In this post I will cover the steps to deploy Office 2019 using SCCM. Office 2019 is released along with new version of Office Deployment Tool. The Office 2019 is released for both Windows and Mac OS. Recently I published a post on Office 2019 overview and deployment info.

Please read that post before you plan to deploy Office 2019 using SCCM. Office 2019 uses only click-to-run installation technology. We know about this because Click-to-Run has been the installation technology for most Office products since the release of Office 2013.

The important question is should i deploy Office 2019 or go with Office 365. First of all if you have deployed Office 365 ProPlus to the users in your organization, you don’t need Office 2019. This is because most of the features introduced in Office 2019 are already covered in Office 365 plans.

My preference would be still Office 365 as you get updates frequently. Office 2019 is a software that is available as one time purchase. You can buy it from either online store or through volume license agreement. However you can expect only security updates for Office 2019 in future.

Since updates are cumulative and already included in the latest version of Office 2019 you don’t use Microsoft Updates or WSUS to update Office 2019. Instead you can use Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager to help you deploy and manage updates to Office 2019. Let’s proceed with deploying Office 2019 using Configuration Manager.

Step 1 – Install Office Deployment Tool

Download the office deployment tool from here. Right click the executable and run as administrator. You will now see Microsoft Office 2016 click-to-run administrator tool. Accept the license terms and click Continue.

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

Create a new folder such as Office 2019 within sources folder and select the folder. Click OK. The executable extracts setup and configuration files inside the selected folder.

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

There are three files present in the folder.

  • configuration-Office365-x64.xml
  • configuration-Office365-x86.xml
  • setup.exe

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

Step 2 – Create Configuration File

In the next step create a new text file and rename it as config.xml. Well, you can name it anything but ensure you specify .xml as extension. This file should be in the same folder where the setup and other config files are present.

Here is a sample configuration file that you can use it with office deployment tool. In my case I used the below configuration file. This configuration file downloads Office 2019 32-bit version. In addition the previous Windows Installer versions of Office are removed as part of the installation process.

The PIDKEY is the product key for MAK activation. You don’t need to use PIDKEY if you’re activating Office 2019 with Key Management Service (KMS).

<Configuration>
<Add SourcePath="\\corpsccm\Sources\Applications\Office 2019" OfficeClientEdition="32" Channel="PerpetualVL2019">
<Product ID="ProPlus2019Volume" PIDKEY=" " >
<Language ID="en-us" />
</Product>
<Product ID="ProofingTools">
<Language ID="en-us" />
</Product>
</Add>
<RemoveMSI All="True" />
<Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
<Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" />
</Configuration>

 

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

Step 3 – Download the Office 2019 installation files

In this step we will download Office 2019 installation files. Run the command prompt as administrator. Change the path to Office 2019 folder. Type the command setup.exe /download config.xml and press enter.

The Office 2019 installation files are downloaded and placed inside Office folder. The approx size of this folder after download is around 2.12 GB.

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

Step 4 – Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

We will now deploy Office 2019 using SCCM. Launch SCCM console and create a new Application. On the General page, select Manually specify the application information. Click Next.

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

Specify some information about Office 2019 application and click Next.

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

Add a new deployment type and on General page, select Manually specify the deployment type information. Click Next.

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

Specify the content location. This is the folder where Office 2019 setup files are present along with setup and config files. Next, specify the installation program as per below format.

"\\server\share\setup.exe" /configure config.xml

Note – I will update the uninstall command at later point of time.

Since I will be deploying Office 2019 to both 32-bit and 64-bit OS, I am going to check the box “Run installation and uninstall program as 32-bit process on 64-bit clients”.
Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

Adding a detection method is really important here. Add the Office 2019 detection method with following settings.

  • Setting Type – Registry
  • Hive – HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
  • Key – SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration
  • Value – VersionToReport
  • Enable “This registry key is associated with a 32-bit application on 64-bit systems”
  • Data Type – Version
  • Select “This registry setting must satisfy following rule to indicate the presence of this application”
  • Operator – Greater than or equal to
  • Value – 16.0.10336.20044

Click OK to close detection rule box. Click Next.

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

Specify the user experience settings for the application. Click Next.

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

Note that Office 2019 is compatible with Windows 10 OS only. Therefore you have to specify the OS requirements here. Click Next.

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

On the Completion page click Close. This will close create application wizard.

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCMYou have now packaged Office 2019 application. Finally deploy the Office 2019 to a device collection.

In my lab setup, i could install Office 2019 without any issues. Open the software center and select Office 2019 app and click Install. Monitor the installation progress by opening AppEnforce.log file.

Deploy Office 2019 using SCCM

Still Need Help?

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Prajwal Desai

Prajwal Desai is a technology expert and 10 time Dual Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) with a focus on Microsoft Intune, SCCM, Windows 365, Enterprise Mobility, and Windows. He is a renowned author, speaker, & community leader, known for sharing his expertise & knowledge through his blog, YouTube, conferences, webinars etc.