Issues installing Office from the office.com screen for 365?

Today, the whole portal download of office was down, unable to even display the screen to download the office setup. Rather than waiting and waiting, there is a work arond. This worked perfectly today.

If the user has a Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Business Premium licence, they are entitled to the desktop Office applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint etc.).

The best workaround is Microsoft’s Office Deployment Tool (ODT). It downloads Office directly from Microsoft’s CDN rather than relying on the account portal’s installation page.

Installation instructions – 64-bit Office

1. Download the Office Deployment Tool directly from Microsoft.
2. Run the downloaded EXE and extract it to C:\ODT.
3. Open Notepad and paste the following:

<Configuration>
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64">
    <Product ID="O365BusinessRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
</Configuration>

4. Save as install.xml in C:\ODT.
5. Open Command Prompt as administrator and run:

cd C:\ODT
setup.exe /configure install.xml

6. Office will download and install. Sign in with the licensed user’s Microsoft 365 account to activate it.