CAUTION: Microsoft does not provide a programmatic way to sign out of MS office desktop apps.  This article uses an unsupported script to sign out of MS Office desktop apps.  Is is not supported by Microsoft or UC Workspace/Quicklaunch.  Please verify it works in your test environments.  If you choose to use it in your production environments realize that it will be a security risk if it fails.  Make sure to evaluate your production environments often to ensure that the script is working properly.


Ever since Microsoft implemented Modern Authentication, it is no longer possible to reliably sign out of MS Office desktop apps.  We have been working closely with Microsoft to supply us the capability to perform signout of office desktop apps, however, it is not a priority for Microsoft and they are unlikely to provide us with a supported solution any time soon.


In the mean time we have worked with a few customers and have created a Powershell script that will sign out all used from MS Office desktop apps, with the following conditions:


  • Sign out only Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Access, Publisher and Outlook desktop apps
  • App must be version 16.0.7967 or greater
  • Only for Windows version 1703 or greater
  • Does not sign out or delete "Consumer Account" credentials
  • Recently used files may still appear in the Windows Start Menu - but may not be on the computer
  • Does work for the Office Hub App
  • Does not immediately sign the user out of Skype
  • It is not recommended to have Outlook running of the conference room computer as the user's mailbox and address book will be cached on the computer


Before deploying this script, make sure to: 

  1. Remove any cached credentials are deleted from the conference computer.
  2. Disable caching of Work or School Accounts (see Do Not Cache Work or School Accounts)


The MS Office signout script can be downloaded from here: Signout MS Office 16 Script



If you decide to keep the script in the Quicklaunch's folder in C:\ProgramData\UC Workspace - use the following argument: 

"&'%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\UC Workspace\SignoutOffice.ps1'" 


To signout MS Teams, please see this FAQ: Signout MS Teams