Microsoft now lets you use the basic Microsoft Office suite on your desktop PC without a subscription. You previously needed to log in with a paid Microsoft account to use it directly on your computer, but it now gives a “Continue for free” option if you don’t want to work in your browser or pay a monthly fee.
Microsoft 365 for Windows No Longer Requires a Subscription
Prior to now, 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 does offer Office Online for free (and there are plenty ofreasons why you should use Office Online), but you have to use it within your browser and stay connected to the internet to do so.
However, the software giant is now making it easier for those who prefer working with Microsoft Office directly on their computer (not through a browser). Instead of going through the hassle of findingways to get a free Microsoft Office license, Microsoft will let you use basic versions of its productivity apps—Excel, PowerPoint, and Word—for free.
To do so, you just need to download and installMicrosoft 365on your Windows computer, as usual. After you complete the installation process, launch any of the three aforementioned apps, and when you’re prompted to sign in, click onSkip for nowlocated in the lower-left corner of theSign-inwindow.
You will then see the “Welcome to free Word, Excel, and PowerPoint” dialog box, and can choose theContinue for freeoption. In the next window, click onSave to OneDrive, which will save everything you do to your OneDrive account—then you’re good to go.
A Few Caveats to Free Microsoft 365 for Windows
While Microsoft is finally making its core productivity apps free, this offering is actually worse than Microsoft 365 Online. That’s because it still requires you to be online to save your work via OneDrive, which is also limited to 5GB. This might not be an issue if you don’t use your computer for anything except word processing.
But if you do not manually configure your OneDrive account, and also save your photos and videos on your PC, you’ll soon find yourself running out of storage space.
Microsoft 365 Basic Tier: Here’s What You Get for That $2/Month Asking Price
Want to know what you get with the Microsoft 365 Basic tier? Learn about its features and pricing in our comprehensive guide.
Aside from that, you lose a lot of advanced features that paid Microsoft 365 users get, including line spacing, tables, columns, and more for Word. Free Microsoft Excel drops conditional formatting, pivot tables, colors, and more, while free PowerPoint ditches icons, SmartArt, charts, format background, and more. Also, all apps lose the add-in feature.
Since the app is free, Microsoft puts a persistent ad banner on the apps to entice you to use its other services. It will even show you a quick video every few hours hoping that you’ll eventually purchase something from the company. Also, this free version is only available on Windows—if you’re a macOS user, you have to pay up or use Apple’s built-in productivity suite instead.
In the end, you may only utilize these apps for the simplest of tasks, which is impractical for anyone needing them for work or school purposes. Plus, the annoyance of the ads might make you want to switch tofree alternatives to Microsoft 365 instead.
But if you prefer working directly on Windows, have a terabyte of cloud storage, and save your files locally, then theMS 365 subscription might be good enough to pay for itself.
