Microsoft just release a new preview tool a couple of days ago as part of the Office Client Management portal https://config.office.com – personally I think that this is a cool tool that need a change. The big advantaged of this new tool is that it makes cloud-based policy manage of Office ProPlus. This will work on devices that are managed and unmanaged – so basically  all devices that the user in your Office 365 organisation is logging in to.

The assignment is group based and at the first look I took at it there is 1636 user policies for Office ProPlus to set. I have only tested a subset of them. Normally I work work with Microsoft 365 deployment and are using Intune MDM or GPO to do settings management for Office.

Requirements for using the Office client policy service

• At least Version 1808 of Office 365 ProPlus.
• User accounts created in or synchronized to Azure Active Directory (AAD). The user must be signed into Office 365 ProPlus with an AAD-based account.
• Security groups created in or synchronized to Azure Active Directory (AAD), with the appropriate users added to those groups.

Pros for Cloud-based policies management:

• It works on all devices – managed and unmanaged, both Intune and SCCM
• It works on BYOD and personal devices
• The settings is always up to date as it is a service from the Microsoft Office team

Cons for Cloud-based policies management:

• It is only user policies and not device settings
• It works on BYOD and personal devices – so if a user is using Office ProPlus on the private device they will have the same policies as they do at work

I have not test policy conflicts yet – so what is happening if you have the same setting from Intune/GPO as you do fro mthe new cloud-based policies.

How to start using it ??

Start by going to https://config.office.com

Sign in at the top right corner

Click Accept at the Microsoft Software License Terms

Click on Policy configuration

Click Create

1. Name : Default Office 365 Policy
2. Click : Select group
3. Search for the Azure AD group you want to deploy the policy to

Search for the setting you need for your Office installation

Select the value you need for the policy setting

Select the value you need for the policy setting

Select the value you need for the policy setting

From a device perspective you can see the policy settings in the registry

The normal place in the registry for a Intune or GPO user policy is:

HKCU\software\policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\

But with the Cloud-based policy management it is:

HKCU\software\policies\Microsoft\Cloud\Office\16.0\

Happy testing 🙂

Read more:

Announcing the new cloud-based policy management service for Office 365 ProPlus
Overview of the Office client policy service (Preview) for Office 365 ProPlus