Install and use different versions of Office on the same PC

If you want to install and run more than one version of Microsoft 365 on the same PC, here are some tips to help you avoid most set up errors:

• If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription or non-subscription version such as Office Home and Business 2021, 2019, or 2016, in most cases you can't run these versions together on the same computer.

  There is one exception to this: If one of the two products is installed through MSI (which is common for volume licensed products), these two can run side-by-side. See How to use Office 2013 suites and programs (MSI deployment) on a computer that’s running another version of Office.

• You may see a "Stop, you should wait to install Office..." error. This can happen if you have a standalone Office application (such as Word) installed on your computer, but a newer version of the application is already included in the suite you're trying to install. In this case, the standalone version will be removed.

  However, if the standalone application isn’t part of the new Microsoft 365 suite you are trying to install, then the standalone application will be left on the machine and the Microsoft 365 suite will successfully install.

• Running multiple versions of Office on Windows when Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is enabled in not supported. See No support for multiple Office versions installed on a machine with Remote Desktop Service (RDS).

• Install earlier versions of Microsoft 365 first. For example, install Office 2016 before installing Office 2021 or Office 2019. This also applies to other products from the Microsoft 365 family, like Visio, Project or Access Runtime as well as Language Packs and Proofing Tools. If you don't install Microsoft 365 in this order, you may have to repair the later versions of Microsoft 365 afterwards.

• Make sure all versions of Microsoft 365 are either 32-bit or 64-bit. You can’t have a mix of both. See “Office (64-bit or 32-bit) couldn’t be installed” error when trying to install.

Keep in mind that even if you follow these recommendations, you might still run into issues when you use two versions of Microsoft 365 on the same PC. If you decide not to keep both versions and you uninstall the earlier version, you might need to repair the version remaining to make sure that the file associations will work correctly.