Update Office LTSC 2024

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Once you deploy Office LTSC 2024, including Project 2024 and Visio 2024, it's important to keep it up to date. Microsoft regularly releases security updates and quality improvements, including updates that enhance stability and performance. Office LTSC 2024 typically receives updates once a month on the second Tuesday.

Note

Office LTSC 2024 doesn't receive new features after it's released. To access new Office features on an ongoing basis, consider transitioning to a Microsoft 365 plan that includes Office.

How Office LTSC 2024 gets updated

Here’s how Office updates work:

  • When Microsoft releases updates for Office, a new build is made available on the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN). This build includes the latest security and quality updates.
  • By default, Office is configured to automatically receive updates from the Office CDN. You can change this setting. For more information, see Configure where Office LTSC gets updates from.
  • The "Office Automatic Updates 2.0" scheduled task on the device checks for updates regularly.
  • If updates are available, Office automatically downloads them without user intervention. During this process, Office downloads only the necessary updates to match the latest version on the CDN.
  • Users can continue working in Office apps like Word while updates are downloading. After the updates download, they're installed. If any Office apps are open, users are prompted to save their work and close the apps to install the updates.
  • After installation, users can resume working in their Office apps.

How updates are different in Office LTSC 2024

Updates in Office LTSC 2024 are managed the same as in Office LTSC 2021 but differ significantly from MSI-based updates used in Office 2016. In Office LTSC 2024, updates are cumulative, meaning the latest version available on the Office CDN includes all previous security and quality updates. This approach ensures that Office is up to date when you download and install it from the Office CDN, so you don’t need to apply individual updates or service packs.

Unlike in earlier MSI-based versions, there are no separate downloads for security or quality updates; they're included in each new build posted on the Office CDN. As a result, Microsoft Update or Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) isn't used by itself to update Office LTSC 2024. However, Microsoft Configuration Manager can be used to manage how and when updates are applied, and where they're sourced from.

Configure where Office LTSC 2024 gets updates from

If network connectivity and your organizational requirements allow, update Office automatically from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN). Updating from the Office CDN is the default, so there’s nothing extra to do, making it an easy way to keep Office up to date.

If you prefer that devices with Office installed don't connect to the Office CDN for updates, configure Office to get updates from a shared folder within your internal network. You can specify this location either in the configuration.xml file used to deploy Office with the Office Deployment Tool or by using Group Policy. At least one device must have access to the Office CDN to download the latest version of Office to the shared folder on your internal network.

Installing and updating Office from a shared folder on your local network requires more administrative effort and disk space. For example, you need to track when new builds of Office are available and then download the updated version to your network. Downloading to a shared folder on your local network downloads a full copy of the updated version of Office.

You can also use enterprise software deployment tools, such as Microsoft Configuration Manager, to help update Office.

For more information, see Deploy Office LTSC 2024

Check for updates for Office LTSC 2024

Instead of waiting for the scheduled task to run to check for updates, you can manually check for updates. To do that, open any Office app, such as Word, and go to File > Account > Update Options > Update Now.

This causes the Click-to-Run service to go look for updates at the location that you’ve configured Office to look for updates. For example, directly from the Office CDN on the internet. If updates are available, Office begins the process to download.

Size of updates for Office LTSC 2024

The size of the updates downloaded to the user's device from the update location varies depending on several factors, including how long it’s been since Office was last updated and the number of security and quality updates available.

To minimize the size of the updates that need to be downloaded, we recommend keeping Office up to date. Office uses a technology called binary delta compression to help reduce the size of updates applied to the user's device. However, binary delta compression is only available if you're updating from a recent version of Office. For example, if you're updating from the September or October version to the November version. But if you're updating a much older version of Office, such as from the June to November version, binary delta compression isn’t available.

Use Group Policy to specify update settings

If you have Windows Server and Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) deployed in your organization, you can configure update settings for Office by using Group Policy. To do this, download the most current Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML for Office), which include the policy settings for Office.

After you copy the Administrative Template files to AD DS, you'll find the update policy settings under Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2016 (Machine)\Updates in the Group Policy Management tool. You'll also find a description of how to configure each policy setting. For example, you can use the "Update path" Group Policy setting to specify where Office should look for updates.

Update channel for Office LTSC 2024

Office uses the concept of update channels to determine which updates an installed version of Office receives. The update channel is a device-wide setting, meaning all Office products, including Project and Visio, installed on a device must use the same update channel.

"PerpetualVL2024" is the only update channel available for Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 and Office LTSC Standard 2024. The PerpetualVL2024 update channel is also available for volume licensed versions of Project 2024 and Visio LTSC 2024.

Volume licensed versions of Project 2024 and Visio LTSC 2024 can also use other update channels, such as Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, or Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel. The reason Project and Visio can use these other update channels is to ensure compatibility when installed on a device alongside Microsoft 365 Apps, which support all these channels. Even if Project and Visio use different update channels, they only receive security and quality updates each month, without any new features.

For more information, see Overview of update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps.