Office 2021 Setup.exe Switches

[Magdalena Liendo]

Whenyou launch a Microsoft Office product, the startup process runs in a standard way. Microsoft Word, for example, displays the Word splash screen and loads the Normal template. But suppose you want Word to start without its splash screen and then load a template other than the Normal template. Or, you want to customize the process even more by loading an add-in or running a macro upon startup. You can add options like this by using subcommands called command-line switches to an Office app's startup command.

If you want to use the customization just one time, you can type the command and switch in the Run dialog box (Start menu) in Microsoft Windows. If you want to use a particular switch many times or every time that you start the app, you can create a desktop shortcut that starts the program by using the same switch and parameters. This article describes how to do both. It also includes a table that lists all of the switches and parameters that are available in the desktop Office apps.

Using a command-line switch doesn't mean you have to type the whole startup command at the command prompt. You can start the Office app as usual, by clicking the program icon on the desktop, or by clicking the program name on the Start menu. All startup methods essentially do the same thing: they run the app's .exe file, even if you don't actually type the command or even see it.

In this example, a command-line switch has been added to the .exe file for Microsoft Outlook. The switch consists of a forward slash and a word or abbreviation that indicates the switch's action. This switch tells Outlook to launch without showing the Reading Pane.

A switch is sometimes followed by one or more specific instructions called parameters, which give the program further information about how to run the .exe command. For example, the following command tells Outlook to load a specific profile name upon startup.

When you use one of the Office startup commands, you must supply the full path to the product's .exe file. Verify the location of this file on your computer. This table shows the locations of the .exe files if you accepted the default folder locations during installation.

In the Run dialog box, type a quotation mark, enter the full path for the app's .exe file, and then type another quotation mark. Alternatively, click Browse to locate and select the file. In this case, the quotation marks are supplied automatically.

Following the closing quotation mark, type a space, and then type the switch and any parameters. If the parameter is a path to a location on your computer, and the path contains a space, it also must be enclosed in quotation marks. For example:

Starts Word and opens a read-only copy of a document that is stored on a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services site. The site must be on a computer that is running Word 2007 or later or Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 or later.

Because macros can contain viruses, be careful about running them. Take the following precautions: run up-to-date antivirus software on your computer; set your macro security level to high; clear the Trust all installed add-ins and templates check box; use digital signatures; maintain a list of trusted publishers.

When you use the /P switch, PowerPoint displays the Print dialog box before printing. After you choose options and click OK, the dialog box closes, and PowerPoint prints the file and then closes. If you don't want to see PowerPoint at all, use the /PT (Print To) switch instead.

PrinterName is the name of the printer that appears in the Name box under Printer in the Print dialog box. The empty quotation marks are necessary; the quotation marks around PrinterName and the path to the PPTX file are needed only if there are spaces in either of the names, but it is always a good idea to use them.

Restores PowerPoint to the way it was before the program closed abnormally. When PowerPoint restarts, it will attempt to recover and restore some aspects of the state of the program and presentations before it closed.

Deletes the Conversations Actions Table (CAT). CAT entries for a conversation thread usually expire 30 days after no activity. The command-line switch clears all conversation tagging, ignore, and moving rules immediately stopping any additional actions. (Outlook 2013, 2016 only)

All previous roamed preferences are deleted and copied again from the local settings on the computer where this switch is used. This includes the roaming settings for reminders, free/busy grid, working hours, calendar publishing, and RSS rules.

Important If you have multiple or additional mailboxes in your Outlook profile, running the /cleanrules command line switch deletes the rules from all connected mailboxes. Therefore, it is recommended that you only run this command when your Outlook profile only contains the one, target mailbox.

Removes all RSS, Internet Calendar, and SharePoint subscriptions from Account Settings, but leaves all the previously downloaded content on your computer. This is useful if you cannot delete one of these subscriptions within Outlook 2013.

Overrides the programmatic lockout that determines which of your computers (when you run Outlook at the same time) processes meeting items. The lockout process helps prevent duplicate reminder messages. This switch clears the lockout on the computer it is used. This enables Outlook to process meeting items.

For example, if you first connect to your mailbox in Outlook by using a Russian user interface, the Russian default folder names cannot be renamed. To change the default folder names to another language, such as Japanese or English, you can use this switch to reset the default folder names after you change the user interface language or install a different language version of Outlook.

Starts Outlook and opens the specified folder in a new window. For example, to open Outlook and display the default calendar, use: "c:\program files\microsoft office\office15\outlook.exe" /select outlook:calendar.

Starts Access by using the options in the specified user profile instead of the standard Windows Registry settings created when you installed Access. This replaces the /ini switch used in versions of Access prior to Access 95 to specify an initialization file.

Compacts and repairs the Access database, or compacts the Access project that was specified before the /compact switch, and then closes Access. If you omit a target file name following the /compact switch, the file is compacted to the original name and folder. To compact to a different name, specify a target file. If you include a path that contains spaces, enclose the path in quotation marks.

If you specify a file name in the target database or target Access project parameter but you don't include a path, the target file is created in the default database folder that is specified in Access. You can change this setting in the Access Options dialog box.

Macros can contain viruses, so you must be careful about running them. Take the following precautions: run up-to-date antivirus software on your computer; use the Trust Center to disable all macros except those that are digitally signed; maintain a list of trusted sources of macros.

Specifies that what follows on the command line is the value that will be returned by the Command function. This option must be the last switch on the command line. You can use a semicolon (;) as an alternative to /cmd.

Back in 2016, I bought myself a copy of Microsoft Office 2016 Pro Plus. I didn't really need it, andthe actual installer sat on a proverbial shelf for about three years, collecting digital dust. Then, Idid have a need, a need for office, and I ran the installer. I expected it to give me somecustomization options, as I was only interested in the three main programs - Word, Excel andPowerpoint, and didn't care about the rest of the suite.

Lo and behold, the installer completed without asking me anything, and all the programs were set up.No. So I spent time trying to find a way to undo this nonsense and then re-setup Office with just thethree applications, and the end result is this tutorial. Let me show you the rather non-trivial way ofhow you need to go about customized Office installations. After me.

The thing is, with the move to Click-and-Run versions of Office, the installation cannot becustomized through the GUI wizard. Instead, you need to use something call Office Deployment Tool(ODT). This is a command-line utility that parses an XML configuration file, which lets you excludecertain components of the office suite. Read that again. We've gone from simple, friendly click-clickwizards to command line plus config files. Does not sound like progress to me.

Download the tool. Run it - the tool will extract. You will see two components, setup.exe andconfiguration.xml file. If you want to have a customized installation, you need to edit the XML file.Let me show you my setup, and then we will discuss the details.

You will see the installation splash animation, and it will actually show icons only for thecomponents you have selected. Once the installation completes, start the program, accept the EULA andprovide your serial number. For a fully hands-off procedure, you can add these values into theconfiguration.xml file, if you like.

I am really surprised, even stunned that the newer versions of Office come with this clunky,unfriendly method of installation. I guess the only reasonable motivation would be to have everythinginstalled on a user's computer, hoping they find additional use for different programs in thesuite than they normally would. Or perhaps this is a slow, inevitable, inexorable creep toward totalcloud domination, which means I will have to quit the Internet at some point and just go to a mountainsomewhere, and grow goats.

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