Office 2013 : Guide to enrolling into modern authentication public preview

The Office 365 team recently announced that Office 2013 client modern authentication features have moved from private preview to public preview. This means the program is easier to join and production support is included for participants. Modern authentication brings Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL)-based sign in to Office 2013 Windows clients. Previously, this was only available as a private preview for testing. Now modern authentication is available to any customer running the March 2015 or later update for Office 2013. It will continue to be off by default in the client, but can be enabled on Windows machines by participants in the public preview. 

Here is a quick how-to guide on how to enroll for public preview, and what to expect.

Step 1- Determine whether the Public Preview program is right for your organization.

• Read the blog post explaining this program at :  http://aka.ms/blogADALPreview and some feature limitations explained here http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/30214.office-2013-and-office-365-proplus-modern-authentication-things-to-know-before-onboarding.aspx
•  If your organization uses client access filtering policies based on ADFS, review this article to determine compatibility : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/30253.office-2013-and-office-365-proplus-modern-authentication-and-client-access-filtering-policies-things-to-know-before-onboarding.aspx

Step 2- Apply to the Public Preview program.

• Apply to the program here : http://aka.ms/PublicPreview
•  Be sure to enter all the tenants and domains you want enabled for modern authentication in your survey response. If you make an error, fill out another survey response will all the details included, since we will process your last response in case of multiple responses.

Step 3- Wait to hear back on the status of your request.

• If you have not heard back from Microsoft within 3 weeks, reach out to your Microsoft account manager for an update.

Step 4 - Prepare to deploy these changes across your organization.

• Make sure all your users are running the latest update of Office 2013/ProPlus. The minimum requirement for modern authentication is the March 2015 update described here :  http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2015/03/10/march-2015-office-update-release.aspx.
• You will need to opt-in your users by setting a specified set of registry key values on their devices using a Group Policy or similar mechanisms.  You can find out how to enable client devices for modern authentication here: http://aka.ms/AuthAdminHowTo.
•  Read on how to enable users for multi factor authentication here: http://aka.ms/MFAAdminHowTo
•  Read on how your users can set themselves up to perform MFA successfully after you've enabled them here : http://aka.ms/MFAUserHowTo

Related articles :

• List of known issues and feature limitations for Public Preview 
• Client access filtering compatibility matrix for Public Preview
• Frequently asked questions about modern authentication : http://aka.ms/AuthFAQ