Office Desktop Applications

General

This article covers the LTSC versions of Office Professional Plus, Office Standard, Project Professional, Project Standard, Visio Professional, and Visio Standard. It is not about Office from Microsoft 365 licenses (Microsoft Apps for Enterprise) or about Project or Visio Online subscriptions.

Licenses for these products are assigned to physical end-user devices, such as PCs, laptops and Thin Clients. Licenses are never assigned to virtual workstations or to users. Per user licensing is only available in a Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA).

The software may be used locally on the licensed device or from a licensed device on a server that is used only for the organization (dedicated server). The number of installations on the servers has no effect on the number of licenses required. Only the number of physical end-user workstations on which the application runs or from where the application is used on the servers determines the number of licenses needed.

Any user may use the Applications on or from a licensed device. The primary user of a licensed device (the user who uses the device more than 50% of the time) may also use the application on a portable device. The primary user of, for example, a desktop may use the software on, for example, a laptop, without the need for an additional license for the laptop. This right does not apply to Office licenses, if Office is an Enterprise product in an Enterprise Agreement or Enterprise Agreement Subscription or as a “company-wide” product in an Open Value Agreement.

Roaming usage rights

Customers with active Software Assurance for Microsoft Office software products are eligible for roaming rights. The primary user of a licensed device can remotely access the software running on servers from their own device or run the software in a virtual operating system environment (OSE) on their own device. In addition, if the device is licensed for Software Assurance for the Windows desktop operating system, that user may run Office from a USB device running Windows To Go.

When the primary user is on the organization's premises, the roaming usage rights do not apply. For example, an employee may not use their personal devices on location and exercise their roaming benefits. The same user can access the applications from this personal device at home.