By . Published on October 20, 2017
The Adobe Serializer will update the license file for any of the Adobe Applications installed on your Mac.
We are a VAR and a MSP and wanted to know if someone can help us source a VL Serializer from the VLSC to help us activate a Microsoft Office 2019 Home and Business license for MAC. We have a client that added the license to their office account, but the license doesn't show up. I downloaded that whole Mac Install Pkg. Serializer is NOT there. The only other download is for individual pig's for Word, Excel, etc. There is no d/l for any serializer.pkg. Same MESS.just a few min later is all. Now we will try to activate Mac Office 2019 using Mac Serializer. Open Word 2019 to make sure it is activated. Now we will perform the update for Mac Office 2019.
To run the Adobe Serializer on your Mac:
- Access the Applications Folder on your Mac computer
- Look for Self Service in your list of Applications
- Launch the Self Service App
- Login by using your Bates username and password
- From the Featured Category window, you will see the Adobe Serializer installer
- Click on the RUN button*
- The install should take less than 60 seconds to complete
*Once you click the RUN button, the Adobe Serializer will perform a silent install (you will not see or receive any prompts). You can see the progress of the installation by viewing the status bar located at the top of the Self Service window, below the words 'Self Service.'
Feedback?
Soon Microsoft are to release an update to the Office 2016 Volume License installer on VLSC.
This update is 15.17 & is the first that has a few changes that may affect the way you deploy Office 2016.
These changes are going to be later enforced in 15.20 & onwards. Below are some details on the changes, some of the why & how via the power of the MacAdmins.org Slack & the awesome @pbowden that some of us have had a sneak peek.
Contents
- 1 What’s Changing?
When you download the .iso from VLSC you’ll notice two packages within it:
The change is the new second pkg: “Microsoft_Office_2016_VL_Serializer.pkg”
What’s that about?
Well, for a while now it’s been fairly common practice to deploy the Office license to Macs outside of the Office installers or updates.
This came about as on occasion an Office Update or Installer would delete the file.
However, whilst the deletion itself was a bug, the ability to use the license.plist across Macs was also a bug.
What is it & should I use it?
With Office 2016, Microsoft are moving to a device based serialisation method. Which means that deploying the plist /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.licensingv2.plist will no longer work.
This device based serialisation is based around the generating a license on the Mac that is to be running Office 2016.
So if you employ monolithic imaging or deploy Office 2016 via a Composer snap shot etc, the serialisation will not work. (Please don’t deploy Office 2016 via a Composer snap shot, use the pkg).
Also, if you install Office 2016 whilst booted to another volume (as in when installing via a NetBoot or NetInstall volume or something like Target Mode Imaging), again the serialisation will not work.
To install Office 2016 from another volume & have the serialisation work, cache it locally on the Mac being imaged & install on first boot or if using Casper Imaging check “Install on boot drive after Imaging” for the PKG from within Casper Admin.
However, to enable Office 2016 to be correctly licensed in the multitude of deployment scenarios that we mac admins employ, @pbowden & his team have created the “Microsoft_Office_2016_VL_Serializer.pkg”
Running this will correctly serialise the Office 2016 suite, & should be run from the Mac that’s running the suite. So again, can be added post imaging & then the suite will be correctly serialised.
To be clear, this will only affect you if using the Volume Licensed version of Office 2016 & not the Office365 version.
What happens if I carry on copying the licensing.plist?
For now, not much.
15.17 is the first release with the “Microsoft_Office_2016_VL_Serializer.pkg”, from 15.20 (scheduled for Q1 2016) you will have to use the correct license.
How did people find this out?
Microsoft Office 2019 Vl Serializer
Well a little over a month ago a gentleman with the nick @pbowden hopped into the #microsoft-office channel on the MacAdmins.org Slack, this was awesome as @pbowden is a: Software engineer for Office for Mac/iOS at Microsoft, a fellow Brit & nice guy.
It’s been a great few weeks with the community sharing feedback with @pbowden & some of us being able to test pre-release installers for Office.
Office For Mac Free Download
I hope this warning has been as helpful to you, as it was when @pbowden shared it with us.