Installing Office 2019 Volume License

Office 2019 Volume License installation has a new installation process.  Here's the process I've successfully used.

1. Download the Office Deployment Tool from here:
   https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117
2. Create a new file called config.xml in the folder with the decompressed contents of the Office Deployment tool with the content referenced at the bottom of this post.  Make sure to add your own Office license MAK key in the PIDKEY area.
3. From a DOS prompt, navigate to the folder where the files are stored and run:
   setup.exe /download config.xml 
4. Wait 30 minutes
5. From a DOS prompt, navigate to the folder where the files are stored and run:
   setup.exe /configure config.xml

Get the content for the confg.xml file from here:
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2164757-office-2019-no-msi-to-install-how-do-i-install-it

tracking disk usage on a Mac

When looking to track disk usage on a PC, I often use TreeSizeFree - which is awesome.  But I struggled to find something like that in a Mac.

I have used and like the trial of DaisyDisk.  It gives a graphical representation of all used files including hidden files and it can help you find things like Apple Mail usage or Outlook usage or itunes backups that can be eating up disk space within the Library folder.  

Windows 7 compression bug fills up hard drive in Windows temp space

A couple times, I've seen a Windows 7 computer with no free hard drive space and tons of space used in c:\windows\temp.  The answer is in this article:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3112358/microsoft-windows/windows-7-log-file-compression-bug-can-fill-up-your-hard-drive.html

It's some sort of bug in Windows.  The fix is:

1) stop the Windows Module Installer service
2) move all the files out of c:\windows\logs\cbs (I typically move them to c:\windows\logs\cbs.old)
3) delete all the files in c:\windows\temp
4) reboot

Enabling modern authentication (ADAL) on Skype for Business

By default, Skype for Business requires users to use App Passwords for logging into Skype for Business.

I'm stealing the info from this post from this excellent tutorial:
https://www.ronnipedersen.com/2017/07/11/enable-modern-authentication-for-skype-for-business-online

I'm simplifying for my future use.  Important note - the DNS records as defined by Microsoft should be in place before going through this process.  Particularly, there should be a CNAME record pointing lyncsicover.domainname.com to webdir.online.lync.com.

First, download the Visual Basic C++ 2017 redistributable from here:
https://aka.ms/vs/15/release/VC_redist.x64.exe

This is needed for the Skype for Business Powershell installer.

Then download the Skype for Business Powershell installer itself:
https://download.microsoft.com/download/2/0/5/2050B39B-4DA5-48E0-B768-583533B42C3B/SkypeOnlinePowerShell.Exe


Then run PowerShell and run these commands:
$sfboSession = New-CsOnlineSession -UserName user@domain.com
Import-PSSession $sfboSession

Then run:
Get-CsOAuthConfiguration

You'll find a line for "ClientAdalAuthOverride" which will likely show "disabled" which is the behavior we want to change.

Run this command:
Set-CsOAuthConfiguration -ClientAdalAuthOverride Allowed

This process allows ADAL (aka modern authentication).  The tutorial I am replicating says this change can take up to 24 hours to take effect, but it often takes effect within one hour.

Office 2016 won't activate with valid volume license key

If Office 2016 (pre-installed or even a volume license that has been installed and then later been update) won't activate - here's the problem and the fix.

What it looks like is that you choose to enter a product key, but then Office still won't activate.  The problem is that the system still thinks there's a trial version on the system.

Here's the fix . . .

Run this from an elevated command prompt:

(on a 32 bit system):
cscript.exe "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.vbs" /dstatus

(on a 64 bit system)
cscript.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.vbs" /dstatus

You'll often see something like this (note that there are two versions listed here and one of them is in a grace period):

We can see that the trial version (in grace period) is on there simultaneously with our activated version.  The fix is to remove the trial version's license.  Here's the command to remove the trial version:

(on a 32 bit system):
cscript.exe "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.vbs" /unpkey:KHGM9

(on a 64 bit system)
cscript.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.vbs" /unpkey:KHGM9


You might need to adjust the last 5 characters of the product key to match your specific situation.

Pre-installed Office 2016 won't activate (keeps trying to activate even after entering the correct key)

If you're working with a pre-installed Office 2016 (Microsoft Desktop Apps) and you want to activate that installation with a volume license key, you need to make some registry edits.  Very, very annoying.

This page goes over the process:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/office-repeatedly-prompts-you-to-activate-on-a-new-pc-a9a6b05f-f6ce-4d1f-8d49-eb5007b64ba1

In essence, you delete these two keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OEM

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OEM


Delete the entire OEM key

Office 2016 installation fail - error 1935

I've had trouble with working with pre-installed Microsoft Office 2016 and then uninstalling that version and then installing my own Office 2016.

Per this page, the answer is to download and run the .net framework repair tool.  This will solve the issue and allow you to install your own Office 2016 volume license.