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Microsoft IT

Microsoft Quietly Launches Ad-Supported Version of Office Apps for Windows (windowscentral.com) 36

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Microsoft has quietly launched a new version of Microsoft Office for Windows that can be used to edit documents for free, no Microsoft 365 subscription or Office license key required. From a report: This free version of Office is based on the full desktop apps, but has most features locked behind the Microsoft 365 subscription. The free version of Office for Windows includes ads that are permanently on screen when within a document in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Additionally, this new free version of Office also only allows you to save files to OneDrive, meaning no support for editing local files. To access the free version of Office, just skip the prompt to sign-in when you first run an Office app. From there, you will be given the choice to continue to use Office for free in exchange for ads and limited features. In this mode, you can open, view, and even edit documents, just like you can with the web version of Office.

Microsoft Quietly Launches Ad-Supported Version of Office Apps for Windows More | Reply

Microsoft Quietly Launches Ad-Supported Version of Office Apps for Windows

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  • So (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It's google docs but shittier and with banner ads

    • No it isn't. The web version of Microsoft Office isn't what's being announced here, that's existed for years, and has always been free.

      This is the regular desktop version of Microsoft Office. The one you install on your computer.

      • Re:So (Score:4, Funny)

        by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Monday February 24, 2025 @04:17PM (#65192399)

        No it isn't. The web version of Microsoft Office isn't what's being announced here, that's existed for years, and has always been free.

        This is the regular desktop version of Microsoft Office. The one you install on your computer.

        You mean the same shitty version of Microsoft Office that you install on your computer? Can you imagine a meeting where you're showing a powerpoint, and you continually get ads?

        • Well I wasn't commenting on the usefulness of it, but that said, if you're going to a work meeting, you'll probably be using the version of Office your employer pays for.

          I think the intended market for this are home users who have no intention of forking out $100 a year just to type the occasional letter and might otherwise be tempted by LibreOffice.

          • If all they are doing is letters then there is no reason for them to put up with ads, either. Practically any word processor since we got scalable fonts has every desire they need. New Deal Publisher, anyone? ;)

          • >"if you're going to a work meeting, you'll probably be using the version of [MS-]Office your employer pays for."

            At my work, all 160+ users use LibreOffice (and Linux) you insensitive clod ;)

            >"I think the intended market for this are home users who have no intention of forking out $100 a year just to type the occasional letter and might otherwise be tempted by LibreOffice."

            At home, I also use LibreOffice (and Linux). But yeah, this is probably Microsoft feeling some pressure from other local platform

            • >"if you're going to a work meeting, you'll probably be using the version of [MS-]Office your employer pays for."

              At my work, all 160+ users use LibreOffice (and Linux) you insensitive clod ;)

              >"I think the intended market for this are home users who have no intention of forking out $100 a year just to type the occasional letter and might otherwise be tempted by LibreOffice."

              At home, I also use LibreOffice (and Linux). But yeah, this is probably Microsoft feeling some pressure from other local platforms growing in popularity, like LibreOffice, and cloud ones, like Google Docs (and many others).

              I would estimate that at least 90% of home users would do just fine with LibreOffice. Harder to estimate for work users- but probably at least 50%?

              Hey! stop it, Everyone here knows that it is not possible to use any other product than the gold standard (start drumroll and trupet fanfare) OFFICE 365! now genuflect, and make a good act of contrition.

              All sarcasm aside, Yes,The OS Office software does work. I was tasked with putting an office system on Windows, MacOS, and Linux computers for a group. The rules were that everything must be identical, no matter the OS. The system had to open pretty much anything out there, and save it the same way, if

          • Except that LibreOffice is full featured instead of having most features turned off, can work with local files, and doesn't show ads. If this is supposed to compete with it, it's hard to imagine it succeeding.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by taustin ( 171655 )

          Can you imagine a meeting where you're showing a powerpoint, and you continually get ads?

          If you're in a meeting where you're showing a powerpoint using the free version of Office, it's only fair to warn your audience that you're a drooling idiot.

          • Can you imagine a meeting where you're showing a powerpoint, and you continually get ads?

            If you're in a meeting where you're showing a powerpoint using the free version of Office, it's only fair to warn your audience that you're a drooling idiot.

            I use either Libre Impress, or Apple Keynote - which by the way are hella better than PowePoint. Indeed on my work computer which has a properly paid for Office 365, I still use the Open office Apps, because unlike the vaunted Office 365, they open everything.

            But not everyone is as smart as you or me. 8^)

        • It's worse than you think. The ads will feature Clippy.

  • Libreoffice (Score:5, Informative)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Monday February 24, 2025 @04:03PM (#65192363)

    That is all.

    • I was thinking the same. "If you need a free office suite, you could just use LibreOffice and not worry about ads."

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        It won't display ads, but it will occasionally nag you to donate (particularly when upgrading to new versions, it seems).

    • An update to Windows 11 caused problems with the (really old) version of Office that my computer-illiterate mom liked. Reinstalling it didn't help. She didn't want to upgrade to a new version of Word, so instead I installed LibreOffice. I told her that it it might look slightly different but should be very familiar, and all of the functionality that she needed was there. It solved all of the problems she was having and she has been very pleased with it.

      That was step 1.

      Step 2: Switching her from Windows

  • I cannot imagine a worse way to spend my day than using an ad supported version of Office. I mean, holy fucking Christ! As if dying of cancer isn't miserable enough, but to spend time using this cluster fuck? Really? I'd rather have a needle jabbed in my eye while getting a blowjob from a super model.

