Install and Activate Office 2024 Professional Plus: The Complete Guide

Install Office 2024 Professional Plus

In short: Office 2024 Professional Plus is installed with the Office Deployment Tool, Microsoft's free tool. First uninstall any other version of Office, prepare a small configuration file, run the installation, then activate the key in File > Account. Allow about fifteen minutes. If your order includes an installation guide, follow that first.

1. Prepare the PC

  • Windows 10 or Windows 11, 4 GB of memory and 4 GB of free disk space.
  • Uninstall any other version of Office, including the Microsoft 365 trial that is often preinstalled: Settings > Apps > Installed apps. Two different versions of Office don't get on well together. Your documents are not affected.

2. Download the Office Deployment Tool

Download the “Office Deployment Tool” from the Microsoft Download Center. Run the file: it extracts setup.exe and sample configurations to the folder of your choice, for example C:\Office.

3. Prepare the configuration file

In that folder, create a text file named configuration.xml with this content:

<Configuration>
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="PerpetualVL2024">
    <Product ID="ProPlus2024Volume">
      <Language ID="MatchOS" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
  <Display Level="Full" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
</Configuration>

MatchOS installs Office in the same language as Windows; you can replace it with a specific language code such as en-us or de-de. You can also generate this file on the official config.office.com website by choosing “Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 – Volume License”. Careful: if file extensions are hidden, Windows may name the file configuration.xml.txt; check this.

4. Run the installation

Right-click the Start button, open Terminal (Admin) and type:

cd C:\Office
.\setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

Office downloads from Microsoft's servers and installs. Depending on your connection, allow 5 to 15 minutes.

5. Activate the key

  1. Open Word or Excel.
  2. Go to File > Account and click Change Product Key.
  3. Enter the 25-character key and confirm.

From the command line, in an administrator terminal:

cd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16"
cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
cscript ospp.vbs /act

The command cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus then shows the licence status, which should read “LICENSED”.

Common problems

  • The installation stops straight away: another version of Office is still present, or the file is called configuration.xml.txt.
  • Error 0xC004C008 on activation: the key has reached its activation limit. Contact the seller with your order number.
  • Office asks you to sign in to a Microsoft account: this isn't necessary with Professional Plus, you can close the window.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Microsoft account for Office 2024 Professional Plus?

No. Office 2024 Professional Plus activates with the key alone, without a Microsoft account.

Can I install only Word, Excel and PowerPoint?

Yes. On config.office.com, untick the apps you don't need before exporting the configuration file.

Does Office 2024 update itself?

Yes. Security updates install automatically until October 2029.

How do I install Office 2024 on several PCs?

With a volume licence, the procedure is the same on each PC, with the same key. You can reuse the same configuration file everywhere.

No key yet? Office 2024 Professional Plus for 1 PC or volume licence for 5 to 100 PCs. Torn between this and a subscription? Read Office 2024 or Microsoft 365.