Powerpoint - read only

Question

Microsoft used to produce a handy viewer program for powerpoint files, which we used on a few computers in public areas at our sites, showing rolling presentations.

They have unfortunately now withdrawn the viewer, and I need to come up with a way of doing the same thing. If I create an XML script for the Office 365 apps installer to just install powerpoint, and then and create the following registry key (DWord with a value of 1):

HKLM\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\common\licensing!viewermode

That puts it into read only mode and it doesn't ask for login details when opened, but it still has a 'Sign in' button at the top, which I'd like to get rid of - I don't want it to be possible for the users to sign in at all. Is this possible?

Thanks

Answer 1

@DavidYorkshire ，

I am afraid we could not remove the "Share" button.
But we could grey out this button when opening files. If you need it, please continue to look down.

Do you have Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise? If so, please install Office Administrative Template files, you may set it via Group Policy.
Go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 > Disable Items in User Interface > Custom > Disable commands, enabled it and enter ID "26594" to disable "Share" button.

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Update-------------------------------------------

Besides, you may add the registry key as following.
Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.
Please refer to this article about how to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\powerpoint\disabledcmdbaritemslist
Value Name: TCID{number}
Value Type: REG_SZ
Data Value: 26594

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Answer 2

@DavidYorkshire ,

Maybe you could add/ modify registry key to have a check.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\SignIn
Name: SignInOptions
Type: DWORD
Value: 3

Please note, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.
Please refer to this article about how to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

After I added this registry key, there is no "Sign In" button in Account or in the upper right corner , like the following images.

More detailed information, please refer to "This feature has been disabled by your administrator" error in Microsoft Office".

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Answer 3

Thanks - that seems to work.

Will this setup work OK if the computer has no internet connection? Computers which are just showing presentations tend to be physically disconnected for security reasons once they have had the initial setup done.

Also, is it possible to get rid of the 'share' button? Isn't critical as with login blocked it can't do anything anyway, but it would be tidier without it.

I know that normally Office 365 does a license and updates check once a month. License doesn't apply here, but will it cause any problems if it's unable to do an update check?

Thanks

Answer 4

Hi,

We do have 365 apps for enterprise, but these are stand-alone computers (i.e. not domain joined), so I can't apply GPOs to them. Do you know what the corresponding registry setting is so that I can edit this directly?

Thanks

Answer 5

As regards checking for updates, it doesn't relly need to do this - the computer may well not be connected to the internet anyway.

Powerpoint is just being used as a viewer for playing presentations, so if it gets out of data this is unlikely to prove an issue - if needed it can be manually updated when required.