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Author: Jeremy_MSFT Originally published to the Office 365 Preview blog. While the concept of having deployment automation call online file sources for unattended installations isn’t new, Office 365 ProPlus adds the unique benefit of robust file streaming instead of the traditional download and execute style installation. Office 365 ProPlus and the Office Deployment Tool (see my earlier blog about deployment options) allows you to define the https://officecdn.onmicrosoft.com file path as the SourcePath location defined in the configuration XML of the Office Deployment Tool. The current Office Deployment Tool lets you download and install Click-to-Run Office packages with your own software distribution tools. When you download Office Click-to-Run files, you will see the path where they are stored in the CMD window.     Download of the Office 365 ProPlus Click-to-Run files using the Office Deployment Tool In this case, Office source files are located at https://officecdn.microsoft.com/pr/D85263CB-A813-4A8F-9895-E2EC9A47293 and you can use that value inside of your configuration XML. The Office Deployment Tool needs an XML with the SourcePath configured for installation which contains the OfficeDataVersionNumber folders to resolve. If you use a configuration XML with the following parameters:                                 your deployment automation will call the Office 365 streaming service and install according to the version number, architecture, language and other parameters that you assign in the configuration XML.  Notice I even used an older version number than the current one (.1019)  and was able to declare update behavior, display level and accept the EULA on behalf of my users. In a nutshell, even though I am using Office 365 as the SourcePath to install from, I didn’t give up any controls I had by installing Office 365 ProPlus from my local file share location. If I had Group Policy settings enforced on the computers I target for my deployment, then I would have complete control over how Office is installed, configured and managed. This is where it can get interesting… If I use the Office Deployment Tool – specifically just the setup.exe and the configuration XML sample I have above – I can pair this with System Center Configuration Manager 2012, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, Windows Intune, third party tools, simple logon scripts or even psexec commands. In this case, I decided to pair with another cloud service – Windows Intune – to show everything working.     Process for using Windows Intune to stream an Office 365 ProPlus installation – 1. Configure install, 2. Push install instructions to PC, 3. Stream from Office 365, 4. Report success back to Windows Intune You might be asking yourself, “Why would I use Windows Intune versus sending users to the Office 365 Web portal to self-install Office?” If you are asking this question, there is a good chance you are an administrator on your computer or your users are able to install software themselves. For more than a decade, Microsoft has advocated Standard User accounts in Windows to maintain configuration control and therefore improve inherent security levels against malware. If you also manage a lot of software, it wouldn’t make sense to ask users to visit multiple websites to install their own software. Imagine your first day on the job and your boss tells you, “Here is your computer and email account. I sent you an email with a list of the 100 applications you’ll need to be productive and all the links of where to find the applications. Enjoy the next 3-8 hours of software installation.” What initially sounds like freedom for the end user would be a degraded experience for the person who otherwise receives a pre-configured PC with the 100 applications pre-installed based on his user role, geography and language preferences (you could argue that is the primary reason why Windows imaging and deployment automation exists). Centralizing your application resources to a single catalog and location along with using “required” or “push” installation performed by the administrator simplifies the process for the user and helps ensure that your users’ PCs stay in a manageable state. Windows Intune and System Center Configuration Manager 2012 both provide a central application catalog and support push software deployments. I put together a short narrated video of the process using Windows Intune along with Office 365 streaming. Basically, I used a file similar to the configuration XML sample above (I named it configuration2.xml) and added that along with the setup.exe to my Windows Intune environment. These two files only constitute about half a megabyte (MB) of space, so it doesn’t really consume any storage resources. It also means that the files are quickly copied from the Windows Intune service to the managed PC’s local cache. Both Windows Intune and the application model in System Center Configuration Manager 2012 will download the entire application payload prior to executing installation commands. For Office 365 ProPlus, that would mean you would typically need to wait for a 1 gigabyte (GB) file download, then Office would be installed from the local Windows Intune or Configuration Manager file cache. In this case, we can just cache that tiny half MB file and the streaming begins immediately from Office 365 according to our instruction set. The result is that the Windows Intune service basically instructs the Office 365 service and when completed sends a success message back to Windows Intune. Here it is in action… (Please visit the site to view this video)   Jeremy Chapman @deployjeremy Office Deployment Team

The sign-in page for Office 365 has a new look! The redesign provides a simple sign in experience that adapts to work better on whatever device you’re using, from a desktop to tablet to phone, as well as reducing the number of times you’ll need to sign in. Highlights include: The sign-in page automatically adapts to the screen resolution and capabilities of different devices, operating systems, and browsers. You can start signing in almost immediately, while the rest of page downloads in the background. Improved experience for on-premises-to-cloud single sign-on. You can stay connected until you want to sign out. Just check the “Keep me signed in” option. Want to know more? Check out details and screenshots of the new experience . NOTE: The new sign-in page works best in Internet Explorer 8 or later browsers. Learn more about Office 365 browser support .

