If we look at the left-hand rail, we can see all of the tools within the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center, but next up on our list is the Office Customization Tool. So, naturally, we click on 'Customization' and then 'Device Configuration'. From here, we can create new configurations of office to deploy. As you can see, we currently don't have any configurations, but if we wanted to create one, we click on 'My Configurations Tab' and then 'Create'. Once we do this, it opens up the tool and walks you through the steps to customize your deployment. Firstly, let's name our configuration. I want this to be a pilot deployment build, so I'll name this Office Pilot Deployment. Once we've named our build, we then scroll down and see the first settings covering the products and releases of the configuration. You can see we have the option of which architecture we want to deploy, among other options.

I'll pick 64-bit and move on to the products. For now, I'll just add Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise and leave it at that. I can then choose the update channel used in this deployment. For example, since I titled this the pilot build, I want this to be a pilot build for the semi-annual enterprise channel. So, I'll set this to the semi-annual enterprise channel preview to do just that. After we choose the channel, we can adjust the specific apps that we want to deploy. If I wanted to exclude a specific app like access, I can simply toggle access off, and it will no longer be deployed with this configuration. You might notice that as I make changes, the box on the right side of the screen also changes. This is just a quick overview of all the settings within the configuration you're currently working on. So, rather than having to navigate back to the specific setting to see what you configured, you can just refer to this quick view over here. Once we complete the products and releases, we can then choose the languages to be deployed with the build. I'll choose English as the primary language.

I can also add full, partial, or proofing languages, but for now, I'll add one additional full language pack for Italian and then click 'Next'. I can then choose how I want to deploy Office. I can do a cloud deployment with the Office content delivery network, a local deployment with a local source file, or use the Microsoft endpoint configuration manager. I'll be using the Office CDN and leave these options as they are and then click 'Next'. Similar to the deployment option, I have the option for updates and upgrades to the build. Just like I chose earlier, I'm going to use the Office CDN, and then I have other options for upgrading or uninstalling other versions of Office. I'll just leave this as it is for now and click 'Next'. Here, we can choose how the office license activates, whether it's user-based, device-based, or a shared computer activation. Firstly, I will toggle on automatically accept the EULA and then choose my activation settings.

Generally, I like managing licenses by users, and as such, I'll leave my product activations as user-based and then hit 'Next'. Here, we can set the organization name and the configuration description, so I'll just fill those out quickly and hit 'Next'. And finally, we have our application preferences, which allows me to configure specific settings about the build. For example, if I wanted to require that users are verified every time they attempt to open a document, I can search for always require users to connect to verify permission, and you'll see a large block appear, giving me a description of the preference and an option to configure it. Since I want this enabled, I'll click the drop-down box and choose 'True'. Once I do that, you can see that the status now shows as configured and it's good to go.

I can also adjust more of these if I need to, but for now, I can go down and click 'Finish'. We then can verify all the options and settings we chose through that process. And once we've confirmed that they're all correct, we can click 'Done'. And with that, we now have a brand-new pilot office configuration that is ready to be rolled out to our pilot group.

Office Customization Tool

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