Commercial Preview of Microsoft Office Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) is Now Available
Published Apr 22 2021 09:14 AM 36.4K Views

Today we’re pleased to announce the commercial preview of Office Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) for Windows and Office LTSC for Mac.[1] The next perpetual version of Office for commercial customers is built specifically for organizations running regulated devices that cannot accept feature updates for years at a time, process control devices that are not connected to the internet in manufacturing facilities, and specialty systems that must stay locked in time and require a long-term servicing channel. Office LTSC will provide the familiar productivity tools you have experienced with Office 2019, now with faster performance and expanded accessibility. You can preview Office LTSC and Office LTSC for Mac starting today. 

 

Office LTSC will include features from past Office releases as well as a subset of new features already available in Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. As we announced in February, Office LTSC, like Windows 10 LTSC, will be supported for five years and continue being governed by the Fixed Lifecycle Policy. To learn more about other changes for Office LTSC, see our February announcement. 

 

Office LTSC will be deployed using Click-to-Run exclusively, just like Office 2019, so IT admins can take advantage of modern deployment technology to help reduce costs. Office LTSC for Mac will use the standard Apple Package format (pkg) - the same technology that we have used for previous perpetual releases, including Office 2019 for Mac and Office 2016 for Mac. To understand additional system requirements for Office LTSC and Office LTSC for Mac, read the FAQ. 

 

Microsoft 365 Apps continues to deliver the most productive and most secure Office experience, offering the lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for deployment and management. In another recent announcement, we shared how Microsoft 365 Apps can also be used in organizations with employees going offline for longer periods of time or using shared devices or workstations. However, Office LTSC will be a valuable upgrade for customers who need to keep their Office apps on-premises.  

 

This is the first in a series of preview announcements for the on-premises wave, and in the coming months we’ll also announce commercial previews for SharePoint and Project Server. For instructions on how to install the Office LTSC and Office LTSC for Mac preview, go here 

 

Continue the conversation by joining us in the Microsoft 365 Tech Community! Whether you have product questions or just want to stay informed with the latest updates on new releases, tools, and blogs, Microsoft 365 Tech Community is your go-to resource to stay connected!

 

[1]Product name has been updated since blog's original publication date.

7 Comments

Hi @Microsoft_365_Team thanks for the announcement.

 

For the matter of consistency will you name it Office 2022 such as Windows Server and Exchange?

 

Will the new Office be available as MSIX installation? 

 

Could you share the Office and Server compatibility and support matrix as you did as PDF for earlier versions? 

 

 

Hello @Karl_Wester-Ebbinghaus,

 

Thanks for your questions! We're happy to answer them. 

 

1) The commercial perpetual version of Office will be named "Office LTSC" for Windows and "Office LTSC for Mac 2021"[1] for Mac.

 

2) MSIX will not be supported for Office LTSC. Click-to-Run will be used for Windows and standard Apple Package format for Mac.

 

3) The matrix will be available at GA in the second half of 2021.

 

Let us know if you have any other questions about this announcement. 

 

Thanks, 

 

@Microsoft_365_Team 

 

[1] Product name has been updated since our original reply. 

Thank you for your brief and helpful replies. Looking forward to #3. It would be great if MS Partner could get this ahead of time so it would make it easier to plan licensing for Office and Server, also projects planned for 2021.

Copper Contributor

Does this version enable turning off the sandbox features? 

 

I have 20 year old vba code I use to run my classrooms.  It runs unattended on Windows just fine but porting to the Mac hasn't worked due to the sandbox. 

Copper Contributor

Is OneDrive and/or OneDrive for Business part of the this Preview?

And will it be Part in the Final Release?

@jmichaelg,

 

Thanks for your question!

 

Office for Mac continues to be sandboxed. Apple's sandbox is a security mechanism that is the standard for Mac applications. We have an article here written for Office 2016 for Mac and VBA, when sandboxing was introduced. This article would still apply to Office 2019 and Office LTSC for Mac 2021*: Office for Mac for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) | Microsoft Docs.

 

@Microsoft_365_Team 

 

*Product name has been updated since our original reply. 

 

@patgerber OneDrive aswell as their admx files are best available as seperate download. They are easy to deploy. 

If you don't use a software deployment you can use winget or WinPGK

 

I wouldn't distribute it via Office LTSC or 365 for Business apps. 

 

One reason is the recommendation in the docs.microsoft.com to switch to /allusers installation.

 

Secondly a 64bit OneDrive is on the way (has some functionality regression according to Hans Brender (MVP), not sure if these still exist)

Here are all downloads and release notes. 

 

Third OneDrive Updates don't align with Office Update cadence. 

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/onedrive-release-notes-845dcf18-f921-435e-bf28-4e24b95e5f...

 

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