Office365 ProPlus + Google Chrome = Bing

Posted in : Azure, Intune, Microsoft, Office 365, Windows By Robert Skyllberg Translate with Google ⟶

4 years ago

Starting February Microsoft will include an extension in Office365 ProPlus for Microsoft Search in Bing, which among other changes, will change your default search engine in Google Chrome to Bing.
Microsoft released the table below as their tentative schedule for the different Office365 ProPlus update channels. However, this might be changed in the upcoming weeks.

According to Microsoft, the extension will initially only be included in installations/updates on devices in the following locations, which will be determined based on the IP address of the device. This will also affect Azure-based machines in the regions:

• Australia
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• India
• United Kingdom
• United States

Excluding the installation can be done in several ways, depending on whether you’re to install a new deployment or update an existing.
When using the Office Deployment Tool for a new installation, you can use the ExcludeApp element in your configuration.xml file as shown below. Note that below parameters only are application on Office Deployment tool minimum version 16.0.12325.20276.

<Configuration>
<Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="Monthly">
<Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
<Language ID="en-us" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Bing" />
</Product>
</Add>
</Configuration>

Excluding installation of the extension can also be done with Group Policy. Doing so requires the newly released ADMX-templates which can be downloaded here. According to sources below in the post, the ADMX-setting will affect the following registry value (I haven’t verified this yet).

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officeupdate]
"preventbinginstall"=dword:00000001

Are you deploying Office365 ProPlus using Office365 Client Installation wizard in Configuration Manager? Disable Set default search engine to Microsoft Search in Bing in Features.
Are you deploying Office 365 ProPlus using Intune? Disable Set default search engine to Microsoft Search in Bing in the Configure App Suite pane.
Sources:

• https://o365reports.com/2020/01/22/using-office-365-proplus-chrome-youll-soon-be-binged/
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/microsoft-search-bing#how-to-exclude-the-extension-for-microsoft-search-in-bing-from-being-installed

If you have any questions regarding Bing extension in upcoming Office365 ProPlus updates, feel free to email me at robert.skyllberg@xenit.se or comment down below.

Tags : Azure, Google Chrome, Office 365, Windows