How to run Office 2021 on a PC with Office 365

Question

I am using Office 365 daily on my PC (via online 365 account) and have purchased a copy of Office 2021 to maintain access to 'Publisher' after October 2026. I have close to a thousand Publisher docs that I use in seasonal progressions, constantly making minor edits. As they cannot be imported in their active state to any existing alternative software, keeping them active & accessible is paramount.

I have been advised in the installation instructions to delete Office 365 before installing 2021. Further, it is implied that the two apps cannot peacefully co-exist.

Doing some online investigation I've read on several independent "Help" sites that the apps will work on the same machine if they are installed on different user profiles. I have no issue doing this but as these sites were not noted as active partners with Microsoft, I would just like to verify this before doing something that creates havoc.

Answer 1

coexist is honestly shaky since 365/2021 lean on the same C2R plumbing and end up tripping the licensing svc, so the only setup ive seen stay sane is keeping 365 and tucking Publisher 2021 into a tiny isolated VM.. just my humble exp.