Microsoft reissued statement of Support for Office 365 Apps

Office versions and connectivity to Office 365 services

Hope everyone is well. Please note the bellow communication from Microsoft regarding Office versions that will be supported for connecting to Office 365/Microsoft 365 services. Older versions than Office 2016 will not be blocked, but upgrades are recommended over time.

Starting on October 13, 2020, only these versions of Office will be supported for connecting to Office 365 (and Microsoft 365) services:

• ·         Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise (previously named Office 365 ProPlus)
• ·         Microsoft 365 Apps for business (previously named Office 365 Business)
• ·         Office 2019, such as Office Professional Plus 2019
• ·         Office 2016, such as Office Standard 2016

Examples of Office 365 services include Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business.

 Important

We won’t take any active measures to block other versions of the Office client, such as Office 2013, from connecting to Office 365 services, but these older clients may encounter performance or reliability issues over time.

Impact of using older Office clients to connect to Office 365 services

After October 13, 2020, ongoing investments to our cloud services will not take into account older Office clients. Over time, these Office clients may encounter performance or reliability issues. Organizations that use these older clients will almost certainly face an increased security risk and may find themselves out of compliance depending upon specific regional or industry requirements.

Therefore, administrators should update older Office clients to versions of Office supported for connecting to Office 365 services.

Upgrade resources available to administrators

We recommend that you upgrade older Office clients to a subscription version of the Office client, such as Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. The most up-to-date subscription versions of the Office client are always supported connecting to Office 365 services.

We provide various services to help you upgrade to subscription versions of the Office client. The following list provides some examples of resources that are available:

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• ·         Product lifecycle dashboard and upgrade readiness dashboard, for users of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (current branch).
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Upcoming changes related to connectivity to Office 365 services

Retirement of TLS 1.0 and 1.1

After October 15, 2020, you must be using at least TLS 1.2 to connect to Office 365 services. For more information, see TLS 1.0 and 1.1 deprecation for Office 365 and Preparing for TLS 1.2 in Office 365 and Office 365 GCC.

Basic authentication with Exchange Online

There are some changes planned related to the use of Basic Authentication with Exchange Online. For more information, see Basic Authentication and Exchange Online – April 2020 Update.

Microsoft Support for Office 2010 and Mac version 2016 ending

Microsoft's support for Office 2016 for Mac and Office 2010 will reach their end of support on October 13, 2020. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide technical support, bug fixes, or security updates for Office 2016 for Mac and Office 2010. You will still be able to use these versions of Office, but over time, organizations may face an increase in security risks and compliance issues.

Also, as previously announced, after October 13, 2020, customers will need to be running Microsoft 365 Apps, Office 2019 or Office 2016 to connect to Office 365 services. Microsoft will not take any active measures to block legacy versions of the Office client from connecting to Office 365 services, but these older clients may encounter performance and/or reliability issues over time. For related Office client support timelines, see the Microsoft 365 and Office system requirements matrix.

Key Points:

• Major: Retirement
• Timing: October 13, 2020
• Action: review and assess

What you need to do to prepare:

Because of the changes listed above, we strongly recommend that you upgrade to one of the latest versions of Office as soon as possible:

• Microsoft 365 Apps, the subscription version of Office that comes with most Office 365 enterprise plans. Microsoft 365 Apps can be installed on up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets, and five mobile devices.
• Office 2019, which is a one-time purchase and available for one PC or Mac per license.

A key difference between Microsoft 365 Apps and Office 2019 is that Microsoft 365 Apps is updated on a regular basis with new features. Office 2019 has the same set of features that it had when it was released in October 2018. Prior to deploying either version, please check the System requirements for Microsoft 365 and Office as well as the Microsoft 365 and Office system requirements matrix to ensure that the version you choose is supported on the operating system you are using.

In order to identify users on Office 2010 and Office 2013 clients, deploy Microsoft 365 Apps or a supported non-subscription version of Office to those desktops, and ensure that they will have supported access to Office 365 services after October 13, 2020, there are two Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager dashboards (updated as part of version 1902) that you can use:

• the Configuration Manager Product Lifecycle dashboard allows you to see which versions of Office are running on your desktops, to determine which will need updated Office apps to help ensure a seamless connection to Office 365 services
• the Microsoft 365 Apps Upgrade Readiness report on the Office 365 client management dashboard helps to identify desktops in your organization that are ready to upgrade to Microsoft 365 Apps.

Additional information:

• Office 2010 end of support roadmap.
• End of Support for Office 2016 for Mac
• Deployment guide for Office for Mac
• Office versions and connectivity to Office 365 services
• Microsoft 365 and Office system requirements matrix
• Microsoft Office End of Support Tech Community

Having an issue with OneDrive or SharePoint?

