Skip to main content

Hey there,

I did something very stupid when capturing and imaging Microsoft Office 2011 (I included User folder data in the package, therefore having one identity across many devices as well as compatibility issues) I am looking at a way to trash the following files for users on their machines en masse:

com.microsoft.word.plist, com.microsoft.excel.plist, com.microsoft.powerpoint.plist, com.microsoft.outlook.plist

I am thinking a simple script along the lines of the following: 

rm /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.word.plist*

(including the second wildcard so it also trashes the secondary file created from recent use)
Can anyone see an issue with doing this for all the files? Is there a better way, as I am very amateur at scripting..

As these files were also used to fill the new user template, what would I be looking to write to erase them from here as well?

Big appreciation for any help here, our users are extremely frustrated by problems related to these files

@mtaylor934 They will be just application prefs, like settings for auto save locations & font size.

You could probably point that script to user templates as well to remove from there.

Obviously test!

But, why package office at all? It comes in a deployable PKG?

Assuming there isn't locally stored user data in outlook etc, I would delete any com.microsoft.* preference files in the users home and the Microsoft User Data folder in Documents. That will reset it to an out of box configuration for each user.

Agree with @bentoms though, there isn't really a need to page MS Office. If you want to customise the user experience there is a bunch of custom config profile settings you can deploy via MDM that work really well.

@davidacland I was hesitant to suggest com.microsoft.* as it might bust the license.

That should be in the top level com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2398768

@mtaylor934 this might be a good article to refer to for your clean up script.

In regards to why I packaged Office, I was just unaware of the ability to deploy it otherwise. First experience building and deploying and have since learned a lot for next time..

Thanks for the input everyone. I have decided to roll with separate policies to 'reset' individual office programs, as well as a suite reset (rm relevant plist script). I was also able to script the license reset etc but it obviously requires users to re set up email and everything else.

Thank you!

Terms & ConditionsCookie settingsAccessibility statement