How to install Office using the Office Deployment Tool

This post about how to install Office 365, 2019 or 2016 using the Office Deployment Tool.  A view of this can be found on my youtube page https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AywCRnXGjkA

Office 365 and 2019 now only come with one click Office Deployment Tool (ODT).  This is a command-line tool that you can use to download and deploy Click-to-Run versions of office to your client computers.  Typically most admins install office by downloading the MAK key with an ISO; this change starting with office 2016 where the office deployment tool was provided.  Now Office 2019 only allows you to install via the office deployment tool.

Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center - Office 2019 Download 

So what you now need for Office deployment are essentially two files.  The Office Deployment Tool which can be found here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117 and the configuration.xml file.  You can read about the full details here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/office2019/deploy

***UPDATE July 10, 2019***

Now you don't have to hand code your configuration any longer.  Microsoft has released a Office Customization Tool for creating your click to run configuration file.

https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings

It is simple and easy to use.  It also solved an issue I was having with office displaying the error on the install run "this product cannot be installed on the selected update channel"

***End of Update***

Here is the easy how to do this.

Create a file called configuration.xml  Below is the XML required to run the ODT.

Office ODT Configuration XML File

  

The parts your will want to edit are the SourcePath="Path to save downloaded office files (can be network or local)

ID which can be any of the following

• - ProPlus2019Volume
• - Standard2019Volume
• - ProjectPro2019Volume
• - ProjectStd2019Volume
• - VisioPro2019Volume
• - VisioStd2019Volume

PIDKEY (Your Office MAK Key)

The ODT is run from the cmd prompt as administrator.  For simplicity I put everything in C:\office

cd to the directory with the setup.exe and if you haven't downloaded office run

setup.exe /download configuration.xml

once that has completed run

setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

you should see an output similar to the one shown below.

CMD Prompt Commands for running ODT

when you run the setup.exe /configure configuration.xml because we have   setup you should see the office install splash, and this can be changed so it installs office silently.

You can now customize your install using the Office Customization Tool available at https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings