Office 97 was the last version of the Office suite to ship on floppy disks (45 of them!) and we soon moved to CD-ROM.

In Office 20 we supported multi-MSI installs with our “Catalyst” install technology to better support multi. After that came Windows Installer in Office 2000, which could handle sophisticated component co-existence and offered better uninstall and repair support. From the basic file copy method, we moved to ACME installations that allowed flexibility for automating the installation. And that meant a bigger and more sophisticated installation. But as content became richer, applications more powerful, and integration with other software key to users’ productivity, Office needed to evolve. It used to be enough for Office to ship on a couple of floppy disks and copy some binaries to the file system. During that time we’ve seen evolutions in both media and installation technologies. Office has come a long way from its start in the early 90’s. Our goal with Click-to-Run in the new Office is to make finding, installing, and using the Office applications as fast, easy, and secure as possible. We believe that Office applications that are built to take advantage of the unique capabilities of your chosen hardware have tremendous value (whether that’s a desktop PC, a notebook computer, a tablet, or a mobile device). Getting a new app on your phone is a fast and painless experience, and so is accessing rich web applications from your internet browser. The emergence of rich web-based applications and services, as well as new application models on modern devices have caused a shift in how users expect to interact with their software. User expectations for software have changed dramatically over the last 5 years. In this post I want to talk about why we think it’s important to invest in client delivery, what we did, how we did it, and what it means to you in your everyday interactions with the new Office. These changes aren’t just cosmetic, they’re part of our strategy to bring the rich Office applications that you know and love into the future as an integrated part of our Software + Services offering. If you’ve downloaded the new Office Customer Preview, then you probably noticed that your installation experience is quite a bit different than in any previous version of Office.

Earlier in the blog we’d outlined some aspects of Click to Run and Office on demand, today we’ll expand on the topic in depth. Please note Click-to-Run and Office 365 ProPlus are otherwise unaffected and will continue to be available for installation as described below.Įditor’s note: Paul Barr is Lead Program Manager for Click to Run, and joins Office Next to discuss this important technology. For more information please visit the Office 365 Community Forum. Update : Starting November 2014, Office on Demand will no longer be available.

Microsoft office click to run service