Question about buying computer/laptop without Office 365 already on it?

Question

Hello - I am looking at a Dell laptop to purchase either with or without Office 365 already on it. I do not want to get into a subscription service for Microsoft Office where I am continually having to pay. I would rather just get the laptop and add Microsoft Office software onto it. Here’s my question - My old laptop is running Windows 8 and I haven’t used Windows 10 so I don’t know how it works. Specifically, and this may be a stupid question, but is it possible to download older versions of Microsoft Office onto a computer or laptop running Windows 10 or has Microsoft done something to computers/laptops to prohibit that in order to force you to get into their subscription service? One last question about earlier versions of Microsoft Office - I did a quick search on eBay and saw where earlier versions of Microsoft Office (like 10 or 16) are super cheap, like around $20-$50 for the full versions and I’m seriously wondering why so cheap as when I bought my old laptop about 6 years ago, Microsoft Office was hundreds of dollars. I’m thinking that Office 365 has something to do with that and that is making me wonder again about my question about being able to download earlier versions of Office so I won’t be locked into a subscription service. I know this is long and if someone is nice enough to read this and answer my questions, I would really appreciate it! Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

As far as I can tell, the oldest version of MS Office that's compatible with W10 is Office 2010. That's according to the official MS page. They claim that Office 2007 works, but is not supported or tested.



As you can tell, MS is pushing their subscription model. They prefer that you rent MS Office as opposed to buying it outright. However, you can still buy the Office 2019 program, its just not advertised. Of course, you won't get some of the perks of Office 365, like the 1 Tb OneDrive storage and a few other things, but they're not necessarily important.



As far as those cheap keys go, its a bit of a grey area. Sometimes, businesses buy what's known as a "Volume license". This allows companies to use a single key on all of their computers. It is sold to that company with the condition that it can only be used by that specific company. Sometimes these keys are "leaked" and/or stolen so people resell them. As far as I can tell, it isn't illegal to use them, but it is against Microsoft's terms of service so they could blacklist those keys, making them useless.



As the other guys mentioned, you can use free software like OpenOffice or LibreOffice. These are alternatives to MS Office, and are completely free. They're mostly compatible with MS Office documents (though I have sometimes run into some slight compatibility problems in some documents.)

Answer 2

You need to get Classic Shell, Open Office, and learn how to use Windows 10

Answer 3

dont bother with MS office in the 1st place- get openoffice- its free and does virtually the same as MS office, and can input and output files in office format

Answer 4

if your computer is still in working condition, check if you can upgrade (Maximum) memory and Hard-disk to SSD (240 GB or 512 GB). later, you may want to remove (uninstall) any unused software.

Answer 5

A lot of the copies on eBay are grey market copies with multiple activation's that are probably not 100% legit, but will work which is why they are so cheap. Otherwise I've personally confirmed that even versions as old as Office 2000 will work just fine on Windows 10 64 bit. However getting at least Office 2010 is preferable since Office 365 really doesn't differ that much to 2010 other than some visuals. Otherwise Windows 10 operates much like Windows 7 with bits from Windows 8 so it should feel very familiar to you.



Just be mindful Windows 10 runs very slow on any hard drive other than a solid state drive.

Answer 6

use Ubuntu with LibreOffice it is free

Answer 7

You don't have to use Microsoft Office, it's just their version of office software and they sell it to make a profit.

There are plenty of free alternatives including Open Office or Libre Office, to name just two.

Answer 8

Windows 10 is better than Windows 8 in every respect, and easier to use to boot.

As for Office, an acquaintance of mine runs Word 2003 on her Windows 10 machine since she's used it since it came out and isn't going to stop now.

Get Office 2010, it's my favorite.

Answer 9

Unless you have some very "specific" reason to use MS Office- no need in fooling with it. I used Open Office for years- just as good for what needed. Last few years I have used Libre Office.... without issue.

Libre Office is free to download and use- millions use it,

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/

Answer 10

Have you looked at buying a copy of MS Office Student??? It's pretty cheap and just may fit your needs. Another option is to do a search for Open Office which is a complete suite of office programs that are quite similar to Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. and it is totally FREE. It can open and edit Office documents and save them in a format that Office can read also. Do a search for Open Office and check it out. By the way, I'm still running MS Office 2007 Enterprise which is the complete suite of Office programs on Win 10 and it runs just fine. The only thing you have to realize is that Microsoft stops supporting the different versions when they become 10 years old. They work well but no more enhancements or security updates for them. Good luck, I hope this helps.