PCs here.

[Angus McPherson]

This is potentially amazing.   I will need to do some testing to see how this works.  But if it allows O365 to be installed on studnet BYOD device via our local network rather than the internet then that's awsome.

[Liz_Cox]

Hi @Angus McPherson glad to here this is helpful! I work on Set Up School PCs, so feel free to reach out to me if you run into any issues! 

[Angus McPherson]

Hi @Liz_Cox 

We have been using InTune for byod this year.  We currently encourage students to register/enroll their device from their home WiFi.  

Two key questions....

A) Instead of using a USB stick can we host the app install file online. Then encourage student to directly download this from home.

B) Or should we stick with our current process and deploy Setup School PC app through InTune 

And a third question... Can any other software other than O365 be installed via Setup School PC app. Specifically I am wondering if we could load Papercut throuhh it perhaps.

[Liz_Cox]

Hi @Angus McPherson ! I'm not sure if you can host the app install file online, but if you're already using Intune- you can deploy Office and other apps from Intune. You can also make them "available" apps and have students download them from the Company Portal from home. Would that work for your scenario? As for the third question, the only apps that can be installed via Set Up School PCs are O365 and Microsoft Store apps, but if you're enrolling the devices in Intune, you can deploy other third party apps such as Papercut via Intune. 

[Angus McPherson]

Hi @Liz_Cox 

thanks for the speedy response.

Deploying O365 via InTune is what I'm trying to avoid. Internet connectivity is low in my region. Most families have a connection, but it might only via mobile.

I dont want to overload home internet connections.  As for at school, I prefer to deploy large files via our local network rather than internet. 

[jivus]

Great to see that now we can deploy office in students laptop in one click, Need advise how to setup school app in our environment, we have Microsoft Azure and office 365 A1 license for students, and we want to implement this on our students device.

Thanks 

Jeevan 

IT Manager

King Abdullah Academy

[lguidry]

I have a question How do I install other apps and gain admin access to do so? When I install Student PC I am lock out from installing any third party applications.