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.

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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

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Sign in at the top right corner

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Click Accept at the Microsoft Software License Terms

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Click on Policy configuration

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Click Create

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

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Search for the setting you need for your Office installation

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Select the value you need for the policy setting

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Select the value you need for the policy setting

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Select the value you need for the policy setting

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

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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