Sometimes, you may come across an issue the required language pack is missing from your specified SourcePath location. As an administrator for your network may have not downloaded it or removed it by accident. In the event this may or may not happen, Microsoft recommends that you specify a backup language and allow the Office 365 Deployment Tool to use the Office CDN (Content Delivery Network) for missing files.

To do is you will need to ensure that the required languages are specified in the XML and AllowCdnFallback is set to true, as the ODT will use source files from the Office CDN to complete the installation successfully.

<Add SourcePath="\\Server\Share" 
     OfficeClientEdition="32"
     Channel="SemiAnnual" 
     AllowCdnFallback="True">
  <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
      <Language ID="ja-jp" />
  </Product>
</Add>

Regards
The Author – Blogabout

Microsoft Apps for Enterprise (formally known as Click to Run) has been a massive part of my consultancy / implementation career going back to the very first day I implemented it for a customer in 2013. Since then I have earned a number of scars from implementations where things have always gone to plan due to the limitations within the product at the time or because a customer network just couldn’t handle the download of an .OST file 50 users.

So lets begin with a typical configuration.xml file as shown below;

<Configuration>
  <Add SourcePath="\\Server\Share" 
       OfficeClientEdition="32"
       Channel="SemiAnnual" >
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
    </Product>
    <Product ID="VisioProRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
  <Updates Enabled="TRUE" 
   UpdatePath="\\Server\Share" />
   <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />  
</Configuration>

Lets dive in by first saying, when modifying the configuration.xml you need to be careful of the following;

Case – One thing I have seen many times where people have been caught out is where case has been changed for example;

Add to add, Product ID to product id

So lets look at the Add Element of the configuration.xml

SourcePath

This defines where the installation files for Microsoft Apps for Enterprise are stored using the /download switch. In many of my deployments, organisations have specified a network location. The reasoning behind this allows the organization to control the update of Features/Functionality as many organizations have 3rd party add-ins that maybe affected by a newer release.

“\\Server\Share”

One of the best parts of SourcePath, its optional. If you blank out the path like below;

<Configuration>
  <Add SourcePath=""        
</Configuration>

Once all the installation files are pulled down into the SourcePath if a modification happens to the configuration.xml and the /download switch is ran. The Office Deployment Tool will conserve your network bandwidth by downloading only the missing files.

OfficeClientEdition

This defines whether the 32-bit or 64-bit edition of Microsoft 365 Apps is downloaded or installed. If Office is not installed on the device and OfficeClientEdition is not specified, the ODT will default to the 64-bit edition, unless the device is running a 32-bit edition of Windows or has less than 4 GB RAM.

If Office is installed and OfficeClientEdition not specified again, the Office Deployment Tool will match the architecture of the existing installation of Office.

If Office is installed and OfficeClientEdition is specified, then it must match the already installed architecture. If it doesn’t, the installation will fail, since mixed architectures are not supported.

Allowed values:

• OfficeClientEdition=”64″
• OfficeClientEdition=”32″

Again following an on going theme which you will see throughout this post. Is option is again, Optionally and will use the intelligence above.

Channel

This defines which channel to use for installing Office. If Office is not installed on the device, the default setting for the Channel attribute is Current. If Office is installed on the device and the channel attribute is not specified, the Office Deployment Tool will match the channel of the existing installation.

Now in my experience, the allowed values are not set in stone, Microsoft loves changing the name to fit their approach. So as of December 2020 the below names are currently valid.

Allowed values:

• Channel=”BetaChannel”
• Channel=”CurrentPreview”
• Channel=”Current”
• Channel=”MonthlyEnterprise”
• Channel=”SemiAnnualPreview”
• Channel=”SemiAnnual”

Important Note

– To use these attribute values, you need to be using at least version 16.0.12827.20268 of the Office Deployment Tool, which was released on Tuesday June 9, 2020.

– Previous allowed values for each update channel can still be used, which means you don’t have to update your older configuration XML files.

– Beta Channel (sometimes referred to as Insider Fast) is not a supported build so should only be used in test environments and by a small group of select users, such as IT staff or application developers.

¹ For a list of release dates for these update channels, including version and build numbers, see Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps.

² For information about what feature updates and non-security updates are included in a given release of these update channels, see Release notes for Microsoft 365 Apps releases.

³ For a list of security updates included in a given release of these update channels, see Release notes for Microsoft 365 Apps Security Updates

⁴ For a table that shows which version and build is currently supported for each of these update channels, see Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps.

So lets look at the Product ID Element of the configuration.xml

Now this is one of the most important elements understanding what version of Microsoft Office needs to be installed and as you can see the most install will be O365PlusRetail however, there many a need for other versions.

Product ID

But how do you install other non-Microsoft 365 product IDs which are supported

For those with a keen eye, Skype for Business was not listed above but heres the supported IDs

Language ID

When installing Office for any organisation getting the language is one of the most important elements.