Email a take a quick look at this new version of OneDrive which my guys are telling me that it has stabilized synchronization to both one drive shares and SharePoint libraries out of Office 365. I am all for doing just that and I will be looking forward to getting this installed on all of my workstations and notebooks to see how well it begins a synchronization between all of those devices and are SharePoint document libraries. The link above will take you to Microsoft's blog article that discusses this new update and you may want to view this article to see exactly how to install the new client. Good luck!

Another Ed Bott trick! Software Licensing Secrets

Software licensing secrets

By Ed Bott 

Every version of Windows dating back to Windows Vista has included the Windows Software Licensing Management Tool, a script file found in the WindowsSystem32 folder as Slmgr.vbs. The script is designed for a local administrator to run in an elevated Command Prompt window.

Most people never need to use this tool, but it can come in handy when you're trying to resolve activation problems or upgrade a Windows PC. The secret is knowing which switches to add to the end of the command to achieve the desired result.

If you just type the command, with no switches, you get a series of five dialog boxes that list all those switches. Network administrators who manage a Key Management server for Volume Licensing will find a goldmine here. For the rest of us, the three most commonly used switches are the following:

Slmgr.vbs /dli Displays basic license information, including the last five characters of the product key

Slmgr.vbs /dlv Displays much more detailed license information

Slmgr.vbs /cpky Removes the product key from the registry so that it can't be copied and reused

Office 2013 free Download

If you have purchased Microsoft Office 2010 between the dates of October 19, 2012 and April 30, 2013 you can get the next version of Microsoft Office for free as soon as it is available.

1. All you need to do is buy and activate Office today.
2. Sign up for an email reminder to be notified when you can redeem you offer. Sign up for the offer.
3. Download the new Office when it comes available. After you receive your email notification, return to this website, www.office.com/offer, to download the new Office.

Go to this website for more information on the products that qualify and how to process your offer.

Microsoft Office University 2010 FAQ

Come March 1st the boxed version of Microsoft Office Academic Pro will no longer be available. Microsoft is replacing it with a new package called Microsoft Office University 2010. This new package is meant only for higher-education students and higher-education faculty. It is not available for K-12 Teachers as the last version was. This version contains the same components which were: the 2010 versions of: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access.

Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 is the recommended product for parents and families with K-12 students. The full list of eligible individuals for Office University 2010 is: Full and part time, enrolled university student and faculty in accredited institutions; including junior college, college, university, vocational school, scientific or technical school. Alumni of these institutions are ineligible.

Office University 2010 does not come with a product key. Your eligibility will be verified online before completing purchase. This product will not work without successful verification as you will not have a product key.

You will be required to verify your eligibility online to use this software.

1. Go to www.office.com/verify.
2. Sign in with your Windows Live ID or create one using any email address.
3. Provide your school email address, sign-in ID, or international student identity card (ISIC).

Once you pass verification, the online site displays the product key.

Buy Microsoft Office Home & Business before Feb 27 and get Microsoft Publisher as a free download!

if you have purchased Microsoft Office 2019 Home and Business between January 15, 2012 and February 26, 2012 you have until March 23, 2012 to download your free copy of Microsoft Office Publisher.

Downloading Publisher is 1-2-3 easy!

Accept the terms and conditions

Enter your 25-character Product Key from Office Home and Business 2010

Follow the on-screen instructions

If you haven’t purchased your copy yet, do so now before Feb 26th to qualify for a free copy of Publisher.

Frequently asked questions

See the terms and other details of this offer.

Get details regarding promotion dates and deadlines by country

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/microsoft-office-and-publisher-FX102655579.aspx

Outlook 2007/2003/2002 Add-in: Personal Folders Backup

The Personal Folders Backup download creates backup copies of your .PST files at regular intervals, in Outlook 2002 and later versions, making it easy to keep all of your Outlook folders safely backed up.

Overview

Backing up your Microsoft Outlook information is quicker and easier with the Personal Folders Backup feature. Personal Folders Backup creates backup copies of your .PST files at regular intervals, in Outlook 2002 and later versions, making it easy to keep all of your Outlook folders safely backed up.

With Personal Folders Backup, you can choose which of your .PST files you wish to back up, and how often you wish to back them up.

Each .PST file contains all of your Outlook folders, including the Inbox, Calendar, and Contacts. You can have a single .PST file (usually called "Internet Folders" or "Personal Folders" in your Folder List), but you might also have an additional .PST file that you use for archiving ("Archiving Folders"). Personal Folders Backup lets you back up any or all of these .PST files.