In this week’s new Office Garage series episode, our hosts Jeremy Chapman and Yoni Kirsh explore the change in guard of compatibility tools; race Click-to-Run Office installs using MDT, SCCM, and Windows Intune versus the MSI and catch up with Office engineer, John Hoegger, on the end-to-end aspects of deployment. They demonstrate compatibility tools and automated software distribution and discuss the Office roll-out inside Microsoft, to answer whether or not deployment just got faster. Tune into www.microsoft.com/garage .

Are you a Microsoft professional with deep technical knowledge? Do you want to take your skills to the next level? Like mingling with the industries’ best and learning directly from Microsoft peers? Then we have two Ignite events for you! The Exchange, Office & Office 365 Ignite events are a series of limited invitation workshops for Microsoft’s most valued customers and partners introducing you to the technical capabilities for the NEW Exchange, Office and Office 365, launching in 2013. Topics of the training range from new capabilities, design, deployment and management considerations for these technologies . During the event, you will also have the opportunity to interact and learn from your industry peers and representatives from Microsoft Microsoft would like to extend to you an official invitation to the Exchange, Office & Office 365 Ignite in: Miami – April 9-11, 2013 Registration Site Link Registration Code: O15CUSTMIA San Diego: April 30 – May 2, 2013 Registration Site Link Registration Code: O15CUSTSDO While a 3-day workshop won’t make you an expert, we will prepare you to go deeper via the Ignite Lab DVD and additional resources provided during the workshop. Please note that accommodations for this event are not included, however suggested hotel details are posted to the registration site . There is no charge for this exclusive training, however we will be imposing a no-show fee of $500 if you register for the event, but do not cancel your registration within five (5) business days before the start of the event. For further details regarding this event, including agenda and logistics, please visit the registration site and see below. Space is limited. RSVP today!   Event Agenda: Start End Day 1 – Introducing the new Office 8:30 9:45 Ignite & Office Introduction 9:45 11:00 Exchange Introduction 11:00 11:15 Break 11:15 12:30 Office 365 introduction 12:30 13:00 Lunch 13:00 14:15 The New Visio 14:15 15:30 Office as a Service 15:30 15:45 Break 15:45 17:00 Office & SharePoint App Model Start End Day 2 – Office 365 Deployment 8:30 9:45 Office 365 Deployment 9:45 11:00 Office 365 Identity 11:00 11:15 Break 11:15 12:30 Office 365 Identity 12:30 13:00 Lunch 13:00 14:15 Office 365 Migration (Part 1) 14:15 15:30 Office 365 Migration (Part 2) 15:30 15:45 Break 15:45 17:00 Service Management Start End Day 3 – Exchange Deployment 8:30 9:45 Exchange Architecture (Part 1) 9:45 11:00 Exchange Architecture (Part 2) 11:00 11:15 Break 11:15 12:30 Exchange Deployment and Coexistence 12:30 13:00 Lunch 13:00 14:15 Storage, High Availability & Site Resilience 14:15 15:30 Archiving, eDiscovery & DLP 15:30 15:45 Break 15:45 17:00 Exchange Online Protection We look forward to having you participate in this exciting, invitation-only event! If you have questions regarding this Ignite Event, please contact the Microsoft Ignite Registration Desk . Thank you, The Ignite Team.     Audience: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses Office 365 for enterprises

I’m looking forward to attend my first Share conference in Atlanta, April 10-12, 2013. Beside loving to visit Atlanta since I’ve lived there for seven years ( Georgia Tech alumni!) I’ll be delivering a keynote Friday morning titled: Transform Your Business with Enterprise Social (details below) and monitoring a roundtable Wednesday afternoon on “ What does 2013 mean for me? ”. There are lots of other great business users focused session at Share not to mention awesome speakers, check the detailed conference agenda . There will be a Microsoft booth staff by experts including Yammer Customer Success Managers to answer all your enterprise social questions and more!  As usual, beside great contents delivered by great speakers, I believe a key value for such event is to network and meet customers, experts and more.  Register today and see soon! Keynote on Friday morning (April 12th): Transform Your Business with Enterprise Social Abstract: “Enterprise Social is enabling organizations to transform their businesses, to harnesses the power of their most valuable asset, their people, by connecting employees, partners, and customers. Microsoft has made significant investments in Enterprise Social in SharePoint 2013 and with the acquisition of Yammer. This keynote will cover Microsoft’s vision and roadmap for this transformative technology, in addition to highlighting the significant opportunity for business value using case studies and demonstrations.”

