Do I need to have Microsoft Office or anything installed on the machine to search within file contents?

Last updated: 2026-10-01

Learn whether Microsoft Office or other software is required to search within file contents using the SharePoint Essentials Toolkit Content Search feature.

This article will advise you about prerequisites when using SharePoint Content Search.

Question

Do I need to have Microsoft Office 365, Adobe Acrobat or anything else installed on the machine to perform a Content Search to report within file contents?

Answer

The SharePoint Essentials Toolkit requires .NET Core to be installed but DOES NOT require Microsoft Office 365 or Adobe Acrobat to work. Please see the User Guide for more information on installation requirements.

In order to open reports exported as Excel, you would require Microsoft Excel or an application that can open Excel XLSX files.