Determine the Office Update Channel

Another critical element to determine to be able to provide support to an end-user is their Office Update Channel as it dictates what updates, build no., are available to them. So this is required to know if their installation is up-to-date, or not.

I came across a webpage that indicated the fact that each Update Channel used a different URL. With this information in hand, I figure we could build a function to cross-reference the PC’s URL against the list to determine the current update channel.

Below is what I came up with.

'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Procedure : PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel
' Author    : Daniel Pineault, CARDA Consultants Inc.
' Website   : http://www.cardaconsultants.com
' Purpose   : Determine the Office Update Channel
' Copyright : The following is release as Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
'             (CC BY-SA 4.0) - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
' Req'd Refs: None required
' References:
' https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/configmgr/sum/deploy-use/manage-office-365-proplus-updates#bkmk_channel
' https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/office-365-blog/how-to-manage-office-365-proplus-channels-for-it-pros/ba-p/795813

' Usage:
' ~~~~~~
' PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel("")
'   Returns -> Current ("Monthly")
'
' Revision History:
' Rev       Date(yyyy-mm-dd)        Description
' **************************************************************************************
' 1         2021-10-28              Initial Release
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public Function PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel() As String
    On Error GoTo Error_Handler
    Dim sCmd                  As String
    Dim sOfficeUpdateCDN      As String

    sCmd = "try{" & vbCrLf & _
           "$UpdateCDN = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenBaseKey([Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::LocalMachine, [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryView]::Registry64).OpenSubKey('SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration').GetValue('CDNBaseUrl')" & vbCrLf & _
           "}catch{" & vbCrLf & _
           "$UpdateCDN = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenBaseKey([Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::LocalMachine, [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryView]::Registry32).OpenSubKey('SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration').GetValue('CDNBaseUrl')" & vbCrLf & _
           "}" & vbCrLf & _
           "$UpdateCDN = $UpdateCDN -Split '/'|Select -Last 1" & vbCrLf & _
           "$UpdateCDN"
    sOfficeUpdateCDN = PS_GetOutput(sCmd)
    sOfficeUpdateCDN = Replace(sOfficeUpdateCDN, vbNewLine, "")    'Remove extra line feed

    Select Case LCase(sOfficeUpdateCDN)
        Case LCase("492350f6-3a01-4f97-b9c0-c7c6ddf67d60")
            PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel = "Current Channel"
        Case LCase("64256afe-f5d9-4f86-8936-8840a6a4f5be")
            PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel = "Current Channel (Preview)"
        Case LCase("7ffbc6bf-bc32-4f92-8982-f9dd17fd3114")
            PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel = "Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel"
        Case LCase("b8f9b850-328d-4355-9145-c59439a0c4cf")
            PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel = "Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview)"
        Case LCase("55336b82-a18d-4dd6-b5f6-9e5095c314a6")
            PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel = "Monthly Enterprise"
        Case LCase("5440fd1f-7ecb-4221-8110-145efaa6372f")
            PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel = "Beta"
        Case LCase("f2e724c1-748f-4b47-8fb8-8e0d210e9208")
            PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel = "LTSC"
        Case LCase("2e148de9-61c8-4051-b103-4af54baffbb4")
            PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel = "LTSC Preview"
        Case Else
            PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel = "Non CTR version / No Update Channel selected."
    End Select

Error_Handler_Exit:
    On Error Resume Next
    Exit Function

Error_Handler:
    MsgBox "The following error has occured" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
           "Error Number: " & Err.Number & vbCrLf & _
           "Error Source: PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel" & vbCrLf & _
           "Error Description: " & Err.Description & _
           Switch(Erl = 0, "", Erl <> 0, vbCrLf & "Line No: " & Erl) _
           , vbOKOnly + vbCritical, "An Error has Occured!"
    Resume Error_Handler_Exit
End Function

Then, you can use this function by doing something like:

Dim sOfficeUpdateChannel as String

sOfficeUpdateChannel= PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel

or

MsgBox PS_GetOfficeUpdateChannel, vbInformation or vbOKOnly, "Office Update Channel"

Do note that I have only tested this in a very limited manner, but it did appear to work properly.

A Few Resources on the Subject

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