In order to be the first to get the latest features for Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and more) you’ll want to become an Office Insider. People with Office Insider get new features before anyone does and fortunately it’s an easy process to enable Insider for Office.
Note: this article is for those who have an Office 365 Business subscription. If you have a Home subscription or any other type of subscription then this article is not for you. For Office 365 Home users simply open Word then click on File, then click on Account, and then click on the Office Insider button.
If you have not installed Office yet then you can go down to Step 1 and begin the process to install the insider version of Office. However if you already have Office installed then you’ll need to uninstall Office first. Make sure that you backup your data and ensure that your emails and OneDrive data are backed up and synced to the cloud.
Step 1: Download the Office Deployment Tool
The Office Deployment Tool is a special way to install Office that will allow us to specify that we want to install the Insider version.
Download the Office Deployment Tool from the Microsoft website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117
Step 2: Run the Office Deployment Tool
Run the Office Deployment Tool and follow the prompts to extract the files to a new folder on your desktop named “deploy”.
Step 3: Open the configuration-Office365-x86.xml file in the “deploy” folder
Inside of the deploy folder right-click on configuration-Office365-x86.xml and open in Notepad. Or click Edit.
Step 4: Edit the xml file
Inside of the xml file delete everything and instead paste the following:
<Configuration>
<Add OfficeClientEdition=”32″ Channel=”InsiderFast”>
<Product ID=”O365BusinessRetail”>
<Language ID=”en-us” />
</Product>
</Add>
</Configuration>
You can change the 32 to a 64 if you need the 64-bit version of Office. However unless you have a compelling reason I recommend that you stay with 32-bit for compatibility reasons.
And then save the xml file and close it.
Step 5: Open the Command Prompt
Click on the Start Menu in the lower left corner on the screen and search for “Command Prompt”. In the results right-click on Command Prompt and select “Run as Administrator”.
Step 6: Run the install command
In the Command Prompt we want to change the directory to where your deploy folder is located. Type the following:
cd <path for your deploy folder on the desktop>
So your command should look something like cd C:/Users/Administrator/desktop/deploy
Run the Command.
Next we will begin the Office install. Please run the following command:
setup.exe /configure configuration-Office365-x86.xml
Step 7: Activate and Restart
When the Office install finishes open any Office application (such as Word). You’ll be prompted for your account username and password. Let Office activate.
Then restart your computer.
When your computer boots back up you’ll now be running the Insider version of Office!