Setting the shared templates location by Deploying Office 365 Midsized Business "using a network share" from a on-premise location

Question

I found the question "Deploy Office 365 pro plus using a network share or from a on-premise locaiton" the most useful of the resources
on MS yet - but I am having difficulties getting the files to download for a local deployment.
The root of the issue, that I cannot find anywhere, is how do I set the shared templates location for users in the organization.  First I thought a GPO, but I cannot find that setting in the GPO in MS.
Then I thought modifying the REG- but it is in a binary key which could include other information I may not want modified(Or does it matter?)
Then I looked for ways to download the deployment but launching from an elevated prompt as IT (Domain level) returns a useless error to paraphrase- 'sorry MSOffice didn't install- do you have enough disk space'.
I have downloaded the GPO objects, but not installed them, likely I will need those later though.
Just want to path all the users to a central repository of office/excel/access/outlook templates in addition to their local templates. Concise help in steps or sites that have solved the issue are Greatly appreciated : )

Answer 1

Hi,
you can use the GPO ADMX templates to configure the "Workgroup templates path".
This actually configures a registry setting named: "sharedtemplates".
The registry value/type/data is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\15.0\common\general
Name: sharedtemplates
Type: REG_EXPAND_SZ (Expandable String Value)
Data: <UNC path to folder>
From the GPO reference workbook/sheet, for Office:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4976.selected-content-relating-to-group-policy-administrative-templates-adm-and-admx.aspx
Filename: office15.admx 
Scope: User 
Path: Microsoft Office 2013\Shared paths 
Policy Setting Name: Workgroup templates path 
Supported on: At least Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 
Category: Shared paths 
Explain Text: Specifies the location of workgroup templates. 
Registry Key: HKCU\software\policies\microsoft\office\15.0\common\general!sharedtemplates
Note: it is supported to populate this setting, with a UNC path, but not with a web path.
e.g.: \\server01\shared\templates <this is valid>
e.g.: http://server01/shared/templates <this is not valid>
This constraint (for web URIs) can be difficult to work around. If you are using SharePoint, and think WebDAV might work, it doesn't seem to work for us :(
Of course, if you have SharePoint, there are much better ways to handle document templates, but, our users are familiar with this File -> New -> from template type of method...
It can also be set manually by a user:
Don
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