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Applies to:Office for Mac, Office 2019 for Mac
There are two basic ways that you, as an admin, can deploy Office for Mac to users in your organization:
Provide your users with the installer package file, and have them install Office for Mac for themselves Dummit foote solution manual.
Download the installer package file to your local network, and then use your software distribution tools to deploy Office for Mac to your users The longest day colorized download.
If you have an Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) plan, you can provide your users with instructions on how to download and install Office for Mac for themselves. To install Office for Mac, a user has to be administrator on the Mac or know an administrator account name and password.
But, if you deploy Office for Mac for your users, you have more control over the deployment, including which users get Office for Mac and when. To plan your deployment, review the following information.
Download Office for Mac to your local network
To activate a volume licensed version of Office 2019 for Mac or Office 2016 for Mac, use the Volume License (VL) Serializer. You can download the VL Serializer by signing into the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). You run the VL Serializer on each computer. One-time Office licenses (also known as perpetual), such as Office 2019 Home & Business, Office 2019 Home & Student, Office 2016 Home & Business, Office 2016 Home & Student, and Volume License are not compatible with Office apps downloaded from the Mac App Store. These licenses can only be used with Office apps downloaded directly from Microsoft.
Microsoft Office Standard 2016 Volume License Edition v15.23 Microsoft has announced the release of the preliminary version of the office suite Office 2016 for the Mac. The new Office for Mac is the first major upgrade package Microsoft Office applications on the platform OS X since the release version of Office 2011. I wanted to download a fresh copy of our volume license installer for Office 2016 for Mac, so I logged into the Volume Licensing Service Center and found (what should be) the correct download: 'Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac Standard'.
The easiest way to download Office for Mac, and ensure you're always getting the most current version and build, is to download directly from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN) on the internet. Here are the links to the installer packages for the Office suite, which contains all the applications:
- Office for Mac (for Office 365 or Microsoft 365 plans)
- Office 2019 for Mac (for retail or volume licensed versions)
Microsoft Office 2016 Mac Download
Important
Support for Office 2016 for Mac ended on October 13, 2020. For more information, see End of support for Office 2016 for Mac.
Here is some additional information about installer packages:
- Installer and update packages for individual applications are also available on the Office CDN. For links to those packages, see Most current packages for Office for Mac.
- The same installer package is used for Office for Mac and Office 2019 for Mac. How you activate the product determines whether you get the features for Office for Mac or the features for Office 2019 for Mac.
- Unlike Office 2016 for Mac, the installer package for Office 2019 for Mac isn't available on the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC).
Deploy Office for Mac to users in your organization
Office for Mac uses the Apple Installer technology for installation. That means you can use the software distribution tools that you normally use to deploy software to Mac users. Some of the most common tools are Jamf Pro, Munki, and AutoPkg. You can also use Apple Remote Desktop and AppleScript.
Important
There are changes in Office for Mac to improve security, including implementing Apple app sandboxing guidelines. These changes mean that you can't customize the app bundle before or after you deploy Office. Don't add, change, or remove files in an app bundle. For example, even if you don't need the French language resource files for Excel, don't delete them. This change prevents Excel from starting. Even though you can't customize app bundles, you can configure preferences for each app.
Additional deployment information for Office for Mac
Whichever deployment method you decide to use, the following information can help you plan your Office for Mac deployment.
What's new: Before you deploy, review the information about what's new for admins in Office for Mac. This article includes information about system requirements, language support, and new features.
Side-by-side installation: You can't have Office 2016 for Mac, which is no longer supported, and Office 2019 for Mac installed on the same computer. Also, you can't have Office for Mac (from an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 plan) along with either Office 2016 for Mac or Office 2019 for Mac (both of which are one-time purchase versions) installed on the same computer.
Deploying individual apps: Installer package files for individual applications are available on the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN). For links to those files, see Most current packages for Office for Mac.
Activation: To use Office for Mac, it needs to be activated. Before you deploy, review the information about how activation works in Office for Mac.
What is archtics ticketing system. Uninstalling: If you need to uninstall Office for Mac, you can follow these steps to completely remove Office for Mac. Unfortunately, there is no program to uninstall Office for Mac automatically.
Version numbers Version numbers of 16.17 or higher for retail or volume licensed installs indicate you have Office 2019 for Mac. Office 2016 for Mac, which is no longer supported, had version numbers of 16.16 or lower. Since the 'major' version (16) hasn't changed between Office 2016 for Mac and Office 2019 for Mac, application settings, including policies, preferences, and preference domains are similar between the two versions. Also, add-ins and other extensibility solutions that were compatible with Office 2016 for Mac will most likely be compatible with Office 2019 for Mac or will require minimal testing.
