Ms Office Apps
Letizia Aderson
Right now I have a very bulky PC that weighs around six pounds plus the charging brick and since it's very expensive and heavy I'd rather not take it to work so often. I often have to move it around, plug it in for presentations, move back to my office, etc and it's really overkill for the work I do right now.
One workaround is to enable "Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse" from the Control Panel, but that is not to everyone's taste and changes the behaviour of the whole desktop rather than just fixing the broken apps.
It would appear to have a section talking about BYOD that says "When device enrollment is not a viable option, Intune offers an alternative BYOD approach of simply managing the apps that contain corporate data. Intune protects the corporate data even if the app in question accesses both corporate and personal data, as is the case for Office mobile apps.
I've got my application protection policies in place, however when I try to restrict access only to clients using office mobile apps the only way I can see to do this is using conditional access, which in turn requires me to download the portal app and enrol the device which is what I'm trying to avoid.
So I think to answer my own question, there's instructions here: -us/azure/active-directory/conditional-access/app-protection-based-conditional-access#scenario-1-office-365-apps-require-approved-apps-with-app-protection-policies
The subtle caveat is that app protection policies don't require enrolment but they do require the device to be registered using the authenticator app. So from the users perspective it's still more work and the process looks the same. However the advantage with this option over enrolment for the user is that the organisation doesn't have and control over the device, just the apps. Which I suppose also helps with GDPR requirements.
Yesterday, I received an update to MS Office 365 apps. As soon as it finished, apps either crash at the splash screen, at the initial screen shown when launching without a selected document, or if it doesn't crash I can actually use the app until I select the File menu.
At that point the app locks up and I can't get it to do anything unless I kill it in Task Mgr. All MS Office apps behave the same way. Other non-MS Office apps work fine. WordPad, Photoshop, Teams for example.
I'd still suggest making a new user profile and completely uninstalling Office and reinstalling it. There really is no such thing as "Windows without a copy of office." It installs the base installer for that along with Spotify and Disney+ now. If something happened to corrupt your user profile you will see the issues you're describing.
I appreciate the suggestions, but this was a virgin M365 x64 install with no prior Office and no alternative versions since. Machine has only M365 apps on it and no other MS Office such as a local install of an old non click-to-run version.
thelanranger, I think you're on to something regarding user profile. I just created a new user profile on the system. Office 365 was already installed and still misbehaving under my original profile. Just for kicks and giggles, I tried the apps without reinstalling it. Under the new profile the apps open and I can click the File menu with no problem.
Windows 10/11 profiles are very odd. I have found the start menu/pinned items parts of the registry to have very finicky permissions that do all kinds of things ranging from keeping certain apps from running to not letting the start menu open to removing/duplicating your pinned items. I wouldn't even attempt to hack any of that out of the registry as it's likely not a bad key itself but rather permissions on files within the userprofile itself or on junctions (or bad junctions) that it would be neigh impossible to repair properly.
Update: Tonight I tried one more thing since this seemed to be tied to the profile. I went into %appdata%\local and %appdata%\roaming and deleted the Office folder in each. After this, my Office apps worked normally again.
I'm having a very frustrating battle with my new MacBook Pro (M1, 2020 running Big Sur 11.0.1). I have a Microsoft office subscription that allows me to download the office suite of apps. I am able to do this but when I open the apps and log in, the apps allow me to 'view only' making them completely useless for any kind of functional work value.
I have the Microsoft 365 Apps license. I only use the desktop apps. I don't need onedrive or teams so this is perfect for me. The consultant I spoke to last night said this plan is the best for me and should be working.
Because of Microsoft Office 365's online activation features, Office apps will not work on computers that are completely cut off from the Internet. Computers must connect to the internet periodically for the software to validate its license.
Access Office 365 from any web browser or download the full Microsoft Office suite for personal use on up to 5 computers, including PC and Mac. St. Thomas members can also use Office mobile apps on iPhones, Android, and Windows phones or tablets.
Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based service that allows IU students, faculty, and staff to use the newest versions of Microsoft software on their personal Windows and macOS computers, on the web, and on smartphones and tablets with mobile apps. Your IU Microsoft 365 subscription allows you to install the software on up to five personal computers (Windows and macOS), five tablets (Windows, iPad, and Android), and five phones. You can use the software as long as your IU computing accounts are active; you are not entitled to use the software after you leave IU.
When deciding which free office software to download and use, first consider what your actual needs are, as sometimes free platforms will only give you access to a basic set of tools, so you may find a paid subscription is much more worthwhile. Additionally, budget software options can sometimes prove limited when it comes to the variety of tools available, while higher-end software can really cater for every need, so do ensure you have a good idea of which features you think you may need.
However, over the years other companies have released rival office suites to help with productivity, some of which is paid-for and some of which is free - sometimes with the same company offering both.
Google Workspace : Collaboration + productivity apps
There are many different office software suites but Google Workspace formerly known as G Suite remains the original cloud one and one of the best business office suites, offering a huge range of features and functionality that rivals can't match.
Try it free for 14 days.
Thought you had to pay to use Microsoft Office? Yes, you do, if you want all the full features. But noting the threat from free rivals, especially Google Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) Microsoft has created its own set of free Microsoft Office online apps.
If you generally use Microsoft document formats, Office Online is a brilliant choice. Unlike Google's free office suite, it doesn't need to convert your files before you can work on them, and you can share them easily through your Microsoft OneDrive account. Just log in using your Microsoft account (the same one you use to log into Windows 10) and you're ready to go.
The suite contains six programs to cover every common office task: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base. The last three are tools you won't find in many other free office suites, and are designed for vector diagrams, mathematical functions and databases, respectively. The latter is particularly useful; free alternatives to Microsoft Access are hard to find.
WPS Office Free is a slimmed down version of a premium office suite, but you'd hardly know it. Each of its three programs looks just as slick as the latest versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and is packed with just as many features.
Office workers now have a new way to multitask, thanks to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel shipping to Meta Quest. Just one day after releasing Xbox Cloud Gaming (beta) for Meta Quest, Microsoft shipped three of the most popular apps from its Office suite for the VR headset.
You can snag Word, PowerPoint, and Excel through the Meta Quest Store for free. Since they're the web-based versions of the apps, you don't need a Microsoft 365 subscription. You do need a Microsoft account, however. Once you've logged in on one of the Office apps, your account settings will sync over to the other apps.
In his Meta Quest 3 review, Sutrich said "the mixed reality games I've played so far were convincing because the camera quality finally matches the quality of the objects the Quest 3 rendered." Thanks to those cameras, you can feel like you're in your real-world office while using VR apps and games within the headset.
Microsoft and Meta have a growing partnership that will bring several major Microsoft apps to Meta Quest headsets. The Microsoft 365 apps are here already. In the future, Outlook, SharePoint, and even Windows 365 Cloud PCs will be available in VR.
If you prefer gaming over office work, you can now stream Xbox games to Meta Quest as well, though the Xbox Cloud Gaming app is in beta at the moment. You need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to stream games to Meta Quest.
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