How to install volume licensed versions of Project 2016 and Visio 2016 on computer that has office 365 proplus (Click-to-Run)

I have worked on couple of office 365 proplus rollout projects. In all projects ,one of the critical task is to manage MSI based deployments for visio/project 2016 on computer that runs office 365 proplus (Click-to-Run).

Click-to-Run is the technology used to install Office 365 proplus subscription based .Windows Installer technology (MSI) was used to install the volume license editions of older versions of Office 2016 and older, such as Microsoft Office Professional Plus ,Microsoft Office Standard,visio and project.

Until now ( if you are not on office 365) ,we usually deploy volume licensed versions of Project 2016 and Visio 2016 by using the Windows Installer (MSI) installation technology. But that won't work if you're trying to install volume licensed versions of Project 2016 and Visio 2016 on the same computer that has Office 365 ProPlus. That's because Office 365 ProPlus uses Click-to-Run as its installation technology, and in this case, having MSI and Click-to-Run installations on the same computer isn't supported.

Two main things that determine whether Office, Project, and Visio can be installed together on the same computer are the version of the product and the installation technology used to install the product.

The following rules governs whether an installation scenario is supported or not. This also applies to standalone applications like Access, Visio, Project, Skype for Business, or OneDrive for Business.

• You can’t install two products together that have the same version but use different installation technologies. Ex: office 365,office 2019 and office 2016 share same version (16.0) but different technology .
• You can’t install two products of different versions together if both products use Click-to-Run as the installation technology and those products have overlapping Office applications.

Example: If a computer has office 365 proplus ,then you cannot install any MSI version of 2016 on the same computer but you can install MSI version of 2013 and lower versions of visio/project,office et because they share different versions.

How do i know which technology of office installed on my computer ?

Open office application (word,excel,outlook etc) , Click on File > Office Account . Under the Product Information section, if you see an Update Options choice, Office was installed by using Click-to-Run. If you don’t see an Update Options choice, and you don’t see any mention of Microsoft Store, then Office was installed by using Windows Installer (MSI).

if you are trying to install same version of MSI on computer that already have C2R version then you hit with the following error (though it was for C2R with 15 version):

With the introduction of C2R ,MSI and its versions ,how do you deploy visio/project 2016 on computer that has office 365 proplus (C2R) installed and also get it activated using KMS/MAK volume license?

If you want to deploy volume licensed versions of Project 2016 and Visio 2016 on the same computer as Office 365 ProPlus, you can use the Office Deployment Tool .

The Office Deployment Tool uses Click-to-Run to do the installation, instead of using Windows Installer (MSI). But, Project and Visio are still activated by volume activation methods, such as Key Management Service (KMS) or Multiple Activation Key (MAK).

we will use office deployment tool (ODT) to download binaries for Visio/Project 2016 ,the same way we do for office 365 proplus.

1.Download the most current version of the Office Deployment Tool from the Microsoft Download Center.

2. Once the file downloaded, run the exe to extract the files.

copy the extracted files to C:\temp\ODT or any other folder.

In the extraction folder, you will see few configuration files that you can edit the Product element in the configuration.xml file, using the appropriate ID from the following table.

To use a Generic Volume License Key (GVLK) for volume activation with KMS, use the appropriate value in the table for the PIDKEY attribute.

This generic key given above works only with KMS.If you do not have KMS ,you can login to volume license portal /vendor portal that you get license keys from and get the MAK key for product  .So when you install visio/project ,it get auto activate for your users (device activation).

How to get PIDKey from volume licensing portal or vendor that you partnered with?

login to MVLS website https://www.microsoft.com/Licensing/servicecenter/default.aspx 

search for visio standard 2016 (your required product) ,under keys ,you will see Visio Standard 2016 C2R-P for use with the Office Deployment Tool ,copy the KEY ,which will be used to activate the license.

Only key with C2R-P works with ODT tool and volume license key for MSI based will not work .

Since the default configuration files doesn't have much information ,i have uploaded the Realtime configuration files to make it easy for you.

download the xml files from here for different product and copy them to ODT tool folder.

Edit the XML file and modify based  on your needs.

Sample XML file:

<Configuration>
<Add OfficeClientEdition="32" Channel="Broad" OfficeMgmtCOM="True">
     <Product ID="ProjectstdXVolume" PIDKEY="D8NRQ-JTYM3-7J2DX-646CT-6836M">
       <Language ID="en-us"/>
     </Product>
   </Add>
     <Display Level="Standard" AcceptEULA="TRUE"/>
     <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" />
     <Logging Level="Standard" Path="C:\windows\o365proplus"/>
</Configuration>

Read this article about the settings and its description https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/DeployOffice/configuration-options-for-the-office-2016-deployment-tool

Once we have the configuration file ready ,we can now download the binaries for visio and project

Open CMD and change the directory to ODT Tool that has all configuration files.

Run the setup.exe with configuration file to download the binaries.

setup.exe /download Configuration_ProjectPro-x86.xml

Once the binaries are downloaded, you can create application with command line setup.exe /Configure Configuration_ProjectPro-x86.xml

Since we already key in the MAK key for visio/project ,it will auto activate upon the installation.

Some facts while using ODT tool for visio/project deployment that affects your office 365 proplus:

• The binaries that are used for office 365 proplus ,visio and project are same.
• If you have installed office 365 proplus version 1808 on computer and you are trying to newer or older version of visio/project , your proplus version also gets updated with your visio/project.
• You cannot install visio/project C2R with monthly channel on computer that is running office 365 proplus semi annual channel. Both C2R must use same channel .

            So when you install visio/project, make sure you are on latest version else ,your proplus version will rollback to older version and you will need to patch it up to bring to latest version.

• When you patch office 365 proplus version ,it also update the support files for visio/project to latest version.
• All installed products must be either the 32-bit version or the 64-bit version. For example, you can’t install a 32-bit version of Visio on the same computer with a 64-bit version of Office.

Read through the Supported scenarios for installing different versions of Office, Project, and Visio on the same computer https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/DeployOffice/install-different-office-visio-and-project-versions-on-the-same-computer

Hope it helps!

Additional resources:

Use the Office Deployment Tool to install volume licensed versions of Project 2016 and Visio 2016 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/DeployOffice/use-the-office-deployment-tool-to-install-volume-licensed-editions-of-visio-2016

Supported scenarios for installing different versions of Office, Project, and Visio on the same computer https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/DeployOffice/install-different-office-visio-and-project-versions-on-the-same-computer 

Deployment guide for Project https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/DeployOffice/deployment-guide-for-project

Deployment guide for Visio https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/DeployOffice/deployment-guide-for-visio