Author: Jeremy_MSFT Originally published to the Office 365 Preview blog. Welcome to my series on Office 365 ProPlus for the administrator. Some of you will have used various components of Office 365 and in some cases be able to skip past large sections of this blog series and others may be new to the concepts in Office 365 ProPlus and will want to know how it might impact their current software distribution, Windows imaging or software management processes. I have a long history in Windows imaging and deployment and prior to that worked heavily with systems management products to deliver and manage software, and I think that will come out as I write about all of the IT pro features for Office 365 ProPlus and related topics. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the best software engineers, testers and program managers over the last couple of years and we are excited to present and deliver a lot of new IT value related to Office deployment and management technologies. This blog series builds on the Office and the Cloud blog authored today by John Jendrezak and will go into a lot of depth in subsequent posts. I posted this series in reverse order should it should read from top to bottom like one contiguous long blog, but I do plan to address further topics and do some hands-on integration in the future with management tools we can use to automate Office 365 ProPlus deployment, like System Center Configuration Manager, Windows Intune and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit. What is new with Office 365 ProPlus and why should I care as an IT pro? Office 365 ProPlus builds on the culmination of several technologies – from application streaming to cloud services – to enable new user and administrative experiences to support Office as a Service. Unlike previous iterations of Office application suites, Office 365 ProPlus enables users to get to rich Office experiences quickly on any Windows 7 or newer PC and have their files and personalized settings follow them from PC to PC. Whether at home, at work or on the go, Office is now connected by the person using Office, not by the device – that means each user can install Office on all the computers they own or use. The Office 365 ProPlus installation does not require you to uninstall or upgrade from previous Office versions, instead it streams Office down to you PC alongside your existing Office applications. Streaming enables you to start using Office in a fraction of the time needed for older generation Office installations – you can use Office while it continues to stream in the background. Once Office 365 ProPlus is launched, you sign in to Office and it automatically links you to your files, settings, personalization and even will point you to the last position you were reading in a document, regardless of the computer you are using. Because your Office is accessible anywhere, you can work across computers and Windows devices seamlessly – however you want. When combined with SkyDrive Pro, Office 365 ProPlus also lets you use Office anywhere with Office on Demand, a new way to quickly deliver rich Office applications to a PC within seconds using application streaming technology. Office on Demand streams and launches a temporary copy of your favorite Office application without installing it and when you log off, there are no links back into the new Office applications and the files you were working on are no longer on that PC, but saved back into SkyDrive Pro by default. This will work on any Windows 7 or newer computer, whether you have an Administrator or Standard User account. As you would expect, these new Office experiences can be delivered and managed on your organization’s terms. Office 365 ProPlus is designed to be suitable for small businesses to multinational corporations. IT administrators can control active users, software configurations and delivery, data access and connections to email and communication services. As you read on I will try to cover all of the areas that matter to IT and system administrators and also cover the major processes for assessing, testing, piloting, deploying and managing Office 365 ProPlus. I’m posting most of the major desktop application-related topics as one block of content, but intend to keep going. The next planned phase in the series is to show working integrated scenarios I’ve built with tools like System Center Configuration Manager 2012, Windows Intune and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit. For now, these blogs are intended to show the architecture and core plumbing to enable deployment and management for organizations of all sizes. Feel free to submit content requests and give us your feedback.   Jeremy Chapman @deployjeremy Office Deployment Team  

Author: Jeremy_MSFT Originally published to the Office 365 Preview blog. Office 365 ProPlus integrates with your IT service management processes and tools. With Office 365 ProPlus you and your users receive unparalleled access and experiences with Office programs. Office 365 ProPlus uses the cloud for streamlined software delivery and updates, but does not execute Office applications remotely in cloud, instead the focus is getting Office up and running quickly on the local PC using application streaming. These new experiences enable offline use and can take full advantage of local system resources, without being limited by what can be done via the Web browser or remote desktop experiences. Office 365 ProPlus is connected to the user – not the device – and that means integration starts with provisioning your users an active Office 365 account. The resulting Microsoft Online Services ID gives users access to the software and services you allow them to have and it also acts as the way Office delivers roaming settings across a user’s collection of devices. There are multiple options for establishing online IDs – from manual or bulk list entries to Active Directory synchronization to directory services federation. These options allow you to tailor the login and provisioning experience to either reflect real time changes to your directory services to manage all identity and authentication aspects in the cloud. Office 365 ProPlus also integrates with existing software distribution policies and practices in your organization. Some organizations will allow users to perform Office 365 ProPlus installation directly from the Office 365 Web portal, but most will opt to download and import Office 365 ProPlus installation files into their software distribution environments, then use those tools to centrally perform installation on behalf of their users. This integration with on premises software distribution allows organizations to maintain existing security policies where users do not typically have required rights to install software themselves. Office 365 ProPlus is also designed to integrate with Microsoft Application Virtualization to provide additional configuration and control options. Additionally, those using virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) can use Office 365 ProPlus on user-dedicated Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 or newer virtual machines without the Remote Desktop Services role enabled.     Using Software Distribution to Deploy Office 365 ProPlus Office 365 ProPlus is designed to integrate with most common desktop architectures while providing additional cloud benefits for quickly provisioning and de-provisioning users, roam core productivity settings across devices and incorporate common user credentials to activate Office experiences across multiple computing devices. For more information on integrating Office 365 ProPlus into your organization, check out Deployment options for Office 365 ProPlus Preview on TechNet.