Office LTSC is Now Available
- Paul Thurrott
- Sep 16, 2021
-
7
Microsoft announced today that Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) for commercial customers on Windows and macOS. Office LTSC is a so-called “perpetual” version of Office, meaning that commercial customers can license it outright on a per-PC basis and use it for its five years of support without getting any functional updates.
“We know some customers aren’t ready to move to the cloud [and] we remain committed to supporting our customers and these scenarios,” Microsoft corporate vice president Jared Spataro writes in the announcement post. “Earlier this year, we previewed Microsoft Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) for Windows and macOS. Today, we’re announcing the general availability of this next perpetual version of Office for commercial and government customers.”
Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
Office LTSC is designed for specific use cases, such as on regulated devices that cannot accept feature updates, process control devices on the manufacturing floor, and specialty systems that cannot connect to the Internet, Microsoft says. It provides improved performance and expanded accessibility functionality, but none of the cloud-based capabilities that customers get in the Microsoft 365 versions of the Office applications, including real-time collaboration and AI-driven automation.
Microsoft also pledges that this won’t be the last release of Office LTSC, though it will of course continue to focus on Microsoft 365 and its cloud-based advantages.
You can learn more about Office LTSC from the Microsoft Docs website.