Click to run???

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I bought MS Office 2013 with 2 licenses. I installed it on my Windows 7 desktop and it shows as click to run. I then installed the second license on my Windows 8.1 laptop and I didn’t check it at first but later I noticed about 100 updates through windows update and then checked Office and its not click to run. I recently changed my 8.1 so that it doesn’t log in with a password to the cloud when you boot it up, it is now a local log in. Not sure if that may have affected it or not. Any ideas?

I personally don’t care if its click to run, just want to understand it better and if I know why it happened, I may remove click to run on the windows 7 desktop.

Windows 8.1 Group B, Brave & Mozilla ESR - grudgingly & Protonmail

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For those who are curious, if you’ve been getting Office updates through Windows Update, you probably have MSI installation. Alternately, you can determine if Office is ‘Click to Run’ by opening an office application, like Word, go to File and then Account. If you see an Office Updates section, the installation is ‘Click to Run’.

MSI installation was used for years. Buying a box form of Windows Office is using MSI installation. ‘Click to Run’ is an installation method that downloads the needed files from the cloud. Both the types cannot be used at the same time. If you wish to run Click to Run, you will have to remove MSI and if you wish to use MSI, you have to remove Click To Run.

It looks like you have to have a Microsoft Account to switch from one form to another… but you could switch, if you found a need to. The on-going ‘benefit’ of ‘Click to Run’ appears to be that it updates silently, in the background. If updates are ruining your experience you could switch to an MSI install, and update through Windows Update.

Here is a link to instructions on how to do just that (either direction): http://www.thewindowsclub.com/msi-vs-click-to-run-office

It was interesting researching this. Too much of the information available is marketing to designed to move you to the cloud and subscriptions, touting the benefits, rather than problems with that model. When reading Microsoft support material, their touted benefits of using Office ‘Click to Run’ are
1) Faster to download and install. Start using a product before it has finished installing.
This might matter if you are managing a lot of computers and don’t want to disturb    the user experience when changing over to a new Office product.
2) Up-to-date from the start and kept up-to-date automatically. No need to download and install updates manually.
A definite problem if there are problem updates.
3) Run different versions of Office products side-by-side on the same computer.
This would be useful if you are an Admin of a large organization with various hard and software and need to problem solve updates or user problems.
4) There are fewer files that end up on your computer. MSI has everything available locally, and includes 32-bit and 64-bit versions. ‘Click to Run’ only downloads what you actually install, allowing you to pick and choose among the different parts of the Office Suite.
This could be important, example, if you are using an older or low end model with very limited hard drive space, and only use Word.

What I didn’t find, other than possible problems with automatic updating, was why you would switch from one to the other, after installation. It seems to be more of an obvious difference when you are initially installing the product, rather than how you use it day to day.

Why do you think you might change? Is it to avoid using a Microsoft Account or moving everything to local control? I’ve been reviewing the choices I’ve made in the past, and changing some things up, too.

I don’t have Office 2013, so I can’t give you first hand information on it; this is all info gathered from the internet. I stayed with Office 2010. I’m an old stick-in-the-mud who wants to buy once (no subscriptions), store locally (no cloud), and update on my schedule (no automatic updating)… and (horrors) don’t have a Microsoft account.

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

5 users thanked author for this post.

cmptrgy, HiFlyer, Erik, Cybertooth, Cascadian

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Elly wrote:

Start using a product before it has finished installing.

This is a benefit only if you are in a horrible hurry. For me, when I install MS Office for a customer, I like for everything to be completely finished and ready before I turn it over to the customer.

“Click to run” seems like a compromise between using a program that is fully installed on your computer vs. using the web version of that program. What if some piece of it hasn’t downloaded to your computer, and you need that functionality, but you aren’t online at that moment? You’ll just have to miss out on using that functionality.

As far as using more than one version of Office at a time, this could be useful if you are communicating with a customer who has an older version of Office than you, and you need to save documents in your customer’s format. But most of the time this isn’t an issue.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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2) Up-to-date from the start and kept up-to-date automatically. No need to download and install updates manually.
A definite problem if there are problem updates.

I don’t have Office 2013, so I can’t give you first hand information on it; this is all info gathered from the internet. I stayed with Office 2010. I’m an old stick-in-the-mud who wants to buy once (no subscriptions), store locally (no cloud), and update on my schedule (no automatic updating)… and (horrors) don’t have a Microsoft account.

To avoid problem updates in Office Click-to-Run, click File > Account, then click the Update Options under Office Updates. To disable Office automatic updating, click “Disable Updates”. That’s what I do. When Woody changes MS-DEFCON to 3, 4, or 5, I click “Enable Updates”, then “Update Now”. After updating Office, I disable updates again.

