Join Microsoft Office Insider on Windows

Here is how you can get the latest Microsoft Office Updates on Windows

Microsoft Office is the company’s most popular productivity suite, containing everything from the spreadsheet tool, Excel, to presentation software PowerPoint and the word processing software, Word, tools which are so popular that they have become synonymous with the type of data that they handle.

Office used to receive major version upgrades up until a few years ago when Microsoft shifted from the major upgrade model to a much more iterative model as a part of the Office 365 Subscription. Since then, it has received iterative but useful upgrades but it takes time for those updates to trickle down to the normal users. What if you wanted to be the first one in line to get the latest Office features?

Fortunately, just like the Windows Insider Program which lets users test the latest Windows releases before everyone else, Microsoft Office also has an Insider Program. Here is how you can enable it on your device,

Join Office Insider on Windows

Note: You will need to have a Consumer subscription license to be able to join the Office Insider program. For owners of business & education licenses, the Microsoft 365 administrator manages Office updates.

  1. Launch any Office application, like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
  2. On the top-left, click on File and select Account from the left pane.
  3. On the right, you will see an option for Office Insider. Click on it then click on Join Office Insider.

You will see two options for the Insider program,

  • Beta Channel

    This option is for those who want to use the latest builds to identify issues and provide feedback about new features still in development, and don’t mind the bit of risk involved in using unsupported builds.

  • Current Channel (Preview)

    Current Channel (Preview) is for people who want early access but also want to receive less frequent, more stable updates. Builds come out monthly and are fully supported.

If you aren’t sure, we would recommend going with the Current Channel option.

4. Once you have joined the Insider program, click the box to agree to the terms and conditions

5. Click OK.