Step-by-Step Install of the Office 2013 Preview MSI Download

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Important:

This post refers to the Office 2013 Preview — this was pre-release software that is no longer available. All techniques mentioned in this post will not work with the final release version of Office 2013.

While Microsoft provides you with a way to install the Office 2013 Customer Preview using a CTR (Click To Run) process where the actual install is streamed to your computer from the cloud, they also provide a less publicized download file that can be used to install the Office 2013 Customer Preview on your computer without having to use a few hours off your busy schedule. Or maybe you need to install on multiple machines, and a few hours per machine is not your idea of time well spent — when there clearly is a better alternative!

When you actually go to download this MSI file, the download page actually scares you (see red highlighted area in the screen-shot, below)!

It tells you that “Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 Preview is also available using the traditional MSI-based installation package. Please note the traditional installation does not support fast streaming or side-by-side operation with older versions of Office, and you will need to uninstall existing Office programs on your PC“.

OK, first and foremost, that’s being economical with the truth! Nothing of this sort will happen, and you can run your older installation of Office alongside this new Office 2013 Customer Preview. Having said that, do remember that this is pre-release software and there may still be bugs in the Customer Preview version — so it’s a good idea not to install this on your work system — in fact, read these best practice tips before you proceed further.

Now that you have been suitably warned, let us proceed with step-by-step instructions:

We assume that you have downloaded the MSI file, as shown in the screen-shot below. Double-click this file to get started.

You’ll see the familiar Extracting files dialog.

Next, you see the Microsft Software License Terms screen — once you have read these terms (or not), go ahead and check the I accept the terms of this agreement option, and click the Continue button.

Now you get to Choose the installation you want. Do you see the familiar Upgrade and Customize buttons — this proves that all those claims of losing your existing Office programs was just gobbledygook!

We chose the Customize option to find this four-tabbed dialog.

Pay particular attention to the File Location tab — by default, this might choose the same folder as your existing Office installation but that’s easy enough to change by typing another path yourself!

The installation will now begin — it’s a quick setup process, so don’t expect to wander around for a cup of coffee!

Next, you see a screen that your installation is getting finalized.

OK, the installation is done now — this took around 10 minutes compared to the CTR install that took an hour and half! We clicked the Close button.

We next launched PowerPoint 2013, and noticed that our installed add-ins for PowerPoint 2010 are being loaded!

And here’s PowerPoint welcoming you to Office 2013 for the first time. Microsoft seems to believe you will love Office, and with a snappy 10 minute install, we do love it now! Unless you have a spare 15 or 20 minutes, do not click the Next button. You can just click the Cross button on the top-right to close this welcome screen if you want to play with PowerPoint now.

Wow, PowerPoint 2013 also loaded four of our add-ins (see the extra tabs) that were already set up on this machine for PowerPoint 2010 — and three of them had no trouble working in this new environment!

Categories: office_2013, powerpoint_2013

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