Microsoft Office 2010 Starter

I just been delivered my first DELL PC with the new Microsoft Office 2010 Starter instead of Microsoft Works. I was a bit doubtful about a crippled, advertisement displaying version of Microsoft's premier application being any good at all but I was pleasantly surprised. It only has Word and Excel, so no Powerpoint or Outlook but this is hardly a restriction to most users as they typically only need the Powerpoint Viewer and Windows Live Mail can be downloaded and used as a simple email program.

The advertisement strip on the right-hand side is fairly unobtrusive, especially with a wide-screen monitor. And there are few restrictions in Word Starter and Excel Starter for most users. Reviewing changes of Word documents and pivot tables in Excel spreadsheets are the biggest omissions. It also has a neat Office-To-Go feature that allows you to load these applications onto a USB memory stick (about 400Mb) and then use them on another computer to create and edit documents without having to install them. Really neat.

It is a pity that Microsoft is not offering a free down load of Office 2010 Starter and that you can't even buy it in the shops. Also if you purchase the licence upgrade to the full Home and Student or Home and Business versions you only have a single license for that PC and it cannot be transferred. Buying the retail versions is a much better deal.