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Archive: Intune Support Tip: Using ADMX for the Office Channel
Published Jan 12 2021 08:05 AM 10.4K Views

By Mike Danoski – Sr. Program Manager | Microsoft Endpoint Manager - Intune

 

10/6/21 Update: With the September 2021 Intune release, these steps are no longer required to set Office to the Monthly Enterprise Channel. We’ve added a new setting in Administrative Templates with the new values with the name “Update Channel(2.0).” The old setting has been renamed Update Channel (1.0). You should only have one of these configured at a time and we’ve built the new setting so that if you configure the (2.0) version, we will automatically set the older setting to “Not Configured.”

 

Microsoft Endpoint Manager - Configuring the Office Update Channel via Intune Administrative Template policy.Microsoft Endpoint Manager - Configuring the Office Update Channel via Intune Administrative Template policy.

 

We have received a few support cases recently on the availability of the Administrative Templates (ADMX) settings for Office Channel with the new channel values such as the Monthly Enterprise Channel. This post will walk you through some background information and then provide three different approaches you can take to manage the updated Office Channels using Intune. We are working through changing the channel names and adding support for the additional Monthly Enterprise Channel value in our Administrative Templates policy, but in the meantime, I wanted to provide some alternatives if channel config via Administrative Templates in Intune is blocking your deployment.

 

Background: Changes to update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps - Deploy Office | Microsoft Docs

 

Since I will be covering making changes to the Office Update Channel, I am providing some articles that should be reviewed before making changes in production.

 

 

If you would like to move to any channel other than the Monthly Enterprise Channel via Intune Administrative Templates (ADMX):

 

Use this mapping to navigate the visual channel changes in our current ADMX policy.

 

New name

Previous name

Beta Channel

Insider
(sometimes referred to as Insider Fast)

Current Channel (Preview)

Monthly Channel (Targeted)
(sometimes referred to as Insider Slow)

Current Channel

Monthly Channel

Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview)

Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted)

Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel

Semi-Annual Channel

 

Below are three different options to update the channels depending on your configuration. We also always recommend you test any changes with a test group before making the change in production so you can see the change in end-user experience.

 

Option 1: If you would like to move to Monthly Enterprise Channel AND use ODT (Office Deployment Tool) via Intune.

 

Overview: Add Microsoft 365 apps to Windows 10 devices using Microsoft Intune | Microsoft Docs

 

Use this procedure if you have deployed Office Click-To-Run manually using ODT or from Intune.

 

NOTE: If there are conflicting settings, ADMX via MDM will win over settings via ODT. If you already have the channel setting set via ADMX, the new policy in ODT will not take effect until you remove the ADMX configuration.

 

Procedure:

  1. Set the channel setting in your Microsoft 365 Apps section to the Monthly Enterprise Channel.

    1. This can be done through the configuration designer or XML.

  2. Change the setting in the ADMX policy to “Not Configured”.

    1. Setting this value to "Not Configured" will remove the command on the next MDM sync session.

  3. Once both settings are changed, the next time Click-to-Run runs, it will rationalize the change and move to the channel specified by ODT once the ADMX policy is removed.

 

Option 2: If you would like to move to Monthly Enterprise Channel AND you prefer to use policy and not ODT.

 

Setting the Office update channel via Custom policy (OMA-URI)

Create and deploy two settings in one profile.

 

To avoid conflict, set any existing Administrative Templates Office Channel settings targeted to the same group to “Not Configured”. Once this new customer policy setting is in place, please do not use the setting in Administrative Templates until it is updated, at which time you can set it back to Monthly Enterprise Channel and remove the custom OMA-URI policy.

 

Additional Info on deploying ADMX via Custom policy: Deploy Custom GPO via Microsoft Intune - Microsoft Tech Community.

 

Installing the ADMX

  • ADMX Install URI: ./Vendor/MSFT/Policy/ConfigOperations/ADMXInstall/Office/Policy/L_UpdateBranch
  • Value Type: String
  • Setting value:

 

 

 

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<policyDefinitions revision="1.0" schemaVersion="1.0">
    <policyNamespaces>
        <target prefix="office16" namespace="office16v02.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows" />
        <using prefix="windows" namespace="Microsoft.Policies.Windows" />
    </policyNamespaces>
    <supersededAdm fileName="office16" />
    <resources minRequiredRevision="1.0" />
    <categories>
        <category name="L_MicrosoftOfficemachine" displayName="$(string.L_MicrosoftOfficemachine)" />
        <category name="L_Updates" displayName="$(string.L_Updates)">
            <parentCategory ref="L_MicrosoftOfficemachine" />
        </category>
    </categories>
    <policies>
        <policy name="L_UpdateBranch" class="Machine" displayName="$(string.L_UpdateBranch)" explainText="$(string.L_UpdateBranchExplain)" presentation="$(presentation.L_UpdateBranch)" key="software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\common\officeupdate">
            <parentCategory ref="L_Updates" />
            <supportedOn ref="windows:SUPPORTED_Windows7" />
            <elements>
                <enum id="L_UpdateBranchID" valueName="updatebranch" required="false">
                    <item displayName="$(string.L_UpdateBranch_Current)">
                        <value>
                            <string>Current</string>
                        </value>
                    </item>
                    <item displayName="$(string.L_UpdateBranch_CurrentPreview)">
                        <value>
                            <string>FirstReleaseCurrent</string>
                        </value>
                    </item>
                    <item displayName="$(string.L_UpdateBranch_MonthlyEnterprise)">
                        <value>
                            <string>MonthlyEnterprise</string>
                        </value>
                    </item>
                    <item displayName="$(string.L_UpdateBranch_SemiAnnual)">
                        <value>
                            <string>Deferred</string>
                        </value>
                    </item>
                    <item displayName="$(string.L_UpdateBranch_SemiAnnualPreview)">
                        <value>
                            <string>FirstReleaseDeferred</string>
                        </value>
                    </item>
                    <item displayName="$(string.L_UpdateBranch_Beta)">
                        <value>
                            <string>InsiderFast</string>
                        </value>
                    </item>
                </enum>
            </elements>
        </policy>
    </policies>
</policyDefinitions>

 

 

 

 

Second setting: Configuring the new ADMX setting

 

Note: This may report as Error until the 1st setting successfully writes to the device. If this is an issue, you can split these into separate policies and deploy this configuration after the ADMXInstall reports as a success.

 

  • Configuration URI (for pushing the configured setting value down: ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Office~Policy~L_MicrosoftOfficemachine~L_Updates/L_UpdateBranch
  • Value Type: String
  • Setting value: 
    <enabled/><data id="L_UpdateBranchID" value="MonthlyEnterprise"/>​

 

Let us know if you have any additional questions on this by replying back to this post or tagging @MikeDanoski or @IntuneSuppTeam out on Twitter.

 

Post updates:

10/6/21: With the September 2021 Intune release, these steps are no longer required to set Office to the Monthly Enterprise Channel. Please refer to the note at the top for more information!

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Last update:
‎Dec 19 2023 01:18 PM
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