Microsoft Office

How to install Office LTSC Professional Plus or Standard 2024 with the Office Deployment Tool

Posted by author-avatar
0

Office LTSC 2024 installs through the Office Deployment Tool, a free command-line program from Microsoft. You write a short configuration file that names the edition, the language and your product key, run one command, and the tool downloads Office from Microsoft and installs it. Office LTSC 2024 has no ordinary installer to double-click, so the same method covers Professional Plus 2024, Standard 2024, Project 2024 and Visio LTSC 2024.

Allow about a quarter of an hour plus the download. The configuration file and commands below can be copied as they are, with your own product key in place of the X’s.

Before you start

Remove every other version of Office from the PC. Office LTSC 2024 can only use the PerpetualVL2024 update channel, and Microsoft’s rule is “Products installed on the same computer must use the same update channel.” New laptops often arrive with a Microsoft 365 trial already installed, sometimes in several languages, and the apps from a Microsoft 365 subscription, our Office 365 Pro Account included, have to come off as well. Go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps, search for Microsoft 365 and then for Office, and uninstall every entry, including older versions such as Office 2021 or 2019. Restart when they’re all gone.

Copies of Office 2016 and earlier that were installed with Windows Installer can be left for the tool to remove. The configuration below includes the RemoveMSI element, which Microsoft uses “to uninstall versions of Office, Visio, or Project from Office 2016 and earlier that were installed using Windows Installer (MSI)”.

Choose 64-bit unless you have a specific reason not to. The reasons Microsoft gives for 32-bit are narrow, such as a PC with less than 4 GB of memory, 32-bit COM add-ins with no 64-bit alternative, or VBA code that uses Declare statements. Every Office product on the PC has to use the same architecture, Project and Visio included.

Office LTSC 2024 always installs on the system drive, and Microsoft’s deployment guide says “The installation location can’t be changed.”

Have your product key to hand, and sign in to Windows with an account that has administrator rights.

Download the Office Deployment Tool

The tool is on the Office Deployment Tool page of the Microsoft Download Center. Microsoft’s advice is to “Always download and use the latest version of the ODT,” so get a fresh copy even if you have an older one saved.

Create a folder called ODT on the C drive. Run the file you downloaded, accept the licence terms and extract it into that folder. You’ll end up with setup.exe and a few sample configuration files. The samples can be ignored.

Write the configuration file

Open Notepad and paste in the following. It installs 64-bit Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 in English (United Kingdom).

xml

<Configuration>
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="PerpetualVL2024">
    <Product ID="ProPlus2024Volume" PIDKEY="XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX">
      <Language ID="en-gb" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
  <RemoveMSI />
  <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" />
  <Display Level="Full" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
</Configuration>

Replace the X’s with your 25-character product key and keep the hyphens between the groups.

Save the file in the ODT folder as configuration.xml. In Notepad’s Save As window, set Save as type to All files before saving. Left on Text documents, Notepad names the file configuration.xml.txt and setup can’t find it.

SettingWhat it does
OfficeClientEdition="64"Installs the 64-bit apps. Use 32 for 32-bit.
Channel="PerpetualVL2024"Sets the update channel for Office LTSC 2024. Leave it as it is.
Product ID="ProPlus2024Volume"Installs Professional Plus. Use Standard2024Volume for Office LTSC Standard 2024.
PIDKEYHolds your product key.
Language ID="en-gb"Installs English (United Kingdom). Use en-us for US English.
RemoveMSIRemoves Office 2016 or older that was installed with Windows Installer.
AUTOACTIVATE set to 1Activates Office with your key as soon as the installation finishes.
Display Level="Full"Shows the normal progress window.
AcceptEULA="TRUE"Accepts the licence terms so setup doesn’t stop to ask.

To leave out an app you don’t want, add an ExcludeApp line inside the Product section, before the line that closes it. This one skips Access.

xml

      <ExcludeApp ID="Access" />

Run the installation

Open the Start menu, type cmd, right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator. Then run these two commands.

cd C:\ODT
setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

The Office installer window opens and downloads the apps as it installs them. The download runs to a few gigabytes, so the time depends on your connection. When it finishes, the window closes and the command prompt comes back.

For several PCs, download once and install from the local copy. Run setup.exe /download configuration.xml first, which saves the installation files into an Office folder inside the ODT folder. Then add SourcePath="C:\ODT" to the Add line of the configuration file, copy the whole ODT folder to the same place on each PC, and run the configure command there.

