When migrating to Office 365 it is necessary to distribute updates to your client machines which will facilitate authentication with the Office 365 service along with adding features and support for the Office 365 services into the Office suite on your desktop.
There are a couple of ways these updates can be distributed to the client machines: –
Centralised Deployment
Many businesses will have an SOE and a managed environment in which the most effective method of distribution will be using a patch management system such as Microsoft System Centre Configuration Manager.
This approach will give you access to scheduling, delivery and reporting tools that will help ensure successful deployment of the updates along with minimising the need to manually install them on individual machines.
All systems will require the Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant – x86 or x64
Depending on the OS and version of Office, there are different updates required. If your Office updates are current, it is likely that these updates will already be installed.
Office 2007 on Windows XP SP3 or Windows 7 requires two updates:
- Microsoft Office 2007 Security Update – all versions
- Microsoft Outlook 2007 Update – all versions
Office 2010 on Windows XP SP3 or Windows 7 requires the following three updates:
- Microsoft Office 2010 Update* – x86 or x64
- Microsoft Outlook 2010 Update – x86 or x64
- Microsoft OneNote 2010 Update – x86 or x64
*On Windows XP after applying this update the following reg key is required for each user [HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Internet\FormsBasedAuthSettings\AllowFBANoPatches – DWORD: 1]
The patches I’ve described can be downloaded from community.office365.com.
Self Service
The other method is by using the Microsoft Office 365 desktop setup tool which is a user self service option. This is the best option for unmanaged environments such as employees configuring their home PCs for use with the Office 365 service and depending on the migration method, it may also be the most hassle free way to configure your desktop applications such as Outlook, Lync, and integrate with SharePoint Online. Local admin rights to allow software installation is a requirement however.
Running the service connector application will scan your system and work out which updates (and/or registry keys) are required by your system in order to use the Office 365 service with your OS and version of Office.
Depending on what services have been assigned to your account in the portal it will also work out what applications it can automatically configure for you.
The service connector can be downloaded from here but you will need an active Office 365 account.