Upgrade to Office for Mac or to Office 2019 for Mac
Upgrade to Office for Mac (subscription version): If you're a volume licensed customer of Office 2016 for Mac or Office 2019 for Mac, you can upgrade to Office for Mac (available with certain Office 365 or Microsoft 365 plans) without uninstalling your current version. First, download and run the license removal tool. Second, launch Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) and install the latest Office updates. Finally, launch any Office app and sign in with your Office 365 or Microsoft 365 account. For a demo of these steps, and an example of how to automate this process with Jamf Pro, watch this video.
Upgrade to Office 2019 for Mac: If you're a volume licensed customer, you can upgrade to Office 2019 for Mac without uninstalling Office 2016 for Mac. First, you need to download the 2019 version of the Volume License (VL) Serializer from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). Second, download the latest version of Office 2019 for Mac. Then, deploy both the Volume License (VL) Serializer and Office 2019 for Mac to each device running Office 2016 for Mac. There is no need to remove Office 2016 for Mac first.
Deploy Office for Mac to users in your organization
Office for Mac uses the Apple Installer technology for installation. That means you can use the software distribution tools that you normally use to deploy software to Mac users. Some of the most common tools are Jamf Pro, Munki, and AutoPkg. You can also use Apple Remote Desktop and AppleScript.
Important
There are changes in Office for Mac to improve security, including implementing Apple app sandboxing guidelines. These changes mean that you can't customize the app bundle before or after you deploy Office. Don't add, change, or remove files in an app bundle. For example, even if you don't need the French language resource files for Excel, don't delete them. This change prevents Excel from starting. Even though you can't customize app bundles, you can configure preferences for each app.
Additional deployment information for Office for Mac
Whichever deployment method you decide to use, the following information can help you plan your Office for Mac deployment.
What's new: Before you deploy, review the information about what's new for admins in Office for Mac. This article includes information about system requirements, language support, and new features.
Side-by-side installation: You can't have Office 2016 for Mac, which is no longer supported, and Office 2019 for Mac installed on the same computer. Also, you can't have Office for Mac (from an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 plan) along with either Office 2016 for Mac or Office 2019 for Mac (both of which are one-time purchase versions) installed on the same computer.
Deploying individual apps: Installer package files for individual applications are available on the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN). For links to those files, see Most current packages for Office for Mac.
Activation: To use Office for Mac, it needs to be activated. Before you deploy, review the information about how activation works in Office for Mac.
What is archtics ticketing system. Uninstalling: If you need to uninstall Office for Mac, you can follow these steps to completely remove Office for Mac. Unfortunately, there is no program to uninstall Office for Mac automatically.
Version numbers Version numbers of 16.17 or higher for retail or volume licensed installs indicate you have Office 2019 for Mac. Office 2016 for Mac, which is no longer supported, had version numbers of 16.16 or lower. Since the 'major' version (16) hasn't changed between Office 2016 for Mac and Office 2019 for Mac, application settings, including policies, preferences, and preference domains are similar between the two versions. Also, add-ins and other extensibility solutions that were compatible with Office 2016 for Mac will most likely be compatible with Office 2019 for Mac or will require minimal testing.
Upgrade to Office for Mac or to Office 2019 for Mac
Upgrade to Office for Mac (subscription version): If you're a volume licensed customer of Office 2016 for Mac or Office 2019 for Mac, you can upgrade to Office for Mac (available with certain Office 365 or Microsoft 365 plans) without uninstalling your current version. First, download and run the license removal tool. Second, launch Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) and install the latest Office updates. Finally, launch any Office app and sign in with your Office 365 or Microsoft 365 account. For a demo of these steps, and an example of how to automate this process with Jamf Pro, watch this video.
Upgrade to Office 2019 for Mac: If you're a volume licensed customer, you can upgrade to Office 2019 for Mac without uninstalling Office 2016 for Mac. First, you need to download the 2019 version of the Volume License (VL) Serializer from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). Second, download the latest version of Office 2019 for Mac. Then, deploy both the Volume License (VL) Serializer and Office 2019 for Mac to each device running Office 2016 for Mac. There is no need to remove Office 2016 for Mac first.
Related articles
Passwords 1 64 bit. It is now over two months since Microsoft has made the Office for Mac 2016 Volume License installer available for customers in the VLSC (Volume Licensing Service Center) portal. I have previously documented a couple major issues with the installer that impact those who deploy Office 2016 using automated means (meaning anything that doesn't involve a user manually running the GUI installer).
In this post I'll summarize two of the major issues and talk a bit about a conference session that was presented just this past week at MacSysAdmin 2015 by Duncan McCracken.
Running at the loginwindow: fixed, sort of
The Office for Mac team has made some progress with one of the major issues with this installer, which was its inability to run the license activation process while at the loginwindow. The latest release in the VL portal at this time of writing is 15.13.4, and it fixes the issue where the license activation (run by Microsoft Setup Assistant) assumed it could connect to a GUI session, which at the loginwindow it cannot.
