How to manipulate Microsoft Office with Group Policy

IT directors who use Group Policy and Microsoft Office at their corporation can control and maintain Office through the proper regulations. By including the best Group Policy templates in your version of Office, you can manipulate key settings for the suite in trendy and each particular application, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. Your first step is downloading the essential Group Policy ADMX and ADML template documents on your Office model.

You may discover the documents for Office 365 ProPlus, Office 2019, and Office 2016 on a Microsoft Download page. On this page, you’ll find the files for Office 2013. Click the Download button on the appropriate page (Figure A). On the subsequent web page, pick the downloadable EXE record for 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64), depending on which bitness of Office you use. Click Next, after which save the EXE file. Run the downloaded EXE file to extract the documents it incorporates.

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Select a destination for the extracted documents. Open the folder for the extracted documents. You should locate an Excel document, an ADMX folder for the ADMX and language documents, and an admin folder for the OPAX documents if you use the Office Customization Tool to install Office. Open the Excel spreadsheet for the Group Policy settings to peer a list and outline of the ADMX templates, different documents, and the specific rules for every template and each Office utility (Figure B).

Figure B

Next, you must copy the ADMX documents and the ADML language files to the correct folder or box in your Group Policy management. If you operate a Central Store for Group Policy, the steps are specific to using a single PC or a handful of computer systems with domestically stored templates. The Microsoft Support article on How to create and control the Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows explains the Central Store choice. I’ll explain the option for storing the templates regionally. The Group Policy templates are saved on your computer at C: WindowsPolicyDefinitions. Copy the extracted Office ADMX files to this folder (Figure C).

The ADML documents are saved inside the specific subfolder of your language (e.g., en-US). Open your specific language subfolder for the papers you extracted. Copy the ADML files to the equal subfolder under PolicyDefinitions (Figure D).

Next, open your Group Policy Editor or Management Console. The Office templates will automatically load and be available. You’ll discover them in extraordinary locations. For device-specific settings, visit Microsoft Office (2016 or 2013). Here, you can manage positive licensing options, manipulate numerous protection settings, and enable automatic updates (Figure E).

For person-precise settings, go to Administrative Templates. Here, you may find a folder for Microsoft Office for controlling preferred Office settings. You’ll also locate folders for every unique Office package—Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Visio, Word, and Skype (Figure F).

There are quite a few policies and settings here to review. You may additionally want to start with the general Office settings and then proceed to the regulations for every software. You must also always consult the Excel Group Policy settings spreadsheet to place your guidelines as a body of reference.

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