Example values

• ID=”en-us”
• ID=”ja-jp”
• ID=”MatchOS”
• ID=”MatchPreviousMSI”
• ID=”MatchInstalled”

Check out the following URL for a list of all Languages, culture codes, and companion proofing languages.

Check out the following URL for the support of MatchPreviousMSI value as you need to Remove existing MSI versions of Office when upgrading to Microsoft 365 Apps.

MatchOS and MatchInstalled cannot install the operating system languages if Office doesn’t support that language or if the ODT cannot find the correct language pack in the local source files.

MatchInstalled can be used only if there is at least one Click-to-Run product already installed. It can’t be used with the /download switch for the Office Deployment Tool.

Updates Enabled

If set to TRUE, Office will check for updates and If set to FALSE, Office won’t check for updates, but the user can check for updates by going to File > Account > Update Options > Update Now.

Allowed values:

• Enabled=”TRUE”
• Enabled=”FALSE”

This is also optionally and the default value is TRUE if not specified.

UpdatePath attribute (part of Updates element)

This defines where the updates for Office come from. UpdatePath can specify a network, local, or HTTP path of a source for Office installation files. Environment variables can be used for network or local paths.

If you use Group Policy with the Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) for Office, you can set UpdatePath by using the Update Path policy setting. You can find this policy setting under Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2016 (Machine)\Updates.

Example values:

• UpdatePath=”\\server\share”
• UpdatePath=”C:\Preload\Office”
• UpdatePath=”http://internalApps/Office/“

This is also optionally and defaults to the CDN if not specified.

Level attribute (part of Display element)

If Level is set to None, Office is installed with no user interface: no progress bars, completion screens, error messages, or other user interface are displayed.

If Level is set to Full, Office is installed with the normal installation experience.

Allowed values:

• Level=”None”
• Level=”Full”

AcceptEULA attribute (part of Display element)

If AcceptEULA is set to TRUE, the user does not see a Microsoft Software License Terms dialog box. If this attribute is set to FALSE or is not included, the user may see a Microsoft Software License Terms dialog box. We recommend that administrators set AcceptEULA to TRUE.

Allowed values:

• AcceptEULA=”TRUE”
• AcceptEULA=”FALSE”

This is also optionally and default is set to FALSE if not specified.

This completes the understanding of the core configuration.xml, in the next part I will look at all options available under the Add Element.

Regards
The Author – Blogabout.Cloud

During my career within the Microsoft 365 stack, I have even delivered a number of sessions about Microsoft Apps for Enterprise at a several conferences within the EMEA region. One of the questions I have always encountered is how do I switch channel I am on without pushing out a new configuration.xml?

Well this is where PowerShell becomes your friend.

Variables

First component of the script is the variables used within the function I have created. In the function you will need to modify the sections where it defines the channel name.

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  # Channel Names 

  $CurrentPreview = 'CurrentPreview'

  $Current = 'Current'

  $MonthlyEnterprise = 'MonthlyEnterprise'

  $SemiAnnual = 'SemiAnnual'

  $SemiAnnualPreview = 'SemiAnnualPreview'



#File Paths

  $path = 'HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officeupdate\'

  $path1 = 'HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\'

  $path2 = 'HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\'

  $path3 = 'HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\'

  $path4 = 'HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\'



  # Shortened Name

  $key1 = 'office'

  $key2 = '16.0'

  $key3 = 'common'

  $key4 = 'officeupdate'

Function

The below function is designed to check if the required reg keys exist before attempting to switch the channel. The final step in the script is to start the update process.

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function Get-ChannelChange   {  

    # Check if updatebranch REG_SZ Exists

    if (Get-ItemProperty -Path $path -ErrorAction $SilentlyContinue)

    {

     # Create REG_SZ Key for $CurrentPreview

     Write-Host 'INFO: Checking if updatebranch REG_SZ already exists' -ForegroundColor $White -BackgroundColor $Green

     Write-host 'INFO: REG_SZ exists, Setting key for $CurrentPreview' -ForegroundColor $White -BackgroundColor $Green

     Set-ItemProperty -Path $path -Name $updatebranch -Value $CurrentPreview

    } 

    else 

    {

     Write-Host 'ERROR: Checking if updatebranch REG_SZ already exists' -ForegroundColor $White -BackgroundColor $Red

     Write-host 'EEROR: REG_SZ doesnt exist, creating Keys and setting key for $CurrentPreview' -ForegroundColor $White -BackgroundColor $Red

     New-Item -Path $path1 -Name $Key1 -ErrorAction $SilentlyContinue

     New-Item -Path $path2 -Name $Key2 -ErrorAction $SilentlyContinue

     New-Item -Path $path3 -Name $Key3 -ErrorAction $SilentlyContinue

     New-Item -Path $path4 -Name $Key4 -ErrorAction $SilentlyContinue

     New-ItemProperty -Path $path -Name $updatebranch -PropertyType String -Value $CurrentPreview -Force

    }

 

    # Update Office

    Start-Process -FilePath $C2RPath -ArgumentList $DisplaySetting



  }

Regards
The Author – Blogabout.Cloud