Install Microsoft Office with the Office Deployment Tool (ODT)

Last updated: Sep 19, 2026

I remember a time when installing Microsoft Office was as simple as installing any other program: an ISO image, an .exe file, and that was it. As often with Microsoft, keeping things simple does not seem to be an option. By the way, I would recommend that you install and use LibreOffice, but that is another topic. Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to replace Microsoft Office in a business environment.

Installing Microsoft Office now basically involves three steps:
- Download the officedeploymenttool.exe tool.
- Generate an XML deployment configuration file.
- Run the setup.exe program using the XML file as an argument.

Easy, isn't it? In this tutorial, I will show you how to install Microsoft Office using the Office Deployment Tool (ODT), step by step.

Download the Office Deployment Tool

First, we need to download the Office Deployment Tool (ODT), a command-line tool provided by Microsoft that we will use to download and install Microsoft Office.

To do so, go to the Microsoft Support website and download the Office Deployment Tool.

Click the Download Deployment Tool link:

Microsoft Office Deployment Tool download page showing the Download Deployment Tool button — Microsoft Office Deployment Tool download page with the **Download Deployment Tool** link highlighted.

Select the language and click the Download button to download the tool:

Office Deployment Tool download page showing the language selection menu and Download button — Select the language for the **Office Deployment Tool**, then click the **Download** button.

Create the C:\OFFICE folder and place the downloaded officedeploymenttool.exe file inside it:

Windows File Explorer showing the Office Deployment Tool executable inside the C:\OFFICE folder — The downloaded **Office Deployment Tool** executable placed in the `C:\OFFICE` folder.

Accept the Microsoft Software License Terms and click Continue:

Microsoft Office Deployment Tool license agreement window with the license terms checkbox and Continue button highlighted — Accept the **Microsoft Software License Terms**, then click **Continue**.

Select the C:\OFFICE folder and click OK to extract the Office Deployment Tool files:

Office Deployment Tool Browse For Folder window with the C:\OFFICE folder selected and the OK button highlighted — Select the `C:\OFFICE` folder as the destination for the extracted **Office Deployment Tool** files.

You should now see the setup.exe file and an XML configuration file in the C:\OFFICE folder:

Windows File Explorer showing setup.exe and an XML configuration file extracted in the C:\OFFICE folder — The extracted **Office Deployment Tool** files, including `setup.exe` and the XML configuration file.

Create the XML Configuration File

Now that the setup.exe file has been extracted, we can create the XML configuration file that will define how Microsoft Office is installed. To do this, we can use Microsoft's online Office Customization Tool.

Choose the required options, such as the architecture, the product, the apps to install, and the language:

Microsoft Office Customization Tool showing deployment settings for architecture, product selection, apps, and language — Choose the deployment settings, including the architecture, product, apps to install, and language.

Click the Export button, choose the default file format, accept the license agreement, enter a file name, and then click Export again to download the generated XML file:

Microsoft Office Customization Tool showing the Export button, default file format selection, license agreement checkbox, and XML file export options — Export the Office configuration to an **XML** file after selecting the default file format, accepting the license agreement, and entering a file name.

Copy the generated Configuration.xml file to the C:\OFFICE folder:

Windows File Explorer showing the generated Configuration.xml file copied to the C:\OFFICE folder — The generated `Configuration.xml` file copied to the `C:\OFFICE` folder.

Run the Installation

As a final step, run the setup.exe program from an administrator terminal using the XML configuration file.

Open Terminal with administrator privileges:

Windows search results showing the Terminal app with the Run as administrator option highlighted — Open **Terminal** with administrator privileges.

Change to the C:\OFFICE directory:

C:\Windows\system32> cd C:\OFFICE

Run setup.exe with the Configuration.xml file:

c:\OFFICE> setup.exe /configure c:\OFFICE\Configuration.xml

The Microsoft Office installation should now start:

Microsoft Office installation window showing the We're getting things ready message — The Microsoft Office installation starts and prepares the required files.