Detections
Analytics

5.2.1 Set 'Automatically receive small updates to improve reliability' to 'Disabled'

Information

This policy setting controls whether Microsoft Office Diagnostics is enabled. Office
Diagnostics enables Microsoft to diagnose system problems by periodically downloading a
small file to the computer. If you enable this policy setting, Office Diagnostics collects
information about specific errors and the IP address of the computer. Office Diagnostics
does not transmit any personally identifiable information to Microsoft other than the IP
address of the computer requesting the update. If you disable this policy setting, users will
not receive updates from Office Diagnostics. If you do not configure this policy setting, this
policy setting is not enabled, but users have the opportunity to opt into receiving updates
from Office Diagnostics the first time they run an Office 2010 application. The
recommended state for this setting is- Disabled.

*Rationale*

Office Diagnostics is used to improve the user experience by periodically downloading a
small file to the computer with updated help information about specific problems. If Office
Diagnostics is enabled, it collects information about specific errors and the IP address of
the computer. When new help information is available, that help information is
downloaded to the computer that experienced the related problems. Office Diagnostics
does not transmit any personally identifiable information to Microsoft other than the IP
address of the computer requesting the update. By default, users have the opportunity to
opt into receiving updates from Office Diagnostics the first time they run a Office 2010
application. If your organization has policies that govern the use of external resources such
as Office Diagnostics, allowing users to opt in to this feature might cause them to violate
these policies.

Solution

To implement the recommended configuration state, set the following Group Policy setting
to Disabled.

User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2010\Privacy\Trust
Center\Automatically receive small updates to improve reliability

Impact-Disabling this setting will prevent users from receiving information and advice from
Microsoft about fixing and preventing Office 2010 application errors, which could cause
your support department to experience an increase in desktop support requests.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/530

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6b.

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: 1ec2fed37612f03b010d4f8f04506d1e4b506799d2911f6e1ac0e4a0268c5728