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Deployment guide for Visio

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How you deploy Visio to the users in your organization depends on which version of Visio you purchase. A common purchase option for organizations is one of the following versions of Visio:

  • Visio desktop app that comes with a Visio Plan 2 subscription.
  • Visio LTSC Professional 2021 or Visio LTSC Standard 2021, available as a one-time purchase through a volume licensing agreement.
  • Visio Professional 2019 or Visio Standard 2019, available as a one-time purchase through a volume licensing agreement.
  • Visio Professional 2016 or Visio Standard 2016, available as a one-time purchase through a volume licensing agreement.

Before you deploy, be sure to review the system requirements for the version of Visio that you plan to deploy to the users in your organization.

Important

There are some combinations of Office, Visio, and Project that can't be installed together on the same device. For more information, see Supported scenarios for installing different versions of Office, Visio, and Project on the same computer.

Deploy a subscription version of Visio

Here are the general steps to deploy a subscription version of Visio to users in your organization:

  1. Purchase Visio Plan 2, with enough licenses for all of your Visio users.

  2. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and assign licenses for Visio to those users.

  3. Have your users sign in to Office.com and install Visio from the Apps & devices section of My account. Users have to be local administrators on their devices to install Visio.

If you want to have more control over how the subscription version of Visio is deployed to your users, you can do the following instead:

  1. Download the Office Deployment Tool from the Microsoft Download Center.

  2. Create a configuration.xml file to use with the Office Deployment Tool to install the subscription version of Visio.

  3. Use the Office Deployment Tool to deploy the subscription version Visio to the users in your organization.

    • We recommend installing Visio without downloading the source files beforehand. This reduces the overall network utilization and removes the need to maintain the source files.

If you already use other tools to deploy software to your users, such as Microsoft Configuration Manager, you can use the Office Deployment Tool along with those tools to deploy the subscription version of Visio.

Deploy Visio LTSC 2021

Here are the general steps to deploy Visio LTSC Professional 2021 or Visio LTSC Standard 2021 to users in your organization:

  1. Purchase Visio LTSC 2021 as part of a volume licensing agreement.

  2. Use the Office Deployment Tool and a configuration.xml file to install Visio LTSC 2021 from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN) on the internet. For more information, see Deploy Office LTSC 2021.

    • We recommend using the Office Customization Tool in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center to create the configuration file. Leave the Office Suite field empty and choose your version in the Visio dropdown.
    • We recommend installing Visio without downloading the source files beforehand. This reduces the overall network utilization and removes the need to maintain the source files.

If you already use other tools to deploy software to your users, such as Microsoft Configuration Manager, you can use the Office Deployment Tool along with those tools to deploy Visio LTSC 2021.

Note

  • Visio LTSC 2021 is available directly from the Office CDN instead of from the Volume Licensing Service Center.
  • Visio LTSC 2021 is installed by using Click-to-Run instead of by using Windows Installer (MSI).
  • The Office Customization Tool (OCT) that's used for Windows Installer (MSI) versions of Visio isn't used with Visio LTSC 2021.

Deploy a volume licensed version of Visio 2019

Here are the general steps to deploy a volume licensed version of Visio Professional 2019 or Visio Standard 2019 to users in your organization:

  1. Purchase Visio 2019 as part of a volume licensing agreement.

  2. Use the Office Deployment Tool and a configuration.xml file to install Visio 2019 from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN) on the internet. For more information, see Deploy Office 2019 (for IT Pros).

    • We recommend using the Office Customization Tool in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center to create the configuration file. Leave the Office Suite field empty and choose your version in the Visio dropdown.
    • We recommend installing Visio without downloading the source files beforehand. This reduces the overall network utilization and removes the need to maintain the source files.

If you already use other tools to deploy software to your users, such as Microsoft Configuration Manager, you can use the Office Deployment Tool along with those tools to deploy volume licensed versions of Visio.

Note

  • Volume licensed versions of Visio 2019 are available directly from the Office CDN instead of from the Volume Licensing Service Center.
  • Volume licensed versions of Visio 2019 are installed by using Click-to-Run instead of by using Windows Installer (MSI).
  • The Office Customization Tool (OCT) that's used for Windows Installer (MSI) versions of Visio isn't used with volume licensed versions of Visio 2019.

Deploy a volume licensed version of Visio 2016

Here are the general steps to deploy a volume licensed version of Visio Professional 2016 or Visio Standard 2016 to users in your organization:

  1. Purchase Visio 2016 as part of a volume licensing agreement.

  2. Download your version of Visio 2016 from the Volume Licensing Service Center.

  3. If you want to configure user settings for when Visio is installed, you can use the Office Customization Tool (OCT).

  4. Deploy Visio 2016 to your users. For example, you can send your users a script to run that installs Visio from a network share on your local network.

If you already use other tools to deploy software to your users, such as Microsoft Configuration Manager, you can use the Office Customization Tool (OCT) along with those tools to deploy Visio.

Note

The Office Customization Tool (OCT) is only available for versions of Visio 2016 that are purchased as part of a volume licensing agreement. The OCT can't be used for retail versions of Visio 2016, such as versions bought at a retail store or online.

Configure user settings for Visio by using Group Policy

If you want to specify and maintain certain user settings for your Visio installations, you can download the Group Policy Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) for Office and use them to configure Group Policy settings. Group Policy can be used only with devices joined to a domain.

The same Group Policy settings work for the subscription version of the Visio desktop app, and volume licensed versions of Visio, such as Visio LTSC Professional 2021 or Visio Standard 2019.

End user resources for Visio

To help your users get started with Visio, here are some resources to share with them: