USING insiders beta channel in excel

Question

Hello ,

i have office 365 personal i would like to know if i can use the insiders beta channel in excel and if yes how do i download it ?

thanks

rami

Answer 1

Yes, an active Microsoft 365 Personal subscription can use the Microsoft 365 Insider Beta Channel for Excel on Windows.

To get Insider Beta Channel builds of Excel as part of Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows, use the Office Deployment Tool and specify the Beta Channel in the configuration:

1. Download the latest Office Deployment Tool from the Microsoft Download Center.
2. Run the downloaded executable to extract setup.exe and sample configuration.xml files.
3. Create a configuration.xml file with content similar to this (for Beta Channel):

      <Configuration>
        <Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="BetaChannel" >
          <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
            <Language ID="en-us" />
          </Product>
        </Add>
      </Configuration>
   

   Note: Channel="BetaChannel" selects the Insider Beta Channel and is not supported for production use.
4. Copy setup.exe and configuration.xml to the Windows device where Microsoft 365 Apps (including Excel) should be installed. Ensure local administrator permissions and an active internet connection.
5. Open an elevated Command Prompt, navigate to the folder containing these files, and run:

      setup.exe /configure configuration.xml
   

6. After installation, open Excel (or another Office app) and go to File → Account. Under About, confirm that the channel shows Beta Channel.

Once on Beta Channel, Excel will receive frequent Insider builds with the newest features, security updates, and fixes before standard channels.

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References:

• Use the Office Deployment Tool to install Microsoft 365 Insider on Windows devices
• When do I get the newest features for Microsoft 365?
• Update history for Office Beta Channel

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