An artificial intelligence (AI) aficionado has put together a chart featuring all the Copilot things that Microsoft has released since AI became the next big thing. At the latest count, Ty Bannerman notes that there are 80 different, separately marketed Copilot products and tools. Charting these Copilot things wasn’t a trivial task; even Microsoft doesn’t appear to maintain a definitive list. When I first noticed this story, there were 78 Copilots in Bannerman’s charts, but now it has expanded to 80.

The AI strategy, design, and implementation expert says that the idea of charting the expanse of the Copilot universe came to him when someone asked what Microsoft Copilot is. He knew it meant at least 75 different things, in so many contexts, at the time. “Apps, features, platforms, a keyboard key, an entire category of laptops - and a tool for building more Copilots,” tallied Bannerman in his blog. “All named ‘Copilot’.” His chart contends this is "What happens when you name everything Copilot."

Last week, the AI aficionado charted the number of Copilots as 78. However, since yesterday, I note the number has increased to a nice round 80. Thanks to the power of the internet / social media, Bannerman had learned of the existence of Gaming Copilot and Microsoft Dragon Copilot. The latter of those isn’t designed for residents of Westeros, but an AI clinical assistant.

Copilot says there are ~95 to 120+ Copilots

So, we have a chart of 80 Copilots, and who knows what the final figure may be, and how many more Bannerman can uncover?

Since I’m typing on a laptop with a Copilot key, I prodded it and asked the thing itself. Who better to ask? The answer was that “the ecosystem is well north of 100,” if you include things like every app-embedded Copilot, enterprise, and Azure-adjacent tools, etc. I then asked it to add them all up, and it concluded there were “~95 to 120+ Copilots.”

Is that too many? Well, even on this PC, I was surprised to find two Copilot apps in my system tray a few weeks ago. One pops up the usual chatbot box, the other was actually Copilot 365, which, when clicked, asked me to sign in with my (non-existent) Microsoft 365 credentials before I could use it. It has been eliminated.

The corporation's promise of major improvements to Windows 11 performance, reliability, and fewer Copilot interactions can't come soon enough.

Space watchers enthralled by the live stream from NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft have noticed that even astronauts can have trouble with Microsoft software. BlueSkyer Niki Grayson clipped an amusing segment of the live stream, where a puzzled astronaut asks for support from Mission Control because they “have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working.”

right now the astronauts are calling houston because the computer on the spaceship is running two instances of microsoft outlook and they can't figure out why. nasa is about to remote into the computer

— @nikigrayson.com (@nikigrayson.com.bsky.social) 2026-04-02T19:03:37.132Z

Grayson was agog at NASA inflicting Outlook on astronauts. “I'm so sorry we've sent these souls to the moon and they're using Outlook?” they quipped.

The clipped NASA Artemis II stream shared above is currently still live, and you can watch it in full here. As it is live, there is no transcript provided on the video page. So I asked Google's Gemini to find the portion of the livestream where Outlook bugs were discussed.

Google confirmed the quote from Grayson’s clip. It credited Commander Reid Wiseman talking to Mission Control in Houston at this time. “I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working if you want to remote in,” said Wiseman at around 13 and a quarter hours into the livestream. Houston agreed to remote in to take a look at the issue.

About an hour later, the astronauts received the welcome news that Outlook was back online. However, it would appear offline... Nice piece of software. “For Outlook, we were able to get it open. It will show 'offline,' which is expected,” said the Capsule Communicator at Mission Control, at around 14 hours 20 minutes into the stream.

Microsoft Outlook anomaly in space

To some readers, even choosing Outlook as a part of a spacecraft’s communications portfolio would seem to be an anomaly. However, it is a standard part of the "Commercial Off-The-Shelf" (COTS) software astronauts use for their day-to-day operations.

To be clear, the spacecraft and primary flight systems will run on specialized radiation-hardened hardware and rigorously maintained software. COTS just complements this with a friendly layer, like Windows and Outlook, so astronauts can check schedules, indulge in personal communications, and so on, in a familiar way.

Toilet troubles in space

While skipping through the live stream to locate the Outlook conversations, I also heard a discussion between Artemis II Orion and Mission Control about the spacecraft's toilets.

Reports suggest that a blinking fault light on the toilet signaled that a mechanical failure occurred about two hours into the mission. Specifically, we understand that a urine extraction fan jammed.

The fan’s purpose is to pull the urine away into a collection container, avoiding urine microgravity issues. Thankfully, one of the astronauts managed to clear the jam and get the fan spinning. NASA has confirmed the toilet is back online, although we’d like to know what brand of fans the space agency uses…

The 2025 Microsoft Excel World Championships final in Las Vegas has been won by Irishman Diarmuid Early. Bestowed with the nickname ‘the LeBron James of Excel spreadsheets,’ it might not therefore be the most surprising victory. However, Early had to beat 256 other eager and dedicated spreadsheet heads to win the trophy, and secure the prize pot of $60,000.

From quiet home office to cacophonous Las Vegas arena

Early contrasted the initial knockout rounds of the Championships, played from a quiet home office, to the eSports arena with enthusiastic crowds and commentators in America’s live entertainment capital.

It’s a wonder that the stark difference in atmosphere doesn’t put some people off. Perhaps handling the distractions of the HyperX Arena was one of Early’s strengths – or others were more affected by the roaring crowds and hectic atmosphere.

Given his ‘stage name’ you would be correct to assume that this wasn’t Early’s first rodeo. Indeed, the Irishman, originally from Galway and Waterford and now living in New York, has been a finalist three times. However, he admits he has a record of choking as the competition reaches its climax.

Has Early got a secret behind his success? He says that having his own business helped, and it’s a financial business, so spreadsheets are a constant daily work feature.

Timed eliminations build excitement

Chatting with BBC News, Early conveyed the pressure and excitement of spreadsheet-based eSports. Notably, the stress of competing dramatically ramps up with the timed eliminations of the final rounds. Every five minutes, those in last place get knocked out, explained Early, “You're constantly watching your back.”

Triple world champion Andrew Ngai was held to second place this year, with an award of $5,000.

Excel eSports?

Perhaps one of the most eyebrow-raising eSports tournament hits is the enthusiasm for playing and watching people face spreadsheet challenges. The source report notes that Excel as an eSport is more than 20 years old.

Microsoft’s Excel has grown to be a remarkably capable and complex application over the years. Earlier in 2025 we even highlighted that a dev had managed to get Linux running inside the app, just for fun.

Microsoft has announced that it will automatically install the Microsoft 365 Copilot AI app for users who have a desktop version of Microsoft 365 suite apps installed on their system, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. According to BleepingComputer, the rollout will begin next month and is expected to be completed halfway through November, affecting all Windows PCs worldwide, except those in the European Economic Area (EEA).

“Starting in October 2025, Microsoft will begin automatically installing the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on Windows devices that have Microsoft 365 desktop client apps,” the company said on the Microsoft 365 message center. “This app provides a centralized entry point for accessing Copilot experiences and AI-powered capabilities across Microsoft 365. This change simplifies access to Copilot and ensures users can easily discover and engage with productivity-enhancing features.”

Unfortunately, it seems that most personal users will have no way of opting out of this feature. But if you’re a system administrator, you can opt your organization out of this by disabling the automatic installation of Microsoft 365 Copilot in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center.

This update is part of Redmond’s push for the wider adoption of its Copilot AI app. Just this July, the Microsoft Edge browser introduced a Copilot Mode that can interact with your open tabs and find information you’re looking for. Furthermore, Microsoft bundled Copilot with the Microsoft 365 subscription, resulting in a 43% price hike.

