Office 365 application deployment

ShotInTheAss86 · 11 Jul 2019 at 10:36

I've setup a GPO to push out O365 apps as a replacement for Office 2016 using the deployment tool/config xml. The install is configured to run as a shared license rather than be specifically assigned to any 1 user in the business. From what I've read on this it checks the user signed in has a valid O365 license to use the app they've opened and assigns a temp key to them for that instance which expires in X days of inactivity on that device's apps.

Does anyone know how to view these temps key or if there is a limit to how many a user can have active in a given time frame? I've looked on both my personal 365 sign-in and the admin portal but cant find a record of this anywhere.

Finally, though it shouldn't be a problem, if a user installs their 5 instances of O365 suite on personal devices would that prevent them from getting a temp key for a work device running a shared O365 instance?

Django x2 · 16 Jul 2019 at 13:00

It doesn't work like that. If you install O365 ProPlus, there should be no key in the config/xml (except for add on products like Visio or Project). The application will activate the moment a user signs in to O365 if they have a valid license. If they don't, they can still use Office in redacted mode (features disable) until they sign in. Once a user is signed in against an O365 license, that's it. There is no x days of inactivity. It will only be removed when their license is removed.

If they use 5 installs, the office application on the 6th machine would fail to activate and the user would have to review their installs and remove one of the activation licenses from another machine (through portal.office.com).

ShotInTheAss86 · 30 Jul 2019 at 15:06

Sorry, been on hols for past 2 weeks. What you have described is how i thought it would behave however it doesn't seem to be true.

I've deployed O365 to a dozen or so machines now and on most have logged on with my own account and opened Office apps which work fully. Auto sign-in within app to my work account and link to my sharepoint and onedrive account when viewing save /open options. Account tab correctly show license type as shared activation key.

But if i view mine of any other users who are using these new O365 install machines. Install Status on O365 portal (my account) it shows
Detected installs: 0

Django x2 · 31 Jul 2019 at 19:20

how strange. License activation should show as whoever activated the first Office app that was opened. Are you pulling the O365 installer from the portal?

ShotInTheAss86 · 2 Aug 2019 at 11:46

yes office config file is pulling latest install from CDN. Its not a huge problem, actually less work if we dont have to manually tidy up users who log on to a lot of machines in a short space of time. Just dont want MS kicking off if I've missed something that breaches licensing