Install Office 365 using the Office Deployment Tool

Guide for using the Office Deployment Tool (ODT) to create an XML configuration file and silent install Office 365 from the command line 

This guide is for silent installing Office 365 Pro Plus (Microsoft 365 Apps) from the command line using per user activation on Windows 10. If you are installing Office in a Virtual Desktop or Remote Desktop environment you will need to configure the options for Shared computer license activation instead.

Office Deployment Tool (ODT) Overview

• You can use the Office Deployment Tool (ODT) to download and install click-to-run versions of Office 365 and Office 2019
• The installation options for Office can be specified using an XML configuration file
• The Office Deployment Tool includes some example configuration XML files
• You can create a custom configuration XML for deploying Office using the Office customization tool https://config.office.com

 Steps to deploy Office 365

1. Download the Office Deployment Tool

Download the Office Deployment Tool
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117

Run the Office Deployment Tool and extract to a folder e.g. C:\ODT

Tick to accept the license terms

Select the folder to extract to

The Office Deployment Tool includes a setup executable and some example XML configuration files that you can use as a starting point for your Office 365 deployment. The configuration XML files contain all the settings for installing Office 365 or Office 2019

2. Create an XML configuration file

You can use the Office customization tool to create a new configuration XML file or edit an existing one

Office customization tool
https://config.office.com

Create a new configuration

Products and Releases

Architecture - 64-bit

Office Suites - Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise

Update channel

Select the update channel - Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel

Version - Latest

These options will install the latest available version of Office and select the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel for updates.

The Semi-Annual Enterprise Chancel will install security and quality updates once a month but, feature updates will only be installed twice a year in January and July.

Selecting this option means you will only get new Office features twice a year. If you would like more frequent Office feature updates, then choose the Monthly Enterprise Channel instead

Overview of update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/deployoffice/overview-update-channels

Apps

Select these applications - Outlook, Publisher, Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint

Background service for Microsoft Search in Bing - Off

Language

Select your language 

Installation options

Where do you want to deploy Office from?

Local source C:\ODT
Untick Fallback to the CDN for missing languages
This will install Office locally from the setup files in C:\ODT

Show installation to user - Off
This option makes the installation silent

Shut down running applications
This will close any running Office applications, you should set this to On if you are upgrading from a previous version of Office

Update and upgrade

Where do you want to deploy updates from? - Office Content Delivery Network

Automatically check for updates - On

Uninstall any MSI versions of Office - Off
You should set this to On if you are upgrading from previous non click-to-run versions of Office

Licensing and activation

Automatically accept the EULA - On

Production activation - User based

If you are installing Office in a Virtual Desktop or Remote Desktop environment you'll need to select the option for Shared Computer licensing

General

In this example, I'm not customizing any settings for organization name or adding a description to the XML file

Click Next

In this section, you can customize Office application preferences during setup

In this example, I'm not making any changes to these options

Finish  

Export the configuration file

Default file format - Office Open XML formats

Export configuration to XML

Tick to accept the license agreement terms

Enter the configuration file name, then click Export

Configuration.xml will download

Copy configuration.xml to the Office Deployment Tool folder C:\ODT

3. Configuration.xml examples

You can edit the configuration.xml file in notepad if you want to make any other changes

Install Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise

Install 64-bit Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise, semi-annual enterprise update channel
Install Outlook, Publisher, Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint
Exclude Access, OneDrive (Groove), OneDrive Desktop, Skype for Business, Teams
Install from local source C:\ODT and do not allow fallback to Office Content Delivery Network (CDN)
English US language
User based license activation, automatically accept the EULA
Automatically install updates from the Office Content Delivery Network
Set default file format to Office Open XML formats
Silent install - do not show installation to user

<Configuration>
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="SemiAnnual" SourcePath="C:\ODT" AllowCdnFallback="FALSE">
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Access" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="OneDrive" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Teams" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Bing" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
  <Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="0" />
  <Property Name="SCLCacheOverride" Value="0" />
  <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="0" />
  <Property Name="FORCEAPPSHUTDOWN" Value="FALSE" />
  <Property Name="DeviceBasedLicensing" Value="0" />
  <Updates Enabled="TRUE" />
  <AppSettings>
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="51" Type="REG_DWORD" App="excel16" Id="L_SaveExcelfilesas" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\powerpoint\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="27" Type="REG_DWORD" App="ppt16" Id="L_SavePowerPointfilesas" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\word\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="" Type="REG_SZ" App="word16" Id="L_SaveWordfilesas" />
  </AppSettings>
  <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
</Configuration>
 

Install Microsoft 365 Apps for Business

Install 64-bit Microsoft 365 Apps for Business, semi-annual enterprise update channel
Install OneDrive Desktop, Outlook, Publisher, Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, Teams
Exclude Access, OneDrive (Groove), Skype for Business
Install from local source C:\ODT and do not allow fallback to Office Content Delivery Network (CDN)
English US language
User based license activation, automatically accept the EULA
Automatically install updates from the Office Content Delivery Network
Set default file format to Office Open XML formats
Silent install - do not show installation to user

<Configuration>
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="SemiAnnual" SourcePath="C:\ODT" AllowCdnFallback="FALSE">
    <Product ID="O365BusinessRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Access" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
  <Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="0" />
  <Property Name="SCLCacheOverride" Value="0" />
  <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="0" />
  <Property Name="FORCEAPPSHUTDOWN" Value="FALSE" />
  <Property Name="DeviceBasedLicensing" Value="0" />
  <Updates Enabled="TRUE" />
  <AppSettings>
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="51" Type="REG_DWORD" App="excel16" Id="L_SaveExcelfilesas" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\powerpoint\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="27" Type="REG_DWORD" App="ppt16" Id="L_SavePowerPointfilesas" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\word\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="" Type="REG_SZ" App="word16" Id="L_SaveWordfilesas" />
  </AppSettings>
  <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
</Configuration> 

 4. Download Office setup files

The first time setup.exe is run with the /download option to download Office setup files, then setup.exe is run again with the /configure option to install Office

Run this command from an elevated command prompt to download Office

setup.exe /download C:\ODT\Configuration.xml 

Office installation files have been downloaded to C:\ODT\Office

5. Install Office using the XML configuration file

Run setup.exe again with the /configure option to silently install Office using the configuration.xml file

setup.exe /configure C:\ODT\Configuration.xml