Microsoft Office Suite Office 2019 (16.0)

2018, September 24

Microsoft Office 2019 (second release codenamed Office 16) is a version of Microsoft Office for both Windows and Mac. It was unveiled on April 27, 2018, for Microsoft Windows and June 12, 2018, for macOS, and launched on September 24, 2018. Some features that had previously been restricted to Office 365 subscribers are available in this release. Office 2019 retains the same major version number of 16, making it the second perpetual release of Office 16. Office 2019 is compatible with Windows 10 v1809 and Windows Server 2019 through Windows 11 v23H2 and Windows Server 2022. It is also compatible with macOS Sierra through macOS Sequoia and macOS 27. Unlike other versions of Microsoft Office, Office 2019 received only two years of extended support, which ended on October 14, 2025.

History

Microsoft Office 2019 was officially released on September 24, 2018, for Microsoft Windows and macOS, following a preview phase earlier that year. Office 2019 was designed for users who preferred a perpetual license model, offering a one-time purchase option, in contrast to the subscription-based Office 365 (now Microsoft 365). While it includes essential productivity tools, Office 2019 does not receive future feature updates beyond its initial release.

Development and Release

On April 27, 2018, Microsoft launched the Office 2019 Commercial Preview for Windows, providing enterprise customers and IT professionals with early access to the new suite. The Commercial Preview allowed these users to test the product in professional environments and provide feedback, which helped Microsoft refine the final release. This version was particularly aimed at businesses preferring a traditional licensing model instead of adopting Microsoft's subscription-based Office 365 service.

The macOS version of the Office 2019 Commercial Preview followed on June 12, 2018, continuing Microsoft’s support for cross-platform users. By offering the preview on both major operating systems, Microsoft ensured that its new features and functionality could be tested across diverse environments.

Following this preview phase, the official stable release of Office 2019 was made available to the public on September 24, 2018. Unlike Office 365, which provides regular cloud-based feature updates, Office 2019 was designed to remain static in terms of feature development, making it an attractive option for users who preferred a stable, non-evolving platform for productivity.

Updates and Support

Although Office 2019 does not receive feature updates like Office 365, Microsoft regularly releases security and quality updates for the suite. These updates are typically provided once a month on Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of each month), ensuring that the software remains secure and reliable. Users are able to manually check for updates to keep their Office installations current.

The mainstream support phase for Office 2019 extended until October 10, 2023, after which extended support continued until October 14, 2025.

Reception

Office 2019 received attention for offering a non-subscription alternative to Office 365, which attracted users preferring a more traditional licensing model. However, it was also noted that the suite lacked some of the advanced, cloud-based features available in Office 365, which receives regular updates with new functionalities.

New features

Office 2019 includes many of the features previously published via Office 365, along with improved inking features, LaTeX support in Word, new animation features in PowerPoint including the morph and zoom features, and new formulas and charts in Excel for data analysis.

OneNote is absent from the suite as the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) version of OneNote bundled with Windows replaces it. OneNote 2016 can be installed as an optional feature on the Office Installer.

For Mac users, Focus Mode was brought to Word, 2D maps were brought to Excel and new Morph transitions, SVG support and 4K video exports came to PowerPoint, among other features.

Despite being released in the same month, the new Office user interface in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook is only available to Office 365 subscribers, not perpetual Office 2019 licenses.

Office 2019 for Mac received updates until October 10, 2023, when it reached the end of support and stopped receiving updates.

Editions

Traditional editions

Microsoft Office 2019 has the same perpetual SKU editions aimed towards different markets. Like its predecessor, Microsoft Office 2019 contains Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote and is licensed for use on one computer.

5 perpetual SKU editions of Office 2019 were released for Windows:

Home & Student: This retail suite includes the core applications only – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote. Home & Business: This retail suite includes the core applications and Outlook.

Standard: This suite, only available through volume licensing channels, includes the core applications, as well as Outlook and Publisher.

Professional: This retail suite includes the core applications, as well as Outlook, Publisher, and Access.

Professional Plus: This suite includes the core applications, as well as Outlook, Publisher, Access, and Skype for Business. This edition is available through retail channels (Developer tools subscription like MSDN subscription & Visual Studio subscription）and volume licensing channels.

Unlike its predecessor, both Windows version retail & volume versions use the Click-to-Run (C2R) for installation.

Like its predecessor, three traditional editions of Office 2019 were released for Mac:

Home & Student: This retail suite includes the core applications only.

Home & Business: This retail suite includes the core applications and Outlook.

Standard: This suite, only available through volume licensing channels, includes the core applications and Outlook.

Deployment

macOS installations can be acquired from the Microsoft website or the Mac App Store.

For Office 2013 and 2016, various editions containing the client apps were available in both Click-To-Run (inspired by Microsoft App-V) and traditional Windows Installer setup formats. However, Office 2019 client apps only have a Click-to-Run installer and only the server apps have the traditional MSI installer. The Click-To-Run version has a smaller footprint; in case of Microsoft Office 2019 Pro Plus, the product requires 10 GB less than the MSI version of Office 2016 Pro Plus.

Volume licensing versions of Office 2019 cannot be downloaded from Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center and must be deployed using configuration.xml and running Office Deployment Tool (ODT) from command-line.