By default Windows Update only updates Windows itself. In order to get updates for Office and other Microsoft products as well, you’ll have to “update” your Windows Update to Microsoft Update.

When you are using an Office 365 installation (also knows as Click to Run) of Office 2013 or Office 2016, then the updates will not be offered via Windows Update but will be installed automatically. You can manually check for updates from within any Office application.

Upgrading from Windows Update to Microsoft Update

In order to switch from Windows Update to Microsoft Update, you can visit this Microsoft site which works for all versions of Windows.

Another way to do it would be to launch Windows Update like you normally do and then click the appropriate link as indicated below. A quick way to locate Windows Update is to to open the Start Menu or Start Screen and type; Update.

Windows 10

Click on the “Advanced options” link and select the option: Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows.

Windows 8 Desktop

• Click the “Find out more” link to switch to Microsoft Update.
• If it is not available, click on the “Change setting” link on the left and you should be able to select the option: Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows.

Windows 8 Modern App

• Open the Start Screen and type “Update”. This should give you a search result called: Choose whether to automatically install Windows Updates.
• When you click on this result, you'll get a screen which allows you to select: Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

• Click the “Find out more” link to switch to Microsoft Update.
• If it is not available, click on the “Change setting” link on the left and you should be able to select the option: Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows.

Windows XP

• You’ll find a Microsoft Update advertisement at the top and on the side of the Windows Update website.
• When you’ve switched successfully, the Windows Update screen will no longer show the “Find out more” link and should state: You receive updates: For Windows and other products from Microsoft Update.

Enable Microsoft Update in Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 to get Office updates too.

Windows 8 also allows you to select Microsoft Update via its touch friendly interface.

Enable Microsoft Update in Windows 10 to get Office updates too.

Updating Office 365 Installations

When you are using an Office 365 installation of Office 2013 or Office 2016, then updates won't be coming via Microsoft Update and you won’t be able to install updates or hotfixes manually either via their standalone installer.

Instead, updates for Office will be installed automatically for you within a few days after these updates get released. You can also force it to check for new updates and apply them by using the Update Options button: File-> Office Account-> Update Options-> Update Now.

Enabling Office 2010, 2013 and 2016 Updates with Windows Update

If you have already run any of the Office applications (Word, Excel, etc.) but you have not (or bypassed) viewed the initial Office Welcome Screen, in which Office asks you to decide to enable updates or not, you could be not able to enable Office updates through Windows Update anymore....unless you go into Windows Registry and do the following modification: go the following key (here for Office 2013):

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\General\

Then change the DWORD value of ShownFirstRunOptin to 1. After this, when you re-open any Office application you will see again the following window (choos the Recommended option to properly configure Windows Update for Office):