Office 2016 diable auto updates

[sumit_batra]

I am facing a issue with Office 2016 package. We have a volume license package and a script to disable first login prompts & disable updates. Everything works fine till a user logs in to activate the office, as soon as user enters the credential for office activation, auto-updates are getting enabled. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Thanks
Sumit

[jason_bracy]

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>

[bvrooman]

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.

[daz_wallace]

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

[sumit_batra]

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

[Nix4Life]

@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

[flyboy]

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

[dstranathan]

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.

[GabeShack]

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

Gabe Shackney
Princeton Public Schools

[danshaw]

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"

[GabeShack]

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

[JesseNCSD]

@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!)