Device Based Activation for Office365 ProPlus – Great For Education

UPDATE 2:  I’ ve had a few queries about this blog post from non-US customers and so I wanted to clarify the following which was included in the original Device Based Activation instructions:

Q: Where is Device Based Activation available? 

A: Device Based Activation is currently available only to Microsoft US Education customers that license all of their faculty/staff for Office.

To that point – Device Based Activation is not officially supported outside the US at this time. Whilst I know of a number of schools that have successfully implemented it, please note that this will not be officially supported if you have any issues.

UPDATE:   a reader of this blog pointed out the following step by step guide to using Device Based Activation  that I would encourage you to read as well in conjunction with the Microsoft guide below. The above link also contains additional details for SCCM and GPO if that is relevant for your environment too.

I wrote a recent blog post with the best practice guide to how to deploy Office365 ProPlus in various scenarios. Some of the feedback on that post was how would this work in a shared device environment such as a school computer lap or shared laptops in a COW (Computers on Wheels).

The guide does have a link specifically referencing shared environments, however a number of schools did raise the downside that a student would still need to activate the Office365 ProPlus installation from time to time when they say this prompt on the right.

After asking around internally I have now been shared an alternative method of installation for Office365 ProPlus licensing that was build specifically with schools in mind and you can read the entire guide, along with step by step video tutorials by clicking the following link:

Office365 ProPlus Device Based Activation

What I see from this resource is there are a few main benefits for schools taking this approach:

• The student never sees the Office activation prompt because the device has activated Office365 ProPlus and not the individual user
• There is an included tool to automatically un-install the MSI Office2016 version that may have been installed with Volume Licensing
• This Device Based Activation method can be automated using MS SCCM or Group Policy.

An Office Mix video showing the requirements and advantages of Device Based Activation

The different components in the Device Based Activation process

From an education perspective, this will help keep school/staff devices running the same version of Office365 as the students who typically download their own copy from a network share or the Office Portal. Given that updates and new features come to the subscription based ProPlus version much faster it is worth having a consistent user experience across all devices / users in your school.

This is a useful link outlining the differences between Office365 and Office 2016 and I’ve highlighted the key differences here in terms of updates/functionality:

The other major benefit of Office365 ProPlus is that it can be installed on up to five other devices.

It’s time to recognise that there is a wide range of options when it comes to deploying Office365 in education. To maximize the value of the subscription based approach, along with the regular updates and new features, using something like Device Based Activation, or one of the other methods from the best practice guide, will ensure that you’re always using the latest and greatest of Office.

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 02, 2017
  This kind of activation will be a huge benefit also for enterprise customers. Because there are still some devices or servers which should not have access to Internet, but we do not want to mix licenses in one environment.
  • Anonymous
    May 02, 2017
    Completely agree Kazzan,It's a great methodology for getting O365 ProPlus up and running.
    • Anonymous
      February 13, 2018
      Sam, you may completely agree, however the very first requirement on the link you posted states you must be using an education tenant. Perhaps you should clarify this in your article.
      • Anonymous
        February 13, 2018
        Thanks Mike,The other thing about this methodology is it's only officially supported in the US (something I found out after it was published). Whilst I know schools that have used this in areas outside of the US, it is not officially supported if you choose to do so. Cheers, Sam