Step 7: Add Microsoft Office to your BYOL image in Amazon WorkSpaces - Amazon WorkSpaces
Migrate between versions of Microsoft Office

Step 7: Add Microsoft Office to your BYOL image in Amazon WorkSpaces

During the BYOL image ingestion process, if you are using Windows 10, you have the option to subscribe to Microsoft Office Professional 2016 (32-bit) or 2019 (64-bit) through AWS. If you are using Windows 11, you can subscribe to Microsoft Office Professional 2019 (64-bit). If you choose either of these options, Microsoft Office is pre-installed in your BYOL image and included on any WorkSpaces that you launch from this image.

Note

  • Graphics.g4dn and GraphicsPro.g4dn BYOL images with PCoIP support only Office 2019. They don't support Office 2016.

If you choose to subscribe to Office through AWS, additional charges will apply. For more information, see WorkSpaces Pricing.

Important

  • If Microsoft Office is already installed on the VM that you are using to create your BYOL image, you must uninstall it from the VM if you want to subscribe to Office through AWS.

  • If you plan to subscribe to Office through AWS, make sure that your VM has at least 20 GB of free disk space.

  • During image import, you can subscribe to Office 2016 or 2019 but not to Office 2021. For Office 2021 and other applications such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2022, Microsoft Visio 2021, and Microsoft Project 2021, see Manage applications.

  • To bring your own Microsoft 365 licenses for both browser-based and desktop applications on Amazon WorkSpaces, install Microsoft 365 applications on your BYOL image after the BYOL image ingestion process is complete.

Note

Graphics.g4dn and GraphicsPro.g4dn BYOL images only support Office 2019 and do not support Office 2016.

If you choose to subscribe to Office, the BYOL image ingestion process takes a minimum of 3 hours.

For details about subscribing to Office during the BYOL ingestion process, see Step 8: Create a BYOL image using the WorkSpaces console.

Office language settings

We choose the language used for your Office subscription based on the AWS Region where you're performing your BYOL image ingestion. For example, if you're performing your BYOL image ingestion in the Asia Pacific (Tokyo) Region, your Office subscription has Japanese as its language.

By default, we install a number of frequently used Office language packs on your WorkSpaces. If the language pack that you want isn't installed, you can download additional language packs from Microsoft. For more information, see Language Accessory Pack for Office in the Microsoft documentation.

To change the language for Office, you have several options:

Individual users can adjust the Office language settings on their WorkSpaces. For more information, see Add an editing or authoring language or set language preferences in Office in the Microsoft documentation.

You can use Group Policy Object (GPO) settings to enforce default Office language settings for your WorkSpaces users.

Note

Your WorkSpaces users will not be able to override language settings enforced through GPO.

For more information about using GPO to set the language for Office, see Customize language setup and settings for Office in the Microsoft documentation. Office 2016 and Office 2019 use the same GPO settings (labeled with Office 2016).

To work with GPOs, you must install the Active Directory administration tools. For information about using the Active Directory administration tools to work with GPOs, see Set up Active Directory Administration Tools for WorkSpaces Personal.

Before you can configure Office 2016 or Office 2019 policy settings, you must download the administrative template files (.admx/.adml) for Office from the Microsoft Download Center. After you download the administrative template files, you must add the office16.admx and office16.adml files to the Central Store of the domain controller for your WorkSpaces directory. (The office16.admx and office16.adml files apply to both Office 2016 and Office 2019.) For more information about working with .admx and .adml files, see How to create and manage the Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows in the Microsoft documentation.

The following procedure describes how to create the Central Store and add the administrative template files to it. Perform the following procedure on a directory administration WorkSpace or Amazon EC2 instance that is joined to your WorkSpaces directory.

To install the Group Policy administrative template files for Office

  1. Download the administrative template files (.admx/.adml) for Office from the Microsoft Download Center.

  2. On a directory administration WorkSpace or an Amazon EC2 instance that is joined to your WorkSpaces directory, open Windows File Explorer, and in the address bar, enter your organization's fully qualified domain name (FQDN), such as \\example.com.

  3. Open the SYSVOL folder.

  4. Open the folder with the FQDN name.

  5. Open the Policies folder. You should now be in \\FQDN\SYSVOL\FQDN\Policies.

  6. If it doesn't already exist, create a folder named PolicyDefinitions.

  7. Open the PolicyDefinitions folder.

  8. Copy the office16.admx file into the \\FQDN\SYSVOL\FQDN\Policies\PolicyDefinitions folder.

  9. Create a folder named en-US in the PolicyDefinitions folder.

  10. Open the en-US folder.

  11. Copy the office16.adml file into the \\FQDN\SYSVOL\FQDN\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\en-US folder.

To configure the GPO language settings for Office

  1. On your directory administration WorkSpace or Amazon EC2 instance that is joined to your WorkSpaces directory, open the Group Policy Management tool (gpmc.msc).

  2. Expand the forest (Forest:FQDN).

  3. Expand Domains.

  4. Expand your FQDN (for example, example.com).

  5. Select your FQDN, open the context (right-click) menu or open the Action menu, and choose Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here.

  6. Name your GPO (for example, Office).

  7. Select your GPO, open the context (right-click) menu or open the Action menu, and choose Edit.

  8. In the Group Policy Management Editor, choose User Configuration, Policies, Administrative Template Policy definitions (ADMX files) retrieved from the local computer, Microsoft Office 2016, and Language Preferences.