I’m basically an old stick-in-the-mud, too. I only got Office 2013 once when I got a free install for buying my current laptop over 6 years ago. To store locally instead of depending on the M$ cloud, click File > Options, then click Save in the Word Options box. Check “Save to Computer by default”, & change the folder for “Default local file location” if needed. That seems to carry over to all Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

Bought a refurbished Windows 10 64-bit, currently updated to 22H2. Have broke the AC adapter cord going to the 8.1 machine, but before that, coaxed it into charging. Need to buy new adapter if wish to continue using it.
Wild Bill Rides Again...

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Thanks Elly! Like you I am Windows 7 (Ultimate) Group B. I also have a laptop I just bought when my old one quit. I got an new old stock Windows 8.1 (Group B) Dell in order to avoid Windows 10 for a few more years. I bought 2 licenses for Office 2013 and installed one on the windows 7 desktop and the second on the windows 8.1 laptop. For some reason the windows 7 ended up click to run (at the time I didn’t know what that was) and the one on Windows 8.1 was MSI. I have no idea how that happened. Actually, I first installed it on the Window 7 laptop that quit, (which was click to run) but reinstalled on the windows 8.1 (MSI) when I got it. I never created a microsoft account when installing the click to run. I only got a microsoft account when I got the Dell 8.2 laptop because it forced me to create one when I started it up for the first time. I later figured out how to start it under local control without signing in to the MS account. I still have to figure out how to delete the MS account entirely.

Anyways it looks like I might have to do a clean install to get rid of click to run? I wonder if you can install MSI but not put in a key code then delete the click to run as it allows you to try it for a period before putting in a code. I like the MSI because I like local control, and I don’t want the cloud or an account. I like my privacy.

Windows 8.1 Group B, Brave & Mozilla ESR - grudgingly & Protonmail

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Elly, Cybertooth

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So, before you delete your Microsoft account and follow the instructions at the following link, and switch to the MSI installation:

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/msi-vs-click-to-run-office

It requires you to be able to sign into to your Microsoft account to download? At least that is one of the steps. Also, before doing anything make sure you have your product key available to you. I may not be a techy type, but I’ve learned some things the hard way.

I don’t have a Microsoft account, but I don’t think you have to delete an account not to use it, if you are signing in locally… and it might be useful at some point. Not sure about that, but it seems to me that there are things that you can access with an account, that you can’t without one…

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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Erik

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@Erik:

I suggest that you completely uninstall all copies of MS Office on the “click to run” computer, then reboot. Now install MS Office again, using your unused license key to activate it.

At the very beginning of the install process, tell it you want to do a custom install. Then right click on the top item, and say, “Install and run all items on the computer”, or something like that. Once you have every single item set to fully install to the computer, proceed with the install.

I suspect that you didn’t do a ‘custom’ install the first time around, so you never had the opportunity to tell it to install everything to the hard drive (and run everything from the hard drive).

By the way, you don’t need a Microsoft account to do any of this. All of this can be done when you are logged into Windows with a local account.

Jim

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Beginning in Office 2019, Office client applications will no longer be available in MSI format. This change in deployment technology does not affect how products are licensed or supported.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-my/help/4086177/office-2019-perpetual-volume-license-products-available-as-click-to-ru (7 Feb 2018)
.

Microsoft Office 2019 will only work on Windows 10

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/1/16960640/microsoft-office-2019-windows-10-support

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WildBill

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Is there a way to get updates for click-to-run (in my case Office 2016) via Windows Update? It would be useful to review the updates from the master patch list first rather than MS silently installing them all in the background.

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The the only way to get the 2016 MSI version is to buy an enterprise type license (I’m not sure that’s exactly the right term). Think: “each copy costs more” and/or “I have to also have some sort of subscription/agreement(not free) with microsoft” and/or “I have buy at least 10 seats/copies”. Such licenses are non-transferable (only the org/business who bought them may use them), you can’t sell off seats to recoup costs (actually can’t sell/give it away at all).

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Yes, I won’t be able to afford to upgrade, I was just wondering what the options were for click-to-run. Am I right in thinking the only control is turning updates on or off without actually getting to look at what the updates are, or is there some way of seeing what they are first (apart from the master patch list of course)?

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This is all I could find for release history (without more time to search):
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office365-proplus-by-date

It is for “Office 365 ProPlus (CtR)”, but it should compare correctly to any office 2016 CtR version.

“Semi-Annual Channel” worked just fine last time I saw it in action.

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Many thanks, that’s a very useful page! I was hoping for something on my actual PC though, eg a command line (or powershell) option to run to get the update list or an Office CTR equivalent of WUMT.

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