Interesting: M365 updates are still shown as "for Microsoft Office 2016"

[britechguy]

Since this machine has never had any version of Office on it except what comes with M365 Family, this was an interesting discovery when I took a peek at update history. While I know that the code base for every version of Office from 2016 forward is the same, but I would not have expected updates to still be designated in this way.

 

[callthatgirl]

Something seems wrong, are you 100% sure you never had the free version of Office installed at one time?

 

[britechguy]

Something seems wrong, are you 100% sure you never had the free version of Office installed at one time?

Absolutely. I did a completely clean reinstall of Windows 11 as a bloatware removal measure, followed afterward by the install of M365. There has never been any other version of Office installed in this instance of Windows 11.

I've had this laptop for less than 1 week, so in this case there is no "mists of memory" factor when it comes to knowing what I've done as far as configuring it goes.

And the exact same thing is true on my partner's laptop, which is almost an identical twin to this one (but his has an i7-11th gen while mine has an i5-12th gen). Both were similarly "purged of bloatware" upon receipt so both are running less than week old installations of Windows 11 and both have only had M365 put on them.

 

[Sky-Knight]

That is not a standard installation of Office, I know this because it says 32bit. The default installation is 64bit now.

Windows Update history will not report on Office Updates for M365 when it's installed correctly.

Note, because it's Windows 11, you can install it correctly via powershell.

winget install Microsoft.Office

Further note... I've never tried the above with personal M365 subs, only business ones.

 

[britechguy]

OK, I'm not going to take this further.

The install came straight from the source, Microsoft. Period, end of sentence. It's behaving exactly the same way on two different machines. I have no intention of going through all sorts of gyrations to end up in the same place at the end.

 

[nlinecomputers]

And what is listed in add remove programs? You are getting offered updates via Windows Update. Something is triggering that. Did you deliberately install the 32bit version? I’ve not used that version in so long that it might be 2016.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Gotta admit that is very odd. I have not see Office updates be available ...in Windows Update..since..yeah, back quite a while ago. It's been via the "update options" under an Office apps subscription page (such as in your second screenshot)...or...for my clients, I manage it via their 365 tenant, via an Office update config profile (as I also do with Windows updates...from the 365 tenants Windows updates config profile). Works excellent..better than RMMs do!

 

[britechguy]

 

[Sky-Knight]

I'm honestly floored... I have no idea how that can or has happened.

My knee jerk is there's a hidden Office installation on the machine from ages gone past, but this is reportedly a clean load.

The only curveball here...

I haven't used the setup.exe that you can download from your M365 account to install Office in a VERY long time. I used the Office Deployment Tool for years, and recently discovered the wonder of the winget command I shared earlier because it's even easier.

I'm left assuming this is something to do with the 32bit nature of this installation, which you have to jump through substantial hoops to get these days. It's not default...

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Wonder if the Windows "nuke 'n pave"...was done on a "quick format"...so stuff was still laying on the drive....

 

[mikeroq]

I also have Office 2016 updates in my Windows update history, M365 Personal installation. Update says 32bit but my Office install is 64bit.

IE: Microsoft® Outlook® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2306 Build 16.0.16529.20164) 64-bit

This is on Windows 10.

My Windows 11 Tablet same Office install I do not see any updates listed in Windows update.

Edit: This might be due to "Microsoft Access database engine 2016"

 

[britechguy]

Well, the fresh install of Win11 was a "keep nothing" option, which (no matter which "angle" I've used) has always been the equivalent of fresh out of the box. There are times I've done a diskpart with a clean or clean all, and other times (when it's a machine I own) when I haven't, but the "keep nothing" option always brings me to the OOBE when it's done. And in this case, since there was LG bloatware when the first OOBE completed, and none after my "keep nothing" reinstall, I don't know how it could be anything but clean.

You all are also seeing the install dates for the software in the Programs and Features screenshot above.

The installer for M365 was sourced directly from Microsoft, on BOTH, new laptops, and both are showing precisely the same thing in Windows Update. This isn't "just me."

I'm just glad I brought it up, as I'm sure I won't be the only one. I also have no idea of where, exactly, to look for the bit-depth for M365, but what installed is what Microsoft "chose" on this machine, which is, of course, a 64-bit processor.

 

[britechguy]

Can't you just check whether it installed into "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files (x86)"?

Well, the answer to that is clearly yes, but with an element of "no," too.

The install of M365 actually creates a set of Microsoft Office folders under both of those folders. The one under x86 is pretty much an empty shell, while the one under Program Files is not.

But what I meant is that when checking version information for a great many office programs the bit-depth is indicated in their "about" dialogs or the equivalent. It doesn't seem to be in the usual spot I check for Office programs, which is in the Account pane of the File Backstage view.

 

[fincoder]

Well, the fresh install of Win11 was a "keep nothing" option, which (no matter which "angle" I've used) has always been the equivalent of fresh out of the box.

I wouldn't call that a fresh install... are you referring to the Reset This PC recovery option? Doing a Reset with the keep nothing option will, in some cases, reinstall from the factory image for drivers and perhaps the preinstalled Office.

Or if you used install media removing all partitions then forget what I said above

I'm leading towards it just being a weird glitch with Windows Update...

 

[britechguy]

I used a freshly downloaded ISO file, mounted as a virtual drive, and running setup.exe for Windows 11 from it.

If I had done a Reset, I definitely would have noted that, as it is not, in my opinion or observation, a fresh install of Microsoft's Windows 10/11, but of what shipped with the PC from the factory.

I already noted that I did not do a diskpart, removing all partitions. That should be unnecesary since it's my machine, and the "keep nothing" option should overwrite everything, and I do mean everything, when being used as I used it.

In any case, I'm not worrying about it anymore. I've also found an "interesting development" as far as OneDrive goes, too. It just did not seem to be working, at all, on my partner's computer, so I resorted to uninstalling OneDrive and then using winget to reinstall it. On my machine, if you open OneDrive Settings, you see this:

and that's what they had looked like on his, too. But after uninstalling and reinstalling using winget, his Settings are of the "Classic Control Panel" version. They do not use the modern UI.

This is something I just will never get. Why what winget gets, and should be the latest and greatest released version (I wasn't using either of the internal versions or the insidef version), differs from what comes with a clean install of Win11 is a mystery.

 

[fincoder]

I used a freshly downloaded ISO file, mounted as a virtual drive, and running setup.exe for Windows 11 from it.

I agree that I would expect that method to remove everything, but I never use that method for a clean install myself.

I already noted that I did not do a diskpart, removing all partitions.

I almost never use diskpart simply to remove partitions before install, because the install media allows removal of partitions anyway.

 

[callthatgirl]

Did you ever use a data migration product on that machine ever in it's lifetime?

 

[Porthos]

Were those updates there before you used Fabs to restore data?

 

[mikeroq]

For reference M365 on my Windows 11 tablet has no Microsoft Office folder in the 32 bit program files.

@britechguy check your other laptop for the Access database engine 2016. We both have that installed and have the 2016 Offce updates.

 

[britechguy]

@callthatgirl

I have not.

@Porthos

I cannot say, but probably not. I did my Fabs restorations prior to installing M365, but never looked at Update History during that time.

@mikeroq

Yes, it's on both machines, and in each case was installed after M365, not by hand, either. 3 days later on my machine, one day later on my partner's.