Similar to the Windows Insiders program, you can also be an Office Insider.

The programs have the same ideas – give users access to new features before everyone else, and let those users provide feedback to help report issues or shape decisions that will go out to the rest of the world.

This program is for the Click To Run version of Office, not MSI.

If you’re not already a Windows Insider, Microsoft has easy to follow instructions. It’s also not a requirement to be a Windows Insider to be an Office Insider.

For Office Insiders, it depends what version of Office you’re licensed to. Home, Personal and University licenses can just go to File > Account > Office Insider from any Office app, and follow the prompts.

However if you’re using a School or Work account, you won’t see this option. The full instructions are available from Microsoft but here’s the condensed version:

Download Office 2016 Deployment Tool and run it. It will extract a setup.exe and configuration.xml file.

Edit the configuration.xml file: The line -<Add Channel=”Monthly” OfficeClientEdition=”32″> needs the word ‘Monthly‘ changed to either ‘InsiderFast’ to get updates as early in the process as possible.

Open an admin commant prompt, navigate to the folder that contains the two above files and run:

Setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

(If you have any issues, try uninstalling your existing version of Office).

Once that’s done, you should be good to go. Launch an Office app such as Word, log in with your Work/School account, and go to File > Account. Under the About Word section, you should see a mention of Office Insider:

If you want to be an Office Insider for apps on iOS or Android, then follow the instructions here on how to register and obtain updates (it’s very easy!).