Microsoft offers free upgrades to Office 2013 for those who buy 2010 now
Summary: In the run-up to the release of Windows 8, Microsoft has reassured those buying the legacy version of Office now that they will get a free upgrade to the new version when it comes out.
Anyone who buys Microsoft Office 2010 now will be able to upgrade for free to Office 2013 when it comes out, the software giant announced on Friday.
The offer, which is not available to those who bought Office 2010 before 19 October, gives Home and Student, Home and Business and Professional customers the option of upgrading to either the 2013 iteration of their chosen version, or getting a one-year subscription to the cloud-based Office 365 Home Premium.
Those on other versions can only upgrade to variants of Office 365. Specifically, Office University 2010 customers, both on the PC and Mac, will get to move for free to Office 365 University, on a four-year subscription. The other Office for Mac versions will only provide upgrades to one-year Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions.
To get the upgrade, customers will need to provide proof of purchase, dated between 19 October, 2012 and 30 April, 2013, and a valid product key. They also qualify if they buy a new PC that comes with Office 2010 preinstalled during the eligibility period.
The offer came as Microsoft prepares for the official launch of Windows 8 this week.
Office for Windows RT
The upgrade offer may be less relevant to consumers who are planning to buy a Windows RT device such as Microsoft's Surface, as the ARM-centric version of Windows 8 already comes with a copy of Office Home and Student 2013 RT. That version of Office is not licensed for commercial use, though, and those who want to use it for such purposes will need to purchase a further license.
Microsoft originally said that the first Windows RT tablets would ship with a preview version of Office 2013 RT, which would then be upgraded to the full version at some point soon after the launch.
However, Ars Technica reported on Saturday that Microsoft was already pushing out the update ahead of the Surface RT launch this week.
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Talkback
If I have Office 2010 on 3 PC's ...
Office 2010 Customer Support Phone Numbers
office 2013 not worth the change!
1) try to open a file, not only it has to ask a couple of times, but also it goes to the last known directory no matter what I have selected.
2) a long delay when I attempted to insert some files from time to time. I think it is trying to look for from the network.
3) outlook is the worst among them, it crashes often; especially when I attempted to insert files.
Ok... for those who are Microsoft worshipper... I am sure you will tell me it is my fault as I have not done a b c d e f g h i j k... If I have done all those, everything will work fine!
digressive window 8
what is deal about having to type in the whole application name to find it ... 20 years ago technology!?
Microsoft offers free upgrades to Office 2013 for those who buy 2010 now
Makes no sense
You losing copies of software that much.
“Its a good deal for me, will probably do a couple of copies of Microsoft Office for each PC.”
Just in case
Do you really hate ZDNet that bad?
If the upgrade works as well as Media Center upgrade...
why use cloud
I bought 2 of the super cheap 1TB sata things, and load all my SAFE there....I also see so much of this" MS support just says "try again tomorrow".
stay away this cloud idea..
Talk about having your life revolve around the internet. If you count the cloud... your life will be hanging onto it... yike! No thanks.
Microsoft offers free upgrades to Office 2013 for those who buy 2010 now
No upgrade to 2013
Also, I would not recommend anyone upgrade to Win 8. I wish I'd stayed on Windows 7.
Microsoft needs to listen to their customers and not their design department.