PFbackup and Outlook 2010

Although the Personal Folders Backup add-in 2007 compatible version (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8B081F3A-B7D0-4B16-B8AF-5A6322F4FD01&displaylang=en) does not work with Outlook 2010 by default, you may enable it to work with Outlook 2010 by adding the following registry data to complete the backup process at shutdown.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\Microsoft.OutlookBackup.1
DWORD: RequireShutdownNotification
Value: 1

For Windows XP
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

Windows 7 and Windows Vista
Click Start, and in the Search box type regedit, and then click regedit.exe in the search results.
3. Locate, and then click the following subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\Microsoft.OutlookBackup.1
4. Click on Edit, and then New - DWORD Value.
5. Rename the value to RequireShutdownNotification.
6. Right click on RequireShutdownNotification and then click Modify.
7. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type 1 in the Value data box, and then click OK.

Microsoft Word Tips: Save changes to all open Word documents at one time

This simple technique comes in handy when you're working in multiple documents and want to make sure you've saved your changes to all of them. I actually use it most often when I've made a change to a template and want a quick way to save that change on the fly (before I've had a chance to forget I made a change I want to keep).

In Word 2003 and earlier, just press the [Shift] key and pull down the File menu. Word will display the Save All command on the menu, above the Save As command. Choose Save All and Word will prompt you to save each document (or template) that has any unsaved changes. This is more efficient than having to navigate to each document individually and click Save.

If you use Word 2007/2010, this won't work. But you can add the Save All command to your Quick Access Toolbar:

1. Click the Office button (File in 2010) and click Word Options.
2. Click Customize in the left-hand column.
3. Select Commands Not In The Ribbon from the Choose Commands From drop-down list.
4. Scroll down and select Save All.
5. Click the Add button and then click OK.

Microsoft Word Tip: Alternate Method of Moving Text

This tip is probably most useful when you're working in a table, although you can use it to reorder paragraphs outside a table, too. Let's say you decide you want the third row of a table to be the top row. Just click within the third row, hold down [Alt][Shift] and press the up arrow key twice. Each time you press the arrow key, Word will move the row up one. You can select multiple contiguous rows to move them as a block, and you can use the down arrow key if you want to move text down instead of up.

Using this shortcut gets a little tricky if you're moving big pieces of text outside a table. It's easy to lose track of what's being relocated where, and you might find it easier to take a standard cut-and-paste approach in those situations. But when the text is small and manageable, the shortcut is great. For example, if you need to move an item up or down within a bulleted or numbered list, you can just click in the item's paragraph and use the [Alt][Shift] and arrow key combo to move the item to the desired spot.

How To: Some of my favorite keyboard shortcut commands

When it comes to Windows I am totally old school. Whenever I find a keyboard shortcut that I can use instead of going through a menu system I definitely use them. Here are 10 of my most often use keyboard shortcuts that can be used in many different Windows Programs as well as Office.

1. Cut, Copy and Paste are usually some of the first commands that you learn the shortcut keys for. They can be used not only when editing documents but in many utility situations as well. Cut – will delete your selected text or item and place that selection into the memory buffer that is called the clipboard. You can perform this operation with a mouse one of two ways, by selecting it of the edit menu or ribbon bar, right mouse clicking on the selection and choosing Cut on pop-up menu or by holding down the [CTRL] key and pressing [X] simultaneously.
2. Copy – the keyboard shortcut is [CTRL] [C]
3. Paste – the keyboard shortcut is [CTRL] [V]
4. Select entire contents can be done with [CTRL] [A]
5. To force a save press [CTRL] [S]
6. To center a line press [CTRL] [E]
7. To align text to the left press [CTRL] [L]
8. To align text to the right press [CTRL] [R]
9. To undo the last command press [CTRL] [Z]
10. And for my last one I will give you a twofer, [CTRL] [I] applies Italics to the selected text and [CTRL] [B] will Bold the selected text.

Microsoft Word Tip: Drawing borders automatically

Word offers a sometimes-handy option that lets you insert a border automatically. Type three hyphens on a blank line and press [Enter]. If the option is enabled, Word will replace the hyphens with a horizontal line. You can get rid of it if you press [Ctrl]Z after Word inserts it (see above). But if you try to select the border and delete it, you're out of luck. You're not dealing with a line object here. Word has applied the Bottom Border format to the paragraph.

To remove that format in Word 2003, click in the paragraph and choose No Border from the Borders drop-down list on the Formatting menu. In Word 2007/2010, click in the paragraph and then click the Border button in the Paragraph group of the Home tab. Just select No Border from the drop-down list.

So what is Microsoft’s Office 365?

Microsoft's Office 365, the next piece of a broader play by Microsoft to bring its suite of Office server tools and collaboration work flows onto the cloud, is expected to launch sometime next year.

The company is already in the stages of testing it with small businesses and has a list of some 60,000 organizations, which are waiting to get access. In the meantime, Microsoft is continuing to fine-tune the product and expand its testing group--both in scale and the size of the companies that are being allowed in.

