Installation of LibreOffice on Windows

Before starting the installation process, check the System Requirements page for the prerequisites for installing LibreOffice on a Windows system.

You do not have to de-install any previously-installed version of LibreOffice. If you do have an existing installation of LibreOffice, all your preferences will be preserved and that old installation will simply be overwritten.

Download the LibreOffice installer. Save the installer to a directory of your choosing. Your desktop is a perfectly-acceptable place, for example. A reminder that, at this point, you may also want to to install the "LibreOffice built-in help" package which is separate from the installation package. You can use LibreOffice without this package, however, it will then go to the "Help" page on our website instead. A separate "Help" package makes it possible to keep the installation package smaller for downloading purposes.

Browse to the chosen directory, and double-click on the installer. A welcome dialog box opens, telling you that the installation process is about to be started.

Click on “Next”.

You will see a dialog box inviting you to enter your name and organization. It is entirely optional. Fill-in your name if you wish, or leave it blank.

You can also choose whether all users on your computer should have access to this LibreOffice installation (this is the default choice). Make a choice. 

When ready, press “Next”.

 

Another dialog box opens to give you a choice as to whether you want a default installation, or whether you want to choose special locations and components.

If you want a default installation, just press “Next”.

If you want to make special choices, click on “Custom” and then press “Next”.

If you choose a custom installation, you will see a dialog box that lets you choose what LibreOffice components to install. Open the dropdown boxes and make your choices.

At this point, you can choose the language packs you want to be installed. English and the language of your operating system are selected by default. Also, all dictionaries are selected by default. You may want to select only those which you actually need. You can also deselect unwanted extensions. Make your selections, and press “Next”.

Another dialog box opens, inviting you to choose whether to open Microsoft Office documents with LibreOffice. By default, this feature is not enabled. If you want use LibreOffice to open Microsoft Office documents in future, put a checkmark in all three checkboxes.

Another dialog box opens, asking you whether a shortcut to open LibreOffice should be placed on your desktop. The default option is to create a shortcut.

Make a choice and then press “Install”.

Another dialog box opens to display the progress of the installation process. The process can take a few minutes. This point is your last chance to cancel and abort installation.

When the installation process has completed, a final dialog box opens to inform you that LibreOffice is now installed. Press “Finish”.

LibreOffice is now ready to use.

Either double-click on the shortcut on your desktop (if you opted for one to be placed there), or else go look in the “All Programs” sub-menu of your “Start” menu, then click on the “LibreOffice 3.5” folder, then choose the component you want to use.

 Localized installer

LibreOffice Windows installer supports as many languages as LibreOffice itself. Language of LibreOffice Windows installer depends on language set at Regional and Language Options -> Regional Options -> Standards and Format (on Windows XP) or at Region and Language -> Format (on Windows 7). If you cannot or do not want to set your language here, you can force LibreOffice Windows installer to start in any language with msiexec command from the command line. For example msiexec /i LibO_3.5.3_Win_x86_install_multi.msi TRANSFORMS=:1084 will start the installer of libreOffice 3.5.3 in Scottish Gaelic. The number after the colon is the Locale ID of the language.

If you want Scottish Gaelic UI in LibreOffice, too, then do not forget to check, that you have selected Scottish Gaelic UI in Custom Install.

Properties

With properties users can modify the defaults of installer. Some properties can be modified with the installer wizard, but some are only available through the command line. The most important properties of latest LibreOffice 3.5 installer are the following (in alphabetical order):

CREATEDESKTOPLINK (default=1): Creates a shortcut on Desktop.

INSTALLLOCATION (undefined by default): Specifies the installation directory during silent install.

ISCHECKFORPRODUCTUPDATES (default=1): When this property is 0, installer does not install the Online Update feature. It makes sense for corporate deployments, where the systems administrator controls software updates.

REGISTER_ALL_MSO_TYPES (default=0): When this property is 1, LibreOffice will be the default application assigned to Microsoft Office file types.

REGISTER_NO_MSO_TYPES (default=0): When this property is 1, it will suppress registration of LibreOffice as default application for Microsoft Office formats.

UI_LANGS (undefined by default): LibreOffice installer automatically selects UI languages to be installed. It determines the UI languages of the system and it also adds the language of the current regional settings. This property is useful in silent mode, user can override automatic detection. For example UI_LANGS=en_US,de,fr,hu will install English (US), German, French, and Hungarian.

VC_REDIST (default=1): LibreOffice depends on Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable package. When this property is set to 0, installer does not install Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable package. It makes sense, when Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable package is already installed.

Troubleshooting

 Windows Installer error 1935

Some users get Windows Installer error 1935 and install rolls back. It may have caused by the broken setup of Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Runtime on their computers. Windows installer of LibreOffice 3.5.4 and higher versions provide a workaround for this problem. Try to run LibreOffice Windows installer from the command line: msiexec /i LibO_3.5.4_Win_x86_install_multi.msi VC_REDIST=0. This will supress the installation of Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Runtime that is embedded in LibreOffice Windows installer.

 Cannot add LibreOffice MSI file to GPO

Some system admins tried to add LibreOffice Windows installer to GPO. They wanted to deploy LibreOffice from Group Policy. LibreOffice multi-language installer supports so many languages, that the list of Locale IDs is longer than 256 characters. This causes a problem for the GPO console, it reports that LibreOffice MSI file is invalid. There is a workaround:

1. Open the MSI in an MSI editor, for example in Orca.
2. Select View - Summary Information from the menu.
3. In Edit Summary Information dialog, go to Languages field.
4. Delete everything, keep only 1033 or the Locale ID of your choice. You can keep more, but lenght of this field should not exceed 256.
5. Press OK.
6. Save MSI.

Now you can add it to GPO.

Useful resources

Deployment and Migration page in TDF Wiki