Around the same time Microsoft released Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta, they also released a private invite-only beta of Microsoft Office Starter 2010, which is an ad-supported version of Word and Excel.
As the name implies, this is a starter edition intended mainly for individuals to try out Office before purchasing the full version. Microsoft plans to release Office Starter 2010 as a free ad-supported product.
Office 2010 Setup is installed prerequisites
This can be installed alongside regular Microsoft Office because the install directory is different.
What you download at first during the setup is just the basic modules. When you first open Word and Excel, it will download the required files on the splash screen. As you click on options, ribbon tabs, and menus, you may see something like the following:
Office Starter downloads files as you need them, then caches them on the system so you don't need to download again.
To-Go? Yes, one interesting feature I found only in the Starter Version is the curious To-Go Manager. Apparently, this lets you install Office Starter on any portable device.
Office To Go Setup
It works exactly the same as the regular desktop version. The basic files are downloaded and then additional files are downloaded as users need them. The To-Go files are stored in a hidden folder called “VirtualApplications” on your device.
Office Starter 2010 To-Go requires 338 MB of device space
To start Office from your device, simply open Office.exe.
Select which program you would like to use
Streaming download, a project known as Click-To-Run, is Microsoft’s new method they are testing to distribute Office 2010 bits to customers using virtualization and streaming technologies.
Office Word Starter. Notice the greatly reduced number of ribbon tabs and the sidebar with an ad.
Excel Starter with reduced functionality and a sidebar with an ad
The options in the menu of Starter Editions are basically the same except the Info Tab and Help tab which contains buttons to purchase Office 2010.
There are ads to purchase Microsoft Office in many places including the menu shown above, the sidebar, and the ribbon.
Something that is probably a bug is that rather than labeling it “Help”, Excel Starter labels it as “Microsoft Excel Starter”.
The To-Go feature is very useful when you need to quickly read and edit documents on a computer that does not have Word or Excel installed. It requires an active internet connection however, because everything is downloaded as required.
Microsoft Office Starter 2010 is an invite-only beta through Microsoft Connect. If you were selected as a beta tester, Microsoft will send you an email with a special link.
Meanwhile, you can click here to learn more about Microsoft Office 2010.
