At the beginning of this week, Microsoft broke off from the long tradition of offering only paid versions of the native Microsoft Office application (for some time on the web) and quietly introduced a free, supported advertising version of the Microsoft Office version exclusively for Windows 11 users. This was first noticed for the first time Beebomwhich tested it on Windows 11 machines and machines (my tests in Windows 10 quickly revealed that it is a business as usual in older versions of Windows.
Despite this, it is clever and probably even smart with Microsoft, to build the “go through for now” button leading to the free version of Microsoft Office, allowing the utilize of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Ads that support this utilize have the form of a combination of persistent advertising banner on the screen, as well as a muted 15-second video advertising played every few hours.
However, there are still many reservations about using WORD, Excel and PowerPoint here. The biggest direct reservation is that you can’t save files locally and instead you have to save them to OneDrive, which means you don’t have any operation of editing local files. It is 2025, Microsoft – LibreOffice and Google Documents have existed too long for you to have the inconvenience of your free users.
However, there are many other problems, significantly limiting formatting options and decorative available for free Microsoft users. Beebom has carefully mentioned over 30 missing functions in his original range. So, although I supplemented Microsoft’s prudence, having a free level of local office applications available … there are real glaring problems with omissions.
Even blocking in Microsoft Word, removing the key formatting options, such as line spacing, text packaging, headers, feet, bookmarks, and even the right fields of date and times are really glaring. You can’t even connect! While Bebom notes that applications can still be used, their phrasing here is “most of the basic and Some Key functions are available, “it may be an understatement.
Because let’s be very realistic in this matter. If you want to go to trouble using the free version of Microsoft Office instead of any really free alternatives that have been widely available to you for the last decade or longer, you do it because maintaining compatibility with the existing priority are work flows and spaces depending on the office. But with so many key formatting options blocked for payment, you might really not utilize Microsoft Office at this point, and instead you take the factories by exporting files from LibreOffice or Google disk.
If Microsoft already insists on earning free users through advertising, at least they could do a useful version of Microsoft Office in return. The extensive CUT list does not mean that Microsoft looks less scanty for Windows 11 users, which already has many ads.
