How to add Office 2016 to the UEM?

[stev379]

How do I add Ofice 2016 to the UEM 9.1?

Our new VDI environment was setup by a consultant who is now gone. I inherited it after setup, but I wasn't present when they did it. They set up the UEM with Office 2013 and a WIn 7 base. I built a Win 10 base with a shared 2016 Office install, but I don't know how to add it to the UEM. Doesn't seem to be working because it reloads a new desktop any time I log off.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

[ijdemes]

Hi stev379​,

You can add shortcuts for Office 2016 (Word, Excel, etc.) using the User Environment tab --> Shortcuts option in the UEM Management Console.

For saving the Office 2016 settings you can use the Personalization tab and click Create Config File --> Use an Application Template --> Select Microsoft Office 2016.

This way, settings for all Office 2016 applications are saved in a single ZIP file.

If you want to save settings for individual Office 2016 applications (so 1 ZIP file for Word, 1 ZIP file for Excel, etc.), go through the same steps for each Office 2016 application and select only that application you want a ZIP file for, each time you use this wizard.

Does this answer your question?

[stev379]

Thank you for the reply. That does help with some useful shortcut  info. But I need to get the 2016 folder\template in the left pane.

Office template:

The view in the UEM's left pane under General shows 3 folders. Applications, Microsoft Office 2013 and Windows Settings. The Microsoft Office 2013 folder has the office apps listed under it and came from a build-in template. I'd like to add Microsoft Office 2016 (or replace the 2013 folder with a 2016 folder). 2013 was configured with an app template. I haven't been able to find a 2016 template, but I've seen screenshots that look like others have it.

https://communities.vmware.com/docs?query=UEM+Templates&filterID=all~tag

     EDIT: Found 2016 here - Microsoft Office 2016.zip

     Now I have MS Office 2016 in the left pane. 2016 is installed on the base image and is already in the Programs menu on VDI clients, but when I try to use the list of Office apps in the left pane of the UEM to "Enable DirectFlex for this config file", I'm prompted to select an executable. I'm assuming I'm supposed to select the FlexEngine executable.

     Still need to know how to keep user created shortcuts on subsequent logons.

User Environment tab > Shortcuts (left pane) - Nothing shown for Office 2016 and when I try to create a shortcut, there's no 2016 option in the tag dropdown. Seems like maybe the 2016 Office template isn't configured right.

Thanks again for any help.

[ijdemes · Accepted solution]

Answering the question regarding DirectFlex, you need to specify the executable of the application (Word --> winword.exe | Excel --> excel.exe | etc...).

The built-in Office 2016 templates are only there for saving Office 2016 settings. You need to create the shortcuts for Office 2016 manually for each application (Word, Excel, etc.).

[stev379]

Thank you. I started trying that last night with success.

For future readers, it's mid-leading because the UEM is being run from the UEM servers which don't get Office installs and don't have the folder structure for it. But the UEM dropdown suggests a local path and file to be used when you first open it.