In the second half of this year, Microsoft will make available Office 2019 for on-premises customers. Starting today, you can download a beta of the apps (Microsoft calls this ‘preview) for testing and validation purposes.
This latest version of Office for on-premises users will bring the features that have rolled out to Office 365 customers in an offline package. While Microsoft would love every customer to move to the SaaS model for Office, they know that a large number of their customers still prefer the offline iteration of the software.
Download: Office 2019
Office 2019 will only run on supported versions of Windows 10 (Semi-annual Channel), Windows 10 LTSC 2018, and the next LTSC version of Server. If you are running an older version of Windows or Server, you will not be able to install this version of Office.
In addition to only running on Windows 10, Microsoft has shortened the lifecycle support as well. This product will receive five years of mainstream support but ‘approximately’ two years extended support.