If your business is finally making the switch to Office 365 there’s probably one issue you’re facing as the deadline closes: How can I get this installed quickly on all of our computers?
This guide is best utilized when:
- Computers are centralized (E.g. You have an office building)
- More than 10 computers to install Office on or you have low internet speeds
- You have an existing file server/NAS with a share
Office Deployment Tool
We will be utilizing the Office Deployment Tool, going forward this will be referenced as ODT
Grab the download from: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117
Setup on the File Server/NAS
- Extract the files from the file above and place it on your File Server/NAS in a properly labeled path – EX: \\FileServer01\Apps$\Microsoft\Office\
- Verify that the share is accessible from the computers that are receiving the install.
- Delete the XML files that are included in the ZIP file you extracted
Configure your XML file
- Go to http://config.office.com
- Choose your relevant product arch (Microsoft now recommends the 64-bit installation as default)
- Choose your relevant product(s)
- If you purchased Business licensing choose Office 365 Business
- If you purchased Enterprise licensing choose Office 365 ProPlus
- Choose which apps you want installed, I typically change “OneNote 2016” to ON
- Choose your update channel
- I recommend the semi-annual channel – This will be the most stable and reliable build
- The monthly channel will provide new features each month, but possibly at the cost of confused employees and unstable builds.
- Choose your version – I recommend choosing latest
- Choose your language – Typically English
- Choose your installation
- Set it to local source
- Change the path to your share you created earlier – In our case it is \\FileServer01\Apps$\Microsoft\Office\
- I recommend “Show installation to user” being on – This allows you or your users to visually see the progress of installation, otherwise turn it off for a silent install
- Choose your Update and Upgrades options – I recommend leaving all the default options here
- Choose Licensing and Activation options
- Check “Automatically accept the EULA”
- Choose your General options – You do not need to fill out these options
- Choose your Applications Preferences – I recommend not touching these for Domain Joined computers
- Click Finish – You’re almost done!
- Review all changes you’ve made on the right hand side
- Choose “Export” in the top right
- Accept the agreement
- I typically name the XML file relevant to product + arch
- EX: O365BusinessX64
- EX: O365ProPlusX64
- Download your XML file and drop it into your share that you created earlier, it should be in the same folder as the Setup.exe
Create your Batch File for Download/Update
- Open Notepad
- Input %FileShare%\setup.exe /download %FileShare%\%XMLFile%.xml
- File > Save As > Update Local Office Source.bat
- Change “Save As Type” to “All Files (*.*)”
- Save it in the same folder as your Setup.exe

Create your Batch File for Installing
- Right click on the batch file you just made and choose “edit”
- Replace “/download” with “/configure”
- File > Save As > Install O365.bat
- Change “Save As Type” to “All Files (*.*)”
- Save it in the same folder as your Setup.exe

Example of what your “Install O365.bat” should be
Start the initial download of Office
- Double click your “Update Local Office Source.bat” file – CMD Prompt should open with the same text you put in your .bat file
- You will not see any progress in the CMD Prompt – that is normal!
- If you’d like to check on the progress of the download, you can right click the new folder that was created in your file share > Properties and check the size of the folder. This will end up being 2GB+ depending on your options and additional programs
- Wait until the initial download is finished
Test your first install manually
- Login to a computer with an account that as Administrator rights
- Browse to the share containing your Install O365.bat file and double click it
- You should see CMD prompt open up, followed by the installation progress bar (if you chose to show that during the XML configuration phase)
- Verify the install encounters no issues, and that Office is working correctly
Start your deployment
There are several ways to handle this, here is a couple:
- Put your “Install O365.bat” file on a USB drive, walk to each computer and double click on it
- Create a GPO for a Logon Script to run your “Install O365.bat” – you should modify your Install O365.bat to first check for O365 already being installed the computer to prevent looping of installation
Pro Tip:
If you installed O365 ProPlus you can manage O365 settings via Group Policy!
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49030