Keeping the PC updated is an important task. But, some notifications gets in the way of important tasks. One of the those is the Microsoft 365 update messages. The frequency of update messages could get annoying while working on certain tasks. Here’s a way to stop those continuous updates from keep pushing out pop ups - - Group Policy setting.
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To do this, users will first have to install Microsoft Office administrative templates. They will need to download the version of the template that matches the version of Office they are customising. For example, on customising the 64-bit version of Office, they will need to download the 64-bit templates, online IT support firm Techgenix explained.
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Once template files are downloaded and extracted, they have to be moved to a location where they can be used. If they are installing the administrative template files on a domain controller, they will need to place the files in the Central Store.
To create the Central Store, one has to open File Explorer and navigate to “%SystemRoot%\sysvol \domain\policies”. Users will need to type this location into the window’s address bar to access it. After arriving in the Policies folder, they will need to create a subfolder called PolicyDefinitions. Inside this subfolder, administrative templates and localisation files need to be downloaded and extracted.
Once the required templates are installed, users can implement Group Policy settings where they can disable Microsoft 365 update messages. They can do this by opening Server Manager on their domain controller and selecting the Group Policy Management option from the Tools menu if they are using the default Active Directory and Group Policy structure.
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When the Group Policy Management console opens, users will need to navigate through the console tree to Group Policy Management | <your forest> | Domains | <your domain> | Group Policy Objects. Then they need to right-click on the Default Domain Policy and choose the Edit command from the shortcut menu.
After the Group Policy Management Editor opens, one needs to navigate through the console tree to Computer Configuration \ Policies \ Administrative Templates | Microsoft Office 2016 (Machine) \ Updates.
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Users will need to enable the Hide Update Notifications setting to stop displaying the messages asking to install Microsoft Office updates.
However, a change to a Group Policy setting is not effective right away and is implemented from the next time that the user logs in.
To force a Group Policy setting go into effect immediately, users will need to open a command prompt window on the target system and enter the command, GPUpdate /Force.