Toconfigure and perform deployments of Office LTSC 2021, including Project and Visio, for users in your organization, you use the Office Deployment Tool (ODT). The Office Customization Tool (OCT) that you previously used for Windows Installer (MSI) is no longer used.
The installation files for Office LTSC 2021 are available on the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN) on the internet instead of on the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). You can install Office LTSC 2021 directly from the Office CDN. Or, you can download the installation files from the Office CDN to a location on your local network, such as a shared folder, and install Office LTSC 2021 from that location. You can use different methods for different sets of devices in your organization. Whichever method you choose, you use the ODT.
Installing directly from the Office CDN requires the least amount of administrative effort and is recommended. But you might have constraints that prevent you from installing directly from the internet. For example, some devices might not have connectivity to the internet or you might have limited bandwidth to the internet.
After you download the Office Deployment Tool, double-click on the officedeploymenttool executable (.exe) file to extract the ODT files. When you're finished, you should have several files: setup.exe and some sample configuration.xml files. For an Office LTSC 2021-specific sample, see Sample configuration.xml file to use with the Office Deployment Tool.
The setup.exe file is the ODT and is a command-line tool that supports downloading and installing Office LTSC 2021. The configuration.xml files are sample files to get you started. You use the configuration.xml file to provide settings for the ODT to use when downloading or installing Office LTSC 2021. The configuration.xml is a simple xml file that can be created and edited in any text editor, such as Notepad. You can name the file anything that you want, as long as it retains the xml file extension.
Once you have a copy of the ODT, you need to create a configuration.xml file. You can create multiple configuration.xml files to be used with the ODT. For example, you can create a configuration.xml file to download and install the 64-bit version of Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021 in English. Then, you can create a different configuration.xml file to install the 32-bit version of Visio LTSC Professional 2021 in French. When you run the ODT from an elevated command prompt, you specify which configuration.xml file to use.
There are a series of settings in the configuration.xml file that you configure to customize the Office LTSC 2021 download or installation. The following table lists the most common settings to configure in the configuration.xml file.
We recommend that you uninstall any previous versions of Office before installing Office LTSC 2021. To help you uninstall versions of Office that use Windows Installer (MSI) as the installation technology, you can use the ODT and specify the RemoveMSI element in your configuration.xml file.
For more information about using RemoveMSI, see Remove existing MSI versions of Office when upgrading to Microsoft 365 Apps. Even though that article is about Microsoft 365 Apps, most of the information also applies to Office LTSC 2021.
To uninstall 2019 versions of Office, Visio, or Project from the device, use the Remove element. You use the Remove element because 2019 versions of Office, Visio, and Project are installed by using Click-to-Run, not Windows Installer (MSI).
Once you have a copy of the ODT and have created your configuration.xml file, you can download the Office LTSC 2021 installation files to your local network. To do that, open an elevated command prompt, go to the folder where you saved the ODT and the configuration.xml file, and type this command:
Once you have a copy of the ODT and have created your configuration.xml file (and downloaded the Office LTSC 2021 installation files to your local network, if necessary), you can install Office LTSC 2021. To do that, open an elevated command prompt, go to the folder where you saved the ODT and the configuration.xml file, and type the following command:
You can also use Microsoft Configuration Manager (current branch) to deploy Office LTSC 2021. The Office 365 Client Installation wizard steps you through the process and builds the configuration.xml file for you. There's an entry for Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021 in the wizard. On that same page, you can also select to deploy Project and Visio. To get to the wizard, in the Configuration Manager console, navigate to Software Library > Overview > Office 365 Client Management.
Office LTSC 2021 no longer includes the Teams client app. However, if the Teams client app was previously installed with Office LTSC 2021, it will continue to be automatically updated approximately every two weeks with new features and quality updates. The update process for Teams is different from the update process for other Office apps, such as Word and Excel. For more information, see Teams update process.
To help with issues you might encounter when installing Microsoft 365 because of slow speeds or unreliable connections, as a first step download the Support and Recovery Assistant tool. (For information about this tool, go here.)
If the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant didn't help, follow the steps below that are specific to your plan. You need to be connected to the internet to download this installer file, but once that's done, you can then install Microsoft 365 offline on a PC at your convenience.
If your Microsoft 365 product is one of the following, you have a Microsoft 365 for home product. This can be a subscription, or a one-time purchase of Microsoft 365 Office, or individual Microsoft 365 application. These products are usually associated with a personal Microsoft account.
If your Microsoft 365 product is one of the following, you have a Microsoft 365 for business product. These products are usually associated with a work or school account, and your Microsoft 365 license (if your subscription has one) came from the organization where you work or go to school.
To download the offline installer, go to
www.office.com. If you're not already signed in with the Microsoft account associated with your copy of Microsoft 365 or Microsoft 365 do that now. If you're signed in with a different account, sign out of that and then sign in again with the correct Microsoft account.
Once the download is complete, open File Explorer and locate a new virtual drive, for example (D:). This drive contains the Microsoft 365 installation files. If you don't see the new drive, locate the image file you downloaded and double-click it. The new drive should appear in your directory.
Select the Microsoft 365 folder from the virtual drive and then double-click either the Setup32.exe to install the 32-bit version of Microsoft 365, or Setup64.exe to install the 64-bit version to begin the offline installation. If you're not sure which version is right for you, see Choose the 64-bit or 32-bit version of Office.
If you have a Microsoft 365 for business product you can use the Microsoft 365 Deployment Tool (ODT) to download and install Microsoft 365 or Microsoft 365 offline. The tool is designed for enterprise environments and runs from the command line, so the steps are more complicated--but they'll still work for installation on a single device.
You must have a Microsoft 365 or Microsoft 365 license assigned to you to install and activate the Microsoft 365 apps. To check if you have one, see What Microsoft 365 business product or license do I have?
If you have a Microsoft 365 Apps for business or Microsoft 365 Business Standard plan, you need to download the Microsoft 365 Apps for business version. For all other plans, download the Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise version. See the following if you're not sure which version to install:
It can take a while to finish downloading and it may look like nothing is happening while the files are downloading. You'll know the installation is complete once the dialog box closes on its own, and a new folder called Office appears in the ODT folder you created earlier.
Were these steps helpful? If so, please let us know at the bottom of this topic. If they weren't, and you're still having trouble installing Office, tell us what you were trying to do and where you had difficulties. We'll use your feedback to double-check our steps and provide additional information.
3a8082e126