How to avoid Office 2016?

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I have an Office 365 subscription. After many hours of work I now know how to do some basic things in Office 2013. I do NOT want Office 2016.

How do I stop Microsoft forcing me to install Office 2016 and thus uninstalling Office 2013?

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I have an Office 365 subscription. After many hours of work I now know how to do some basic things in Office 2013. I do NOT want Office 2016.

How do I stop Microsoft forcing me to install Office 2016 and thus uninstalling Office 2013?

I installed Office 2013 on Win8.1, now Upgraded to Win10. I have no interaction with Office 365. I did get a copy of Office 365 with my Dell Venue 8 Tablet but haven’t installed it yet. Since Office 365 is a subscription it may not be possible to avoid updates, part of the problem is the requirement for a computer with Office 365 to be connected to the Internet at least once a month so as to update itself [went through that with a client that travels a lot].

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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I have an Office 365 subscription. After many hours of work I now know how to do some basic things in Office 2013. I do NOT want Office 2016.

How do I stop Microsoft forcing me to install Office 2016 and thus uninstalling Office 2013?

Office 365 and Office 2013 are the same program; the only difference is that 365 is a subscription program, whereas with 2013 you pay once up front.

If you already have 2013 (that is, if you paid once up front), then my guess is that you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. However, if you have 365, then my suggestion would be to try to find a copy of 2013, uninstall 365, and install 2013. Doing that should get you off of the “automatic update” track.

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

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See: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt422981.aspx?

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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The link says that for the ProPlus version of the subscription one can keep on using Office 2013 until October 2016. I just hope that the individual user won’t be forced to update to Office 2016 before October 2016, by which time some of the bugs in Office 2016 will have been removed, we hope.

Thanks for the replies. Much appreciated!

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Office 2016 will be pushed as part of a regular Office update. That is part of the deal with Office 365. Not sure you have a choice.

Joe

--Joe

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I have an Office 365 subscription. After many hours of work I now know how to do some basic things in Office 2013. I do NOT want Office 2016.

I take it that you were not familiar with Office 2013 and have spent a lot of time learning the funtionality of some or all of its components (Word, Excel) etc. I suggest you are concerned unnecessarily. There is some difference in the on-screen appearance of the 2016 applications but the basic day-to-day functionality has not changed.

I don’t think you will have a problem.

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I suggest you all read:
http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//171777-Office-365-Personal-Version-2016-problem

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Many thanks for all the replies. I shall try to put off Office 2016 until there is a Dummies book on Word 2016. If my boss allows it, I think I’ll use Google Docs!

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Many thanks for all the replies. I shall try to put off Office 2016 until there is a Dummies book on Word 2016. If my boss allows it, I think I’ll use Google Docs!

Well I have a Office365 subscription and it so happened that I got a new laptop and when I went to download Office, it was the 2016 version. I use mostly Outlook, OneNote, Excel and Word, in this order. I haven’t looked at what changed and what did not change, but I can tell you that, for my daily usage, I see no relevant changes. If anything, Office 2016 tries to be a bit more intuitive in a couple circumstances, but you can be sure that you won’t need to learn everything all over again.

I must also say that I don’t understand the willingness to change to Google Docs. Not only it’s less featured, but if the problem is the knowledge about the UI, how is changing to a completely different UI any better than using Office 2016?

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I agree ruirib. I have stuck with Office so far as I used it at work a lot (even though, over several versions, MS have changed the interface enough that many people probably went to Google Docs anyway ).

K

I must also say that I don’t understand the willingness to change to Google Docs. Not only it’s less featured, but if the problem is the knowledge about the UI, how is changing to a completely different UI any better than using Office 2016?

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Please correct me if I am wrong but it is my understanding that if you want to stick with a particular version, then you should purchase the desktop version.

One of the main features of Office 365 is that you have a perpetually updated/upgraded version of Office, as opposed to the standard desktop version. New features will be added and the version will be upgraded as the upgrades become available. This is the same model MS is using with Win10.

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The reason someone might want to stick with the Office 2013 subscription ATM is that Office 2016 has been so full of bugs it might be classed as beta software and they want to wait till the bugs have been squashed, instead of finding the upgrade breaks things that work in Office 2013…

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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The other reason (apart from any bugs in the 2016 version) is that (from what I can see) is that 2016 seems to be more about work collaboration. Being retired, that has little interest to me. I have 2013 installed, no 365 here.

K

The reason someone might want to stick with the Office 2013 subscription ATM is that Office 2016 has been so full of bugs it might be classed as beta software and they want to wait till the bugs have been squashed, instead of finding the upgrade breaks things that work in Office 2013…

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The reason someone might want to stick with the Office 2013 subscription ATM is

Unless I am mistaken, there is no way to stick with Office 2013 if you have Office 365. As I understand it, traditional versions will disappear (or currently are disappearing) – you have Office 365, not Office 2013/365 or Office 365/2016, etc. You are basically renting Office and the landlord (Microsoft) promises to keep everything in good working order (fix bugs) and to routinely slap on a fresh coat of paint (upgrade features).