Unfortunately, they have not yet met what I'd consider the minimum requirement for a deployable installer: that it should be possible to deploy it with Apple Remote Desktop (ARD). While ARD has a (deserved) reputation of being unreliable and is not suitable for ongoing management of Macs at a larger-than-small scale, it's still an easy-to-set-up tool that you can point a software vendor to as a way to test how well their installers stand up to a typical mass deployment scenario.
The reason the Office VL installer fails at the loginwindow with ARD was already explained in the afore-linked post: ARD seems to set a USER environment value of nobody, and when their licensing tool runs it is run using sudo -u $USER, which seems to fail when the command is run as nobody. I don't see any reason why sudo -u $USER should be used at all in this case.
Confusing security prompt for the auto-update daemon: still there
The other major issue with the installer is that when it detects COMMAND_LINE_INSTALL, it skips the process of registering the Microsoft AU Daemon application (using an undocumented -trusted option) using lsregister, because this should be done as the user launching the app. Starcraft 2 legacy of the void new units. The end result is that installing this package without other additional steps will result in a confusing 'you are running this for the first time' prompt shown to users, triggered by the auto-update daemon, which is triggered automatically on the first launch of any Office 2016 application.
Working around this issue requires some fancy footwork: setting preferences for com.microsoft.autoupdate2 to prevent it from launching automatically, or using an installer choice changes XML to selectively disable Microsoft Auto Update (MAU) from installing at all. The latter won't help much if Office 2011 has already been installed, because Office 2011 includes the same Auto Update application, and the 2016 applications will attempt to register themselves with it on first launch. Another option, which requires no modification to the installation configuration, is to instead create a custom script to run the same lsregister command, and run this script by every user at login time, deployed using a tool such as outset.
Admins have also gone the route of simply deploying the standalone 'update' packages instead of the base application, as these don't include the MAU components at all. This is also all documented thoroughly in my earlier post.
These advanced workarounds - repackaging, recombining, reconfiguring and 'augmenting' with additional LaunchAgents - are all excellent examples of things that should never be required by an IT administrator for mainstream software. These techniques are typically only needed for niche applications made by software vendors whose release engineers have little interest in understanding the conventions and tools available for the OS platform. Adobe is obviously the one glaring exception here.
The audit by Duncan McCracken at MacSysAdmin 2015
Microsoft Office For Mac 2016 Free Download
Last week the MacSysAdmin 2015 conference took place in Göteborg, Sweden. Duncan McCracken, whose company Mondada offers a paid Mac packaging service, spent the latter half of his presentation deconstructing the Office 2016 installer.
A video recording of Duncan's presentation, as well as some his resources used in the demo, can be found at the MacSysAdmin 2015 documentation page (or here for a direct link of the video).
Because Mondada specializes in packaging as a service, Duncan is an expert at doing packages properly, and is experienced with fixing the mistakes made by commercial vendors who don't properly implement the tools made available by the Installer framework and packaging tools on OS X. Somewhat of a perfectionist, Duncan is used to completely disassembling and re-assembling a flawed package (or one that uses a custom packaging engine - see his 2010 MacSysAdmin Installer Packages session for an example) to make it as 'correct' as possible, and using the appropriate mechanisms available in the Installer framework to perform whatever custom logic may be necessary.
Mac Office 2016 Volume License
The Office 2016 package deconstruction begins roughly halfway into the video. As someone who's all-too-familiar with problematic installer packages (and Office 2016's in particular), I found the session extremely entertaining. The parts of Duncan's demos that didn't go so well were supposedly caused by a misconfigured (or broken?) shell binary in his OS X VM he was using in the demonstration, and that the process he went through to re-assemble the installer package should otherwise have resulted in a successful installation.
Given that Mac IT admins are still in this awkward phase where OS X El Capitan is now shipping on all new Mac hardware, Outlook 2011 effectively cannot run on El Capitan, and organizations are feeling pressure to deploy Office 2016 as soon as possible, it's unfortunate that the Office 2016 installer still requires so much 'fixing.' I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that Office is the single most commonly deployed commercial software in organizations.
Microsoft Office 2016 Mac Updates
That Duncan dedicated nearly half of his session to this installer package is a testament to how far IT admins need to go simply to deploy software in a manner that provides a trouble-free experience for users. Software vendors do not have a clue that we do this - so don't think that they are 'out to get you' - but when software becomes this hard to deliver to users, it's time to push back and give real-world examples of the contexts in which we install software and details of the workarounds we implement. You may well better understand the implications of sudo -u $USER in postinstall scripts than the release engineers do, so educate them!
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016 Volume License
There's even contact info in a comment from my previous post. If you don't have an expensive enough agreement with Microsoft (we don't), it can otherwise be challenging to get a fruitful contact with the engineering team, so this is an opportunity to provide direct feedback.
- What's Wrong with the Office 2016 Volume License Installer? –
- Disabling First-run Dialogs in Office 2016 for Mac –
- Adobe Creative Cloud Deployment - Packaging a License File –
- How to Package Profiles –
