How to check the Service Pack level in Office 2013
Now that Service Pak 1 for Office 2013 has become available, how do I check if I actually have it installed?
Does this Service Pack also apply to my Office 365 Home Premium installation?
Office 2013 doesn't really like to show off that it is running at Service Pack 1 level. Instead, you have to recognize it via the MSO version number.
Finding the MSO version number
To see the MSO version number, go to File-> Office Account in Outlook (or another Office 2013 application) and press the “About Outlook” button.
At the top, you'll see 2 build numbers numbers; 1 for Outlook and 1 for MSO.
The good old About dialog is still there but no longer reveals SP-level information.
When the number behind MSO is 15.0.4569.1506 or higher, then you have successfully installed Service Pack 1 for Office 2013.
For Office 365 subscription based installations of Office 2013, you’ll see the version number directly in the Office Account section as well. In that case, the version number for Service Pack 1 is: 15.0.4569.1507.
Forcing Office 365 to check for updates
When you are using Office 2013 as part of an Office 365 subscription, then the Service Pack update isn’t offered via Windows Update nor can you use the standalone installer.
Instead, the update will be installed automatically after a few days, or you can force the update detection by temporarily disabling Automatic Updates and then directly enable it again.
You can do this via:
File-> Office Account-> Update Options
A few seconds after you’ve re-enabled Updates, Office will show a notification that an update is available and will begin to download it. After it has been downloaded confirm that you want to start the installation or simply close any Office applications when being prompted.
When the update has already been downloaded for you but you haven’t applied it yet, then you can start the installation of it via the Apply Updates command in the list that shows up when you click on the Update Options button.
Note: Service Pack 1 introduced an “Update Now” command to the Update Options button so in the future, manually checking for updates is much more intuitive.
