Cloud Policy service for Microsoft 365 lets you enforce policy settings for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise on a user's device, even if the device isn't domain joined or otherwise managed. When a user signs into Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise on a device, the policy settings roam to that device. Policy settings are available for devices running Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, although not all policy settings are available for all operating systems. You can also enforce some policy settings for Office for the web and Loop, both for guests who are signed in and for users who access documents anonymously.
Requirements Supported built-in admin rolesYou can use the following built-in Microsoft Entra roles for accessing and managing the feature:
Important
Microsoft recommends that you use roles with the fewest permissions. This helps improve security for your organization. Global Administrator is a highly privileged role that should be limited to emergency scenarios when you can't use an existing role.
Role Description Office Apps Administrator (Recommended) This role can manage Office apps cloud services, including policy and settings management, and manage the ability to select, unselect, and publish 'what's new' feature content to end-user's devices. Security Administrator This role can read security information and reports and manage configuration in Microsoft Entra ID and Office 365. Global Administrator This role can manage all aspects of Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft services that use Microsoft Entra identities.Note
Global Reader is another built-in role supported by the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center, but it does not support some features like cloud update or the Modern App Settings page.
Licensing requirementsCloud Policy supports most Microsoft 365 subscription plans that include Microsoft 365 Apps. Check your licensing documentation for specific requirements.
Important
The following plans are not supported:
Note
You can manage Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows with the following version requirements:
Note
For government customers (GCC, GCC High, and DoD), the minimum supported Office client version for policies to be delivered to Microsoft 365 Apps running on Windows is Version 2402 or later.
Network requirementsDevices running Microsoft 365 Apps require access to the following endpoints:
Environment Microsoft service URLs required on allowlist Commercial and GCC Microsoft 365 Apps admin center*.office.com
*.office.net
*.config.office.com
*.config.office.net
*.office365.us
*.apps.mil
*.office365.us
Source: Microsoft 365 URLs and IP address ranges
Microsoft Entra groups requirementsCloud Policy Service supports the use of Microsoft Entra groups with the following requirements:
To create or edit policy configurations you must sign into the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center. If you're using the admin center for the first time, review the terms. Then, select Accept.
To change a policy configuration:
If you want to create a new policy configuration that is similar to an existing policy configuration, select the existing policy configuration on the Policy configurations page, and then select Copy. Make the appropriate changes and then select Create.
To see which policies are configured when you're editing a policy configuration, navigate to the Policies section and filter by the Status column or select the Configured slicer at the top of the policy table. You can also filter by application and platform.
To change the priority order for the policy configurations, select Reorder priority on the Policy configurations page.
If you want to export a policy configuration, select the existing policy configuration on the Policy configurations page, and then select Export. This action generates a CSV file for download.
How the policy configuration is appliedThe Click-to-Run service used by Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise checks in with the Cloud Policy service regularly to see if there are any policies that pertain to the signed in user. If there are, then the appropriate policies are applied and take effect the next time the user opens an Office app, such as Word or Excel.
Note
Policies from Cloud Policy are applied only when the Office app is restarted. The behavior is the same as with Group Policy. For Windows devices, policies are enforced based on the primary user that is signed into Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. If there are multiple accounts signed in, only policies for the primary account are applied. If the primary account is switched, most of the policies assigned to that account will not apply until the Office apps are restarted. Some policies related to privacy controls will apply without restarting any Office apps.
If users are located in nested groups and the parent group is targeted for policies, the users in the nested groups will receive the policies. The nested groups and the users in those nested groups must be created in or synchronized to Microsoft Entra ID.
The check-in interval is controlled by the Cloud Policy service and communicated to Click-to-Run during each check-in call.
If the user is a member of multiple Microsoft Entra groups with conflicting policy settings, priority is used to determine which policy setting is applied. The highest priority is applied, with "0" being the highest priority that you can assign. You can set the priority by choosing Reorder priority on the Policy configurations page.
Also, policy settings implemented by using Cloud Policy take precedence over policy settings implemented by using Group Policy on Windows Server, and taking precedence over preference settings or locally applied policy settings.
BaselinesAt Microsoft, we strive to innovate and reduce the IT admins burden with the creation of modern management tools. With that said, the baselines in Cloud Policy are another way you can save time while deploying policy for your organization. The security and accessibility baselines offer a unique filter on the Group Policy needed to protect your organization and empower your end users to create accessible content.
Security baselineTo easily identify security baseline policies, a new column called Recommendation was added to the policy table. Policies recommended for security baseline are triggered in this column.â¯You can also use the column filter to limit the view to only policies that are tagged as security baseline.
For more information, see Security baseline for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise.
Accessibility baselineMost of our customers are making strides to become more accessible as an organization. The accessibility baseline enables IT Pros to configure accessibility policies to empower their end users to create accessible content and limit the ability to remove accessibility checker settings from being disabled.
Microsoft Purview supportCloud Policy service supports the Microsoft Purview auditing solutions. When auditing is enabled, events such as the creation, deletion, modification of policy configurations, changes to configured policy settings, and adjustments to priority order are tracked. You can use the portal or PowerShell to search the audit log for such changes. For more information on captured operations and data format, refer to the activity documentation and schema reference.
Additional information about Cloud PolicyIf the expected policies aren't correctly applied to a user's device, try the following actions:
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