    Yeah. Do the math on that one!

    • Having worked in tech support previously, my heart goes out to the layman who's copy of office that they paid for will randomly deactivate on them, but still continues to work under this new paradigm and they will just accept this as the new norm, not too long ago I remember apps that polluted the operating system with an excessive amount of ads to be considered malware, now it's the free tier..

  • Why would you want to only edit cloud-storage files with your on-disk software?

    If you're going to do cloud editing, wouldn't you use the cloud software?

    --
    (This question might have a better answer)

    Why does MS want my files on One-Drive so bad? It costs them money. It's cheaper for them to let me edit local files than it is for them to force me to put them in a free One Drive account?
    Is it really just in the hope that I 'might' decide to upgrade...even though I've rejected it over and over and over for th

    • Why would you want to only edit cloud-storage files...

      I agree this isn't what you'd want; but this is only what they give you, for free, in an attempt to increase their vendor lock-in even when you don't want to pay. In the past, some used "pirated windows" or "pirated MS Office", and MS was relatively ok with that (they preferred you use pirated MSOffice than the competition). Now that pirated X does not really exist anymore in a world where Notepad has features locked behind a paid account, Microsoft is looking for ideas of what to give free users something

  • Libreoffice (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Monday February 24, 2025 @04:19PM (#65192413)

    Anybody who hasn't switched to Libreoffice by now is deeply stupid. OK now, don't get your knickers in your bunch, that's just what you are.

    • Anybody who isn't still using Office 2003 is deeply stupid. OK now, don't get your knickers in your bunch, that's just what you are.

      Fixed that lengthy typo for you.

    • Since when do personal preferences make people stupid? You may not be able to afford anything, but that's on you. Others have no problem paying money for useless things. I wonder how much pointless waste we'd find in your life if we looked deeper. Can we call you deeply stupid too?

  • A complaint saver (Score:3)

    by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Monday February 24, 2025 @04:23PM (#65192431)

    That's my best guess, enough people of a combination of both getting older and just not tech savvy are used to plain-ol' desktop Office on their computer and there were probably enough tech calls and manpower just dealing with people not able to download not really wanting to deal with subscription or high price it or unaware or dislike of web versions and also if they dont know about Libreoffice then this just heads off that entire cohort of Windows users of which there are still many.

    Considering lot's of laptops folks buy have a free-trial of Office and have it installed so this just gives a release valve to those people. It's a sort-of PR move, goes from a negative (i gotta pay for this now?!) to a less bad to neutral (at least my files still open). That or MS is just way out of touch (likely)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by King_TJ ( 85913 )

      Agreed.

      My first thought was, "Just install LibreOffice if you need a free Office suite!" But then I realize how many people just want to use the exact same product they used someplace else and they're already familiar with. Not everyone actually *likes* using their computer and learning new things on it.

      If they're cheap enough to put up with ads instead of paying for the software, fine.... Here's an option for them.

  • "I see you're trying to write a letter. Let me show you some ads for ..."

  • And here I am like a sucker using the paid version when I could just be using it for free with an ad blocker...

    • The ads are the least of your problems when you use Office.

      The real problem is, Microsoft essentially reads everything you write over your shoulder. And sees your spreadsheets. And reviews your PowerPoints. And trains their AI on your data...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by abulafia ( 7826 )
        Not if your use is licensed through a fellow enormous corporation who cares about such things.

        My employer negotiates such a deal. Of course you're welcome to believe Microsoft breaks those. I do know my employer would not hesitate to sure the shit out of them if they caught them out; they've done just that to other vendors.

        Of course if you're paying your own money to use it, you have two problems.

        • I know for a fact that Microsoft processes the data I produce at work - as well as my coworker's data - and it doesn't take a genius to figure it out:

          - Put a photo in a Word document. Say a photo of a tree. Wait a few seconds: Word suggests "This looks like a tree. Add description?" or some such.

          Meaning Microsoft appropriated my photo, sent it to their servers and processed it without my explicit permission or my company's.

          - Likewise, make a video in which you say something or other. Upload it to your compa

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by abulafia ( 7826 )
            Because why would they refrain? It's almost impossible to prove they're doing it. I will repeat, you can believe what you like. I can absolutely imagine Microsoft spying on specific competitors if they're dumb enough to use MS software. But I have trouble imagining the executive who would risk the sort of publicity that being sued by a Fortune 100 client they don't compete with for stealing corporate data. The value compared to the risk is way too great.

            And I also think your estimations about the ease of

  • stupid.

  • Learn to sail the high seas safely if you for whatever reason need proprietary personal software. Piracy was one of the first things one learnt after how to use a PC back in the proverbial day.

    Contrary to popular non-techie belief that's not hard to do safely but does require a bit of reading.

  • A screen full of 95% popups and distractions obscuring the 5% of trying to do actual work.
  • If they dont they should

  • I'll stick with LibreOffice.

  • ... free version of Office for Windows ...

    If one is that cheap, there are a few free productivity apps that are mostly compatible with MS Office, eg. LibreOffice. That's enough for 99% of people in school and in an office.

    If one truly values local-disk (software, data) access and MS compatibility, there are commercial apps that are almost indistinguishable from MS Office, feature-wise. Trading one's data for adverts, would have to be the dumbest deal given to Windows machines. (If one agrees, just use Android.) If the crap-ware inside Windows

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