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Unless I am mistaken, there is no way to stick with Office 2013 if you have Office 365.

I have already posted a links showing how to do that…

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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I have already posted a links showing how to do that…

Are you referring to the link you posted earlier in the thread entitled “Prepare to upgrade Office 365 ProPlus to the Office 2016 version”? Not sure how that applies to staying with Office 365/2013. What did I miss?

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If Office 365 (currently equivalent to 2016) is continually updated, will it ever be bug-free? If it is continually being updated, the possibility (probability?) is there that new bugs will be continually introduced.

I am not comfortable with the “work in progress” mode; I prefer the more static, traditional software package.

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

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Agreed, Jim. What happened to “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? LOL

K

If Office 365 (currently equivalent to 2016) is continually updated, will it ever be bug-free? If it is continually being updated, the possibility (probability?) is there that new bugs will be continually introduced.

I am not comfortable with the “work in progress” mode; I prefer the more static, traditional software package.

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If Office 365 (currently equivalent to 2016) is continually updated, will it ever be bug-free? If it is continually being updated, the possibility (probability?) is there that new bugs will be continually introduced.

I am not comfortable with the “work in progress” mode; I prefer the more static, traditional software package.

There is no such thing as bug-free. ALL software has bugs. With millions of lines of code there’s just no way to find everything.

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There is no such thing as bug-free. ALL software has bugs. With millions of lines of code there’s just no way to find everything.

Yes, but with specific static versions, the likelihood is that a specific version will have less and less bugs moving forward. With “365”, i.e. a continuously updated, never-ending version, new features are continually coming into the pipeline (bringing their bugs with them) as old bugs are being removed. I.e. there may never be a reduction in the number of bugs.

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

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Which is why (when I was still working and we were running a 24/7 mainframe system) that we didn’t just blindly apply PTFs (Program Temporary Fixes) from IBM. It was always thought that just because IBM released a bunch of these and while a given PTF might fix a given problem that we didn’t have that it might also break something else that we did use.

This is analagous to the Office365 continually updating method.

K

Yes, but with specific static versions, the likelihood is that a specific version will have less and less bugs moving forward. With “365”, i.e. a continuously updated, never-ending version, new features are continually coming into the pipeline (bringing their bugs with them) as old bugs are being removed. I.e. there may never be a reduction in the number of bugs.

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Yes, but with specific static versions, the likelihood is that a specific version will have less and less bugs moving forward. With “365”, i.e. a continuously updated, never-ending version, new features are continually coming into the pipeline (bringing their bugs with them) as old bugs are being removed. I.e. there may never be a reduction in the number of bugs.

Welcome to the new world of continuous software release. That is already happening with browsers and it will spread to other types of apps. Software development is moving in that direction and it seems pretty much unstoppable… If you don’t like it, that’s too bad…

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Welcome to the new world of continuous software release. That is already happening with browsers and it will spread to other types of apps. Software development is moving in that direction and it seems pretty much unstoppable… If you don’t like it, that’s too bad…

I’m up to Office 2010 now on one computer, and 2007 on the other. Eventually I will need to upgrade to a newer version, because MS will stop supporting these versions. My job is considering going to Office 365.

I’m sure that once we all get onto the continuously-updated version (i.e. Office 365), most of us will forget what it was like to have a specific version of the software.

I wonder if you can turn off updates and just stay put where you are for a while. Then do a backup right before you get all of the updates you have missed. Say, once a week.

Maybe something like this will encourage people to do backups. It will probably get me to do them! :rolleyes:

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

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Businesses have the option to use a less frequently updated branch of Office 365. I don’t believe that the Home and Personal versions have the equivalent capability.

Joe

--Joe

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Did you read the content below the heading “Understand how long you can continue to use the Office 2013 version“?

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Did you read the content below the heading “Understand how long you can continue to use the Office 2013 version“?

That article applies to a business version (ProPlus) and involves the use of a deployment tool. How does this apply to people with the “regular” version of Office 365? It’s confusing because there so many different versions of O365

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That article applies to a business version (ProPlus) and involves the use of a deployment tool. How does this apply to people with the “regular” version of Office 365? It’s confusing because there so many different versions of O365

Nowhere does the article say it’s limited to ProPlus. Sure, it’s primarily aimed at that but, on my reading, the Office 2013 Deployment Tool allows anyone with Administrator access to customize and manage Office 2013 Click-to-Run deployments on any system.

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Paul, it’s possible that this has changed, but the Office Deployment Tool used to be for businesses with multiple licenses to do (custom) installs on computers in the domain. It’s not how the retail products are installed or updated.

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I’ve used the ODT on my Surface Pro 3.

Joe

--Joe

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I’ve used the ODT on my Surface Pro 3.

With the Home/Personal version?

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With the Home/Personal version?

Methinks you protest too much… You seem far more interested in disputing the solution offered (without trying it for yourself) than solving the OP’s problem.

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Here is a list of what products can be deployed with the tool:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2842297
The Home version isn’t there.

