Now that Office 2016 (15.14.0) is out, anyone know how to suppress this dialog?

[donmontalvo]

Now that 15.14.0 is out, anyone know how to suppress these dialog boxes?

[jhbush · Accepted solution]

@donmontalvo this may be of use to you. NOT MUCH, WHAT’S NEW WITH YOU?

[donmontalvo]

@jhbush1973 lol...I figured its just a matter of time before @timsutton or @rtrouton or one of the other uber guru icon gods sorted this out. :) I installed on the way out the door on Friday and didn't expect those dialog boxes. This is awesome stuff, many thanks.

[donmontalvo]

Thanks to @timsutton @jhbush1973 and @eholtam for the tips:

Tested these on 10.11 GM test Macs, suppressed the annoying new 15.14.0 dialog boxes:

## 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

[mtafirozee]

Thanks @donmontalvo

But I had an error with the key
/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook FirstRunExperienceCompletedO15 - bool true

Error: Unexpected argument bool; leaving defaults unchanged.

Office v15.14

Any help?

[donmontalvo]

Sorry there was a space between the hyphen and "bool". I'll fix.

[mtafirozee]

@donmontalvo Awesome. It's working.

[donmontalvo]

Looks like 15.14.2 was released, amounts to just an update for Outlook.

Fresh test of the above, two policies...

New install policy:

• Microsoft_Office_2016_Volume_Installer.pkg
• Microsoft_Office_2016_Volume_Installer_License.pkg <-- installs com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.plist
• Microsoft_Outlook_15.14.2_Updater.pkg
• Microsoft_Excel_15.14.0_Updater.pkg
• Microsoft_OneNote_15.14.0_Updater.pkg
• Microsoft_PowerPoint_15.14.0_Updater.pkg
• Microsoft_Word_15.14.0_Updater.pkg
• Suppression script runs After everything is installed

Update install policy:

• Microsoft_Outlook_15.14.2_Updater.pkg
• Microsoft_Excel_15.14.0_Updater.pkg
• Microsoft_OneNote_15.14.0_Updater.pkg
• Microsoft_PowerPoint_15.14.0_Updater.pkg
• Microsoft_Word_15.14.0_Updater.pkg

Thanks you @timsutton, @rtrouton, @waqas, @johnmcnair (who lurks more than he posts; hoping to get him to post more), and others, for tolerating our borrowing, stealing, altering, etc., all your thoughts and advice...

Don

[donmontalvo]

Belated green for @jhbush1973, and for @eholtam who lurks here but gets kudos for his article. :)

[ArielN]

Hi Don,

I like your work on this. We will soon be upgrading to Microsoft Office 2016 in a couple months from MS Office 2011. Do you have the work flow that you can email me so i can have an idea on how to setup Microsoft Office 2016 in our environment.

Thank you, Ariel

[Aziz]

Is it me or did Microsoft remove direct downloads for updates? I can't seem to find any on their site.

[CGundersen]

@Abdiaziz

15.14.0 Updates

[Aziz]

@CGundersen Thanks! Using keywords like "Office 2016 Update for Mac" or the exact name doesn't work for me :/

[donmontalvo]

Outlook 15.14.2 and OneNote 15.14.1 are out as well.

[merc_support]

Hey @donmontalvo - love your work. How are you suppressing the first "Microsoft AU Daemon.app" dialog box from appearing, if at all?

According to the associated webpage - What’s Wrong with the Office 2016 Volume License Installer? - it is suggested not installing the Volume Licence pkg at all.

"One possible workaround is oddly appealing: don’t install the volume license combined install package at all! Office 2016 updates are actually full application installers, one for each application update. These don’t contain any of the licensing or auto-update related infrastructure that is included in the VL installer."

It's not ideal if clients are encouraged to self-manage their updates as MAU isn't installed, I guess. A controlled SOE like a lab image however...

[Aziz]

@merc_support So far this has worked for me. It just has to run once PER USER.

#Make MAU trusted

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

#Make Auto Updater Manual
defaults write com.microsoft.autoupdate2 HowToCheck Manual

[calumhunter]

@Abdiaziz

Interesting, are you sure that works? Because its not a com.apple.quarantine issue
The MAU doesn't have any xattr's set

I run this script, once per user, per computer.
the command comes from MS's postinstall script, but thanks to the work of frogor i've fixed a bug they made in the script. You actually need to trust both the MAU app and the MAU Daemon app

#!/bin/bash

# Location of the lsregister binary
lsregister_bin="/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister"

# Trust the MAU App
echo " - Trusting the MAU app"
$lsregister_bin -R -f -trusted "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app"

# Trust the MAU Daemon app
echo " - Trusting the MAU Daemon app"
$lsregister_bin -R -f -trusted "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft AU Daemon.app"

[Aziz]

@calumhunter

Interesting, I'll test it again later today and report back.

[merc_support]

@Abdiaziz @calumhunter

Hmmm, we're probably missing something obvious here, but neither of those suppress the popup on first run for us:

Script runs with exit code of 0. Running as a separate script to @donmontalvo 's script.

[calumhunter]

@merc_support

How are you running it?

Have you tested running it manually?

[Aziz]

@merc_support I deleted the Auto Updater (we deploy the updates anyways).

