Microsoft now lets you use the basic Microsoft Office suite on your desktop PC without a subscription. Previously, you needed to sign in with a paid Microsoft account to use it directly on your computer, but now Microsoft offers a "Continue for free" option if you don't want to work in a browser or pay a monthly fee.
Microsoft 365 for Windows no longer requires a subscription
Previously, you had to pay for a Microsoft 365 subscription or buy Office 2024 if you wanted to use Microsoft's productivity suite directly on your PC. The company offers Office Online for free (and there are plenty of reasons why you should), but you have to use it in a browser and stay connected to the internet to do so.
However, the software giant is now making it easier for those who prefer to work with Microsoft Office directly on their computers (not through a browser). Instead of having to go through the trouble of getting a free Microsoft Office license, Microsoft will let you use the basic versions of its productivity apps — Excel, PowerPoint, and Word — for free.
To do this, simply download and install Microsoft 365 on your Windows computer as usual. Once the installation process is complete, launch any of the three apps mentioned above and when prompted to sign in, click Skip for now in the lower left corner of the Sign-in window .
You'll then see the "Welcome to free Word, Excel, and PowerPoint" dialog box and can select the Continue for free option . In the next window, click Save to OneDrive , which will save everything you do to your OneDrive account—then you can start using it.
Some notes when using Microsoft 365 free for Windows
While Microsoft is finally making its core productivity apps free, the service is actually worse than Microsoft 365 Online. That’s because it still requires you to be online to save your work to OneDrive, which is also limited to 5GB. This may not be an issue if you don’t use your computer for anything other than word processing.
But if you don't configure your OneDrive account yourself, and save photos and videos on your PC, you'll soon find yourself running out of storage space.
This means you'll need to free up OneDrive storage or buy more storage, which essentially defeats the purpose of free Microsoft 365. After all, if you sign up for a Microsoft 365 plan, you can get 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage (depending on your plan).
Additionally, you lose a lot of the advanced features that paid Microsoft 365 users get, including line spacing, tables, columns, etc. for Word. The free Microsoft Excel strips out conditional formatting, pivot tables, colors, etc., while the free PowerPoint strips out icons, SmartArt, charts, background formatting, etc. Additionally, all apps lose add-in features.
Since the app is free, Microsoft places a constant banner ad on top of the app to entice you to use the company’s other services. It even shows you a short video every few hours in the hopes that you’ll eventually buy something from the company. Also, the free version is only available on Windows—if you’re a macOS user, you’ll have to pay for it or use Apple’s built-in productivity suite.
Ultimately, you can only use these apps for the simplest of tasks, which is impractical for anyone who needs them for work or school purposes. Plus, the annoying ads might make you want to switch to free alternatives to Microsoft 365.
But if you prefer to work directly on Windows, have a terabyte of cloud storage, and save files locally, then an MS 365 subscription might be the smarter choice.
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