On Monday, Microsoft announced the next generation of Office and also made available for download the preview version to the public. Even though Office 2013 is compatible with only Windows 7 and Windows 8, and doesn’t support the good old Windows XP and Vista, thousands of Windows 7/8 users have already enjoying the next Office.
While it’s possible to install Office 2013 preview alongside previous Office versions, many interested users are hesitating to install the newest version of Office because of disk space requirements. According to Office 2013 system requirements, a minimum of 3.5 GB of free disk space required to install the newest version of Office.
Though one can reduce this minimum disk space requirement by installing only required programs, the web installer doesn’t allow you omit one or more programs during the installation and installs all programs included in the Office setup. Another catch is that the web installer doesn’t allow you change the default installation location and chooses the Windows drive for the installation. So, you must have 3.5 GB of free disk space on your Windows drive to be able install and experience the Office.
Users who are interested to explorer the newest version Office and don’t have enough free disk space on Windows drive can follow the given below steps to install Office on a different location other than the default Windows drive.
NOTE: If you want to move the Office 2013 installation to another location, refer to our how to move programs and games in Windows guide.
Install Office 2013 on a different drive
Step 1: First, visit this page of Microsoft and download the offline installer of Office 2013 Professional Plus (free registration is required). Don’t forget to note down or print out the product key before you click the download button, which is required to activate your Office copy.
The 32-bit version of the installer is 624 MB and 64-bit is 702 MB. The exact time to download your copy depends on your provider, bandwidth, and traffic.
NOTE: It’s possible to install Office 2013 (32-bit) on 64-bit Windows but if your previous Office is 64-bit (applies only if you are installing alongside with Office 2003, 2007 or 2010), you need to download the x64 bit to avoid “We can’t install the 32-bit version of Office because we found the following 64-bit programs on your PC” error.
Step 2: Run the installer, click Yes for the UAC prompt to launch the Office 2013 installer. Tick I accept the terms of this agreement and click Continue button.
Step 3: Click Customize button.
Step 4: Switch to File Location tab, click on the Browse button to select the location where you want to install the Office.
Step 5: Finally, click Install Now button to begin installing Office on your machine. You are done! Once installed, don’t forget to activate your copy of Office 2013.
Tip: By default the installer installs all Office programs. If you don’t want to install one or more programs, switch to Installation Options tab and deselect programs that you don’t want to install.
Tharun says
It doensn’t help me when i select any location it shows invalid location.what should i do…
bobbybobby says
I’m a college student with 60gb ssd. Here’s how MS thinks my 60gb should be used (fresh OS & Office installs)
* 16gb system files (c:\Windows)
* 12gb hibernation file
* 24gb page file (Windows 10 is still using the out-dated “1.5x ram” formula, so 16gb ram x 1.5 = 24gb)
* 4gb Office 2013 (Student ed.), b/c no way to change drive.
* 1gb+ of system restores
That’s 57gb+ of 60gb (~95%) of my drive just hogged by Windows & Office.
I can’t do anything in regards to how bloated Windows system files are themselves, so there’s 16gb I’m never getting back (even after doing cleanmgr to remove old files).
I can manually kill the hibernation, but have to use CLI to do so (which is stupid that I can’t do it in the UI. People make fun of having to do things in CLI on Linux all the time to get stuff done, but I have to use CLI to make a major change like killing the hibernation file in Windows… really? It’s the 21st century, Microsoft. C’mon).
I can force-modify the pagefile.sys file down to a more reasonable 1gb after I spend time locating advanced system settings through their more-and-more obfuscated obstacle course of settings menus that tries to hide it from end-users, b/c their “System Managed” formula is woefully outdated from the old “32mb of ram is plenty” NT days.
I can even turn off system restore if I want to … which is dumb.
But… I can’t choose where I want to install a 4gb program that I paid for. I can’t choose which programs of it I want to install and which I don’t. I can’t choose which features and options of it I want to install and skip.
I can stand most of the insults from MS as long as they give me an “out” (regardless of how painful it is)… but there is no option to fix this issue with the Office 2013 student edition. And it’s amazingly insulting.
The reason I have a student edition is b/c I’m in information systems in college. Taking away my power to choose where I want to install your software does not endear me to want to promote or use your software in the working world, Microsoft.
I am the future generation of working IT / IS professionals, and you’re currently doing a great job of pissing folks like me off … who will be making major, multi-million (billion) dollar software licensing decisions in the near future and Fortune 500 companies.
You keep treating us like children, we’ll find someone to do business with that treats us like adults.
Jeff says
Have you found out how to do this with 2016 or 365? My Surface Pro (1) is maxed on the hard drive :(
Vazha Gelashvili says
Hi everyone.I have read the instructions above and followed them,but when I change the path for installation directory [except C drive that is used by OS] in my case drive “D” I get an error.I use administrator account but nothing.
Can someone help me?
Ron MVP says
Sorry to say, but for the average person other than Office 2013 Pro Plus there no longer is an option to do a custom install. All Office 365 installations are “click to run” which are totally NOT customizable. They are totally under MS control only (gee does this sound like Apple does it … ).
The only suggestion I’ve seen that MAY work is to change the Windows system setting defining where “Applications” are installed. Of course, that may break other already installed applications. I have not tested it or heard of any testing results.
In the business world, there is an option to customize Office 365 installations.
Moe says
The link to the offline installer returns a 404 page. Can you please update the link? Thank you!
Roger Prince says
Hello,
I want to install Office 2013 from the Microsoft 365 website, to my E:\ not the C:\ (SSD where Windows 7 Pro is installed)
Do I need to edit the Registry value? (regedit.exe)
If so, could someone help me with this?
Thanks – Roger
Martin H says
This option is only avalible if you install the Office pro plus 2013 version, not if you install Home and business or student.
Hanna Svensson says
Hi,
I just installed Word 2013 (I bought the Word licence only as I don’t make spreadsheets or presentations) but the setup program does not give me the options that you show in your post. There’s no choice to customize the install. Is there a workaround that you know of?
Thanks in advance!