A Microsoft 365 subscription is required to access the full Office suite, but the company recently launched a limited testing of a free version with ads on Windows.
According to Beebom, the free Office has become available in India. It allows you to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other office applications, but with certain limitations. For example, advertising banners are displayed on the sidebar, and 15-second videos are played every few hours.
In addition, Microsoft has disabled local file storage – users can only save documents in the OneDrive cloud. Also, the free versions of the applications are deprived of a number of features: Word does not have drawing and design tools, Excel does not support add-ins, pivot tables and macros, and PowerPoint does not have dictation, custom slides and other features.
Microsoft said that it does not plan to fully launch this version yet. But the fact that the company has added ads to desktop applications may indicate further plans to develop this strategy.
