Deploy Office LTSC 2024 on Windows with setup.exe and configuration.xml in HexnodeSolved

The Office Deployment Tool setup.exe cannot install Office by itself. It needs to be run with the configuration XML as an argument. For example, the command format is: setup.exe /configure configuration.xml.

There are two common issues with this deployment:

1. If only setup.exe is uploaded as an EXE Enterprise app, the configuration.xml file is not automatically present on the endpoint. The installer then fails because it cannot find the XML file.

2. The detection path should point to the actual Office installation location. Office 2024 Click-to-Run apps usually install under: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16 .

For detection, use a specific executable such as: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE .

If the XML file needs to be used during installation, make sure it is also staged on the Windows device before running setup.exe.

Adding /configure configuration.xml helped, but the deployment still didn’t complete when I tried it as a normal EXE app. It looked like the XML file was not available on the device. At one point the action just stayed in progress for a long time, but the test laptop was also on a slow public Wi-Fi network.

That behavior makes sense. Office LTSC 2024 is a large download, so a slow network can keep the action in progress longer than expected. However, the main blocker is usually the XML file not being available locally when setup.exe runs.

The working approach is to deploy Office using a custom script instead of uploading only setup.exe as an Enterprise app. The script should:

1. Create or place the Office configuration.xml file on the Windows device.
2. Ensure the Office Deployment Tool setup.exe is available in the same working location or a known path.
3. Run the installer using: setup.exe /configure configuration.xml
4. Wait for the Office installation to complete in the background.
5. Optionally trigger a device scan afterward so the inventory updates with the installed Office apps. In Hexnode, this can be run from: Manage > Devices > select device > Actions > Execute Custom Script.

The same script can also be added to the Content repository and reused. In the confirmed deployment, the Office apps installed silently in the background and the action completed successfully after roughly 15–20 minutes.

For anyone doing this on multiple machines, can this be automated for new Windows enrollments instead of manually executing the script on every device?

Yes. Once the custom script is verified on a test Windows device, it can be added to an automation workflow. A typical automation setup is: Automate > create automation > Trigger: On-Device Enrollment

Actions:

1. Execute Custom Script – installs Office 2024 silently.
2. Scan Device – refreshes hardware/software inventory after installation.

For existing devices, select the target devices from the Manage tab and use Initiate Automation to run the same workflow.

Keep any Office volume activation details or product keys secured. Do not expose license keys in public scripts or shared documentation.

One more thing: I expected Publisher to install with the Office 2024 suite, but it didn’t appear. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access installed successfully.

Publisher is not included with Office LTSC 2024/Office 2024 suites in the same way as older Office releases. If the selected Microsoft product suite does not include Publisher, it cannot be installed alongside Office 2024 through the Office Deployment Tool.

In the working configuration, the deployed suite installed Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. Other apps such as Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote, and Lync were excluded through the XML configuration using ExcludeApp entries.

After installation, users can verify activation from any Office app by going to: File > Account.

The installed product should show as Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 or the relevant Office 2024 edition configured in the XML.

Confirmed. Using a custom script to stage the XML and run setup.exe with /configure worked. The Office apps installed silently, activation completed without user sign-in, and the action history showed success after waiting for the installation to finish.