#Delete Auto Updater

rm -rf /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app

[merc_support]

@calumhunter - deploying it as part of a policy to a smart computer group. I haven't tested it manually (was the next step) yet, my last post was at the end of my shift :P...

However as @Abdiaziz just mentioned - deleting the Auto Updater is probably our preferred method. I was thinking about this exact option driving in today! We also manage / deploy updates to our Lab iMacs.

I wonder if it's a feature we will eventually see under Managed Preferences? "Mircosoft Office Auto Update" preference feature still works when changing Update discovery from "Automatic" to "Manual".

[calumhunter]

@merc_support If you are managing the updates, then for sure there is no reason to include it.
Depending upon how you are installing office, you could simply use an installer choices xml to not install the auto updater to start with.

Also note that the updates are full installers as well.

Not sure what your asking about the managed preferences though....

The MAU does still use com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist so you can use MCX/Profiles to manage the settings in side that such as Automatic or manual.

[kstrick]

FYI, for OneNote to get rid of the "What's new" garbage,

The key is OUIWhatsNewLastShownLink (like Outlook and Powerpoint) and the value is 616918

PS
I really hate the "Microsoft AU Daemon"

[ubcoit]

Thanks to everyone for the great information.

One question and I probably missed this somewhere... where are you getting the integer values for each program/update for OUIWhatsNewLastShownLink?

Current 15.15 is:

Word = 624953
Excel = 624954
PowerPoint = 624955
Outlook = 624956
OneNote = 616918 (This didn't work for me)

Thank you!

[eholtam]

It's a manual process. When the updates come out, update the apps, launch each app, then go look at the preference plist for the key and see if it incremented.

If you already manage the setting you'll know it's incremented if you get a new what's new pop up.

[ubcoit]

Thanks for that. I should have been more specific and asked where the plist file was. After a little bit of digging I found it. Make sure to update and launch each app before looking in each plist.

Word
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word.plist

Excel
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel.plist

PowerPoint
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Powerpoint.plist

Outlook
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Outlook/Data/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook.plist

OneNote
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.onenote.mac/Data/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.onenote.mac.plist

After installing the latest version of OneNote, OUIWhatsNewLastShownLink doesn't appear in the com.microsoft.onenote.mac.plist file for me.

[eholtam]

You can also get key info by running defaults on the domain without a path. Defaults is aware of the possible locations to store app preferences and will run thru the gamut looking for a matching domain. Supplying the full path doesn't hurt though.

defaults read com.microsoft.Excel OUIWhatsNewLastShownLink
defaults read com.microsoft.Outlook OUIWhatsNewLastShownLink
defaults read com.microsoft.Powerpoint OUIWhatsNewLastShownLink
defaults read com.microsoft.Word OUIWhatsNewLastShownLink

[ubcoit]

Excellent, even better!

I needed the path for those to work for me.

[kstrick]

I take it nobody 'cracked the code' as to how the "OUWhatsNewLastShowLink" is determined?
It would be nice if we could generate these based on the version of the apps and not have to change them every time there is an update....
(would be far too easy for us if it was a build number)

[jimmy-swings]

Can anyone share how they suppressed the requests for proxy authentication during the launch of Excel & Word?

[donmontalvo]

Just want to leave this nugget here, HUGE kudos to @eholtam:

https://osxbytes.wordpress.com/2015/09/17/not-much-whats-new-with-you/

[eholtam]

@kstrick It appears it's dynamically created, probably close to build time, as you can access the content of the latest What's New info using a forward link of http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=####### where ####### is the value of the OUIWhatsNewLastShownLink. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=717793 shows PowerPoint 15.18's What's New content. Since there are other things that use that forward linking URL I'm guessing it's just dependent on what else was generated between builds. I'm asking the MS Software Engineer in Slack but haven't heard back yet.

@donmontalvo Thanks for the recognition. As a disclaimer I try and keep those profiles updated though OneNote is a little behind as I don't have that app to monitor. I may need to pull that one out.

[kstrick]

@eholtam Thanks, that makes sense...

[dilan]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought Microsoft removed the need to make the change for the "OUIWhatsNewLastShownLink" value in the enterprise version. We haven't touched that setting since the 15.15 update and we still don't see the "What's New" pop-ups come up.

[eholtam]

@dilan That's true if you installed the Office suite as a volume license. Those with an Office 365 subscription still see the dialogs.

[donmontalvo]

@eholtam so does this mean we can use the 15.15 settings going forward through new versions?

[eholtam]

@donmontalvo I don't use the VL installer in production so I don't have a test base but it sounds like it. But always test and verify in your environment.

[dilan]

@donmontalvo We stopped using the entire "what's new" command all together after 15.15 and we don't see any pop-ups with all apps except for OneNote. I will confirm this tomorrow to be certain as it's been a while since I've done a new Office 2016 deployment. Again, this IS with the VL version.

[calumhunter]

whats new doesn't show for VL licenced apps after v15.15
no need for these keys anymore
feed back from admins -> MS was that VL customers generally disable these nag screens anyway so how about we just don't show them unless we specifically want to show them. in which case there is a key you can set to explicitly show them

all in the slack #microsoft-office