Intune – Deploy & Update M365 Apps

Introduction

This guide will provide you with steps to deploy and provide new updates to M365 apps to all enrolled Windows 10/11 devices in your organization via configuration profiles in Intune.

This process is typically used to ensure all users have the latest M365 app updates and features.

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Deployment

Office Customization Tool

We will be utilizing the M365 apps admin center to create a customized deployment tool.

1. Navigate to: https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings
2. Choose the architecture type and which Office products you wish to install
   • You can create multiple templates and assign them to different deployment groups within Intune if needed

1. Choose the update channel (read more about update channels here: Overview of update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps – Microsoft 365 Apps

1. Choose any apps you wish to include/exclude then select Next

It is recommended by Microsoft to deploy Teams separately so that is why we are excluding that from this M365 deployment

1. Choose any additional languages you wish to install and select Next

1. Select your installation options and then select Next

We will hide the installation and shut down any running applications since in the next step we will uninstall any existing M365 apps

1. Choose which applications to install (if any). It is recommended to uninstall to be sure we are always up to date the latest version and remove any non-enterprise versions that may come with the device. Select Next once completed

1. Choose your companies licensing model. Most commonly licenses are assigned on a user basis. If your organization utilized shared space workstations create a separate XML file and app deployment for that device/user group specifically. Select Next once complete

1. Choose a company name and add notes if you wish and select Next

1. In the final section Application Preferences there are hundreds of individual configurations you can enable/disable or customize for the deployment. Examples include disabling screen tips or ignore certain words from spell check. Feel free to browse and update as needed. For this example we will leave everything not configured giving users full control over their preferences and configuration.
2. Select Finish and review the configuration summary on the left-hand side of the screen. Once you are satisfied, select Export
3. Choose the default file format. Open XML is recommended, OpenDocument format is for 3rd party apps that utilize office apps. Select OK

1. Accept the terms and create a file name and Export

1. Save the XML file as we will retrieve this later for the deployment in Intune

Intunewin File

In this section we will package the installation executable with the XML configuration profile to a .intunewin file that can be uploaded to Intune.

1. Download the Office Deployment Tool: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117
   • It comes with a sample configuration XML file replace this with the XML file we already created
2. Download the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool (Code > Download Zip > Extract): GitHub – microsoft/Microsoft-Win32-Content-Prep-Tool: A tool to wrap Win32 App and then it can be uploaded to Intune
   • All standard installation options are fine
   • Documentation is also found on the GitHub link above
3. Run the IntuneWinAppUtil
4. Enter the following:
   • Source folder: path that contains setup.exe and your configuration file only
   • Setup file: setup.exe
   • Output folder: wherever you want the .intunewin file saved
   • Catalog folder: no

Intune Deployment

1. Navigate to Intune: Microsoft Intune admin center
2. Navigate to Apps > Windows > Add

1. Select Win32 as the app type

There is a M365 apps option but we will elect to use Win32 as it is more consistent, especially with new machines that have an existing installation of M365 apps

1. Upload the .intunewinapp file we previously created
2. Add a name, description, and publisher and select Next – the rest are optional
   • Covene recommends adding an image of the app if you decide to publish it to the company portal app

1. Add in the following commands:
   • Install: setup.exe /configure 10-07-2024 – New Computer Template.xml
   • Uninstall: NA – we could create a XML file to uninstall

1. Specify the architecture (64-bit) and a minimum operating system you wish to enforce a check on prior to installing

1. Create a manual detection rule using registry
   • Key path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration

1. When it comes to dependencies, we do not have any
2. When it comes to supersedence, we do not have any
3. Assignments is where we choose groups to require, make available, or uninstall (we did not configure uninstallation in this example)
   • Always test with a test group before applying an app deployment to many users/devices
4. Select Create and your application will begin to deploy to its assignments.

Review installation status and make any changes by navigating back to this page

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Updates

We will setup a configuration profile to ensure M365 apps stay up to date automatically on the release channel you choose.

1. Navigate to the Intune admin center and sign-in: Microsoft Intune admin center
2. Navigate to Devices > Configuration Profiles > New

1. On the first window we select Windows 10+ and choose to not use a template:
   • NOTE: Microsoft does provide templates under Profile Type to assist with locating specific settings but in this scenario we will not be using a template. In this scenario we would have selected the Administrative Template.

1. Create a name and description:

1. Under Configuration Settings on the next window, select Add settings and here we will add two settings:
   • Enable Automatic Updates
   • Update Channel

1. Close out of the search window and confirm both of these settings are enabled:
   • NOTE: the channel name is which version of M365 apps should fetch for updates. Current Channel which we have selected is the latest stable release.

1. Select Next and add Scope Tags if you wish then continue to next
2. Next we will assign a group to which this configuration profile will exist. For this example I will be assigning a test group I created with only my device. For large general policies like this is it recommended to create a dynamic group that includes all Windows devices

1. Click Next to review and then Create to finalize
2. You may view reports, edit the configuration settings and groups, or add tags by clicking on the configuration policy from the menu before

Reference: Update Microsoft 365 using administrative templates in Microsoft Intune

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