Microsoft this week began the rollout of Office 2013 Service Pack 1, the first major update for the company’s latest Windows-based productivity suite. The update improves compatibility with Microsoft’s other recent software – Windows 8.1 and Internet Explorer 11 – as well as introduces better support for high-DPI displays and touchpad interfaces. It also provides new APIs for developers and a roundup of all previous security updates, in case users missed those.
An important note, however, is that Office 2013 Service Pack 1 is currently only available for standalone Office installations, meaning perpetually licensed retail software. Microsoft has inexplicably held back the update from users of its subscription-based Office 365 program, although the company promises that Office 365 users will get Service Pack 1 soon as part of the next round of updates for subscribers.
Microsoft is distributing Service Pack 1 via Windows Update in phases, where eligible users should expect to see it appear within the next 30 days. If you can’t wait, however, you can also manually grab the full update now for both 32-bit (643.6 MB) and 64-bit (774.0 MB) versions of Office 2013.
The one exception for those looking to manually download the update are users running Windows RT. Office 2013 on the Surface RT, Surface 2, and other ARM-based Windows RT devices automatically updates in the background, although users looking to grab Service Pack 1 early can perform a manual check via Windows Update on the Desktop.
