A simple “hack” gives you free access to Microsoft 365’s Office desktop apps on Windows 11. However, it’s available for a limited time only and has ads. On top of that, you cannot save files to your local storage. It’s locked to OneDrive, but you’ll get a desktop Office experience for free.
Microsoft is now building a new version of Office apps for Windows 11 that integrates ads in exchange of free access to desktip experience. Ad-supported products help users with limited purchase power access tools and services while contributing to the development and maintenance by watching ads.
Microsoft’s web version of Office, which has undergone so many rebrandings that it’s a pain to remember, has also been accessible for free. However, it doesn’t offer a “native” experience because it’s a website at the end of the day.
Beebom noticed that Microsoft is offering Office desktop apps on Windows 11 for free, and the news is indeed surprising. The Redmond giant has always had a firm stance on the offline availability of Office, but it seems things might change in the future.
Windows Latest followed up with Microsoft to understand what’s happening. The company told us that it’s “conducting” some tests and has no plans to office an ad supported version of Office for free.
In our tests, Windows Latest observed that Office desktop apps are indeed free if you follow these steps and change your region to India.
Downloading and installing Microsoft Office for free
This part’s pretty simple. Head to the official website of Microsoft Office and click on the Download for Windows button.
- Open the Downloads folder and click on the setup file to launch the installer.
- Follow the on-screen instructions and wait for the installation to complete.
- Open Start and click on any Office app like Word, PowerPoint, etc. You’ll see a sign-in prompt.
- Enter your MS account details and sign in.
- Now, click on the Continue for free option.
- Click on Save to OneDrive option.
- Now, you can use the app without any worry.
You’ll see the option only when the region is set to India, so make sure you change your Windows 11 region settings before you follow these steps.
Free Office? Aren’t there any limitations?
It wouldn’t be a Microsoft product if it didn’t remind you to pay every time. Like every freemium app, this one shows ads.
A noticeable area on the right side is reserved for promoting Microsoft products.
Apart from that, there are limitations to what you can do with the apps. We tried Word, and there were many features greyed out on the toolbar. I certainly can live without Voice Typing and even add-ins for basic usage.
However, limiting users from accessing line and paragraph spacing, header footer, WordArt, etc, is not a great idea.
Although PowerPoint and Excel share the same level of restrictions, I was still happy that they kept the add image and shapes option accessible. You cannot save files to local disks and must use OneDrive only. I disconnected the internet and then tried using and keeping a sample file.
There was no option to do so, so I had to resort to printing the file section, which let me save the file as a PDF. That doesn’t work very well if I want to save something in DOC format.
I understand Microsoft’s frustration to convert users into paying customers but when countless other web and offline tools like Libre Office exist, it won’t appeal to a large audience. The free usage page initially showed only Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
We saw other Office apps, like Publisher and Access, installed alongside these ones. When I tried accessing Publisher, it prompted a five-day limited trial warning.
Can anyone download and install free Microsoft Office?
No. We thought it was globally available, even if it was a limited trial. We tested the installation and free access status in a virtual machine set in the US region.
There was no free access offer there. Only a five-day limited option appeared.
When we did the same on our primary Windows 11 24H2 PC with the region set to India, the free access without any limited days offer appeared. So, it might be region-restricted and there’s no way to confirm it.
We also tried changing the region setting in our virtual machine PC to trick the installer into offering free access, but it didn’t work.
Even if Microsoft wants to offer free Office, I think you should use the free web version.
At least it doesn’t restrict the features like this app version, and you can even download a copy of the file from there.
It is much better than using this free version, which feels like an ultra-restrictive app littered with ads.
The post You can get Microsoft 365’s Office desktop apps for free on Windows 11 by changing region appeared first on Windows Latest
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