How To Deploy Microsoft 365 Using The Office Deployment Tool

The Office Deployment Tool is a Microsoft product that allows you to download and install Click-to-run versions of Microsoft 365 (Office) onto your client workstations. There is nothing to install with the tool, it is a command line utility in which you can specify different parameter and settings with ease.

In this post I am going show you how the Office Deployment Tools works, give you some common parameter/settings for you to use in your environment and show you how to install Office using the tool in your environment.

The office deployment tool is great to use in the following scenarios:

When you have limited internet bandwidth
When you are install office on multiple workstations
If you want to specify which apps only you want to install
If you are installing Office in a server or RD session host scenario
If you do not want to display the install experience for your users

How does the Office Deployment Tool work?

The Office Deployment Tool, when first downloaded, self extracts to a location of your choice. It contains the executable file and a few sample XML configuration files.

To deploy Office using the deployment tool, you need 2 files, the setup.exe executable and an xml file containing the configuration you desire.

Firstly, you need to download the Microsoft 365 apps using the /download switch. An example of this is as follows:

setup.exe /download configuration.xml

Once you have the files downloaded on the target computer (they be download on another device and transferred to the target computer), you will need to run the /configure switch to install the apps.

setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

You can also modify an existing installation of Microsoft 365 apps by using the /customize switch, this will allow you to change settings such as the product version, licensing options, update options and app defaults.

setup.exe /customize configuration.xml

Example Office Deployment Configurations

You have a couple of options when creating your xml file for deployment. You can either create the file yourself (which I do not recommend) or you can use the office customisation tool to create your XML file in a wizard-driven experience.

You can access the Office Customisation Tool here: https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings

Here are a few examples:

Use the following XML configuration to deploy the UK version of Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise, on the preview update channel, 64 bit, excluding Access, Groove, Lync, OneNote & Bing, with user-based activation and accepting the default file format for Excel, PowerPoint and Word.

2. Use the following XML configuration to install the UK version of Microsoft 365 Apps for Business on the monthly enterprise update channel, 64 bit, excluding Grove and Lync, removing any existing version of Office, setting the default file format for Excel, PowerPoint and Word and auto accepting the EULA on installation.

Deploy Office on a single workstation using the ODT

To deploy the Microsoft 365 apps on a single workstation you first need to download the installation files with the /download switch, then install with the /configure switch. Use the following steps to complete the process:

Start by extracting the Office Deployment Tool to a local folder. I usually create a folder on the root of the C: drive named ODT.

2. Open the Command Prompt as admin and use the following command to browse to the folder C:\ODT:

cd C:\ODT

3. Download the install files with the following command:

setup.exe /download configuration.xml

Once the files are downloaded you will see a new folder within c:\odt named ‘Office’.

4. Once the download has complete the cursor in your command prompt session will return. Now run the install command to install the Microsoft 365 apps.

setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

Office will now install as per the settings in your configuration.xml file.

Deploy Office on multiple workstations using the ODT

When you need to install the Microsoft 365 apps on multiple workstations on your network you can instead run the download command on your server and save the files on a share that is accessible by your users.

In the following configuration example I have specified the location of the installation files with SourcePath=”\\Server1\odt\files”.

Once you have the source files on your server, I usually write a small batch file that can be run a login which will copy the setup.exe and configuration.xml to a local folder on the users workstation, again C:\ODT can be used and run the install command:

setup.exe /install configuration.xml

Here is a very quick and simple batch script that will create the C:\ODT directory, copy the setup files and run the install command. (this is a very quick and dirty solution without error-checking, so modify as you need).

@ECHO OFF
mkdir C:\ODT
Xcopy \\server1\odt\files\setupfiles C:\ODT
setup.exe /install configuration.xml

Deploy Office on a remote desktop server using ODT

Often I find that people first encounter the ODT tool when they need to deploy a specific version of the Microsoft 365 apps onto a remote desktop server. For that, you must install the Apps for Enterprise version of Office with shared computer licensing enabled.

Quite simply, you can deploy the apps using either of the 2 methods above, but you must prepare your configuration file with the settings you need.

Here is an example configuration file that will install Apps for Enterprise with shared computer licensing enabled:

You can see in the above configuration I have include 2 important bits of information:

<Property Name=”SharedComputerLicensing” Value=”1″ /> – This will enable shared computer licensing.

<Property Name=”SCLCacheOverrideDirectory” Value=”\\server1\userfiles\%username%\Licensingtoken” /> – This will save the licensing token to a common area in the event you are using multiple session hosts without technologies such as FXLogix.