Microsoft Office 2019 and components not being recognised

[andystaig]

I can see file evidence for Office 2019 or any related components or sub programs, but it is not being mapped to applications, any ideas what is happening?

Thanks

T

[ChrisG]

What specific unrecognized evidence are you seeing imported? It sounds like the particular evidence you have does not have a rule in the ARL to be recognized.

You can provide unrecognized evidence exported from the web UI to Flexera through a support case to be processed for recognition rule(s) to be created, or you can set up local recognition rules yourself on your own system.

[andystaig]

As you can see, it has picked up that it is Office 16, but not recognising it

[arajakan]

Thank you for the files shared. 
We are checking in with our Content team on the current recognition rules, to verify whether this is expected or needs to be changed. I shall post an update here once I have feedback.

[andystaig]

Hi.  Any progress on this please?

Andy

[arajakan]

Hi Andy,

Content did some research on this and I shall address the different inputs shared - 
1. From the .NDI file we reviewed, we found WMI evidence and File evidence for Office 2019 and 2016 which consisted of Click-to-Run .exe files and other components that make up the software package. Since this is not an indicator of the software installation itself, we cannot use this to provide recognition for the respective applications. 

2. This is also the reason you are not seeing recognition from the installer evidence highlighted. This evidence has been marked as 'Ignored' because it represents a subcomponent  (Click-to-Run) and not the software installation itself. Hence it cannot be used for recognition.

3. From the file evidence shared, we see that most of the evidence is 'excel.exe' file paths. Since we cannot use this information to determine which application it belongs to (in the picture shared you can see it assigned to different applications), we have marked it as 'Not for Recognition' in order to remove any false positive issues in the ARL. 

For us to map the applications accurately we require Installer Evidence information that we can use to validate the software. An example of evidence with good format is below - 

If you would still like to see this evidence picked up and used for recognition, as a workaround for this issue you can manually change 'Ignore = No' for the installer evidence and map it to the respective application to enable recognition locally in your environment.
This would be retained on your device until you have sufficient installer evidence you can use to map the application. 

[andystaig]

Hi

Click-to-Run is the technology used to install Microsoft 365 subscription and most versions of Office 2013 and newer. Windows Installer technology (MSI) was used to install the volume license editions of older versions of Office 2016 and older, such as Microsoft Office Professional Plus and Microsoft Office Standard.

Do I therefore understand that Flexera does not support / recognise the Click-toRun installation methodology used by Microsoft?

I found the following which might be relevant

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/office-installed-with-click-to-run-and-windows-installer-on-same-computer-isn-t-supported-30775ef4-fa77-4f47-98fb-c5826a6926cd

e does Flexera support identifying click to run installations?

https://office365itpros.com/2018/10/15/office-clicktorun-registry/

[ChrisG]

I'm not that familiar with the nuances of click-to-run software, or what files/registry entries it puts on computers that inventory gathering tools such as SCCM, the FlexNet inventory agent, and others would pick up in a way that can be imported by FlexNet Manager Suite. But if it doesn't record installations in the Add/Remove Programs (Uninstall) area of the registry then I imagine most inventory gathering tools would not pick up details about it.

The following idea references click-to-run software, so please vote for it if you are keen to be able to manage this type of software:

FNMS-I-401 Enable FlexNet Inventory Agent ability to capture the usage for some Cloud subscription application (Visio, Project, Adobe Acrobat DC Pro)

[andystaig]

Hi

Thanks.  I think this is broader then  FNMS-I-401, so have submitted a new idea FNMS-I-417.

If Microsoft are using Click-to-run and not providing MSI information, then this is fundamental to the way that Flexera primarily collects installation data.

Andy

[andystaig]

Many thanks.  I attached the ndi file earlier.  

This is impacting our whole estate and is not an isolated incident.  We are seeing no 2016 or 2019 (either office or sub-products)

Andy