office 2003 to office 2016

[Sydders01]

Hi ,

 

Please how do I upgrade office 2003 to 2016?

 

 

I just got a job in a primary school and they are still using office 2003

 

 

is it possible to upgrade this for free?

[jmak]

Hi

 

The short answer is uninstall 2003 and then install 2016 - there isn't an upgrade procedure as such.

 

You have identified a significant security issue on the network. there have been no security updates or patches for almost 3 years, so this is fairly urgent to get resolved - with the caveat that if they're still using that version of Office, there may well be other areas of concern. Dare I ask what operating system is on the PCs and/or laptops?

 

The news they might not like to hear is that it's not free to upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft Office. There are free alternatives which you should take a look at, for example Libre Office, Open Office as programs which can be installed.

 

You could also look at web apps which might give you a quicker solution as there's nothing to install as well as no charge.

[Sydders01]

Thanks @jmak please if am to install the latest office how do I go about the installation? Haven't done this on the domain before

Hi

 

The short answer is uninstall 2003 and then install 2016 - there isn't an upgrade procedure as such.

 

You have identified a significant security issue on the network. there have been no security updates or patches for almost 3 years, so this is fairly urgent to get resolved - with the caveat that if they're still using that version of Office, there may well be other areas of concern. Dare I ask what operating system is on the PCs and/or laptops?

 

The news they might not like to hear is that it's not free to upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft Office. There are free alternatives which you should take a look at, for example Libre Office, Open Office as programs which can be installed.

 

You could also look at web apps which might give you a quicker solution as there's nothing to install as well as no charge.

[3s-gtech]

You need to create a custom admin install (basically a switch set on the installer) which enables you to customise the install removing unused components, entering licensing details etc.

 

You then deploy this custom version with startup scripts. These can be found with a search on Edugeek.

 

There is a significant cost element here. You may be able to get a good deal on Office 365 (which is installed slightly differently).

[jmak]

@3s-gtech beat me to it!

 

Step 1) Buy a licensed copy - you might find that more difficult than working out how to deploy it!

 

There are almost endless options for deployment methods. Search for "deploy office 2016 GPO" on this site and the web for starters.

 

I found this site gave me a good overview:

 

https://4sysops.com/archives/office-2016-installation-customize-and-deploy/

 

I deploy most of my software using Group Policy and it is usually straightforward, but Office isn't quite the same - as mentioned above, you use a tool to customise the installation and then create a policy to run a script.

 

One option to simplify your deployment could be to do your customisations and then run the installation manually from the client machines. In my experience Office takes quite a long time to deploy across a network so a group policy script that runs at start up might cause anarchy as everyone tries to login at the same time to find that they can't do anything as Office is being installed and the network has ground to a halt due to all of the clients trying to download Office at the same time. You'll probably need to visit all of the machines to make sure the old version is uninstalled properly anyway.

[elsiegee40]

Quite seriously you need to be looking at Office 365 for Education which will do things much more cheaply than the conventional Office 2016 install. Although I hardly dare ask what broadband is like at this school