VDI: Office365 with Shared Computer Activation
With Shared Computer Activation ( SCA ) you can activate office365 products without using a kms server or manual activation by mail. When users activate their products with the business e-mail address there is a maximum of 5 devices. Because VDI desktops will be deleted or refreshed, the license will be remained but the desktop doesn’t exist anymore.
With the Shared Computer Activation you can activate more than 5 machines in a reasonable time. All what you need is an office 365 plan that includes one of the following products;
• Project Professional
• Office 365 ProPlus
• Visio Professional
Deploying office 2016 with SCA
– Download the “office 2016 deployment tool” 2016
– Save the setup.exe on a local or remote share
– Create a XML file and place the file on the previous share;
– Start the download of the files
* CMD; \\server\Office16\setup.exe /download \\server\Office16\config.xml
– Start the installer
* CMD; \\server\Office16\setup.exe /configure \\server\Office16\config.xml
– Set the following registry key
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration
Type= REG_SZ
“SharedComputerLicensing”
Value= 1
How does it work;
1. User logs on at the virtual desktop
2. The user starts an office application
3. Office will contact the office licensing service at the web
4. The licensing service will assign a token for the user.
5. The token will be saved on the local user profile %localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Licensing
After a hard day ;), the user logoff the session and the next day step 1 repeats, the user gets an unique token.
!Important! The folder %localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Licensing must be excluded from roaming profiles