WSUS - why does it have categories for Office 265 and 2019

Question

Just checking the classifications in WSUS, and I see it has categories for Office 365 and Office 2019.

Anyone know why this is? So far as I'm aware all versions of these are click-to-run, which update directly from Microsoft servers on a timescale dictated by the servicing channel, and cannot be updated via WSUS.

I did try ticking the Office 365 option (we do use Office 365), and performing a sync, but it didn't find any relevant updates.

Thanks

Answer 1

As you said click-to-run are serviced from Microsoft, however Volume licence installs can and do still use WSUS to service updates.

Answer 2

Thanks - but why doesn't WSUS actually find anything for Office 365 when a sync is done?

We have click-to-run, volume licensed 365 installed. I didn't think an msi installer version even existed anymore?

Answer 3

That would be because either you don't have the correct classifications checked in addition to the product Office 365 Client or you're not looking at just the Office 365 Client product updates (Create a new update view and scope it to just that product)

The Volume license still exists. It does not get the same update schedule (I think it's once a quarter or twice a year) and does not have any capabilities of AI through the cloud which is baked into some of the features that people on O365 use.)

Answer 4

Hi DavidYorkshire-8836,

Thanks for your posting on Q&A.

In my opinion, the Office 365 Client and Office 2019 updates are not deployed by WSUS. Please refer to the link.

In addition, I synced the Office 365 Client updates in my lab environment, it did appear the Office 356 Client updates. We should check the following the Products and Classifications:
Products: Offices 365 Client
Classifications: Updates

I also found the below distribution for your reference:

The reason for the appearance of the Office 365 Client and Office 2019 updates in WSUS is only to provide a data feed into SCCM-integrated-WSUS scenarios. Plain WSUS (without SCCM) doesn't use that data feed.

Regards,
Rita

---

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.