Office deployment taking ages

[mattfarnell]

We are deploying office 365 but having some speed issues. The installation is taking around 30-35 min. From current channel on the CDN

Below is a list of what we've tried but so far not had any luck with fixing the issue.

-We have rebuilt the config and checked there's no iffy lines of code in it. (used ODT).

-We have tried multiple methods of deployment, mdt, pdq and just plain install via cmd.

-I have spoken with another school in our cluster and they are getting installs sub 15 min, we checked our configs and firewall ports and they all match.

-I took the installation off site and ran independently and i got an install in 5 min which points to an internal issue.

-After this i tested with permissions, thinking it might be a user thing. Both local admins and Domain admins with full web access gave the 30 min result.

 

Has anyone had experience like this before with office

[Steve21]

Do you have delivery optimisation set in terms of it waiting to find on local devices first? Cant remember if it does that on first deploy but updates certainly go out with it 

 

also you can use a downloaded copy of the source to deploy out locally, then it just updates online, so might be worth passing it a copy of the local installer first if you’re still getting issues

 

Steve

 

 

[mattfarnell]

I haven't configured any optimization or any local sources. I'll try a local source today and see how that goes. That will prove if its a web issue or a physical install issue.

[altecsole]

I use PDQ Deploy for Office 2021 LTSB. It copies a zipped folder to the local computer, unzips, then installs - it takes around 10 mins.

[Olliedawg]

Ours takes about 10 minutes too, office 2024 LTSC. Current channel from the CDN

[mattfarnell]

This is my config but like i say i got 5 min from home so don't think its tha.

 

 

<Configuration ID="57ca5aaa-3f77-449b-bfc9-1eb890c464a5">
  <Info Description="" />
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="Current">
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="en-gb" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Outlook" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
  <Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="1" />
  <Property Name="FORCEAPPSHUTDOWN" Value="TRUE" />
  <Property Name="DeviceBasedLicensing" Value="0" />
  <Property Name="SCLCacheOverride" Value="0" />
  <Updates Enabled="TRUE" />
  <AppSettings>
    <Setup Name="Company" Value="##########" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="51" Type="REG_DWORD" App="excel16" Id="L_SaveExcelfilesas" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\powerpoint\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="27" Type="REG_DWORD" App="ppt16" Id="L_SavePowerPointfilesas" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\word\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="" Type="REG_SZ" App="word16" Id="L_SaveWordfilesas" />
  </AppSettings>
  <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
</Configuration>

[altecsole]

2 minutes ago, Olliedawg said:

Ours takes about 10 minutes too, office 2024 LTSC. Current channel from the CDN

Did you have any kickback from staff about losing Publisher? 

[altecsole]

3 minutes ago, mattfarnell said:

This is my config but like i say i got 5 min from home so don't think its tha.

<Configuration ID="57ca5aaa-3f77-449b-bfc9-1eb890c464a5">
  <snip>
</Configuration>

Here's ours - if it's any help:

 

<Configuration>

  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="PerpetualVL2021" SourcePath="UPDATE_SOURCE" AllowCdnFallback="TRUE">
    <Product ID="ProPlus2021Volume" PIDKEY="**************">
      <Language ID="en-gb" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Teams" />
    </Product>

  </Add>
  <Updates Enabled="TRUE" />

  <Remove All="True" />

  <RemoveMSI All="True" />

  <AppSettings>
    <Setup Name="Company" Value="***********" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="51" Type="REG_DWORD" App="excel16" Id="L_SaveExcelfilesas" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\powerpoint\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="27" Type="REG_DWORD" App="ppt16" Id="L_SavePowerPointfilesas" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\word\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="" Type="REG_SZ" App="word16" Id="L_SaveWordfilesas" />
  </AppSettings>
  
  <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />

  <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" />

</Configuration>

[Olliedawg]

3 minutes ago, altecsole said:

Did you have any kickback from staff about losing Publisher? 

None at all. Don't think any of our staff use publisher

[Lxshm]

for me the new ltsc 2024 just installs office 365 with all the config settings above , is there any reason why would it do that?

[chazzy2501]

You set a local network source path in the XML, then do a setup.exe /download then you can do a setup.exe /configure for the clients. 

 

edit:

 

our older one:

 

<Configuration>
  <Add SourcePath="\\fileserv1\distribution point\office2021" OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="PerpetualVL2021">
      <Product ID="ProPlus2021Volume" >
	<Language ID="en-gb" Fallback="en-us" />
      	<ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
      	<ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
      	<ExcludeApp ID="OneDrive" />
	<ExcludeApp ID="OneNote" />
   	</Product>
  </Add>
  <Updates Enabled="TRUE" Channel="PerpetualVL2021" />
  <RemoveMSI All="True" />
  <AppSettings>
    <Setup Name="Company" Value="school name" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="51" Type="REG_DWORD" App="excel16" Id="L_SaveExcelfilesas" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\powerpoint\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="27" Type="REG_DWORD" App="ppt16" Id="L_SavePowerPointfilesas" />
    <User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\word\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="" Type="REG_SZ" App="word16" Id="L_SaveWordfilesas" />
  </AppSettings>
  <Display Level="Full" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
  <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" />
</Configuration>

 

 

 

 

 

[Lxshm]

i get this 

 

[bknaggs]

My installs of LTSC 2024 say the same on that screen but in About Word it is listed correctly as LTSC 2024

[mattfarnell]

I tested a local source this evening on a test pc at work and still got the same result of 30 min. I did the setup.exe /configure configuration.

 

<Configuration ID="f35def0d-bd75-4e4c-bc0d-268ea24671eb">
  <Info Description="" />
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="Current" SourcePath="\\server\repository$\Microsoft office 365 2026 local source" AllowCdnFallback="TRUE">
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">.

So does this test confirm that it isn't the web access?

[Mr.Ben]

On 20/05/2026 at 11:08, altecsole said:

Did you have any kickback from staff about losing Publisher? 

A little.

 

I've bought a GUI conversion tool and put it in the Company portal for them to use:

 

https://forgeclass.co.uk/

 

It's less than £100, converts to Word and PDF (PDF is more reliable).