Adaptation of the Office configuration to your needs

a) First, you need the Office Deployment Tool. This only includes a small setup.exe, which will later be responsible for the download and installation. It is best to always get the latest version directly from the Microsoft page download.

After you have downloaded the deployment tool, unzip it in your desired target directory, a shared folder, e.g \\Server\Office365.

b) Then you need a tool to customize the Office configuration. This creates a configuration file. This is stored in .xml format and can therefore also be edited manually. However, we recommend using the "Office Customization Tool' by Microsoft, which is available online.

When you have finished the configuration, click on "Export" in the top right corner of the page and save the file under the name, for example myconfiguration.xml in your desired target directory \\Server\Office365.

c) The next step is to download and save the Office installation package. From the command prompt (cmd), run the following command using the Office Deployment Tool:

\\Server\Office365\setup.exe /Download \\Server\Office365\myconfiguration.xml

The files required for your Office configuration will be downloaded. After that, switch to \\server\Office365. You will find the relevant files there.

The "setup.exe" is the Office Deployment Tool a). You previously had the "myconfiguration.xml" file in b) created.

Now it's Install.Desk's turn:

Now define one Job in Install.Desk for the distribution and installation of the configured Office 365 Apps.

Distribution and installation of the configured Office 365

a) The following command must be mapped in the new job:

\\Server\Office365\setup.exe /configure \\Server\Office365\myconfiguration.xml

• In the job dialog, enter the job name, in our example here: "Office365".
• Enter the Office deployment tool “setup.exe” as the file.
• The path corresponds to the shared folder you specified \\Server\Office365.
• Enter the part of the command starting with "/configure..." as the parameter.

b) In Install.Desk you can now roll out the job to the distribution groups, individual devices or Active Directory groups in the usual way and according to your wishes and start the installation immediately, after the next restart or according to a schedule. To do this, you define the appropriate distribution jobs in Install.Desk, which you then start and control in the "Execute" tab.

The following happens during installation on the respective client: The "/configure" command pulls the previously downloaded Office 365 apps from the server and installs them on the client according to the configuration file.

You can then control the installation on the client via the control panel.

Please note that you need a user with sufficient authorization (administrator) to access the network path (shared folder) and to install the Office 365 apps on the client. Enter the user for access to the client (installation) in Install.Desk as usual under Options, Login on the target device or directly on the device. Enter the user for access to the network path in the job in the "Access" tab.