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Handle unmanaged Office settings as an Intune expert

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Mattias

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In EU countries we have some additional challenges, due to regulations. Some of these are not managed via group polices, there is a need for scripting, or group policy preferences. One example is the “Choose default file type” when you open an Office application for the first time.

ShownFileFmtPrompt

In the new modern era of Intune managed devices, sure you can for sure write a PowerShell script and deploy it to a machine, but how good is that? You will get some status if the script has been running successful or not, but you will never know what setting was/wasn’t actually set by the script, so how can we accomplish this?

Yes you guess right, ingesting ADMX

Understanding ADMX-backed policies

Win32 and Desktop Bridge app policy configuration

Let get to it!

First of all, download the Office customization ADMX files from my GitHub (Yes, these can be used without Intune aswell with normal group policy management console)

Now create a new Device Configuration Profile in Devicemagement portal

Name: Office Customization

Platform: Windows 10 and later

Profile type: Custom

Under Settings, press Add

Name: Ingest Office Customization ADMX
Description: Ingest deploywindows.com custom ADMX for Office
OMA-URI: ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/ConfigOperations/ADMXInstall/Office/ Policy/OfficeCustomizationsAdmx
Data Type: String
Value: <Paste the content from the dowloaded ADMX file here>

ingest 2018-12-17_22-50-31

 

Save the row and Add another one

Name: DisableFileFmtPrompt16
OMA-URI: ./User/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Office~Policy~C_Office16/ DisableFileFmtPrompt16
Data type: String
Value: <enabled/>

FmtPrompt16 2018-12-17_22-53-21

Save the row, save the profile

Now Assign it to your group of Users/Devices – Done!
The ADMX file does also handle the follow settings for Office 16 and Office 15
  • DisableFileFmtPrompt16
  • BootedRTM16
  • disablemovie16
  • shownfirstrunoptin16
  • PTWOptIn16
  • qmenable16

If you want some more info, copy the following files

admx to \windows\PolicyDefinitions
adml to \windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US

Fire up Local Group Policy Editor/gpedit.msc, browse User Configuration\Administrative Templates and you’ll find Office 15/16 Customizations

gpedit 2018-12-17_23-01-05

Happy customizations! If you miss any customization let me know in the comments or Twitter

3 responses to “Handle unmanaged Office settings as an Intune expert”

  1. Guus

    Anybody got any tips? I would love this to work but somehow nothing happens..I checked for spaces like Dan says but nothing..

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  2. Dan

    @bruun – it does work fine, however you have to watch the spaces if you’re copying and pasting from the thread above. I was receiving the same error as you until I reviewed the settings in intune and caught two rogue spaces!

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    Reply
  3. bruun

    Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work anymore:
    OfficeCustomizationsAdmx [./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/ConfigOperations/ADMXInstall/Office/ Policy/OfficeCustomizationsAdmx]

    Error code: 0x87d1fde8

    MDM ConfigurationManager: Command Failure Status. ID 454

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    Reply

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Mattias working as a technical architect helping mid-sized and large customers. Mainly working in the areas of Microsoft 365 suite. For many years I have devoted my time to modern management/enterprise client infrastructure.

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