1.1. Introduction

This article describes the installation process of the empower® client software on a Windows system as well as important prerequisites. If there are any questions reading this guide, please do not hesitate to contact our support Team. Your technical contact at empower® will be the empower® Support.

If you are looking for the syncless (empower® Chart Creation) installer guide check out the following article: Installer Guide Chart Creation 9.6

1.2. Hardware Requirements

2 GHz or faster processor
4 GB of RAM
The required hard disc space for the application is dependent on the content included in your empower® version. A default version needs approximately 250 MB of available hard disk space for the application.
This amount highly depends on the size of the content in your empower® version.
Possible HTTPS connection to the empower® Activation Server

1.3 Software Requirements

Operating System: Windows 10*, 11
Office 2016*, 2019*, 2021, 2024
Office 365 ProPlus and Enterprise E3 and E5
.Net Framework: Version 4.8 or higher

*End of life as of October 2025.
Starting October 2025, empower will no longer support these Windows and Office versions.
Please ensure that you switch to supported versions in time.
For further information from Microsoft, see End of Support Resources.

1.4 Installation Files

The installation package consists of two components:

.msi file

per machine
Needs elevated permissions and will install the empower Suite on the local machine for all users

per user Installs the empower Suite only for the current user
Payload folder

Both components must be stored right next to each other.

Please note:
Before you start the installation make sure that all Office applications are closed.

The .msi file is the execution file, whereas the Payload folder contains the following files:

When the AI Assistant is also being installed, the following files will also be added into the Payload folder:

Data Folder

licensekey.txt
RemoteServiceConfig.xml

During installation, the content is placed in the data directory. Content will be installed onto the system.

Install Folder (Install\net\ChartCreation\empower.ChartCreation.Charts.Feature)

Holidays.xml
aiplabelsettings.xml (optional)
FeatureToggles.json

Customizing Folder (Install\net\ChartCreation\empower.ChartCreation.Charts.Feature\Customizings)

.ecdc/.ecbc or .jsconcu (optional)

During installation, the content is placed in the installation directory. Content will be installed onto the system.

Metadata Folder

Content is evaluated by empower® during installation but not installed onto the system.

1.5 Step-by-Step Guide Installation

1. Start empowerSuite-perUser.msi or empowerSuite-perMachine.msi.

2. Continue the installation by clicking the button Next.

3. Accept the license agreement and continue by clicking the button Next again.

4. All empower® components to be installed on the device are listed here. Click on the Next button to continue with the installation.

Important: For the Suite installation: Only select the empower® components you have purchased. Otherwise you will receive unexpected error messages.

Click on the Next button to continue with the installation.

5. Start the installation by clicking the button Install.

6. Click on the button Yes to allow empower to make changed to the device and finish the installation.
Please note: This pop-up window is only prompted, if you are using a per machine installer.

7. If an Office application is still running, a message box is shown.

8. The installation is being executed.

9. Finish the installation by clicking on the button Finish.

1.6 After Installation

Depending on which components have been purchased, empower® is displayed as follows in the respective application.

1.6.1 Products

If you installed empower® Add-in for PowerPoint (empower® Slides, empower® Charts)

After you have finished the installation, start PowerPoint and if necessary log in empower® Sync with a given username and password.
empower® Suite prepares PowerPoint and loads all relevant data. This can take some time.
After a successful setup please restart PowerPoint. You will receive a notification Welcome to empower and a new empower® ribbon in PowerPoint.

empower® Slides

empower® Charts

Please notice: If you installed empower® Slides and empower® Charts you will get an additional part in the empower® ribbon to add empower® Charts.

If you installed empower® Add-in for Word (empower® Docs)

Open Word and if necessary log in with a given log in username and password.
empower® Suite prepares Word and loads all relevant data. This can take some time.
After a successful setup you will get a new empower® ribbon on the left hand side of Word.

Please notice: If you do not get the empower® ribbon, please restart PowerPoint/Word.

If you installed empower® Add-in for Outlook (empower® Mails)

empower® Outlook will not be included in the main 9.7 release.

If you installed empower® Add-in for Excel (empower® Sheets)

Open Excel and if necessary log in with a given log in username and password
empower® Suite prepares Excel and loads all relevant data. This can take some time.
After a successful setup you will get a new empower® ribbon in Excel.

Please notice: If you do not get the empower® ribbon, please restart Excel.

1.6.2 Solutions

empower® Brand Control

PowerPoint (empower® Ribbon):

Excel (empower® Ribbon):

Word (empower® Ribbon):

empower® Charts

PowerPoint (Insert Tab):

Excel (Insert Tab):

Please notice : If an empower® Charts license is present, it also registers the add-in in Excel.

empower® Content Enablement

PowerPoint (Home Tab):	Excel (Home Tab):	Word (Home Tab):

empower® AI Assistant

PowerPoint (empower Tab)	Word (empower Tab)	Outlook (Message Tab)

1.7 License Activation

In order to activate the license, the client need to be able to connect to the internet. Our licensing server is available under the address activate.empowersuite.com via Port 443. This connection needs to be allowed in Proxy or Firewall settings.

Please note:
If this should not be possible, empower® may provide an alternative license file (license.key). This file needs to be distributed to all machines where no internet activation is possible.

1.8 Information on Install Paths

Once empower® has been installed, the license keys, which are saved in a text file on the filesystem, if an online license key is used, can be found at the following install paths:

Product/Solution	perMachine	perUser
empower® AI Assistant	%Programdata%/empower/aiassistant_licensekey.txt	%localappdata%/empower/aiassistant_licensekey.txt
empower® Charts	%Programdata%/empower/charts_licensekey.txt	%localappdata%/empower/charts_licensekey.txt
empower® Docs	%Programdata%/empower/docs_licensekey.txt	%localappdata%/empower/docs_licensekey.txt
empower® Sheets	%Programdata%/sheets_licensekey.txt	%localappdata%/sheets_licensekey.txt
empower® Slides	%Programdata%/slides_licensekey.txt	%localappdata%/slides_licensekey.txt
empower® Solutions	%Programdata%/empower/licensekey.txt	%localappdata%/empower/licensekey.txt

1.9 Setup Parameter

Parameter	Valid Values	Default Value (if not defined differently)	Definition
ENABLE_PAYLOAD_CHECK	0,1	1	Defines whether the payload folder should be checked. This parameter only affects the check by the suite uninstaller. Checks that are explicitly carried out by the components (e.g. Charts) are not affected by this.
EXECUTINGDIRECTORY	Path	empty	This property can be used to specify the path where the MSI is located. This may be necessary to define the storage location when executing the command line from another folder.
SYNC_START_IMMEDIATELY	0, 1	0	This parameter enforces starting the empower sync application after setup if the setup runs in silent mode. By default in this mode the sync application will not be started automatically. Setting this parameter to "1" enforces the automatic start. If the setup is executed in non-silent mode the sync application will be started automatically independent of this parameter.

1.10 Installing and Managing Components via Commandline

If you want to install components per command line, you need to use the ADDLOCAL Property by MSI
(https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/msi/addlocal)
If you want to remove/uninstall parts of the components you need to use the REMOVE Property by MSI
(https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/msi/remove)

Allowed properties are:

Products:

charts
slides
docs
mails
sheets

Solutions:

PowerPoint
Word
Excel
autoupdater (obligatory for per user installations)

Note: Please replace the name of the .msi with the actual name of the installer provided when using the example command line.

It is possible to install silent without specifying any ADDLOCAL parameter when using a solution license in the payload (except for per user installations, these need the autoupdater sepcified).
If the payload setup does not define a default set of components to install, the definition of ADDLOCAL is mandatory on the first installation.

If a license for empower® Charts is present in the payload folder, there will always be an add-in registered in Excel regardless of the selection in the installer.

To execute a silent installation (Silent Mode), /q is used. The following command can be used to start a silent installation:

msiexec /i "<path_to_msi>" /q ADDLOCAL=<comma_separated_list_of_features>

If a log file should be created during the installation, the following command can be used

msiexec /i "<path_to_msi>" /q /l*v ADDLOCAL=<comma_separated_list_of_features>

The storage location for the log file can be defined using /l*v. In this case, the v stands for the log level verbose.

For example, per machine installation:
msiexec /i empowerSuite-perMachine-net.msi /q /l*v installer.log ADDLOCAL=slides
msiexec /i empowerSuite-perMachine-net.msi /q /l*v installer.log REMOVE=slides

Solutions Parameter:

BrandControl

msiexec /i empowerSuite-perMachine-net.msi /q /l*v installer.log ADDLOCAL=PowerPoint,Word,Excel
ContentEnablement

msiexec /i empowerSuite-perMachine-net.msi /q /l*v installer.log ADDLOCAL=PowerPoint,Word,Excel
DocumentAutomation

msiexec /i empowerSuite-perMachine-net.msi /q /l*v installer.log ADDLOCAL=Word

For example, per user installation:
msiexec /i empowerSuite-perUser-net.msi /q /l*v installer.log ADDLOCAL=slides,autoupdater
msiexec /i empowerSuite-perUser-net.msi /q /l*v installer.log REMOVE=slides,autoupdater