Check that Office is activated

Open Word and go to File > Account. Under Product Information it should say Product Activated, with Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 or Office LTSC Standard 2024 underneath.

If Word asks for activation, use ospp.vbs, the licensing script that comes with Office. Microsoft’s instruction is to “Run the ospp.vbs script from an elevated command prompt.” Its documentation places the script in the Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16 folder and notes that earlier versions may leave out the root folder, so search for the file first.

dir /s /b "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\ospp.vbs"

Change to the folder the search returns. The example below uses Microsoft’s documented path, then installs the key, activates it and shows the licence status.

cd /d "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16"
cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
cscript ospp.vbs /act
cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

In the /dstatus output, the LICENSE STATUS line should read ---LICENSED---. If an error code appears instead, cscript ospp.vbs /dhistoryacterr lists the recent activation failures with their codes.

For a PC with no internet connection, cscript ospp.vbs /dinstid displays the installation ID used for phone activation, and cscript ospp.vbs /actcid: followed by the confirmation ID you’re given completes it.

With 32-bit Office on 64-bit Windows, look under Program Files (x86) instead.

Adding Project Professional 2024

Project installs the same way and can share the configuration file with Office. Add a second Product section inside the Add section.

xml

    <Product ID="ProjectPro2024Volume" PIDKEY="YYYYY-YYYYY-YYYYY-YYYYY-YYYYY">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
    </Product>

The language matters here. Microsoft’s language table marks English UK with the note “This language is only available for Version 2108 or later, but isn’t available in Project or Visio.” Use en-us for Project even when Office itself is in en-gb.

If Office is already on the PC, create a second configuration file containing only the Project product, with the same OfficeClientEdition and the same PerpetualVL2024 channel as your Office installation, and run the configure command with that file. For Project Standard 2024 the ID is ProjectStd2024Volume. Our comparison of Project Professional and Project Standard 2024 explains what the extra cost of Professional buys.

Adding Visio Professional 2024

A volume licensed Visio key installs the same way, as Visio LTSC Professional 2024. Microsoft’s deployment guide for Visio uses the Office Deployment Tool for it, and Visio goes in a Product section of its own inside the Add section.

    <Product ID="VisioPro2024Volume" PIDKEY="ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
    </Product>

Visio has the same language limit as Project, so use en-us for Visio even when Office is in en-gb. If Office is already on the PC, put Visio in a second configuration file with the same OfficeClientEdition and the same PerpetualVL2024 channel as your Office installation, and run the configure command with that file. For Visio LTSC Standard 2024 the ID is VisioStd2024Volume.

A retail Visio key is redeemed to a Microsoft account at microsoft365.com/setup and installs from that account, and Microsoft doesn’t support it on the same PC as Office LTSC 2024. Our comparison of Visio Professional and Visio Standard 2024 explains what Professional adds.

When setup stops or Office shows as unlicensed

Setup closes almost straight away

Another Click-to-Run version of Office is usually still on the PC. Check Installed apps again for Microsoft 365 in any language, uninstall whatever you find and restart.

Nothing happens when you run setup.exe

Check the real file name. In File Explorer, choose View > Show > File name extensions. If the file turns out to be configuration.xml.txt, rename it to configuration.xml.

The error mentions 32-bit and 64-bit

An Office product already on the PC uses the other architecture. Microsoft’s reference for the tool says the installation fails in that case “since mixed architectures aren’t supported.” Uninstall the other product, or change OfficeClientEdition to match it.

Project or Visio won’t install

Check that its language is en-us, and that its OfficeClientEdition and Channel match the Office already installed. A retail Project or Visio key can’t go on a PC with Office LTSC 2024.

Office is installed but shows as unlicensed

Run the ospp.vbs commands above and look up the code that /dhistoryacterr reports.

Teams and Publisher

Microsoft notes that “The Microsoft Teams app isn’t preinstalled with Office LTSC 2024, but is available as a separate download.” If you use Teams, install it separately once Office is in place. Publisher isn’t part of Office LTSC 2024 in any edition.

The configuration above installs Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024, and with the Standard2024Volume ID it installs Office LTSC Standard 2024. Project Professional 2024 and Visio Professional 2024 go in alongside either. Setting up a whole PC from scratch, Windows included, is covered in our Windows 11 Pro and Office 2024 setup guide.

Sources

Newer
What Windows 11 Pro has that Windows 11 Home doesn’t
Back to list
Older What you get with Office LTSC Standard for Mac 2024

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *