Patch Management support for Office 365

Products

• Patch Management Solution for Windows

Issue/Introduction

Added support for Office 2016 version with Office 365 is outlined in KB article 184965 for Patch Management Solution 7.6 HF7 & 8.0 HF6 and later.

This document also details how these packages are managed by the Altiris Agent.

Patch Management Solution will execute the Software Update Cycle as scheduled, activating the Office 365 Updater utility to hook into the Altiris Agent, generate the URL, and access the image located on Site/Package Servers for downloading and updating.

Environment

Patch Management 8.x

Resolution

As of December 2017, Office 365 Bulletins are listed in the Patch Remediation Center and Patch Reports as MS##-##-O365 and deploys the specific year/month/Office 365 update for that release. Before December 2017, Office 365 updates were included in the Monthly MS Office Bulletin, as in MS17-11-OFF. 

Note: Office 2013 Click-to-Run is not supported. Additionally, the Altiris Agent must be updated to the supported versions for this process to function.

The management of these Office 2016 Click-to-Run updates will be enabled via the Microsoft Office Click to Run 2016 product listed in the Import Patch Data for Windows metadata, or enable any of the segmented software for Current, Deferred or First Release.

Important Note: The Microsoft Office Click to Run 2016 product list was made available in PMImport 7.2.1 release, and the O365 Channel separation was added in PMImport 7.2.73 release and this general software listing will be auto-enabled in the PMImport if the main Microsoft checkbox for that product list is enabled (selecting all sub-software under Microsoft); however, if there are any sub-software items disabled, the Microsoft Office Click to Run 2016 will need to be manually enabled, and the PMImport downloaded to manage these updates for O365.

Additionally, Microsoft has modified the name scheme of these updates, yet they remain the same under the PMImport > Vendors and Software list and in the Patch Remediation Center.

Enhancement Request Added: The Office 365 Updates were managed separately on initial release; however, these updates had meshed with all Office Software Updates into Bulletin: MS##-##-OFF in September's Patch release. This was reviewed by Development and separated once more to help reduce the size of the MS17-09-OFF Software Package on the SMP Server to be distributed to Site Servers and managed as noted above.

OPTIONAL: If needed; the following alternative method may be utilized in unsupported versions of Patch Management to allow Office 365 to be self-updating (CAUTION: unconfirmed process still being tested):

1. Deploy Office 365 ProPlus from an on-premises location
2. Configure update settings for Office 365 ProPlus
   • Maintain a Gold image of Office 365 on a DFS file share.
   • Utilize the Office Deployment to configure the update path variable to point to the DFS file share:
     • Run the following:
       • "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun\OfficeC2RClient.exe" /Update
     • Add the following registry:
       • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration\StreamingFinished = True
     • Restart the Client
   • Open > File > Office Account > Update now
3. In addition; review the following articles that assist with managing this possible workaround:
   • Office 2016 Deployment Tool 

Caution: This workaround process is currently being tested and is not yet confirmed. Please review in a test environment prior to production utilization.