Microsoft: Office 2016 coming to Windows on September 22

Microsoft will release the latest version of its office software suite, Office 2016, to the general public at the end of this month. In addition, Microsoft says that companies that have an Office 365 ProPlus subscription will now have the option to defer updates.

Through CEO Julia White, Microsoft announces that Office 2016 will be available to the general public on September 22. Anyone who also has a so-called volume licensing agreement can download the latest version of the software package from 1 October.

The office package with Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and OneNote already appeared for OS X in July. It includes the option to save files by default in the online storage service OneDrive. Users can also edit text files together with others in real time.

For Office 365 ProPlus users, Microsoft has also made some changes in updating Office. For example, Office users with a ProPlus subscription who have been automatically offered the most recent version for years, will from now on end up in the Current Branch by default. Other than the name, this doesn’t mean anything new.

A novelty is that Microsoft is introducing another branch for companies, namely the Current Branch for Business. This means that companies with a ProPlus subscription can choose not to implement the latest version until a few months after an update. This way, system administrators have time to test the software within their organization first.

Companies can choose from three moments to install the latest Office versions. There are always four months in between. For example, companies can indicate that they do not want to install the latest Office version this month, but only in February or June. Those versions also contain the latest security updates, Microsoft reports after evaluating feedback.