So, if there is a way to use it to solve the OP’s issue, that would be great, but some more details are going to be needed.

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Here is a list of what products can be deployed with the tool:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2842297
The Home version isn’t there.

So, if there is a way to use it to solve the OP’s issue, that would be great, but some more details are going to be needed.

There is a O365HomePremRetail there, which would, at first sight, seem to contradict your previous statement.

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There is a O365HomePremRetail there, which would, at first sight, seem to contradict your previous statement.

Microsoft no longer lists Office 365 Home Premium as a product and in that document it’s listed on a separate section of “non-Office 365 product IDs”. So many things have changed in the past 2 years that’s it’s tough to keep up.

If there is a way to use the ODT to control updates to the 2013 Office 365 Home version (which may well have been called Office 365 Home Premium a couple years ago) then that’s great. But it’s not obvious when looking at the description. It’s possible that what it’s doing is altering the Group Policy to control the upgrade path it’s using.

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With ODT you may use it to configure a current installation. You don’t have to use strictly for deployment.

BTW, mine is a business Office 365 subscription. I did not use ODT to deploy Office 365 but just to configure it.

Joe

--Joe

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See Product IDs that are supported by the Office Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run for a list of products that may be supported using the ODT.

Oops. That is the article you listed earlier.

BTW, when using ODT in configuration mode it does not necessarily set group policy it can set the registry keys. That is how I changed my installation to use the “Current Branch” after it was installed.

Joe

--Joe

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Office 365 is still newish, so it’s not clear how things will evolve. In a business environment, upgrading is not always desirable, so I am thinking that it will be possible from business plans subscribers to, at least, delay upgrading. I am not sure what will happen with home subscribers, but I am not thinking they will be very accommodating, to be honest.

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See Change management for Office 365 clients for a discussion of the new updating paradigm and Overview of update branches for Office 365 ProPlus for a discussion of the various branches available for businesses.

Joe

--Joe

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Browsing through that first link from Joe will baffle “many” home customers. I come from a software development career (although retired now) and can’t really be bothered to read through it all. I suspect that I will NOT go to Office365. I have Office2013 installed currently.

K

See Change management for Office 365 clients for a discussion of the new updating paradigm and Overview of update branches for Office 365 ProPlus for a discussion of the various branches available for businesses.

Joe

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See Change management for Office 365 clients for a discussion of the new updating paradigm and Overview of update branches for Office 365 ProPlus for a discussion of the various branches available for businesses.

Joe

Joe:

Thanks for the information.

From your first link:

“Both Windows 10 and Office 365 have adopted the servicing model for client updates. This means that new features, non-security updates, and security updates are released regularly, so your users can have the latest functionality and improvements. The servicing model also includes time for enterprise organizations to test and validate releases before adopting them.”

Sounds to me like there is no way to avoid any sort of update that Microsoft decides that you need or will want, unless you are a business.

Also, from reading your second link, it sounds like businesses will receive “new feature” updates every four months, and non-businesses every month”.

(I wonder how much it costs to be considered a “business” with Microsoft?)

The problem is, Microsoft doesn’t know all that I have on my computer; and if some piece of software that I have somehow breaks a rule that Microsoft has decided that everyone should follow, too bad for me. Personally, I don’t like being a beta tester for Microsoft, and that is one of the results of this new approach.

Also, this sort of approach gives Microsoft a huge amount of power over how people use their computers. In my opinion, the key reason that Microsoft has gained so much market share is because they have honestly tried to achieve backward compatibility for the user, so that the user can keep using the software that they have for a good while after Windows is upgraded to a newer version. By trying to have such absolute control over everyone’s computing experience, they will gain in the short term, but lose in the long term.

On the other hand, everyone else does this sort of thing, so it may not hurt Microsoft at all.

Jim

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

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That post was a response to mrjimphelps post #36 about his work going to Office 365 and wondering about updating. Retail customers will not have the same options.

Joe

--Joe

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With Office 365 you must sign up for a business SKU to be considered a business. See Compare Office 365 plans for business plans. Seeenterprise plans for more options.

From the second article it says that while features are released every four months you can skip one release and still get security updates. So, you can go eight months between feature updates. See the Current Branch for Business for Office 365 ProPlus section.

The article entitled “Change management for Office 365 clients” explains how to control updates for the long term. See the section What’s in it for Enterprise Organizations?.

Joe

--Joe

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I found that there is a plan called “Long Term Servicing Branch”. It includes Windows 10 and Office Professional Plus 2016. If I go that route, I will always get security patches, but all other updates and upgrades will be optional. And I’ll receive support for 10 years. So I could, if I chose, stay on Windows 10 and Office Pro Plus 2016 for 10 years.

I haven’t been able to find pricing for this plan, but it may be that this is an option you choose with one of the listed plans.

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

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Windows 10 LTSB is only available for Enterprises. I think that if you can get the MSI install of Office Pro Plus instead of click-to-run you can avoid updates. Guess you’d have to use the Office Deployment Tool to configure the correct servicing branch to avoid feature updates.

Joe

--Joe

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