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office-2010 posts

Filed under: Office, Microsoft

Goodbye MS Works, hello ad-supported Office 2010 Starter!

While I haven't had any customers ask to purchase Microsoft Works in years, it still appears on the odd retail boxed laptop. With the coming release of Office 2010, Microsoft has decided it's high time to tag and bag Works and replace it.

Stepping in to fill the void will be Office 2010 Starter, which will be targeted at the average consumer's needs. Starter will package only Word and Excel with basic creation and editing abilities, and will be ad-supported.

Over on the Office Engineering Blog, VP Takeshi Numoto posted "Office Starter 2010 will provide new PC owners with immediate exposure to the Office 2010 experience on new PCs right out of the box." You know, kind of like how just about every boxed PC does that now with the 60-day Office 2007 trial. Except instead of a time-limited but full-featured Office experience, you'll get a stripped-down feature set at no cost. Ever.

Microsoft dangled another Office lock-in carrot recently with the introduction of Office Web Apps. Whatever the motivation - competition with Google Docs and OpenOffice.Org, for example - I'm sure most Windows users will welcome the opportunity to get any legal MS Office apps for free.

Hmm...Office Starter, huh? There's not going to be some asinine 7 document limit in this thing, right?

[via CNet]

Filed under: Business, Office, Microsoft, Commercial, Beta

Sandboxing adds extra layer of security to Microsoft Office 2010

Many of you already know about sandboxing and why it's useful. For those of you who don't, a sandbox (wikipedia article) provides an added layer of security on your computer by running unfamiliar code in an isolated space. Security threats change rapidly, and it's become virtually impossible to stay ahead of the bad guys (or even hot on their heels).

Sandboxing can help level the playing field. Several popular applications make use of a sandbox - Google Chrome, for example - and many programs can offer that kind of protection for your whole system.

Office applications are becoming an increasingly popular target for malware developers. As Microsoft puts it on their Engineering blog, "as the security landscape has been changing, Office has had the misfortune of becoming one of the next big targets for hackers to attack. They have been going after many of our file-format parsers and how we read Office files. They're looking for ways to exploit bugs and to get their code running on your machine."

The time to add some updated security kung fu to Office 2010, and Microsoft has decided on sandboxing. "We have done a lot of work to find and fix bugs, but we can't find everything. We have to take a more proactive approach and build Office to be more resilient to attack."

Office 2010 will feature a "a layered defense that Office documents have to go through as part of the File Open process." Even if you were to receive an Excel worksheet with malicious macros, Office 2010 should prevent them from doing anything shady.

It's certainly encouraging to see companies getting proactive about security. Here's hoping we're witnessing the start of a trend.

[via The Register]

Filed under: Video, Office, Microsoft

Office 2010: The Movie (or not)


Microsoft is so excited about Office 2010 that it's putting out an action movie based on the product. OK, that's not true. But the company has hired Dennis Liu to create a trailer for a non-existent, action-packed and kind of funny movie called Office 2010.

In addition to the trailer, there's an official movie page, complete with a cast blog, backstage interviews, and a link to register for the Office 2010 technical preview which could actually net you an invite to try the real product before it's released.

[via Gizmodo]

Filed under: Office, Microsoft, Beta

Office 2010 technical preview leaks on torrent trackers

Who wants to wait until July 1st to try out Microsoft Office 2010? Heck, even if you do want to wait and register your name, you still might not be chosen as a tester.

Fortunately, your friends at the Internet have got your back once again. Yes, the Office 2010 technical preview - like every build of Windows 7 that ends with an odd or even number (or zero) has been leaked to torrent trackers.

This time, Wzor.net didn't just share screenshots of the leaked apps, they've actually provided links to the torrent files themselves.

I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but remember: if you do decide to download the leaked ISOs, make sure you take the necessary precautions. No, that doesn't mean putting on your tin foil hat.

Thanks, Sandip!

update (5/16/09 7:17 ET): screenshots coming up after the break - stay tuned!

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