And while this might be a welcome development for those who use AI tools, it will most likely be seen as an annoyance by those who don’t use Copilot or AI in general. After all, if you use AI apps and even subscribe to one, you likely already have it installed on your computer. But for those who aren’t interested, they will likely just see this as another piece of bloatware that Microsoft is forcing down their throats.

The software giant is spending billions of dollars on AI investments, and it likely wants users to start paying for services to recoup some of the cash it spent. However, statistics say that the AI adoption rate isn’t going as planned, with large companies reducing their reliance on these tools. It has even gotten to the point that an economist warned of an AI bubble that will be worse than the dot-com crash of 2000 when it bursts.

Unless you have an administrator who manages your Microsoft 365 subscription (which isn’t true for most personal users), it seems that the only way to avoid getting Microsoft 365 Copilot automatically installed on your computer is to not use Microsoft 365. Otherwise, you’ll just have to ignore it and add the app to the list of disabled apps in Windows’ Startup.

Software giant Microsoft has offered a free one-year Microsoft 365 subscription to college students in the U.S., provided they sign up using their college email address. According to the company, eligible users will get a further 50% discount on the monthly subscription for Microsoft 365 Personal, saving them $5 a month. The subscription will provide students with access to desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, as well as a terabyte of cloud storage on OneDrive. More importantly, it will give them free access to Copilot, the company’s AI tool.

“AI is the defining technology of our time, and how we empower people to use it will shape our country’s future,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He also added, “At Microsoft, we believe that delivering on the real promise of AI depends on how broadly it’s diffused…And that’s why, today, we are making new commitments. For students, we are announcing today that they are making Microsoft 365 Personal, including Copilot, free for 12 months to every college student in the United States. This includes our community colleges.” Nadella also promised that K-12 students, teachers, and staff will get access to Microsoft 365 Copilot later.

This move is part of Redmond’s commitment to the White House’s efforts to increase AI education in the U.S., in support of President Donald Trump’s executive order, Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth. The program is designed to train both teachers and students in artificial intelligence, helping to develop an American workforce that’s ready to address the rising threat of this technology.

Microsoft has confirmed a bug in Outlook Classic, where users are experiencing CPU usage spikes, as high as 50%, when simply typing in the application. Notably, reports of this incident can be traced back to November last year, and even now, users have been asked to switch to the Microsoft 365 Apps update channel as a temporary workaround.

After around six months since the first sighting, Microsoft is finally addressing an issue in Outlook (Classic), which led to increased CPU usage, visible slowdowns, and even freezes whenever you'd sit down to compose an email or type a message. Microsoft quotes a figure ranging from a 30-50% hit to the CPU utilization, and that's sure to be noticeable, especially on aging hardware.

The developer team was able to reproduce this bug on updating to Microsoft 365 Apps Version 2406 Build 17726.20126+, which was released in June 2024, on the Current, Monthly Enterprise, and Insider Channels. As of writing, a concrete solution is not available, so users have been recommended to move to the Semi-Annual Channel release, where this issue has not been observed.

If you're running an organization with several devices, Microsoft offers a detailed guide for migrating your update channel with options like Group Policies, the Office Deployment Tool, Microsoft Configuration Manager, and Intune, just to name a few. For home users, a simpler way to achieve the same result is by just tweaking the registry as follows:

1. Open a Command Prompt (CMD) window with admin privileges.
2. Paste the following command and hit Enter: "reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officeupdate /v updatebranch /t REG_SZ /d SemiAnnual"
3. In Outlook, navigate to File > Office Account > Update Options and select "Update Now" to switch to the Semi Annual Channel.

Affected users went through several troubleshooting hoops, like turning off graphics acceleration, disabling the spell-check utility, along with add-ins, but to no avail. It got so bad that a user with a beefy i9-14900HX reported CPU temperatures breaching 95 degrees Celsius just by having the 'New Message' window open, which is used to compose emails.

As the problem is still under investigation by the Outlook team, this is no more than a stopgap solution. The nature of this bug seems to be tied to how the software handles text fields, but it's quite puzzling how such an obvious issue slipped past the developers in the first place.

Earlier this week, Microsoft broke from a long tradition of only offering paid versions of the native Microsoft Office app (web having been free for some time) and silently introduced a free, ad-supported version of Microsoft Office exclusively for Windows 11 users. This was first spotted by Beebom, which tested it on Windows 11 machines and VMs (My testing on Windows 10 quickly revealed it to be business as usual on older versions of Windows. Go figure.)

Even so, it's nifty and arguably even intelligent of Microsoft to build in a "Skip for now" button leading into a free version of Microsoft Office allowing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to be used for free. The ads that support this use come in the form of the combination of a persistent ad banner onscreen, as well as a muted 15-second video ad playing every few hours.

However, there are still lots of caveats to your use of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint here. The greatest immediate caveat is that you can't save files locally and must instead save them to OneDrive, which means you don't have any support to edit local files. It's 2025, Microsoft — LibreOffice and Google Docs have existed way too long for you to be inconveniencing your free users like this.

A number of other problems also exist, though, greatly limiting the formatting and decorative options available to Microsoft's free users. Beebom painstakingly listed over 30 missing features in its original coverage. So, while I complimented Microsoft's prudence in having a free tier of its local Office applications available...there are some real glaring issues with the omissions here.

Even locking in just on Microsoft Word, the removal of key formatting options like line spacing, text wrapping, headers, footers, bookmarks, and even proper date & time fields is truly egregious. You can't even hyphenate anymore! While Beebom observes that the applications are still able to be used, their phrasing here is "most of the basic and some of the key features are available", but that honestly might be an understatement.

Because let's be very realistic about this. If you are willing to go through the trouble of using a free version of Microsoft Office instead of any number of truly-free alternatives that have been widely available to you for the past decade or more, you're doing it because maintaining compatibility with existing workflows and spaces reliant on Office is your priority. But with so many key formatting options locked behind a paywall, you really might as well not be using Microsoft Office at all at this point, and instead be hedging your bets with exporting files from LibreOffice or Google Drive.

If Microsoft is already insistent on monetizing its free users via advertisements, the least they could do is provide a usable version of Microsoft Office in exchange. The extensive list of cut features doesn't make Microsoft look any less stingy to the users of Windows 11, which already has plenty of ads.

According to a new blog post from Microsoft, Microsoft 365's Personal and Family plans have been bundled with Copilot and priced up to roughly $3 a month. The latest monthly cost is $9.99, up from $6.99, and the new annual fee is $99.99, up from $69.99.

In addition to the basic plans getting Copilot rolled in, there are now additional "Basic," "Personal Classic," and "Family Classic" tiers without Copilot and "other advanced features" added for users who do not use AI in their workflows.

For those who remain on the Personal and Family plans, a monthly allotment of 15 AI credits to use Copilot with Office 365 applications and Designer, Paint, Photos, and Notepad on Windows 11 will be given. Copilot Pro is still a separate upgrade for those who want unlimited use.

Microsoft's original blog post states, "Our plan has always been to make Copilot in the Microsoft 365 apps more accessible to a wider audience at a great price. We planned several steps in our Copilot journey to listen, learn, and improve usability and performance. [...] We’re delighted to empower millions of our customers with an AI assistant that supercharges the productivity apps they already know and love. We’ll continue offering Copilot Pro for consumers with extensive usage needs, along with Microsoft 365 Copilot, our commercial offering, for organizations of all sizes"

Past the details we discussed above, the rest of the original Microsoft blog post showcases existing Copilot features and how they're integrated into different aspects of the Microsoft 365 suite. Microsoft also claims that using these features will not surrender your prompts, responses, or even file content for use while training its Copilot AI model. Of course, Microsoft claims that using your data is a temporary input only when prompted.