CNET reports: CNET was lucky enough to get early access to Office 365, which has been designed to work on a number of Web browsers, including Firefox and Safari--though not yet Chrome, which will work when the product is finalized. Office 365 is also cross-platform, so it works with both Macs and PCs. The good news is that in our brief testing, everything worked as advertised. The bad news is that you can't get it right now, and it's still a long ways off from something that lets you every feature out of the Office ecosystem without installing software.

So what is Office 365? This is a service that takes several server based applications and hosts them for you on the internet. These applications include hosted versions of Exchange (Outlook), SharePoint and Lync (replacement for Microsoft’s Communication Server) without having to host these services on your own network and never having to worry about maintenance updates. The service is going to run between $2 and $27 per user per month depending on your company size and which services your subscribe to.

Office 365 is available on a limited testing basis only and has a waiting list of over 40,000 but Microsoft is adding new subscribers daily as they test their server loads and functions. According to CNET they had absolutely no problem with their initial use of the product and they felt the system response was very good.

There is still a heavy reliance on local Office Applications and part of your subscription can include Microsoft Office for your local machine. Otherwise you have to rely on the consumer site for Office Web Apps for accessing Word, Excel and PowerPoint. If you are using Office on your local computer then one of your options with this subscription will be to save your documents to the Team Site (SharePoint) so you can share your files with others or with yourself from other locations.

You no longer need to have Outlook on your local machine in that the interface to the hosted Exchange Server is the new version of Outlook OWA that looks just like the packaged version. It has stronger links back to the Team Site (SharePoint) so that you can open documents into a pop-up browser window right from Outlook. This is quite useful in cases where your local computer doesn’t have Office installed on it. Outlook takes full advantage of keyboard shortcuts which helps you to quickly maneuver through your email.

Lync has some interesting connection to some of Windows Phone 7 and iPhone connections. This is something that I am going to look forward in testing myself to see if it is really useful or not. It provides other features like instant messaging, audio and video conferencing and voice call service. This version is based out of a web browser so it doesn’t have all of the capabilities of the full blown product but I can’t comment on that as of yet since I haven’t used it.

It is nice to have SharePoint on the system so that you can manage its capabilities on a team basis. Between simple list management, communication and file storage this is a great product to enhance how you do things and control workflow in your office.

All in all I would suggest keeping an eye on how this product progresses and when it becomes readily available might be a great addition to your company’s needs. It certainly will be something to look at to see if the pricing can fit within a budget that you can afford for the extra services that you can take advantage of.

Download details: Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats

I had a client today that had some problems opening some document files that were emailed to her. Turns out that they were written in either Office 2007 or 2010 which has a new document format called XML that is used. Office 2003 does not natively have the ability to open, view or edit these files but thankfully Microsoft has given anyone in the predicament a way to update their version of Office 2003 to be capable of accessing files in saved in this format.

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Don’t be afraid to make adjustments to Microsoft Office

One of the things that I am constantly doing is making adjustments to my computer to make work better and have available all of the application tools that I use day in, day out. This involves loading the right software on a system that I am going to use as well as adjusting that software when necessary to the way I need to use it.

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How to Stay Connected

I talked a little bit about how I pick the devices that I use, in this post I want to talk about the what I am using to accomplish this. First, let’s go down the list of devices that I use both for the office and my own entertainment. At the office I have an i7 Workstation with dual 19 inch monitors in the traditional square or 4:3 format. At home my primary system is again an i7 but I am using a 32 inch TV/Monitor as my secondary monitor and a 22 inch widescreen for my primary screen. I also have three mobile devices, an 10.1 inch Acer NetBook, an iPhone 3gs, and my newest acquisition an Apple iPad.

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How To - Word 2010 Inserting Screen Clippings

In a continuation of some of the attributes of Windows 7’s utility Snipping Tool which gives you the ability to grab portions of your screen and save them as images and/or store them into your clipboard to be pasted in a document of your choice. In Word 2010 you now have this same capability of inserting a window or a portion of the screen as a function from within the Word application off of the Insert Ribbon.

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How to buy Office 2010

It is important to note my last post for Microsoft’s Technology Guarantee that is running right now because there are some special pricing that you can take advantage before September 2010 if you are so inclined to. The current product offering for the Technology Guarantee works this way:

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Microsoft Office 2010 Technology Guarantee

You don’t have to wait. Buy Office 2007 today, get Office 2010 free* Purchase, install, and activate a qualifying Office 2007 product between March 5, 2010, and September 30, 2010, and you’ll be eligible to download Office 2010 at no additional cost. Receive an e-mail reminder when Office 2010 is available for download.

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Office 2010 RTM became available on Friday

The Released to Manufacturing (RTM) version of Office 2010 is available to MSDN participants as of this past Friday. I have installed on my primary home system and so far I have a big smile. Take a look at this article to see my preliminary findings and what you need to do to prep your machine for installation.

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