I never use or install Microsoft Outlook on Microsoft Windows machines, not just because Outlook is a very weak mail client compared to free alternatives, but because the primary target for malware authors is a Microsoft Windows PC with Outlook, Office and Internet Explorer installed on it. If you use a different browser, and donât have Outlook installed at all, you decrease the likelihood of contracting a zero-day infection (meaning malicious software for which there is no cure yet) significantly.
But Microsoft is up to their bundling and tying shenanigans again*⌠Iâve just discovered you need Excel to use the Group Policy Analyzer, and you canât install Excel from the Office 365 pack without also installing the latest version of Outlook. Bundling their low performance, high cost, standards violating email client with the Excel software beloved of clerks and accountants everywhere.
For now I install Office 365, use Excel to receive the GPO analysis, export the tables, and then uninstall Office 365.
UPDATE: @fuzzyfungus points out that as an enterprise license holder I can use the deployment tool to install individual office components (although only after uninstalling the suite).
Having seen a lot of Microsoft products developed over the years (including a trip to MSFT, and working under a guy who was Ex-MSFT) this smacks more of a lazy dev than an intentional anti-competitive move. Who knows for certain, though?
Microsoft can forget that not everyone runs their whole stack, and certainly thatâs where a lot of their devsâ and managersâ heads are at.
Now, I havenât checked in a while, but I think the *.xlsx format hasnât changed much in the last 10 years, so Open Office should be able to read them. Is that not the case?
Since itâs specific to Windows 10 S, which is specifically designed to be a neutered OS (basically an evolution of the much maligned Windows RT) to compete with Chrome OS. Most administrative functionality is disabled, and you can only install applications from the Windows Store. You can spend a one-time fee to unlock it to full Windows. As a power user I certainly have zero interest in S, but I can see why it may be desirable for those looking for more appliance-like devices and donât want to worry about things like malware and crapware.
Iâve just discovered you need Excel to use the Group Policy Analyzer
Policy Analyzer isnât a built-in tool, so while itâs lame that it canât run without Excel, itâs not like itâs a built in tool like Event Viewer or even something truly essential (you could use gpresult.exe /h to get a similar (although less sliceable/diceable) information).
and you canât install Excel from the Office 365 pack without also installing the latest version of Outlook.
Yeah, this is lame. I donât use half the shit they push down on you with O365 but they insist on âall or nothingâ when you install it. You could always buy an old version of Office or standalone Excel (MSI installer) which lets you get fine grained control over what bits are placed on your disk.
I havenât used Policy Analyzer that much but I would posit that it may use Excelâs rendering engine to generate the spreadsheets.
Could be. If thatâs the case, Iâd for sure lump that in as lazy programmer syndrome, like I mentioned earlier in my post. 'Cuz what Windows IT admin wouldnât have Excel installed, right?
For sure the Excel interop libraries which expose Excel functionality to .Net will fail without Office installed.
I think itâs a slightly different set of tricks this time.
Less overtly abusive on the consumer end; because they canât get away with that as much; but taking it out on the business customers they know arenât going anywhere in the short to medium term. All the GPOs that make Win10 not suck being âEnterpriseâ only (Sorry âProfessionalâ, that apparently only means âallowed to bind to ADâ these daysâŚ); pushing cloud/subscription everything, capriciously breaking stuff in the vain pursuit of iPads.
I believe you can still do a fairly granular install of Office 2016(if appropriately licenced); you just need to use the deployment tool and possibly munge at some xml. Not really intended for single installs; but it wonât prevent them.
Their precious âwindows as a serviceâ model is a total dogâs breakfast to administer, though. And Cortana can go to hell outside of strictly Halo related contexts.
Including the bit about the deployment tool, which lets me install single Office products by completely uninstalling Office 365, and reinstalling with the deployment tool. I can do that despite the PC support groupâs unwillingness to help with license keys, because fsck them, their little file permission tricks do not work on me.
Yeah I expected M$ to go back to what it knows best. At this point Iâm about to just put Windows in a VM and use Linux or a BSD distro as my home OS. Any drawback to this situation I think I can overcome but itâs a pain that one company effectively defines how we interface with PCs and peripherals.
