Microsoft Office 2016 rollout begins on 22 September

Microsoft has now announced that its new Office desktop suite will be available on 22 September worldwide. Those with licensing agreements can download Office 2016 via the Volume Licensing Service Center from 1 October.

Office 365 Personal and Home users can install the 2016 apps on 22 September via Office.com. Alternatively, you can wait for the automatic updates that will start seeding in October. If you cannot wait for the official availability, consider downloading the Office 2016 Preview to experience the new features.

Users of Office 365 ProPlus – the subscription version of Office apps for companies - will continue to receive the monthly features and security updates labelled "Current Branch". The next Current Branch for Office 365 ProPlus will be available on 22 September. This update will contain new Office 2016 app updates.

Besides, there is a new option for updating Office called "Current Branch for Business", which delivers three cumulative updates a year, along with the usual security updates. The first build of Current Branch for Business containing four months of security updates will be released in February 2016.

New Office with more IT features

Microsoft has added support for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) in Office 365 ProPlus along with other noteworthy changes. It also supports Data Loss Prevention across Office 2016 apps, multi-factor authentication and other control capabilities.

Microsoft will conduct an IT and developer-focused event series called the Microsoft Cloud Roadshow to provide two days of technical training related to Office, Azure and Windows in 12 cities across the globe. Registration for the programme is now open.