Microsoft has made available the commercial preview of Office LTSC 2024. This version is intended for a limited number of niche applications.
An LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel) version of a Microsoft product is not intended for most organizations and not for regular end users. Suitable applications, as Microsoft points out, include highly regulated devices that may not receive updates for years, offline machines in the manufacturing industry and medical test tools that run embedded apps. For other users, Microsoft recommends its own 365 suite.
Office LTSC 2024 was announced a month ago.
Transferring new features
The preview version of Office 2024 LTSC includes many upgrades over 2021 LTSC, the previous version. Some of the updates that Microsoft 365 apps have received in the interim have been implemented for the new version.
Support for 2024 LTSC will span five years, as will Windows 11 LTSC, which will release later this year. Microsoft indicates that it will still be possible to purchase LTSC licenses along with regular 365 licenses, so that only devices that require LTSC will run this version. As with Office 2021 LTSC, the suite is Click-to-Run on Windows and delivered as an Apple Package (pkg) for the Mac.
Several LTSC preview versions are available: Professional Plus 2024, Standard for Mac 2024, Project Professional 2024 and Visio Professional 2024. Not all Office applications are available yet, such as Publisher. Professional Plus 2024 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and Access.