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1. Office 365 Download Programs
2. Office 365 Download Software

You can include Microsoft 365 Apps as part of an operating system image that you deploy to users in your organization. You just need to make sure you don't activate Microsoft 365 Apps when you create the image. That's because you need your users to activate their Microsoft 365 Apps installations by signing in with their accounts.

After you've signed up for Microsoft 365, you and your employees can install your Office apps. From the admin center, select Office software. Choose a language, and then select Install. When prompted, select Run. Select Yes to allow the app to make changes to your device. The installation may take several minutes, depending on your Internet speed. Microsoft Office makes it easy to work on the go, with mobile access to your Office tools. Use Office for free or unlock even more Office features when you log in with your Microsoft 365 account. Whether using it for personal or professional reasons, the Office app is designed to be your go-to app for getting work done on a mobile device.

Here are the basic steps of how to include Microsoft 365 Apps when you create and deploy an operating system image.

Step 1: Install and configure the operating system for the image

To start, install and configure the operating system on a test computer. There are several free tools from Microsoft to help you do this, such as Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT).

Step 2: Install Microsoft 365 Apps for the image by using the Office Deployment Tool

To install Microsoft 365 Apps on the test computer, first download the Office Deployment Tool from the Microsoft Download Center.

Then, use the Office Deployment Tool to download the Microsoft 365 Apps software to your local network. You also use the Office Deployment Tool to install Microsoft 365 Apps on to the test computer.

Remember, you don't want to activate Microsoft 365 Apps when you do the installation.

To prevent Microsoft 365 Apps from trying to automatically activate during the installation, perform a silent installation. To do this, in the configuration.xml file that the Office Deployment Tool uses, include the following line:

<Display Level='None' AcceptEULA='True' />

When you set Level to None, you don't see any user interface elements during the installation. You won't see anything that shows the progress of the installation and you won't see any error messages.

Important

Don't sign in to the Office 365 portal to install Microsoft 365 Apps from the software page. If you do, activation occurs automatically.
Also, don't save the setup file from the Office 365 portal to the test computer. Even if you run the setup file, which will have a file name similar to Setup.X86.en-us_O365ProPlusRetail_d079c594-698d-4370-9174-7c00f76abf00_TX_PR_.exe, from the test computer, activation occurs automatically.

After the installation is complete, don't open any Office programs. If you open an Office program, you are prompted to sign-in and activate. Even if you don't sign in and you close the Activate Office dialog box, a temporary product key is installed. You don't want any kind of Microsoft 365 Apps product key installed in your operating system image.

If you accidentally open an Office program, you'll have to uninstall Microsoft 365 Apps, restart the computer, and then install Microsoft 365 Apps again.

Step 3: Install and configure other programs for the operating system image

Next, install other programs that you want to include as part of the operating system image. This includes Office add-ins you want to provide to your users.

Remember not to open any Office programs. After you have created the image, you can test on another computer that Office and the add-ins work correctly.

Office 365 Download Programs

Step 4: Check that a Microsoft 365 Apps product key is not installed in the image

Before you save the image, you should check to make sure that no product key for Microsoft 365 Apps is installed. To do this, use the ospp.vbs script. This script is installed on the computer when Microsoft 365 Apps is installed.

For example, at a command prompt, run the following command:

cscript.exe '%programfiles%Microsoft OfficeOffice16ospp.vbs' /dstatus

You should see <No installed product keys detected>, as shown in the following screenshot.

The location of the ospp.vbs script depends on whether you install the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Microsoft 365 Apps and whether you install on a 32-bit or 64 bit version of the operating system. The following table lists the possible locations of the ospp.vbs script.

Step 5: Save the operating system image

You can use Windows ADK or MDT 2012 to save the operating system image file that you'll deploy to your users. You can also use Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.

Step 6: Test that the operating system image works

Deploy the operating system image to another test computer. Then, open the Office programs to make sure they are set up as you want. If you have a test user account for your Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) subscription, you can test that activation works.

After you finish your tests, don't save an image of the test computer.

Step 7: Deploy the operating system image to your users

After you test your operating system image, you can deploy it to your users. There are many ways that you can deploy the image to computers in your organization. For example, you can use Windows ADK, MDT 2012, Configuration Manager, scripts, or other enterprise software deployment tools.

Users are prompted to activate Microsoft 365 Apps when they open their first Office program, as seen in the following screenshot.

As long as the computer is connected to the internet, the user just needs to sign in when prompted, and then activation occurs automatically.

Office 365 Download Software

Several of the Office 365 plans include the right for licensed users to install the Office 356 client applications (e.g. Outlook, Word, Excel) on up to five devices. Although many business environments will automate the deployment of Office 365 software to their computers, users may still perform manual installations for BYOD cases or for their home computers.

By default, users can install multiple versions of Office via the Office 365 portal. At the time of this writing, the Office 365 client versions that are available are Office 2016 (for PC and Mac), Office 2013, and Office 2011 (for Mac). In addition, the different installs include all features, which includes things like InfoPath 2013, SharePoint Designer 2013, and Skype for Business/Lync clients. The update channel for Office 2016 also defaults to the Deferred channel, which means new feature updates will be installed every four months (security updates are still released monthly).

Those defaults might not be ideal for your organization. For example, allowing both the 2016 and 2013 versions of Office for PC can mean an additional support burden for your IT teams. As an Office 365 admin you can control which versions of software are available in the portal for end users to install. You can even disable software downloads entirely, which is often preferred by organizations who are using existing software licensing for Office clients, or who want to full manage the installation process and not allow users to install the software at all.

1. Log in to the Office 365 admin portal with your administrator account.
2. Navigate to Settings, then Services & add-ins
3. Select Office software download settings
4. Modify the user software options to suit your needs.
5. Click Save to apply the changes.

When users log in to the Office 365 portal, they’ll see installation options based on your selections above. In the example below, the Current channel was chosen by the administrator in the portal, and because First Release is enabled for the entire tenant, the user will receive the First Release for Current Channel build. You should choose an update channel and First Release settings that suit your own requirements.