Have a look at this post: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=18567

Basically create a Configuration Profile with an MCX payload set to:

Domain = com.microsoft.autoupdate2

MCX =

xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>DisableInsiderCheckbox</key>
    <true/>
    <key>HowToCheck</key>
        <string>Manual</string>
</dict>
</plist>

I don't recall where this was suggested, but I have confirmed that just deleting /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app works great. The Office applications continue to work fine, and the option to check for updates disappears from the Help menu at next launch.

Hi @sumit.batra

Check out @clburlison's great post on Office 2016 and deployment to Macs.

Specifically theres a whole section on disabling MAU from checking for updates. This also includes a link to a pre-completed profile to disable Auto Updates, written by @gregneagle.

Hope that helps!

Darren

I am still facing issues with the auto updates for Office 2016. I am using the below script to set updates to manual & disable welcome screen , but post activation of Office it turns the setting back to automatic for updates. Any suggestions & help would be much appreciated.

for i in $( ls /Users )
do
su $i -c "defaults write /Users/$i/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist HowToCheck Manual"
chown $i /Users/$i/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist HowToCheck Manual
done

!/bin/sh

write settings to plist

/usr/sbin/defaults wite /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist HowToCheck Manual

now set ownership and permission

/bin/chmod -777 /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist HowToCheck Manual

now set ownership

/usr/sbin/chown -R user:group /path/to/plist

Turns off the FirstRunScreen for each application.

/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.PowerPoint kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true

/usr/sbin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
/usr/sbin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
/usr/sbin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.PowerPoint kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
/usr/sbin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
/usr/sbin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.onenote.mac kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool

Set Office 2016 First Run Items as Completed

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.PowerPoint kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.onenote.mac kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true

Set Office 2016 Auto Update to Manual

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2 HowToCheck Manual

Outlook

/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook FirstRunExperienceCompletedO15 -bool true
/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook OUIWhatsNewLastShownLink -integer 623900

Powerpoint

/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.PowerPoint kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true
/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.PowerPoint OUIWhatsNewLastShownLink -integer 620749

Excel

/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true

Word

/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true

OneNote

/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.onenote.mac kSubUIAppCompletedFirstRunSetup1507 -bool true

!/bin/bash

Disable Microsoft Features...

Within USER_TEMPLATEs

for USER_TEMPLATE in "/System/Library/User Template"/*
do #Turn off Telemetry defaults write "${USER_TEMPLATE}/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate.fba.plist" SendAllTelemetryEnabled -bool false
done

Within USERs

for USER in "/Users"/*
do #Turn off Telemetry defaults write "${USER}/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate.fba.plist" SendAllTelemetryEnabled -bool false
done

Make MAU trusted

/usr/bin/xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app

@sumit.batra

Can you confirm what version of Office 2016 you are working with? I've seen these type of changes not "sticking" on anything prior to 15.18

Larry

You can also use a custom installchoices.xml to not install the auto updater.

I hate to kick this dead horse, but...

Can someone clarify if I can enable/disable Office 2016 autoupdate * globally * for all local users

/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist HowToCheck -string "Manual"

Or do I have to do it recursivley for each local user on a per-user basis?

/usr/sbin/defaults wite /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist HowToCheck "Manual"

Im asking because I see references to both methods in various JAMF threads, and I want to make sure I'm understanding the scope of the com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist file. Id prefer to do it globally or all locall users than drill into each and every user-level plist file.

Never saw an answer to this last question, but still looking for one that works.

Gabe Shackney
Princeton Public Schools

Another way that I do this is to delete the AutoUpdate folder. Once removed there is no way to update Office in the apps and there is no prompt to either. I use the following EA to detect if the folder exists. Then if it does I have a policy run that deletes the folder. It works great for us.

#!/bin/sh

if
[ -d "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0" ] 
then
echo "<result>Enabled</result>"
else
echo "<result>Missing</result>"
fi

If found, a policy runs:

rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0"

I don't think I want it deleted though as it does make updating quite quick for admins. So I guess my question is can we just disable it....or even give users the ability to run this specific Auto Updater?

Gabe Shackney
Princeton Public Schools

@gshackney In my testing, modern (3.8.0+) MAU agents appear to be able to let non-admin users update apps using this agent. I am using a config profile to force download and install on, but users can also manually launch if they want to accelerate the process.

I'm using the config profile found here. (Thanks, rtrouton!)