    Note

    Office 2016 and Office 2019 use the same GPO settings (labeled with Office 2016). If you don't see Administrative Template Policy definitions (ADMX files) retrieved from the local computer under User Configuration, Policies, the office16.admx and office16.adml files aren't correctly installed on your domain controller.

  9. Under Language Preferences, specify the language that you want for the following settings. Be sure to set each setting to Enabled, and then under Options, select the language you want. Choose OK to save each setting.

    • Display Language > Display help in

    • Display Language > Display menus and dialog boxes in

    • Editing languages > Primary Editing Language

  10. Close the Group Policy Management tool when you're finished.

  11. Group Policy setting changes take effect after the next Group Policy update for the WorkSpace and after the WorkSpace session is restarted. To apply the Group Policy changes, do one of the following:

    • Reboot the WorkSpace (in the Amazon WorkSpaces console, select the WorkSpace, then choose Actions, Reboot WorkSpaces).

    • From an administrative command prompt, enter gpupdate /force.

To set the Office language settings through the registry, update the following registry settings:

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\LanguageResources\UILanguage

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\LanguageResources\HelpLanguage

For these settings, add a DWORD key value with the appropriate Office locale ID (LCID). For example, the LCID for English (US) is 1033. Because LCIDs are decimal values, you must set the Base option for the DWORD value to Decimal. For a list of the Office LCIDs, see Language identifiers and OptionState Id values in Office 2016 in the Microsoft documentation.

You can apply these registry settings to your WorkSpaces through GPO settings or a logon script.

For more information about working with the language settings for Office, see Customize language setup and settings for Office in the Microsoft documentation.

Add Office to your existing BYOL WorkSpaces

You can also add a subscription to Office to your existing BYOL WorkSpaces by doing the following.

  • Manage applications (recommended) - You can install and configure Microsoft Office, Microsoft Visual Studio 2022, Microsoft Visio, or Microsoft Project 2021 on your existing WorkSpaces. For more information, see Manage applications.

  • Migrate a WorkSpace - After you have a BYOL bundle with Office installed, you can use the WorkSpaces migration feature to migrate your existing BYOL WorkSpaces to the BYOL bundle that's subscribed to Office. For more information, see Migrate a WorkSpace in WorkSpaces Personal.

Note

The manage applications option is available for installing Microsoft Office 2021 and other applications, such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2022, Microsoft Visio 2021, and Microsoft Project 2021 to your WorkSpaces. For installing Microsoft Office 2016 or 2019 on your WorkSpaces, use Migrate a WorkSpace in WorkSpaces Personal.

Migrate between versions of Microsoft Office

To migrate from one Microsoft Office version to another, you have the following options:

  • Manage applications (recommended) – You can uninstall the original Office version and install Office 2021 and other applications, such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2022, Microsoft Visio 2021, and Microsoft Project 2021, on your existing WorkSpaces. For example, to migrate from Microsoft Office 2019 to Microsoft Office 2021, use the manage applications workflow to uninstall Microsoft Office 2019 and install Microsoft Office 2021. For more information, see Manage applications.

  • Migrate a WorkSpace – To migrate from Microsoft Office 2016 to Microsoft Office 2019 or from Microsoft Office 2019 to Microsoft Office 2016, you must create a BYOL bundle that's subscribed to the version of Office that you want to migrate to. Then, use the WorkSpaces migration feature to migrate your existing BYOL WorkSpaces that are subscribed to Office to the BYOL bundle that's subscribed to the version of Office that you want to migrate to. For example, to migrate from Microsoft Office 2016 to Microsoft Office 2019, create a BYOL bundle that's subscribed to Microsoft Office 2019. Then use the WorkSpaces migration feature to migrate your existing BYOL WorkSpaces that are subscribed to Office 2016 to the BYOL bundle that's subscribed to Office 2019. For more information, see Migrate a WorkSpace.

You can use these options to migrate your WorkSpaces that are subscribed to Microsoft Office through AWS to Microsoft 365 applications. However, manage applications is limited to uninstalling Microsoft Office from your WorkSpace. You must bring in your own tools and installers to install Microsoft 365 applications on your WorkSpaces.

Note

Using manage applications, you can install or uninstall Microsoft Office, Microsoft Visio, or MicrosoftProject 2021 on your WorkSpaces. For Microsoft Office 2016 or 2019 versions, you can only remove them from your WorkSpaces. To install Microsoft Office 2016 or 2019 on your WorkSpaces, migrate a WorkSpace.

For more information about the migration process, see Migrate a WorkSpace in WorkSpaces Personal.

Unsubscribe from Office

To unsubscribe from Office, you have the following options.

  • Manage applications (recommended) - You can uninstall Microsoft Office and other applications such as Microsoft Visio and Microsoft Project from your WorkSpaces. For more information, see Manage applications.

  • Migrate a WorkSpace - You can create a BYOL bundle that is not subscribed to Office. Then use the WorkSpaces migration feature to migrate your existing BYOL WorkSpaces to the BYOL bundle that is not subscribed to Office. For more information, see Migrate a WorkSpace in WorkSpaces Personal.

Office updates

If you have subscribed to Office through AWS, Office updates are included as part of your regular Windows updates. To stay current on all security patches and updates, we recommend that you periodically update your BYOL base images.