Office 365 Pro Plus has three different channels or ‘rings’:
| Update channel | Primary purpose | How often updated with new features | Default update channel for the following products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Channel | Provide users with the newest features of Office as soon as they’re available. | Monthly | Visio Online Plan 2 (previously named Visio Pro for Office 365)
Project Online Desktop Client Office 365 Business, which is the version of Office that comes with some Office 365 plans, such as Business Premium. |
| Semi-Annual Channel | Provide users with new features of Office only a few times a year. | Every six months, in January and July | Office 365 ProPlus |
| Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted) | Provide pilot users and application compatibility testers the opportunity to test the next Semi-Annual Channel. | Every six months, in March and September | None |
It is easy to change to a differnt channel Office 365Pro+ channel:
- Close ALL Office products (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio…)
- Open and CMD prompt as an administrator
- type
cd C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRunand press the ENTER key - type either
OfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=BroadOfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=TargetedOfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=Monthly
and press the ENTER key
- type
OfficeC2RClient.exe /update userand press the ENTER key - wait the 3 to 5 minutes it takes for the command to pull the relavent files down from the internet and install them
- reboot – definately not required but Microsoft recommends it
When the complete launch one of the Office programs, such as Word, and click, FILE, ACCOUNT and look at the ABOUT WORD section near the bottom right to see if the channel you expect is the channel you have.
If you want to know if you are running 32bit or 64bit (and you should most definately be running 64bit), click the ABOT WORD button and notice the 64BIT at the end of the MICROSOFT WORD FOR OFFICE 365 string.
4 Comments
Bill DoHickey · July 25, 2022 at 11:22 am
The last command is:
OfficeC2RClient.exe /update user
The “user” portion was not highlighted.
Ian Matthews · July 27, 2022 at 3:18 pm
Corrected!
Thanks Bill 🙂
Krizzy · November 4, 2020 at 9:56 pm
For some reason this command is not working for all of the machine.
Ian Matthews · November 14, 2020 at 3:58 pm
Hi Krizzy;
Did you find a pattern? Which machines are not taking the command (i.e. all Win 10 build 1902 or 32 bit or…) and what error are you seeing?