Configuration Profiles and Office 2011

[j99mac]

I am testing using Configuration Profiles to push out com.microsoft.office.plist to 10.7 Mac. Has anyone tried this? I am trying to suppress the first run for Outlook 2011. So far I see the plist loading on the Mac, but when I go to use Outlook for the first time I still get the fist run. Any suggestion on how to prevent first run for MS Office.

[nkalister]

use the MCX template built into the JSS. That's working fine for me with 10.8.

[timsutton]

The reason for this is that a standard Configuration Profile (from Profile Manager, at least) is doing the equivalent of "Always" / "Forced" management, and not every application respects settings managed at this level. Office 2011 is one of them - Once or Often will work.

That was one reason I put together this tool, which can take a plist or MCX record and wrap it in a profile and specify the MCX 'management level' as you would using WGM:

https://github.com/timsutton/mcxToProfile

[chrisw]

Hi, I am trying to do the same thing with 10.8. I went to the MCX Profile in JSS can used the Office 2011 - First Run Assistant Complete. The key 14FirstRunSetupComplete was set by default to 1. I changed it to 0 and rebooted. Users still get the Setup Screen asking for First and last name along with Company Name. Am I missing something else?

[nkalister]

the value for the first run key needs to be 1 to suppress the prompt. switch it back to 1 and test it again.

[chrisw]

Thank you nkalister. I verified that the setting is 1. Same thing happens. Now when the user logs in they get prompted for their first and last name and organization. Then it asks then for auto update settings. below are my settings in the MCX profile. I see the com.microsft.office.plist in the root of users directory. That contains the first run data with a ') instead of a 1. Then I go to the users directory it has a complete.plist. this plist contains the values that I input in the MCX. But yet first run still happens. We have this on a 10.8.2 client.

Any idea's on what I can be missing?

com.microsoft.office
Office 2011 - First Run Assistant Complete -- User Level At Next Login Only -- 14FirstRunSetupComplete -- integer -- 1
Office 2011 - Organization Name -- User Level At Next Login Only -- 14UserInfoUserOrganization -- string -- My Company

[nkalister]

the plist should not be being written to the root of the user's directory. What does the setting show for the Domain? It should be Domain: ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office
at this point, the simplest thing is probably to remove the MCX setting from your profile and start over from the preset.

[chrisw]

Thank you. I removed the MCX settings from jss. I was able to locate the office.plist file on the test machine. Verified that the MCX settings were applied (verified by looking at last modified time stamp of the plist file). But when I launched the program it asks for when I want to update and customer experience program. I uploaded the office .plist file on my laptop that dosen't prompt me for anything and it will did not work. I opened the autoupdate2. domain and verified that on the test machine that the setting was set to manual. At first launch Word still asked me when I want to update. The microsoft.office domain was set to 1 (integer) but when I open that plist file on the test machine the 1 is a '(. I don't know if that is why its not working. Changing the MCX setting from "Run at every login" and "Run at next login only" had no effect.

But right now I am taking another snapshot with all patches and updates to Office. I am going to launch each app to generate the plist file. I am going to create the Office package with the first run and auto updates settings that I want.

I feel that I am missing something simple. I would love to understant what I am missing or why this isn't working. I appreciate your time.

[bentoms]

Honestly, gave up creating custom config profiles & for what you're doing here MCX will work (i know as it's working for my 10.8 image).

I only use config profiles for which there are already options (wireless.. vpn.. certificates).. etc..

Then MCX..

Then possibly deploy a plist or script the solution

[chrisw]

Thank you all of your help I got it working. Had to create 6 MCX's that I uploaded from a test machine. Disabling autoupdate,error reporting and microsoft.office domains. its all good now.

[chrisx]

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