Office 365/2019/2016 Reset & Removal

[pbowden]

Hey all,

I took some time off during the summer and completed a tool that I have been thinking about for some time. I’ve fully tested it with Jamf Pro. Hope it helps!

https://office-reset.com

[tcandela · Accepted solution]

@pbowdenwhat does the LICENSE RESET.pkg do?   I am using an EA that gets the Office license versions installed and on some it displays that it has both 2019 and 365. How can this be?  Can I just remove the 365 license while keeping the 2019?

Also it seems like the COMPLETE REMOVAL.pkg works to remove Office 2021 (basically 2021 & 2019 are the same location).

[tcandela · Accepted solution]

@pbowdenI thought the office 2021 VL Serializer would replace the 2019 VL serializer? because now my EA is saying "Office 2021/2019 Volume License (Stacked)"

why aint it just saying "Office 2021 Volume License" ??????

[tcandela · Accepted solution]

@pbowden so is it better to have stacked licenses or just the 2021 alone?

[tcandela · Accepted solution]

@pbowden if I have the EA showing  office 2019/2021 stacked and then I ran the 'license-reset.pkg' followed by the 2021 LTSC serializer.pkg would it be a problem?   It's ok just to have the EA with 'Office 2021 license installed' ?

[tcandela · Accepted solution]

@pbowden I think with having only the 2021 license appearing in the EA it will make it easier to find the computers running Office 2021

[mthakur]

@pbowden I do understand Office Reset is a repair tool first and foremost. However, it's counterintuitive for the Complete Removal Package to also reset — including repair — the apps. If all you want is to uninstall whatever versions are installed, why bother downloading and updating to the newest versions first?

[pbowden]

@mthakur yes, you’re correct. There’s logic in the preinstall script of the Complete Removal meta package to remove the apps before the repair sequence runs. Because the apps will be removed first, the repair logic which runs codesign and version check will be skipped. All told, a Complete Removal won’t attempt to repair.

Hope this helps!

[tcandela · Accepted solution]

@pbowdenwhat does the LICENSE RESET.pkg do?   I am using an EA that gets the Office license versions installed and on some it displays that it has both 2019 and 365. How can this be?  Can I just remove the 365 license while keeping the 2019?

Also it seems like the COMPLETE REMOVAL.pkg works to remove Office 2021 (basically 2021 & 2019 are the same location).

[pbowden]

@tcandela the License Reset package removes all Volume and 365 licenses, plus it removes the identity data from the keychain.

If the EA is reporting that you have both 2019 and 365 licenses, what's likely happened here is that you have run the VL Serializer to create the 2019 license, but you've also signed-in to an O365 account that also has a license associated with it. From a product perspective, it'll be using the O365 subscription account until you sign out.

[tcandela · Accepted solution]

@pbowdenI thought the office 2021 VL Serializer would replace the 2019 VL serializer? because now my EA is saying "Office 2021/2019 Volume License (Stacked)"

why aint it just saying "Office 2021 Volume License" ??????

[pbowden]

@tcandela we changed things with the 2021 VL Serializer so that you can have both a 2019 and 2021 license side-by-side. This helps with updates while the apps are launched. See my JNUC session at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cFKXl4qI00 for more info here.

[tcandela · Accepted solution]

@pbowden so is it better to have stacked licenses or just the 2021 alone?

[tcandela · Accepted solution]

@pbowden if I have the EA showing  office 2019/2021 stacked and then I ran the 'license-reset.pkg' followed by the 2021 LTSC serializer.pkg would it be a problem?   It's ok just to have the EA with 'Office 2021 license installed' ?

[pbowden]

@tcandela yup, that's a fine approach and won't cause a problem. Technically, it's better to have a 'stacked' license, but either way works.

[tcandela · Accepted solution]

@pbowden I think with having only the 2021 license appearing in the EA it will make it easier to find the computers running Office 2021

[tcandela · Accepted solution]

@pbowden i had a mac with the EA showing 'office 2019 volume license and Office 365' then I ran the license_reset.pkg and the EA now display 'office 365 activations: 1'.  Should it have been 'blank' after running the license-reset.pkg? you previously wrote = License Reset package removes all Volume and 365 licenses, plus it removes the identity data from the keychain.

I then ran the 2021 VL serializer and now it shows 'office 2021 volume license and Office 365'

[tcandela]

@pbowden I have a user that never logged into 365 but the EA says office 2019 license and 365! How could this be?

If I install the 2021 license will it then say 

Office 2019 2021 stacked and office 365?

[Robert_Morgan]

Dose it work?  I downloaded the package, created a policy and made it available through Self Service.  It just runs but does not bring up any screen?  Not sure if this is how it should work.......?  

[Robert_Morgan]

sorry sp

[dlondon]

Yes - I use it all the time.  But maybe you should say exactly what you downloaded and what you are trying to achieve.  Paul made many packages for us to download.  The one I have removes Office 2016, 2019, 2021, 365 and all the licensing

A good way of testing is to run the package stand alone.  If it comes up with all the check box choices of what to remove you are using the user friendly package which is intended for stand alone use.  The packages I mentioned above are at https://office-reset.com/macadmins/ and I'm using the Complete Removal one