Office Pro Plus, differences in MSI and Click-to-Run

What are the differences between Office 365 Pro Plus from Office 365 and Office Professional Plus from a License Agreement or Trial?

This question comes back now. Microsoft released a Preview of the Skype for Business Client or an Upgrade to the Lync 2013 Client, but it fails to install if we are using a Office Suite installed or downloaded from Office 365.

Why?
Because the Office Suite from Office 365 doesn’t allow customization yet, even if you Download the Setup with Office Deployment Tool and distribute the Application Suite With SCCM.

Than what?
Don’t worry, we can uninstall the Office 365 Pro Plus minimum impact and install a trial Version of Office Professional Plus. Just remember not to customize the installation if you wanne License the Office Suite with Office 365 Login Credentials. After that we can execute the Skype for Business Client Uprade, just follow my friend Ståle Hansens post: Got Office installed from Office 365 and want to test Skype for Business Client Preview?

Other differences?
Updates to the Office Applications are installed from two seperate services, depending on which Office Suite you have installed. The trial and volume license Version uses builtin Windows Update Services, configured for Public Windows Update Services or an internal Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).

But Office 365 Pro Plus, for some unknown reason, has its own Office Update Services in Office 365, which is very Limited to configuration. Using custom GPO, we can have it use a local WSUS, but we can’t choose which updates to allow for installation.

From a consultant perspective, we would rather configure bought Windows Updates and Office Updates the same way for all clients. And if we look into the future we will receive Windows 10 with Client Branches for Windows Updates, and it would be nice if Office Update used the same system. Allthough that is a different scenario to discuss.

Only reason I can find is Microsoft wants to help customers keep Office up to date, without needing to configure Windows Updates. It is a way for Small Businesses without managed devices, but using either WSUS or Intune is within reach for all businesses above atleast 10 users. Intune brings more to table aswell 🙂