Microsoft Office 2019 vs 2024: A Detailed Breakdown

In an Office 2019 vs 2024 comparison the newer suite wins on features. We get XLOOKUP, dynamic arrays and LAMBDA in Excel, real-time co-authoring, and Recording Studio in PowerPoint. Office 2019 got none of those. Both are perpetual licenses, and we set them side by side below.

1. Excel: XLOOKUP, LET, dynamic arrays, LAMBDA, IMAGE, TEXTSPLIT and VSTACK are 2024 only.
2. Windows: the older suite runs on Windows 10 and 11; the newer one needs Windows 11, except the LTSC edition.
3. Licensing: both are one-time purchases for one PC; the older suite is still sold under Office 2019.
4. Files: the formats are the same; old files open in the new suite.
5. Upgrade: remove the old suite, redeem the new key, sign in.

Office 2019 vs 2024, side by side

The older one dates from 2018, a perpetual suite. The other is the current perpetual suite, released on October 1, 2024. It carries everything added in the 2021 and 2024 releases.

Both are one-time purchases. Both use version 16.0 and the same file formats, so documents open in either. For one PC we’d boil Office 2024 vs Office 2019 down to the formulas, mostly.

Feature comparison: what’s new in Office 2024 vs 2019

You gain two releases’ worth of changes at once.

Excel: the biggest jump

Excel is where people notice the change on day one. The 2021 release brought the first wave.

• XLOOKUP and XMATCH.
• LET.
• Dynamic arrays: FILTER, SORT, SORTBY, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE, RANDARRAY.

The 2024 release adds the second.

• LAMBDA, for reusable custom functions.
• The IMAGE function, and pictures inside cells.
• Dynamic charts that resize with array results.
• 14 text and array functions, such as TEXTSPLIT, TEXTBEFORE, VSTACK, TAKE and CHOOSECOLS.

Picture a small office. A client list needed VLOOKUP plus a helper column before. Now it needs one XLOOKUP. And a single FILTER formula builds the monthly overdue list that someone used to copy by hand.

Workbooks also calculate faster when several are open.

Word and PowerPoint

Word reopens every open document after a crash. That’s session recovery. It also gets Like reactions on comments, a dark canvas and better accessibility tools.

PowerPoint gets four things.

• Cameo, which places your live camera on a slide.
• Recording Studio, for turning a deck into a video.
• Closed captions for video and audio.
• Embedding of Stream videos from SharePoint.

Outlook, OneNote and the rest

Outlook for Windows has faster, more relevant search. Its meeting options can shorten meetings automatically. OneNote returns as a full desktop app with improved ink tools.

Across the suite, ActiveX controls are off by default. Excel blocks untrusted XLL add-ins by default too. Two old attack paths, closed.

Office 2019 files in Office 2024

They open. Both suites share major version 16.0 and the same Open XML formats. Documents, workbooks and decks move between them with no conversion.

The only catch runs the other way. A workbook built with LAMBDA, XLOOKUP or VSTACK shows errors in Excel 2019. Those functions don’t exist there.

Macros, templates and most add-ins carry over too. Registry and Group Policy paths still sit under 16.0, for example:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0

Test any ActiveX-based tools first. They’re often the only thing that breaks, because the new suite disables ActiveX by default.

Office 2019 vs 2024 system requirements

Hardware is rarely the blocker. Any PC that runs Windows 11 well runs the new suite well. Old PCs stuck on Windows 10 are the real problem. Microsoft lists Windows 11 as the supported Windows version for it.

For a Windows 10 PC, upgrading Windows first is the cleaner path.

Microsoft’s Office LTSC 2024 overview lists the supported systems for the business edition.

Office 2019 vs 2024 pricing and licensing

Both are perpetual. One payment, no subscription. For most buyers that’s the point: pay once, and the apps keep working. Only Microsoft 365 runs as a subscription.

Publisher isn’t part of any 2024 edition. The 2019 Professional Plus still had it. Teams isn’t preinstalled either.

For the full picture of perpetual versus subscription, see our guide to all Microsoft Office versions.

Office 2019 vs 2024 for businesses: Professional Plus and LTSC

Offices on volume licenses compare a different pair. Office Professional Plus 2019 on one side, Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 on the other. Both install with Click-to-Run, and both stay on version 16.0.

Group Policy settings carry over untouched. Same 16.0 registry paths, so an admin’s existing policies keep working after the switch. Add-ins from the 2019 suite? Light testing, usually, going by Microsoft’s own LTSC 2024 notes.

Publisher is the one to plan for. Got a folder of .pub files? Convert them before the old suite goes. The keys themselves sit on separate pages, Office 2019 Professional Plus and Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024.

Office 2019 or 2024: which version should you choose?

Any computer that’s online and handles email or downloaded files. The new suite adds features you’ll use daily, in Excel above all.

• Upgrade now. Office PCs. Laptops that receive email. Anyone sharing files with clients, or using Outlook with a business mailbox.
• Upgrade with testing. PCs that run ActiveX controls, old VBA macros or Access front ends built for the old suite.
• Keep the old one for now. An isolated PC that runs a single legacy add-in and never opens outside files. Or hardware that can’t run Windows 11.

Which edition of the new suite fits is settled in Office 2024 Professional Plus vs Home and Business, and the activation route in how to activate Office 2024. Everything for the new suite is under Office 2024.

How to upgrade from Office 2019 to Office 2024

Office doesn’t upgrade in place between perpetual versions. Two Click-to-Run versions on one PC cause activation and update conflicts. So the old one goes first.

1. Back up Outlook data files, custom templates and the Excel personal macro workbook.
2. Remove the old suite under Settings, Apps, Installed apps.
3. Restart the PC.
4. Redeem the new key at setup.office.com with your Microsoft account, and click Install.
5. Open Word and sign in.
6. Confirm activation under File, then Account.

Removal fails? The methods in our Office uninstall tool guide get it off the PC.

Your documents stay on the computer through the switch. So do Outlook data files and most settings. The template to back up is called Normal.dotm, and the Outlook files end in .pst.

Choose the 64-bit version unless an old add-in requires 32-bit. Microsoft recommends 64-bit on PCs with 4 GB of RAM or more.

What stays the same in Office 2019 and 2024

• The file formats. Nothing needs converting.
• The ribbon layout, apart from the fresher look.
• Your macros, templates and most add-ins.
• The way you pay: once.
• The installer technology, Click-to-Run.

People expect a learning curve and don’t get one. The suite looks newer and works the way they already know. The changes show up when they go looking for them, in Excel first.

Day one after the switch

• Open one document, one workbook and one deck you use every week.
• Run your most important macro.
• Send a test email, if Outlook is part of your edition.
• Check File, Account once more. It should say the product is activated.

All four fine? Then the old backups can go into the archive.

Before you start: a short checklist

• The PC runs Windows 11.
• You know your Microsoft account and its password.
• The backups from step one of the upgrade are on another drive.
• Anything built on ActiveX or old macros has a test planned.
• Publisher files are converted, if you have any.

Half an hour of preparation, and the switch itself is mostly waiting for a download. We’d do it on a quiet afternoon, not on a deadline day.

What changes in daily work

None of this changes the file formats. A workbook saved in the new suite opens in the old one, with the new functions shown as errors where they appear. That’s Microsoft Office 2024 vs 2019 in daily use. Same files, better formulas.

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