With the release of Office 2013 Click-to-Run, Microsoft has created a tool to assist with the deploying of various 2013 Click-to-Run products. This blog walks through how to use and customize the Office Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run.

Step 1.
Download the Office Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36778
Running the officedeploymenttool.exe produces a Setup.exe and a configuration.xml file.

Step 2.
Edit the Configuration.xml file:
Open the configuration.xml file in a word editor. You will see the XML data:
  

   <Configuration>
   <!-- <Add SourcePath="\\Server\Share\Office" OfficeClientEdition="32" >
   <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail”>
   <Language ID="en-us" />
   </Product>
   <Product ID=”VisioProRetail”>
   <Language ID=”en-us” />
   </Product>
    </Add> -->
    <!--  <Updates Enabled="TRUE" UpdatePath="\\Server\Share\Office\" /> -->
    <!--  <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />  -->
    <!--  <Logging Name="OfficeSetup.txt" Path="%temp%" />  -->
    <!--  <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" />  -->
    </Configuration>

Anything between comment marks <!--   --> will not run. So first remove the comment marks around Add SourcePath and the trailing </Add>

Next, edit the “\\Server\Share\Office\” path to represent where you want to download the Office files too. Example – “C:\users\admin\desktop\odt\”

If you are only installing Office Pro Plus, remove <Product ID=”VisioProRetail”> through </Product> to remove Visio from the install. Then save your Configuration.xml file.

If you are wanting to exclude a specific app or apps from your install, you will use the <ExcludeApp ID="x" /> in the configuration.xml file as outlined here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn745895(v=office.15).aspx

If you are installing additional products, or a different product, view the following KB article for a full list of product IDs that are supported by the Office Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2842297 

If you are adding additional languages to your install or want to further customize your install, please see the Reference for Click-to-Run configuration.xml file TechNet article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219426.aspx

Step 3.
Download the media:
Open a command window and change the directory to the location of your setup.exe file. Next, run Setup.exe /download configuration.xml
 

The software will begin downloading to your machine. This process usually takes 10 or so minutes, but can take as long as an hour or more depending on your internet connection and other factors.
Once the software is done downloading, the command window will return to the C:\ Prompt.

 
Step 4.
Install the software.
If you are installing on the same machine that you downloaded the software too, run the following command to start the install: Setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

If you are planning on adding this download to a network share and having multiple users download Office from that location, make sure that DOMAIN COMPUTERS has Read & execute, List folder contents and Read permission. For more info on Installing from a network share, visit our blog entry on that topic here:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/odsupport/archive/2012/11/20/office-2013-installation-hangs-at-10-percent-when-installing-from-a-network-share.aspx

Shortly after the release of the July Public Update, we received notification of a potential issue affecting a subset of Office 365 ProPlus users. In some cases, users running Office may not be able to launch Office products after the July 2014 updates are installed.

We have since corrected the issue and will be releasing an updated build 15.0.4631.1004 scheduled to go live by Thursday July 24th. Once the update is available, you can click on “Update Now” from the backstage to get the latest fix.

If you still have issues, then please reboot your computer and try “Update Now.” If you still have issues launching Office applications, as a last resort, please run the Fix It located at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2739501 to uninstall and reinstall the latest bits.  For more information please see the article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2989605.

Note: This issue doesn’t affect Volume License customers.

Background

One of the goals of Office Click-to-Run is to continue to innovate and improve the product with each new update release.  This month is no different.

More Information

With the July 2014 update of Office 2013 for Office 365 the following improvements have been made:

1. Smaller Update Download Package:  Based on feedback from our customers, we have made improvements to the size of the update package that has to be downloaded to each machine being patched.  We now use binary delta compression, so that the amount of data downloaded across the network is reduced by up to 70%.  For example, if you have installed the June 2014 build (version 15.0.4623.1002) and now apply the July 2014 build, the total amount of data downloaded to the computer will be less than 120MB compared to over 310 MB with the traditional update method.
   Note: This holds true only if you apply updates each month.  If you skip months, then the update package size will be larger.
   
   
2. User-mode Streaming:  When installing Office 2013 for Office 365 from a network location, the requirement has been that the local computer accounts need “read” permissions to that network location.  This requirement is documented here.  With the July 2014 update, this is no longer a requirement.