Recently had to deploy Office 365 Desktop Apps on a terminal server which did not work with the standard download from the web portal due to licensing issues. Only customers with Office 365 E3 licenses or greater are able to use the deployable version of the Office 365 Desktop Apps in a terminal server environment. Here are the steps needed to deploy the apps:

Deploy Office 365 Desktop Apps on Terminal Server

• Download the Office Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run here.
• Run and extract the tool to a folder on your Terminal Server.

  

1. Edit and configure the configuration XML file as follows including the \\[SERVER]\[SHARE]\ path:

   <Configuration>
   <Add SourcePath=”\\[SERVER]\[SHARE]\” OfficeClientEdition=”32″>
   <Product ID=”O365ProPlusRetail”>
   <Language ID=”en-us” />
   </Product>
   </Add>
   <Display Level=”None” AcceptEULA=”True” />
   <Property Name=”SharedComputerLicensing” Value=”1″ />
   </Configuration>

2. Please visit this TechNet article for more details on the configuration file settings, like excluding apps from deployment.
3. From an elevated Command Prompt, navigate to the folder extracted files are located in, and run the following to download the installation files:

   Setup.exe /download configuration.xml

   The Office365 ProPlus installation files will be downloaded to the specified share with the following structure.

   

4. From an elevated Command Prompt, run following to install Office Click-to-Run:

   Setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

   When the installation is complete, the Office 2016 suite will be available for use.

5. On starting the application, you will be prompted to Activate Office. Click Next and Sign in.

   

6. Once signed in, you are ready to go. Office will automatically activate and configure the applications. This is supposed to work similarly with deployment via Group Policy. If your company is using a terminal server for your remote access and need help to deploy Office 365 Desktop Apps, then contact us for assistance.