SWITCH OFFICE 2016 TO MONTHLY TARGETED CHANNEL

The Office 365 ProPlus update model supports 4 production channels;

  • Monthly Channel (Targeted),
  • Monthly Channel,
  • Semi-annual Channel (Targeted),
  • Semi-annual Channel.

Each channel receives features updates, security and non-security updates on different release intervals.

Consider a scenario where Office 365 ProPlus is installed on a machine from the Semi-Annual Channel.  Now let’s say, a new feature is introduced on the Monthly Channel which you would like to get.  Since you are on the Semi-Annual Channel you will have to wait for a few months before this feature is made available to the Semi-Annual Channel.  But what if you do not want to wait that long?  The answer is, switch to the Monthly Channel.

Switch Channels

Below are the steps to switch channels:

  1. Identify the channel which you would like to switch to. Features and updates by channel are documented here.
  2. Launch Command Prompt as an administrator.
  3. Navigate to “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\”
  4. Run the following command to change the desired channel, let’s say Monthly Channel Targeted “OfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=Insiders” (When running in powershell the command will be “.\OfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=Insiders”

or if you want to switch to the Montly channel:

“OfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=Monthly”

Note – You can use this command to switch to any channel using the corresponding Channel keyword listed below:

Channel Keyword in CMD or ODT
  Monthly Channel (Targeted)   Channel=”Insiders” or Channel=”FirstReleaseCurrent“
  Monthly Channel   Channel=”Monthly” or Channel=”Current“
  Semi-annual Channel (Targeted)   Channel=”Targeted” or Channel=”FirstReleaseDeferred“
  Semi-annual Channel   Channel=”Broad” or Channel=”Deferred“

To start the switch Channel process, run “OfficeC2RClient.exe /update user” from the cmd prompt path “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun>” This should be followed by a series of windows which will take you through the process of downloading and installing updates for the new channel that you have switch to.

Note:
All credits go to Eric Bierens, this is just a shameless copy-past for personal usage.