Office 365 Custom Fix Relevant but not Applicable

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1

I’m probably missing something here but some direction would be greatly appreciated. I’m dealing with an instance where we have multiple computers on a monthly path and we’re trying to get all the computers on the semi-annual path.

Microsoft uses different Version numbers for it’s three different update paths; those being Monthly, Semi-Annual and Semi-Annual (Targeted). What this means is that each version number for the three paths is going to be different from one another. Unfortunately, Microsoft has made it so that the Monthly channel version number is always higher than the Semi-Annual Channel number.

Here’s an example between the Monthly and Semi-Annual channel numbers for the month of June 2019:
Monthly Channel Semi-Annual Channel
Version 1905 (Build 11629.20246) Version 1808 (Build 10730.20348)

This is a problem because the relevance checks to see if the version number for Microsoft Office is less than the current Semi-Annual version update number. However, this causes an issue for computers that were previously set to a Monthly update path as the version numbers will almost always be higher than what the Semi-Annual Channel fixlet is looking for. This is going to cause out of date Monthly cycle computers to report back as Not Relevant for the recent Semi-Annual Office 365 fixlets that are being published and not be applicable for Office 365 updates.

Here is part of the relevance for the Office 365 fixlet that checks for the version number:
exists value “DisplayVersion” whose ((it =“16.0” and it < “16.0.10730.20348”)

So by that logic would it be possible to create a fixlet that checks for versions > “16.0.10730.20348”?

I created a custom fixlet for this issue but it doesn’t appear to be applicable for any computers despite being relevant for all the available relevance checks. When run the computer simply reports in the console.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I’ve been banging my head trying to get this to work.

2

I’m confused. It sounds like all you want to do is change Update Channel, which has nothing to do with the current version of Office. The Channel determines how quickly newer versions are applied (and yes, sometimes there is overlap).

If you haven’t already, you’ll certainly want to activate the Analyses:
Application Information for Office 365 - Office 2016

Whose Property, Office 365 - Office 2016 Update Channel, will show you which channel Office is using on that endpoint.

Next, you would use the “Set the Office 365 - Office 2016 Update Channel to XXX” Tasks to whichever channel you want.

3

So the issue I’m having is after moving a computer which was previously on the Monthly Channel to the Semi-Annual Channel, the fixlet which triggers the semi-annual 365 update reports back as not-relevant for systems which were previously on the Monthly Path.

Essentially if I have a version of 365 that updated on May 22nd through the Monthly Channel with a Version number of 11601.20230 the relevance for the 365 patch views it as not relevant despite 10730.20348 being a more recent version.

Since 11601.20230 > 10730.20348 the relevance check for the semi-annual 365 patch views the computer as incorrectly up to date.