Existing Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plan subscribers need only update their apps to receive their new Copilot benefits. For existing customers, the price hike won't be kicking in until plan renewal, and there are options to downgrade the plan. Those who want to avoid using AI can downgrade the plan to the "Classic" or "Basic" Microsoft 365 plans.

While this may have been a more controversial move from Microsoft— basically forcing AI use and a price hike on a large existing customer base— adding tiers without AI below the main Personal and Family plans is welcome. However, some contradictory language does leave some questions in the air. Apparently, the "Classic" plans are available "for a limited time". However, this may just refer to the ability for existing customers to downgrade since the following sentence immediately claims, "These plans (having just listed Basic and the two Classic plans) will continue to be maintained as they exist today."

In the ongoing quest to do strange, and seemingly impossible things with Microsoft Excel, Redditor u/awesomegraczgie21 posted a demonstration of a functioning, playable raycaster in the form of a first-person maze game running entirely through Microsoft Excel using its Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language.

Specifically, this maze tech demo is seen utilizing raycasting to support transparency and per-column texture mapping. Transparency is noted as being done from the player's view outward (close-to-far rendering), and a simple collision system is used to keep the game functioning within the constraints of its walled maze. The maze is, of course, explored entirely in first-person, navigated pretty much one frame at a time via the included 4 movement and 2 strafe buttons.

Compared to past attempts at rendering graphics in Microsoft Excel, like the "Fallout for Excel" game, this is far more ambitious, though similarly limited in scope and playability. While there is sped-up video footage (10 FPS!) of navigation through the maze being spread online from the original posting, the actual gameplay is more like a "interactive slideshow" . With its creator stating that the FPS ranges between "2FPS up to 5 SPF (0.2 FPS). Rendering multiple overlapping transparent walls kills the performance, but it's worth it." The entire demo is coded in just 400 lines of VBA.

Excel - the best game engine. A simple raycaster with support for transparency and per column texture mapping. More info in the comments. from r/GraphicsProgramming

Back in January, another Excel hobbyist went and proved that it was possible to build an entire functioning 16-bit CPU complete with 128 KB of RAM, a 128x128 pixel display, and a custom assembly language (dubbed Excel-ASM16) within the constraints of Microsoft Excel. Like with Excel-ASM16 and "Fallout for Excel", it's likely that this playable Excel raycaster demo simply won't work outside of Microsoft Excel, i.e. in alternatives such as OpenOffice or LibreOffice.

Like most of these Excel projects, then, it would seem that this project was done almost purely for fun and/or amusement, though it's also noted by the creator that it was made as a project for a "Programming in VBA" university course, "because why not". The creator had wanted to build a raycaster from scratch since they were 16, but lacked the knowledge to make it happen. Now in their second year of university, AwesomeGraczGie21 has done it, but will they stop there? As far as university assignments go, breaking the assumed boundaries of Microsoft Excel with just "~400 lines of code" is something that one would hope would facilitate a passing grade.

Microsoft issued a warning about a bug affecting Microsoft 365's Office Word app where saving a document using a specific file name would end up deleting it instead of saving it. The combination might be odd as it involves the hashtag character in the file name and capitalization of the file's extension- but it exists and needs to be addressed regardless.

According to Microsoft, this bug gets triggered when the .docx extension is capitalized with the hashtag symbol in its file name. Microsoft further adds a finding that the issue occurs after saving the file when prompted to click X to close the Word app. However, manually saving the file with '.DOCX' and a hashtag character in the file name does not reproduce the automatic deletion.

Thankfully, the deletion is not permanent, as the Recycle Bin can restore the file. Besides restoring it, Microsoft suggested two workarounds- save the file manually before closing Word, and another is to enable the option "Don't show the Backstage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts" in Word.

The bug is specifically present with Microsoft 365 version 2409, as confirmed by Microsoft. It is peculiar that the bug only eats the Word document using .docx in all caps with a hashtag character in the file name. Microsoft didn't explain the cause of this bug specifically with this build, as it is still under investigation. No other combination has been discovered that reproduces auto-deletion yet.

Having a document deleted automatically is a nightmare, mainly when the application is used for many important work. It wouldn't be surprising to see users have a hashtag in the file name by someone whose profession is associated with social media, as the character is used for tagging in leading social media apps like Instagram and X, formerly Twitter. Users are likely unaware of this even if it goes to the Recycle Bin.

Therefore, no matter how odd or seemingly rare, it is always best to kill the bug before it eats your homework.

Greg Linares, who goes by the handle Laughing Mantis, shared a funny story on X on how he and his teammates announced a major zero-day Office 2007 vulnerability only to find that it was a mistake on their part. To save their reputation, jobs, and perhaps even the business, they had to scramble to find a real bug. This happened in late 2006, when Linares was working with digital security firm eEye, and they were testing the new Microsoft Office suite for vulnerabilities.

As eEye is one of the leading institutions in threat management, it was the company’s job to see if the latest version of one of the most widely used corporate software suites at that time had any zero-day flaws. Within 36 hours of the launch, Linares found a bug in the Word Art conversion function, which Word uses to convert old Word Art structures into modern ones for Office 2007.

He sent over this discovery to his senior, Marc Maiffret (who is now the CTO of BeyondTrust, the company that acquired eEye in 2012), who agreed with Linares’ discovery and sent it off to the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). At the same time, eEye published several press releases about the bug, and some major news outlets covered the story based on eEye’s announcement...

Oops, a false positive

Shortly after the PR release and widespread news coverage, David LeBlanc, who was one of the principal security experts who worked on Office 2007, noticed that you could only exploit the bug when there was a debugger attached to the program — something that almost all average users wouldn’t have and wouldn’t work in day-to-day use of the suite. LeBlanc said, “So, about that crash… it’s only exploitable when a debugger is attached.” It meant that Greg Linares’ finding was a false positive, so eEye had to retract its announcements. Or perhaps not?

Greg had just been with eEye less than two months, and he felt devastated because his mistake could potentially cost the company its reputation. If eEye had to rescind its findings of a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Office, Linares’ job at the company would likely also be on the chopping block.

But Marc had a different idea: instead of retracting the press release, he told the research team to find him a new zero-day bug in Office 2007 ASAP. In the meantime, eEye killed some time by telling MSRC that the team sent the wrong file and would provide an update shortly.

So, Linares started manually fuzzing — or randomly inserting invalid and unexpected inputs — into the Office suite to try to find something. But he was not alone in his effort, the entire research team went over to him and said “We are in this together. Let’s do this.” None of the team left the office for days and their wives and partners were all worried sick about them. But they could not give up until they found another bug to back up their first announcement.

After four days of random fuzzing, an analysis toolkit, a binary decompiler, and several pizza stacks, one fuzzer made a hit — and it brought the entire team back to their senses. They ran the fuzzer again without the debugger, and it ran into the same crash: 0x4141414141, a full extended instruction pointer (EIP) overwrite that would allow the team to take control of the app.

Greg’s other teammates, Yuji and Derek, started reversing the bug to find its source and discovered it affected Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft’s desktop publishing software that wasn’t as popular as Excel, PowerPoint, or Word. After retesting the vulnerability with a debugger and on a fresh operating system, the team confirmed the bug.

The team then forwarded the vulnerability to MSRC, and it was so bad that Microsoft had to recall LeBlanc to the office to look at it. The eEye team then showed off full demos of the vulnerabilities and confirmed their findings to the press. Microsoft then responded to the team that found the issue and confirmed it. SafeInt — the portable library LeBlanc built to prevent integer overflows — wasn’t applied to the structure, which led to the vulnerability.

