Trends

Install Office 365 Professional Plus on Remote Desktop Server (RDS)

by Jason Tripp
June 07, 2020

Since the second half of 2014 Microsoft released support of Office 365 ProPlus in an RDS/TS environment. This installation technique uses the ODT tool to perform a Shared Activation.

Shared Computer Activation is enabled during the installation of Office 365 ProPlus using the Office Deployment Tool. Once enabled, Office installs without being activated. When a user signs in to a computer with Office installed via Share Computer Activation, Office will check to see if the user been provisioned for Office 365 ProPlus and temporary activate Office 365 ProPlus until that user logs out. If a second user signs in to the same computer, the activation does not persist from the first user and process is repeated.

So what are the steps to accomplish this task?

  • Step 1. If Office 2013 is installed you will need to completely remove that from the server. There is a FixIt for this if you’re super lazy or having trouble uninstalling: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2739501
  • Step 2. Download the Office Deployment Tool here – http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36778
  • Step 3. Run the ODT and extract the files to a folder on your server.
  • Step 4. Edit the “Configuration.xml” file that was extracted from the ODT exe.
    • Your config file should reflect the text below:

 <Configuration><Add OfficeClientEdition="32" >

<Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
<Language ID="en-us" />
</Product>
</Add>

<Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="True" />
<Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="1" />
<Logging Path="%temp%" />

</Configuration>

  • Step 5. From the ODT folder location you created / extracted to run from CMD the following line “setup.exe /download configuration.xml” on the RDS server
  • Note: It can take up to 1-2 hours to fully download the files. When the files are downloaded the black command prompt box will disappear.
  • Step 6. From the ODT folder location you created / extracted to run from CMD the following line “setup.exe /configure configuration.xml” on the RDS server

That’s all!

Here is a video from Office Mechanics explaining more details: