You Can Now Use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Free on Windows – Thurrott.com

UPDATE: Now we know why this is happening so quietly: Microsoft says this free, ad-supported version of Office is only a test. Here’s the statement. –Paul“Microsoft has been conducting some limited testing,” a Microsoft representative said. “Currently, there are no plans to launch a free, ad-supported version of Microsoft Office desktop apps.”Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott’s Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!”*” indicates required fieldsΔMicrosoft has quietly made free, ad-supported versions of the desktop apps Word, Excel, and PowerPoint available for free on Windows. Each is missing several features, and it looks like you have to save documents to OneDrive exclusively. But they appear to be full-featured otherwise.This free, ad-supported version of the core Office apps was first spotted by Beebom. To my knowledge, Microsoft has never revealed its existence or the rationale behind this change. That publication notes that there is a persistent advertisement in a sidebar on the right side of these apps, and they display a short video ad every few hours.Functionally, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint offer all but their most advanced features. Beebom notes, for example, that the free version of Word lacks commands like Dictate, Line spacing, WordArt, all Draw and Design tools, and several others. Excel lacks Add-in support, Pivot Table, various chart types, and other features. PowerPoint is missing Add-ins, Dictate, Screenshot, SmartArt, and more. And as noted, the free versions of these desktop apps can only save documents to OneDrive. That publication has more complete lists of the missing features, but this appears to be a functional middle ground between the Office Web Apps and the full desktop Office suite. And they can be used offline.For decades, many customers believed that the desktop Office apps were part of Windows, mostly likely because the most common way to acquire the suite was as part of a new PC purchase. And Microsoft certainly didn’t help matters by making the Microsoft 365 desktop apps, as that suite is now known, part of the standard Windows install image used by most PC makers.But one wonders what triggered this change, and it’s interesting that it coincides with the first-ever Microsoft 365 price hike for consumers and the related distribution of AI credits to account holders so they can use Copilot features for free (as part of their subscription, really) each month.To get the free versions of desktop Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Windows, visit the Microsoft 365 website’s Download Office page and download and install the Windows version. (The Mac version doesn’t offer a similar free option, though maybe that will change in the future.) When the installation is complete, just run one of those three apps and click “Skip now” on the Sign in to get started dialog that appears. Then, select “Continue for free” on the Welcome to free Word, Excel, and PowerPoint dialog that appears next. In the next dialog, you must agree to save to OneDrive, otherwise you won’t get the editing features in each app. It notes that you must “buy Microsoft 365 if you want to edit files saved locally on this computer without saving to OneDrive.”Or, at least Beebom says it does. I’ve tried downloading this twice on two different PCs and have never seen the “Skip now” option. Perhaps this is a regional thing (as I’m in Mexico currently).Paul Thurrott is an award-winning technology journalist and blogger with 30 years of industry experience and the author of 30 books. He is the owner of Thurrott.com and the host of three tech podcasts: Windows Weekly with Leo Laporte and Richard Campbell, Hands-On Windows, and First Ring Daily with Brad Sams. He was formerly the senior technology analyst at Windows IT Pro and the creator of the SuperSite for Windows from 1999 to 2014 and the Major Domo of Thurrott.com while at BWW Media Group from 2015 to 2023. You can reach Paul via email, Twitter or Mastodon.
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