For those of you who have downloaded the new Office 2013 Customer Preview, you probably noticed the installation was different compared to previous versions of Office. Thanks to Click-to-Run v2, users can now install Office 2013 in an easy and modern manner.
"Our goal with Click-to-Run v2.0 was to make the applications feel like a seamless and integrated part of the new Office service experience. We strove to make installing software a non-event in our customers’ workflows for getting things done," Microsoft stated. Microsoft wanted the Office 2013 setup to be fast, integrated, modern, and agile. Click-to-Run v2.0 was built with these ideas in mind and was "re-architected from the ground up" to make this happen.
The process is simple. Once you signed up to download Office 365 Home Premium Subscription, you can install it on up to 5 computers. Once you click the install button from the download website, the site will communicate with the Click-to-Run setup service and also the Office Licensing Service to generate a customized installer which will remove the need to copy down or input a 25 digit license key. All this takes place in the background! Once you save or run the customized .exe file, the installation will begin. Soon, the Office 2013 download website will start early pre-caching of Office client bits so once the Install button is clicked, there will be an "almost instantaneous" start of Office applications.
Click-to-Run v2.0 also allows, for the first time ever, an installation alongside a previous version. In other words, you can have Office 2013 and Office 2010 installed at the same time. You can even do a Quick Repair, which repairs your shortcuts and file type registration or a Full Repair, which re-installs the software completely. Users can even uninstall in just seconds, rather than minutes. "Now uninstall takes seconds instead of minutes, and it leaves your computer in a cleaner state than ever before. You can even de-activate licenses you’re no longer using so you can re-use them on new machines," Microsoft added.
