Office 2021 LTSC upgrade from Office 2019

[Tefters]

This might be of use to someone in the future.

 

Office 2021 LTSC cannot be directly installed/upgraded from Office 2019 using the click-to-run.

The process requires an uninstall 2019 and install of 2021 which I was hoping to achieve from 1 config XML file but I haven't had much joy with this.

 

In short - Create a config XML to uninstall Office and then another to install 2021 and deploy together in sequence, no reboot needed in between.

**Note: First load of any Office application after the above process shows the splash screen of the product as 2019 and the UI of the application doesn't look like its changed but the about section of the product shows 2021 LTSC. Close the app and re-open and both the splash screen and UI change to that of the 2021 format. #Shrug

Edited October 14, 2021 by Tefters

[amaro.silva]

Hi Tefters,

 

Going through the same process here but have not been able to get the XML for removing 2019 working.

 

I have got:

 

How did you get yours woking?

[Tefters]

 

I tried specifying the product and it didn't work so just did it all.

[3s-gtech]

I thought that was the case going back to 2013 - I have a line in my install script that removes the old version first.

[Jaan]

The online config has the option to remove previous versions.

 

https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings

 

how you guys actually deploying this Via GPO?

 

cheers

[amaro.silva]

I tried that first but it still did not work.

 

Maybe it was the

that was missing all along...

 

Ended up going with:

 

[amaro.silva]

The online config has the option to remove previous versions.

 

https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings

 

how you guys actually deploying this Via GPO?

 

cheers

 

Just a batch script, one line to remove 2019 another to install 2021, nothing special.

 

Amaro

[woodham]

Amaro, care to share your batch file? as an example for others?

[KK20]

Im starting to look at upgrading a few guinea pigs from 2019 to 2021. What did you do with your configuration GPOS? Any "gotchas" you have found so far?

[dazza007]

I have managed to get this working, uninstalling Office 2019 using the Remove Element and then installing Office 2021 using configuration.xml

 

Using a batch script running the following

cmd /c "setup.exe /configure uninstall.xml"  & cmd /c "setup.exe /configure configuration.xml"

The xml to uninstall

 

Install the new 2021 Office volume licence pack here on the KMS server and the KMS key from the VLSC

https://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=103446

Seems easy now, I wished Microsoft would save us time and give us a simple how to!

Enjoy

[mullet_man]

Ah thank you I've been tearing what little hair I have left out with this, I thought the ODT could uninstall any previous version but what do I know.

 

Am trying your trick now @dazza007 hopefully it will sort it.

[mullet_man]

I have managed to get this working, uninstalling Office 2019 using the Remove Element and then installing Office 2021 using configuration.xml

 

Using a batch script running the following

cmd /c "setup.exe /configure uninstall.xml"  & cmd /c "setup.exe /configure configuration.xml"

The xml to uninstall

 

Install the new 2021 Office volume licence pack here on the KMS server and the KMS key from the VLSC

https://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=103446

Seems easy now, I wished Microsoft would save us time and give us a simple how to!

Enjoy

 

This worked perfectly thank you @dazza007

[mullet_man]

Actually am now struggling, I've pushed this out to a set of laptops that has 2019 on and it's failing again with the same error. It's like the uninstaller can't find 2019 to uninstall?!

 

Am doubting if it uninstalled the previous at all and I tested on a laptop without Office on?!

 

I'll take another look tomorrow.

Edited December 7, 2021 by mullet_man

[mullet_man]

Maybe I didn't wait long enough?! Some have completed some have timed out.

 

Confused

[AJWhite1970]

I've been using the offscrub vbs script and that appears to work every time

 

https://silentinstallhq.com/microsoft-office-2019-click-to-run-c2r-uninstall-offscrub-vbs-script/

[mullet_man]

I've been using the offscrub vbs script and that appears to work every time

 

https://silentinstallhq.com/microsoft-office-2019-click-to-run-c2r-uninstall-offscrub-vbs-script/

 

Yeah I think the issue am having is the uninstall bit is set to uninstall all versions of Office so it's taking ages to work it's way through scanning for every version of Office to uninstall. I think if I changed the uninstall XML is specifically uninstall Office 2019 ProPlus it would speed things up.

[robjduk]

Just seen this thread... This is what I use and removed all traces of 2019 or 2021...

 

[LeMarchand]

Just upgraded from 19 to 21 on my Desktop and Laptop and, AFAICT, it seems to have removed 2019 by just adding after the remove MSI line. Don't know if setting it to device based licensing had anything to do with that.

 

[mullet_man]

I think I must have had a mistake in my XML

 

This seems to be working fine for me now.

 

[denmyos]

I have managed to get this working, uninstalling Office 2019 using the Remove Element and then installing Office 2021 using configuration.xml

 

Using a batch script running the following

cmd /c "setup.exe /configure uninstall.xml"  & cmd /c "setup.exe /configure configuration.xml"

The xml to uninstall

 

Install the new 2021 Office volume licence pack here on the KMS server and the KMS key from the VLSC

https://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=103446

Seems easy now, I wished Microsoft would save us time and give us a simple how to!

Enjoy

 

How do you run this .bat inside a sccm application.?

All this office uninstall has been driving me crazy the last 2 weeks.

The .bat works by itself, but i can't get it to work as a application.!

 

Nevermind is working now

Thank you

Edited February 2, 2023 by denmyos

[ITGuyNW]

I've just been looking at Office 2021 as we are all on 2019. I believe it's being rebranded as Microsoft 365 this year, is it the same deployment process?

[denmyos]

I've just been looking at Office 2021 as we are all on 2019. I believe it's being rebranded as Microsoft 365 this year, is it the same deployment process?

 

took me 2 weeks to get working.

 

our problem was that our office 2019 was a package, so i couldn't supersedence it.

I use the batch in this thread:

cmd /c "setup.exe /configure uninstall.xml" & cmd /c "setup.exe /configure configuration.xml"

and placed it in the source folder, and then made a new application as a "manully specify the ....." and then pointed it to the batch file.

Thank you @dazza007

 

remember the detection rules is for the new office, not the old Office 2019, as i thought.

 

If you have futher question just,

[dazza007]

You just setup a batch file and the config in the same folder and run as a script.

If you set it as available and not required staff can run this from software center and then when they ignore your emails to do it force the app as required. The problem is the install kills all office apps to run and staff can lose work.

[ITGuyNW]

Installed 365 easily enough as its similar to 2021 but just found out A1 licences don't allow shared computers, only A3 and above.. This is straying from the original query but thought it was something mention.

[denmyos]

You just setup a batch file and the config in the same folder and run as a script.

If you set it as available and not required staff can run this from software center and then when they ignore your emails to do it force the app as required. The problem is the install kills all office apps to run and staff can lose work.

 

yes, it was quiet easy when i first got my head around it.

Good point with making it Available, instead of Required.