Worthy update for Office users coming in about 10 days

Sep 11, 2015 05:11 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is getting ready for the debut of a new Office suite version, but this time with some big changes not necessarily to the feature lineup, but to the way it actually plans to deliver the software.

First and foremost, it’s worth knowing that the Office 2016 rollout begins on September 22 and the emphasis here is on “begins.” Not everyone will get the new productivity suite on the same day, as Office 365 users might have to wait a little bit longer, depending on their subscription and region.

Customers with a volume licensing agreement can download Office 2016 from the Volume Licensing Service starting October 1, while consumers who previously purchased an Office 365 Personal or Office 365 Home will indeed get the upgrade to the new version on September 22, but automatic updates will only be enabled in October.

Office 2016 doesn’t bring outstanding new features, but only a handful of improvements, including new themes (a black visual style is also included), as well as tools to allow multiple users to work on the same document from their desktops at the same time.

New Office update model

Microsoft used the Windows 10 update model for the release of Office 2016, so starting with this version, the company is embracing a new system to keep PCs running the productivity suite updated.

For the Current Branch, which is available for consumers running Office 365 ProPlus, the company is downloading and installing Office updates automatically. The Current Branch will debut on September 22, the company says, and will have all the new Office 2016 app updates included.

The Current Branch for Business is aimed at enterprises and comes with three cumulative updates per year, as well as monthly security updates. This branch will debut in February 2016, but the company points out that all the other updates released in the meantime will also reach business users.

These new branches are supposed to make Office customers stay up to date more easily, but as usual, it remains to be seen if consumers agree with getting everything automatically when it’s released.