With MSRC confirming the issue, eEye wrote up the advisory informing everyone of the details of the vulnerability. The company didn’t have to retract its initial announcement, and Greg got to keep his job at eEye as a security researcher. Today, he has been working for more than 20 years in the information security industry and is affiliated with Huntress Labs, a cybersecurity firm that specializes in working with small and medium-sized companies.

Microsoft has a new subscription tier for its Copilot AI companion that will bring it across more devices and into more applications than before. Dubbed Copilot Pro, the $20 per month (and per user) subscription will get you a cohesive AI that follows you across your Windows PCs, the web, apps, and "soon on your phone."

The paid tier will also add Copilot to Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and OneNote on  Windows PCs, Macs, and iPads, as long as you're also a subscriber to Microsoft 365 Personal or Family.

Those who sign on for Copilot Pro will also be the first to get the latest models from OpenAI. Starting today, that means those who subscribe will get access to GPT-4 Turbo "during peak times for faster performance," Microsoft executive vice president and consumer chief marketing Officer wrote in a blog post. It appears the new model will also get access to the newer model, but that you'll need Copilot Pro to use newer models when usage is high, as well as to switch between models.

Mehdi also wrote that image creation with Image Creator from Designer (formerly known as Bing Image Creator) will be faster "with 100 boosts per day while bringing you more detailed image quality as well as landscape image format." Copilot Pro will also let you create a custom Copilot GPT specialized for certain topics with just a few prompts. That last feature, which sounds similar to custom GPTs that OpenAI just launched, will come "soon" in a Copilot GPT Builder.  For free customers, Copilot GPTs will be broadly available. These will be specialized to certain topics, and Microsoft says they will be tailored to interests like travel, cooking, and fitness. 

Mehdi says that Copilot Pro is designed to provide "more options for power users, creators, and anyone looking to take their Copilot experience to the next level."

Microsoft's subscription isn't terribly surprising. The company has made a huge investment in OpenAI and adding features to Windows, Microsoft 365, Edge and other products, and is among the most valuable companies in the world partially due to its refocusing on AI.  it's unsurprising that a subscription is here; it lets Microsoft monetize Copilot.

And the $20 per month, per user price has a precedent: OpenAI itself. ChatGPT Plus is also $20 per month and promises faster response times, access during peak times, and the ability to get the newest models and features first.

Beyond Copilot Pro, Microsoft is making Copilot for Microsoft 365 available to small businesses (one to 299 seats), for $30 per person per month, and is removing 300-seat purchase minimums for many enterprise customers. Microsoft 365 for education faculty and staff will also see access to Copilot.

That $30 subscription for Microsoft 365 provides even further details.Including Copilot in teams and a "Semantic Index" that works with Copilot and the Microsoft Graph to "create a sophisticated map of all the data and content in your organization," which Microsoft wrote in a different blog will make Copilot more relevant to companies and provide more actionable responses.

Copilot is now available on Android and iOS, and will roll out to the Microsoft 365 app for both platforms in the next month.

At CES, we saw a number of Windows laptops with dedicated Copilot keys — the biggest change to the Windows keyboard layout in decades. Now we'll see if this new subscription program, plus broader access to businesses and schools, gets people tapping those keys.

Microsoft rebranded Office 365 to Microsoft 365 in Oct. 2022, part of its effort to slowly take the long-running "Office" brand out of the limelight. At the time, the company didn't make any significant changes to the subscription tiers or features offered. But that will change later this month with the addition of a new Microsoft 365 Basic tier, which will cost $1.99/month ($19.99/year).

Microsoft 365 Basic slots between Microsoft 365 (free) and Microsoft 365 Personal ($6.99/month). It replaces the previous 100GB OneDrive storage subscription and adds some perks. Microsoft says customers can expect these features with the new tier:

• 100GB cloud storage
• Works on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android
• Web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, and more
• Ad-free Outlook web and mobile email and calendar with advanced security (data encryption, suspicious link cheer, malware scanning for attachments)
• Microsoft technical support

The extra functionality seems like a nice upgrade for users currently getting by with just the 100GB OneDrive storage tier. In addition, Microsoft says it will add "even better advanced security features" later this year, including shared links that are password-protected, and ransomware recovery.

While the inclusion of Office is welcome, we should note that this tier only includes the basic, web-based versions of Microsoft's popular productivity apps, which are available for free. To access the "premium" desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, you'll have to step up to Microsoft 365 Personal.

Microsoft was quick to point out that Jan. 29, 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of Office 365. The high-end Office 365 Home Premium subscription initially included only 20GB of cloud storage. Today, the Microsoft 365 Personal tier offers 1TB of OneDrive storage. In addition, the flagship Microsoft 365 Family tier for consumers ($9.99/month) supports up to six people, each with their own 1TB allotment of OneDrive storage.

Microsoft 365 Basic will be available starting Jan. 30. Current 100GB OneDrive subscribers will automatically be shifted to the newer, more feature-packed tier.

Microsoft is preparing to retire or at least deemphasize its decades old Office brand in favor of Microsoft 365 branded cloud productivity tools. Users should expect to see the changes permeate throughout the Microsoft cloud ecosystem in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, PC stalwarts using offline standalone Office suites and applications will probably not notice any difference.

The news was secreted within Microsoft’s announcement of a new Microsoft 365 app on Wednesday. On that page you will find a FAQ which helpfully spells out what is changing with regards to Microsoft 365 and Office brands, when changes will be pushed through and what it means to users of either branded products / suites. It also explains that “over the last couple years, Microsoft 365 has evolved into our flagship productivity suite,” and this is seemingly behind the decision to transition Office.com, the Office mobile app, and the Office app for Windows into Microsoft 365 branded products.

The key thing for many users of Microsoft's flagship office productivity tools, is that they are not going away. Microsoft says that “as part of Microsoft 365 you will continue to get access to apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.” Also, Office 365 subscribers in business / enterprises will not be moved to Microsoft 365 plans. Importantly to many readers, those seeking the most recent offline / perpetual Office editions will still have the opportunity to buy apps as one-time purchases via Microsoft’s Office 2021 and Office LTSC plans, too.

While the branding change is a pretty big deal, once you read all the small print, it isn’t very impactful. However, the same could be said of any branding or naming change. The most affected will be personal consumers, students, and small home offices which currently use the Microsoft 365 cloud-powered productivity platform via mobile and web-apps. Existing users of these cloud office tools won’t have to do anything; existing accounts, profiles, subscriptions, and files won’t be disrupted, even if you are accessing them from the new app with new branding and icon. In a way, the naming changes help emphasize the difference between the cloud-powered and the perpetual Office releases; with the online version highlighting collaborative tools like Teams and OneDrive being used alongside more traditional office productivity apps in the new hybrid working world.

Expect to see many of the above changes arrive with the rebranding of the unified Office app to Microsoft 365 in November, with the whole rebranding effort expected to be completed by January 2023.

One of the easy ways to quickly get malware on a victim's PC is to trick them into thinking that they are getting something for free and make them install everything themselves. It is what criminals from the U.K. do in a bid to steal money from their targets.

Scammers from the U.K. send USB drives with Microsoft's Office suites in seemingly real Microsoft packaging to random addresses trying to make victims think that they received a legitimate Office Professional Plus (worth $439) by mistake. After the victim plugs the USB drive into their PC, it is not an Office launch installation wizard but encourages people to call a fake support line. The latter then persuades the casualty to hand over remote access to the PC and provide them payment information, reports Sky News.

"As soon as they had plugged the USB into the computer, a warning screen appeared saying there was a virus," said Martin Pitman, a cybersecurity consultant for Atheniem. "To get help and fix the issue, they needed to call a toll-free number to get the computer up and running again. As soon as they called the number on screen, the helpdesk installed some sort of [remote access program] and took control of the victim's computer. Here the hackers 'sorted' the problem and then passed the victim over to the Office 365 subscription team to help complete the action."

Baiting attacks are nothing new, but they target specific victims and rarely use postal packages for various reasons. But the fraudsters from the U.K. targeted random people using postal packages, according to the cybersecurity expert. Such targeting may seem inefficient, but if you send out a thousand counterfeit Microsoft Office packages and steal money from a few dozens of people, the act will quickly pay for itself. Moreover, it could be more efficient than sending out millions of fraudulent emails, as people these days are aware of email scammers.

Microsoft is aware of the issue but says it is a rare occurrence. However, it is not so rare for Microsoft to be mindful of it and launch an internal investigation. Nowadays, the company prefers to distribute its software via the Internet and advises its customers to visit an appropriate support page to find out how to avoid fraud and scams.

Microsoft recently announced that Office 2021 will release alongside Windows 11 on October 5th. The latest version of Microsoft's Office series will be the successor to Office 2019, and brings new features to the office suite while retaining price parity with Office 2019.

Office 2021 will be a rather minor upgrade over Office 2019, but, for some people there will be enough features to make the upgrade worthwhile.

Excel is getting the most attention with the latest update, Microsoft has added several new functions including XMatch, LET, Dynamic Arrays, and XLookup. XLookup for instance, allows you to find any data within a table by using a search bar-like function, and LET will allow you to assign names to calculation results.

Outlook has also received a couple of updates. There's a new translator in Outlook that will translate messages on the fly, and there's a new global search that allows you to find emails across all your folders and email accounts with several search parameters.

Other features include new performance improvements for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, as well as a newly refreshed UI with refreshed tabs in the ribbon.

Check out the rest of Office 2021's new features here, including new features for Word (like ODF support) and PowerPoint.

Pricing will remain the same as Office 2019, with Office Home and Student going for $149.99, Home and Business going for $249.99. Office 365 users will get the free upgrade to Office 2021 once it releases on October 5th.

Office 2021 will be fully compatible with Windows 11, Windows 10, and the three most recent versions of MacOS.

With the release of Office 2021, Microsoft will also be discontinuing support for Office 2013 and it will not be supported on Windows 11.

The age of subscription services may be well upon us, but Microsoft isn't liable to leave any revenue sources on the table. The company today started rolling out its Office LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel) for Windows and macOS, which is a version of Office specifically geared for government and commercial clients who don't find value in the company's cloud elements for Office 365, and whose systems might go without any service update for years at a time. Baked into that announcement, however, was also the commercial release of Office 2021 for general consumers. Mark the date: October 5, 2021. That's the same day as the Windows 11 launch. 

Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, said that "While it [Office 2021] offers performance improvements and expanded accessibility, it will not offer the cloud-based capabilities of Microsoft 365 Apps like real-time collaboration and AI-driven automation in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as security and compliance capabilities that give added confidence in a hybrid world." 

The standalone, perpetual license version of Office 2021 includes a number of performance and feature improvements, including Dark Mode support as well as support for version 1.3 of the OpenDocument format. Four new Excel functions will be made available (XLOOKUP, LET, XMATCH and dynamic arrays); PowerPoint will introduce support for presenter video recording, ink recording, and laser pointer recording; and of course, all Office 2021 apps will see a visual language update to keep them in line with the new Windows 11 interface and design philosophy.

Microsoft will offer five years of "Mainstream Support" for Office 2021, and there are no plans for extended support programs beyond October 2026 - a year after support ends for both Office 2016 and Office 2019, which have enjoyed longer mainstream support commitments from Microsoft.

The company also announced that pricing will remain the same for Office 2021 as compared to previous versions of Office which means $150 for the Office Home & Student version, and $250 for a single Office Home & Business license.

Though there are free alternatives available, for many, there’s nothing quite like the familiar, comfortable workings of Microsoft Office, from Word’s superior spell and grammar check to the ease and sense of security of storing files locally on your own PC and not online.

Before you can get Office for free, cheap or any price, you should know there are two main variants. Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) gives you constant updates but requires a monthly or annual subscription fee. Office 2019 is a fixed package of software, but you only have to pay for it once. Microsoft really wants you to use the subscription-based Microsoft 365 service, of course.

The Office 2019 package is slightly different than Microsoft 365. On top of that, there are companies besides Microsoft selling Office for free (both Microsoft 365 subscriptions and Office 2019 keys) or cheaper than Microsoft. And you can even run Office apps for free online. So what’s the best and cheapest way to get your productivity on?

From Office for free to paying $150 or subscriptions, here’s a breakdown of the best and cheapest ways to get Office (we focus on personal versions, rather than business ones).

Office 2019 vs. Office Online vs. Microsoft 365

Download Office 2019 From Microsoft: $149.99

Despite shifting focus to Microsoft 365, which used to be called Office 365, Microsoft still sells Office Home & Student 2019 for a one-time charge of $149.99. This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote but lacks some solutions Microsoft 365 has. These missing solutions may or may not be relevant to you: Outlook, Publisher (PC only), Access (PC only) and the OneDrive and Skype cloud services.

You can buy some pieces of the Office suite individually, but considering Word 2019 is $139.99, if you plan on using even 1 more Office app, it’s a better deal to buy the whole platform.

No matter where you get Office 2019, it won't be updated monthly like Microsoft 365 is. That means you’ll never see new features added. What you buy is what you get. However, you will get security patch updates “as required,”  Daniel Vargas, Microsoft director of product marketing, told Tom’s Hardware.

It's very possible that you don’t care if your Office software is updated regularly. Heck, you may even be okay with an older version of Office, say Office 2016, which you can still find keys for from third-party sellers for cheaper than Office 2019. However, Office 2016 has reached end of life (EoL), meaning Microsoft no longer provides security updates for it. If you can settle for the 2016 version of Office, you can, as of this writing, get it from Kinguin for PCDestination for about $50. But customer service may be lacking (more on that later). 

Remember, to use Office 2019, you need to be running Windows 10. Luckily, we’ve already detailed how to get Windows 10 for free or cheap.

If Office 2019 is your preferred choice, you can get it for significantly cheaper than the $149.99 Microsoft charges by buying it from a third-party retailer.

Download Office 2019 Key From a Third-Party: ~$45

Microsoft charges $149.99 to download Microsoft Office Home & Student 2019, but you can save a lot of money if you’re willing to buy it from a different store.

Newegg sometimes sells the same download key for $123.99, so it's worth checking. If you can wait for a physical key, Walmart currently sells the key card for $124, Amazon occasionally has it for $125 and Kinguin has it for a shockingly low $36 (and even lower with a Kinguin discount code). 

But before you take out credit card, let's talk about the reasons you might want to avoid these retailers. 

The Downsides

Saving over $100 on Office 2019 sounds like a no-brainer. However, since you’re not buying from Microsoft, you’ll have to exert some caution. You’re probably comfortable shopping at a well-known retailer like Newegg or Amazon; however, you’ll want to check their return policy on software.

You may be more hesitant to buy from key reseller website like Kinguin. Many question their legitimacy or morality behind such deals. To learn more about its Office 2019, we spoke with Kinguin directly.

“Only the original developer or publisher of a digital product can generate keys, so all of the Office 2019 keys come from this source. From there, either a seller buys them directly from the publisher or from the wholesaler, who also got them directly from a publisher, and sells them on Kinguin for a fair market price,” Michał Puczyński, PR Manager at Kinguin, told Tom’s Hardware in September 2019.

Puczyński admitted there are “a few bad apples” in its marketplace but said this is inevitable since there are “tens of thousands of Office 2019 keys sold by thousands of sellers on Kinguin.” However, he claimed that only one out of 700 postings aren’t legitimate, and an even smaller percentage of shoppers actually get scammed.

“Our fraud prevention team manages to stop nearly 100% of these attempts before they take place. When a scammer is detected through our custom fraud technology, that person is banned for a lifetime from selling on Kinguin,” Puczyński explained.

Kinguin also offers a $5.69 “Buyer Protection, ”which guarantees you a refund if you get a bum key.” However, even if you don't buy this protection, Kinguin is willing to work with you for a potential refund if your key doesn’t work.

“We always put the customer first and work to find a solution for any problem the customer has encountered, which may include issuing a refund,” Puczyński said. “The Kinguin Buyer Protection is an optional feature designed to provide added protection while purchasing in our store, as well as additional services, but that doesn’t mean the customer will get inadequate treatment without it. Kinguin does reserve its right not to accept any returns of already delivered items or game keys to protect itself from scams.”

Regardless, we've heard of customer complaints regarding slow customer service or the company offering refunds rather than dealing with individual complaints. We haven't been able to get in touch with Kinguin for a response. 

Get Microsoft Office Free: Online and Mobile Apps and More

As its name implies, Microsoft Office Online doesn’t live on your PC. Instead, you can only access these services with an internet connection. You also have to have a Microsoft account. You can get to Office Online by signing in with your Microsoft account here. Once you do so, you have access to free Office tools. 

The service is a good alternative to G Suite, especially if you don't like some of that platform’s limitations. Your files will still be at the mercy of the web, but you’ll be able to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, OneDrive, Skype, Flow, Forms and Sway without paying any money. Plus, since everything is internet-based, you can access it from any computer connected to the web.

As of November, Microsoft consolidated Word, Excel and PowerPoint into a single mobile app on both Android and iOS smartphones. The app is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Free Office Online may not be a good fit for your largest or most complex projects, since features are more limited than what's offered in Microsoft 365. It has less menu options. For example tabs like Draw and Design are missing from Word online. 

The free Office Online does come with 5GB of OneDrive storage, but that’s actually skimpy compared to the 15GB of free storage you get with Google Drive.

Similarly, there are free iOS (varies from iPhone to iPad) and Android (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, Outlook, OneNote and SharePoint) versions of Office software that are also available for free but with fewer features.

Note that you may also end up getting Microsoft 365 for free through a sale. For example, from now until April 18, LG is offering a 12-month subscription of Microsoft 365 Personal for free if you buy a 2021 LG Gram laptop. 

Buy Microsoft 365 From Microsoft: $69.99 or $99.99/year

On April 21, Microsoft renamed Office 365 to Microsoft 365. In addition to a new name, Microsoft 365 brings new features, including artificial intelligence, new templates and content and "cloud-powered experiences," according to Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President, Modern Life, Search & Devices at Microsoft. 

Microsoft 365 Personal, which is for one person across multiple devices, is $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year. You can use Microsoft 365 Home for free through a one-month trial. Microsoft 365 Family, for up to six people, is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. 

Microsoft 365 is a great option if you don’t mind paying for your productivity suite on an annual or monthly basis. It won’t be long until you’ve paid more for Office 365 than you would have for Office 2019, but it does come with more apps than Office 2019. In addition to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, Office 365 includes Outlook, Publisher, OneDrive and Skype. PC users also get Publisher and Access. 

Perhaps the best part is you can install Microsoft 365 on an unlimited number of devices and log into your subscription on up to 5 of those devices simultaneously. Additionally, Office 365 Personal subscribers get 1TB of OneDrive storage for up to 1 user, and Office 365 Home users can share their cloud storage with 6 users. You also get 60 minutes of Skype calls to real phone numbers for 1 or 6 users, depending if you get Office 365 Home or Personal. 

Another advantage Microsoft 365 has over traditional Office 2019 is its monthly updates, which vary but can include new features, functionally and security updates, “ and often it is all of those each month,” Microsoft’s Vargas told us in September 2019. 

“Most importantly, Microsoft 365 is connected to the cloud, so you can access your content from any device, co-author with anyone in real-time (regardless of whether or not they’ve purchased a copy of Office) and use the power of artificial intelligence to create more impactful content with less effort,” he added.

You can get a free trial for Office 365 Home (only), but it’ll last a mere month.

Buy Microsoft 365 From a Third-Party: $49.99 or $79.99/year

You can also buy or renew your Microsoft 365 subscription from a third-party retailer in one-year packages that are cheaper than what Microsoft charges for its one-year subscriptions.

At the time of writing, Newegg has a 15-month Microsoft 365 Personal subscription for $69.99 if bought with another product or $60 for a 12-month Office 365 subscription, (note that you won't get the features of the current Microsoft 365), which will have to be delivered. 

Amazon has Microsoft 365 Personal for $40 but is charging the same price as Microsoft for Microsoft 365 Family. It doesn't offer the older Office 365. 

Note that you still get free Microsoft technical support for the duration of your subscription, even if you buy your subscription outside of Microsoft. But Microsoft won’t handle subscription or billing issues, such as cancellations or refunds. This is because “Microsoft has limited access and visibility over subscription purchased through a third-party retailer,” according to Vargas.

Get Office Free: Microsoft 365 Education for Students, Teachers

If you’re a student or teacher, you can actually get an Microsoft 365 subscription for free, if your school qualifies. The subscription includes SharePoint, Sway, Forms, Stream, Flow, PowerApps, School Data Sync, Yammer, which aren't included in regular Office 365 subscriptions. However, you miss out on Outlook, Publisher and Access.

To see if you’re eligible for free Microsoft 365 Education, head to Microsoft’s website.

Bottom Line

Microsoft Office is a productivity staple. If you insist on the traditional procurement method of buying and owning the software for life and don’t need the software to be updated monthly, you should stick with Office 2019, just know that EoL will eventually come. You can also buy a legitimate key from a key reseller for as low as about $45, saving you around $105 from Microsoft’s pricing.

If you’re not doing big projects but instead just basic documents, spreadsheets, presentations etc., you may be able to get away with free Office Online or mobile apps. Just be sure you have an Internet connection.

But for heavy-duty productivity, the world is moving toward subscription-based software. Microsoft 365 comes with more offerings than Office 2019, monthly updates, the ability to share among multiple devices, plus a heaping 1TB of free cloud storage. You can get it for cheaper if you buy it outside of Microsoft, for as little as $50 for a year. But make sure it’s a retailer you trust, in case of billing or subscription questions. If you’re okay with making monthly or annual payments to continue creating and editing files, Microsoft 365 -- is tomorrow’s productivity suite.

Apple’s new Silicon-based laptops are gearing up to be genuinely exciting, more powerful additions to the Apple lineup, but there’s a catch that’s got some Apple fans worried: program compatibility. Because Apple Silicon uses a unique new architecture, apps built for previous chips aren’t always going to have native support for Silicon MacBooks. Apple’s got emulation-based workarounds for everything from games to productivity favorites, but whether Microsoft Office will have native support has been plaguing prospective buyers ever since Apple Silicon was announced. Now, Microsoft’s got the answer: eventually.

In a new post on the Microsoft Office support website, Microsoft explained today that while it is working on a version of Office that will "natively support both Apple Silicon and Intel chipsets within the same executable," that version’s not going to be available on Apple Silicon laptops at launch. Instead, the Office Suite will rely on Apple’s Rosetta 2 emulation to run the Intel version of the software on Apple Silicon. Microsoft suggests updating to the November 2020 Office release for the best experience, though it doesn’t seem necessary just to run the programs themselves.

"There are no features differences," Microsoft stresses, but that doesn’t mean the emulation is perfect. The downside here is that, as Microsoft puts it, "the first launch of each Office app will take longer as the operating system has to generate optimized code for the Apple Silicon processor."

Specifically, you can expect to see the emulated apps "'bounce' in the dock for approximately 20 seconds"  as it is translated by Rosetta 2 when you first open them, after which "launches will be fast."

We’re also not sure how emulating Office will affect performance, even if the programs themselves will remain unchanged. Rest assured, though, that you will be able to access some version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OutLook, OneNote and OneDrive on Apple Silicon machines from day one.

The first usable instances of Microsoft’s Fluid Framework were announced at Microsoft Build, the company’s developer conference being hosted online this year. We’ll first see it on Office.com and Outlook. We first learned about the Framework just before Build 2019 and heard more about it at Ignite.

Components of documents should stay up to date and connected across apps. Here’s how Microsoft describes it:

“For example, tables, charts, and task lists can be inserted in Outlook for the web, so your sales numbers, project tasks, and research reports are always up to date. Within Office.com, Fluid Framework workspaces can be created and managed, including within your document activity feed, Recommended list, @mentions, or search for them across Office.com. And, because Fluid Framework components are lightweight, edits are instantaneous.”

A public preview of the features will start “soon,” beginning with Microsoft 365 Enterpsise and education subscribers using the Targeted Release ring before it goes out to everyone. 

Additionally, Microsoft announced at Build that Fluid Framework will be made open source, and that more documentation and tooling will be available next month. It will be available in a repository on GitHub.

In light of the coronavirus outbreak, cloud services are witnessing exponential jumps in demand, straining services and data connections. Microsoft just outed an update about the status of its Azure services, which have recorded a peak increase in demand of up to 775% in areas where social distancing and/or lockdowns are enforced.

Microsoft described the influx of demand for Azure services:

• We have seen a 775% increase of our cloud services in regions that have enforced social distancing or shelter in place orders.
• We have seen a very significant spike in Teams usage, and now have more than 44 million daily users. Those users generated over 900 million meeting and calling minutes on Teams daily in a single week.
• Windows Virtual Desktop usage has grown more than 3x.
• Government use of public Power BI to share COVID-19 dashboards with citizens has surged by 42% in a week.

Last week, Microsoft said that it will prioritize first responders for Azure access.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is adamant that despite the increase in demand, Azure services are not witnessing any "significant service disruptions" -- though it is unclear what qualifies as a significant service disruption, and there are handfuls of complaints about Azure's reliability amidst the increase in demand. The Redmond-based company said that it is expanding the capacity very soon to ensure services remain stable. 

• How to get Microsoft Office free (or under $50)
• Yes, you can get Windows 10 free -- here's how. 
• Breaking: Acer Ryzen 4000 Swift 3 and Aspire 5 get prices, launch dates

Additionally, Microsoft is in discussions with internet service providers around the world to ensure that its services don't overwhelm data connections. When necessary, Microsoft is also reducing video quality in Teams meetings and other services to spare bandwidth. 

The problem with the wild increase in demand for cloud services is that companies like Microsoft need to act quickly in order to keep capacity in check. One strategy that economics teaches us about managing demand is that you can increase prices, though, in times like these, price surging is wildly unpopular. Consequently, this leads cloud service providers to make significant investments to meet the short boost in demand, potentially creating an excess in capacity later, when the pandemic is over and demand drops back to normal.

Microsoft announced Monday that it's combining Word, Excel and PowerPoint into a single Office app on mobile devices. The products will remain separate on desktops--even Microsoft wouldn't dare confuse Windows users by consolidating its Office suite into a single app--but will be lumped together on Android and iOS.

"The new Office mobile app represents our vision for what a productivity solution would look like if first built for mobile devices," Microsoft said in the blog post announcing this change in approach. "In designing this new experience, we first considered how people’s expectations differ when using a phone versus a computer, so we set out to optimize for simplicity, efficiency and common mobile needs."

Bringing the Office suite together into a single Office app helped achieve most of those goals. The apps had their own mobile optimizations already: Word and Excel could both create editable documents from pictures, for example, and PowerPoint could use pictures taken directly from the phone's camera roll. This isn't the first time Microsoft's tried to make the Office suite a bit easier to use on smartphones.

But the new Office app will feature other changes too. Microsoft introduced a new Actions pane that's supposed to make it easier to create PDFs, scan QR codes and more. The company also tried to provide easier access to Sticky Notes, and the integrated Office Lens features enable users to "create automatically enhanced digital images of whiteboards and documents."

The new Office app is currently available as a public preview on Android. The iOS version reached the 10,000 user limit Apple imposes on pre-release software distributed via its TestFlight platform the same day it was announced. 

Microsoft said the new app will initially be exclusive to smartphones, but it plans to bring it to tablets some time in the future (it didn't provide a date). 

Users of the Word, Excel and PowerPoint mobile apps needn't fret about their apps going away yet. Microsoft said it will "continue to support and invest in the existing Word, Excel and PowerPoint mobile apps" because it believes "everyone should decide which experience works best for them on their phones." 

But we'll see how long the redundant apps will remain available once people get used to the idea of a single Office app.

Let there be light? Microsoft isn't having any of that: the company announced on Wednesday that it's bringing dark mode to Microsoft 365's web and mobile apps in the coming weeks.

Microsoft isn't any stranger to making its apps more friendly to night owls; the company added dark modes to its desktop apps with the introduction of Office 2010. But the shift to a services model--and the accompanying launch of web and mobile apps--led the company to refocus on early birds. Now it's finally making dark mode available to every Microsoft 365 product on the web, desktop, Android and iOS with a few updates at a time..

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These updates will serve multiple functions. The obvious is making it more comfortable to use Microsoft's web and mobile apps in the dark without being blinded. Microsoft said the introduction of dark mode in its apps could help save battery life, too, although we aren't sure how big a difference it will make. Some people also prefer to use dark mode just because it looks cool. (We blame George Lucas for making the dark side seem so badass.).

The new dark mode is available now in Office.com as well as Outlook for iOS and Android. This update will be followed with a much larger one in a few weeks: Microsoft said the "upcoming launch of iOS 13 will then extend this rollout to Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneDrive, Planner,and To-Do on mobile." The project will continue with updates "for all Outlook clients, Planner and OneDrive on web" later on.

Dark mode wasn't the only Microsoft 365 update to arrive yesterday. The company also introduced new features to Office, OneNote and Yammer, as well as IT-focused changes. More information about those updates--plus another look at dark mode in action--can be found in the announcement.

Microsoft's decision to expand its Office suite to mobile platforms like Android and iOS appears to have paid off. Android Police reported on July 12 that Microsoft Word for Android has been installed more than 1 billion times, according to official Google Play Store statistics, since it was released in 2015.

It's unfortunate that Google reports Play Store installs with broad milestones like "1,000,000,000+" rather than offering slightly more details. (Not that we're complaining too much, since Apple doesn't reveal any such information about the App Store.) Word is now in the same bracket as Facebook, and even though we'd find it funny if Android users edited documents on-the-go as often as they browsed social media, we doubt that's actually the case.

But having a billion users on Android is still noteworthy. That means Word is officially installed on more devices than Windows 10, which had 825 million active users in May, according to a Thurrott report based on an internal document spotted at Build 2019. Word can also be used on iOS, macOS, and Windows 10; including the installs from those platforms would probably allow Microsoft's word processor to dwarf its operating system in popularity.

Word's popularity on Android (as well as the other platforms we mentioned) actually lends some validation to the company's shift toward a subscription-based service model instead of relying on one-time purchases. Word previously had to be limited mostly to Microsoft's platforms in a bid to convince people they should purchase Windows updates or buy Windows Phone devices so they could access Office.

Which seems more likely: people using platforms they don't like because Office isn't available elsewhere or people finding Office alternatives on the platforms they prefer? A few decades ago it was probably the former; in recent years it's become the latter. Losing to Google and Apple in the mobile market led Microsoft to realize it might have better luck trying to make money from its competitors' success than continuing to compete with them.

Microsoft appears to be testing out a new “Office key” on their in-house keyboards. This new key sports the Office logo and seems to replace the existing Menu key - the often overlooked key nestled between the Function and Alt keys. According to the prominent Microsoft leaker @WalkingCat, Microsoft sent a survey to testers who were using a keyboard with the Office key running on a May 2019 update of Windows 10. Questions included if the users had tried any of the Office-based shortcuts, if they enjoyed using the key and if they would want to see it implemented on a laptop.

Microsoft appears to be looking for even more ways in which to integrate their software with their hardware, as the advent of a dedicated Office key could come as a welcome addition for  power users. The value of this key would likely be determined by how and if one uses Word, Powerpoint, Excel and other Office programs. Currently, the Menu key languishes on the keyboard of many PC users, while third party manufacturers have sometimes switched it out for function keys of their own.  

If Microsoft goes through with the proposed changes, the keyboards will presumably debut on Microsoft’s own peripherals or Surface laptops and 2-in-1s. It’s unclear whether or not this modification will make any difference to most PC users, though it does seem like a solid attempt at updating the keyboard for those locked into the Office Suite.

When reached for comment, a Microsoft spokesperson said that the company "doesn’t respond to rumors or speculation."

Updated June 18, 3:35 p.m. ET with comment from Microsoft.

Most businesses are fond of animalistic aphorisms. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world.” “Eat or be eaten.” But new ads for Office 365 that criticize Office 2019 makes it seem like Microsoft would rather chomp on its own tail than compete with other companies.

The ads in question pit Office 365 and Office 2019 users against each other in productivity contests. The user with Office 365 always wins by miles, compared to the person who "just had Office 2019." 

The kindest way of looking at these ads would be to say that Microsoft doesn’t even consider Google Docs, Apple’s iWork and similar offerings as true competitors to Office. It’s like breathing: yeah, there are many elements in the air, but most aren’t even worth discussing because oxygen is the most vital.

But this ad-ouroboros is unsettling because it sees Microsoft portray one of its products as, well, bad. The ads make it clear that the company doesn’t want you to buy Office 2019—a product it made and named after the current year—because it’s outdated. The company isn’t necessarily wrong, considering it released Office 2019 back in 2018. And because Office 365 is subscription-based, it gets constant updates, but there’s no guarantee those updates will be released for Office 2019. And that’s ignoring the advantages Office 365 has as a web-based service over the native version.

Yet the only way for Office 2019 to become outdated, and the only way for it to lack features compared to Office 365, is for Microsoft to neglect the platform. Does the company expect to be praised for selling a product it thinks is inferior, or portraying the people who use that product as worse off?

A blog post this week by Microsoft 365 corporate vice president Jared Spataro reads: “On the flipside, Office 2019 also delivers full installs of the Office apps we know and love—but they’re ‘frozen in time.’ They don’t ever get updated with new features, and they’re not cloud-connected. Also, Office 2019 doesn’t support real-time coauthoring across apps, and it doesn’t have the amazing AI-powered capabilities that come with Office 365.”

Look, we aren’t saying we want to see a couple dogs eat each other. But at least that metaphor aptly portrays the idea that people and businesses have to be ruthless in their competition with each other. Microsoft applied that ruthlessness to itself.

Microsoft's changes to Windows 10 preview builds usually oscillate between mundane updates most people won't notice and significant updates that are pretty hard to miss. The changes introduced with Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18305 this week belong to the latter category. Microsoft has redesigned the Start menu, released a new Office app and made plenty of other updates that make it clearly distinguishable from its predecessors.

In a blog post, Microsoft discussed the redesigned Start menu for "new devices, new user accounts and clean installs" that has been "simplified into a sleek one column design with reduced top-level tiles." Combine that reduction of app-related clutter with the new Light mode introduced with an older preview build and the new Start menu ends up looking fairly different from the one available in current versions of Windows 10.

But that's not the only familiar sight being revamped by Preview Build 18305. Microsoft also included a new Office app based on the redesigned Office.com website. More information about the app, which is supposed to offer "a great starting point for Office that helps you easily find all your files in one place or easily access any Office solution available to you."

"The app itself is free and it can be used with any Office 365 subscription, Office 2019, Office 2016, or Office Online—the free web-based version of Office for consumers. ... Starting this summer, new Windows 10 devices will come with the Office app already installed—making it easier than ever to start using Office on a new PC," Microsoft said in its Office365 blog post.

Preview Build 18305 also includes new troubleshooting features that allow Windows 10 to automatically resolve "critical" problems so things keep operating as intended. Microsoft said this feature can't be disabled, though, which could lead to problems for advanced users.

The other big update debuting with this build is Windows Sandbox. It pretty much does what you'd expect: makes it easy to create Windows 10 virtual machines so people don't have to run every single executable file they come across without checking it first.

Preview Build 18305 also includes an updated Windows Security app, redesigned Settings page and many other updates that should appeal to their respective niches. If that's enough to convince you to install this build, you can do so by signing up for the Fast ring of the Windows Insider Program. Just remember that this is pre-release software, so it's all but guaranteed to have glaring issues.

Microsoft is raising the price of Office 2019 licenses for the first time in nearly a decade. Purchasing the productivity suite now costs roughly 10% more than it did back when Office 2016 was introduced. This may be in an attempt to move users over to subscription pricing.

Computer World reported that Office 2019 Home & Business' new $250 price tag is about 9% higher than the 2016 edition's $230. Office 2019 Professional jumped 10%, too, from $400 to $440. (The base Office 2019 Home & Student edition costs the same $150 as it did before.) Microsoft announced similar price hikes for commercial licenses sold in volume earlier this year, meaning the mid- and high-tier editions cost more everywhere.

Microsoft hasn't raised the price of its Office suite like this since Office 2010 debuted. That doesn't mean it's unusual for software licenses to rise in price over time, or at least start at the base price after the previous version has seen various price reductions and discounts, but it's uncommon for Microsoft. Especially when you consider that the price of an Office 365 subscription didn't rise alongside the price of an Office 2019 license.

The company is making a clear statement: Office 365 is the future, and even though it's committed to making at least one more version of the productivity suite for licensed use, people might have to pay more for it than they expected. That isn't to say Office 365 will never rise in price, but at least for now the service's cost will remain consistent no matter what version of the actual Office software it's providing access to.

It's not like Microsoft has been sneaky about pushing its customers towards Office 365. Its website includes a "Buy Office 365" button, the first options in the Plans & Pricing pages are for Office 365 subscriptions, and it has often focused on the subscription offering in its announcements. The company even pushed Office 365 (a bit more gently this time) in the blog post announcing that Office 2019 was available to download on Windows and Mac:

"Office 2019 is a valuable update for customers who aren’t yet ready for the cloud. And each time we release a new on-premises version of Office, customers ask us if this will be our last. We’re pleased to confirm that we’re committed to another on-premises release in the future. While the cloud offers real benefits in productivity, security, and total cost of ownership, we recognize that each customer is at a different point in their adoption of cloud services. We see the on-premises version of Office as an important part of our commitment to give customers the flexibility they need to move to the cloud at their own pace."

Now the company's appealing directly to its customers' wallets. Buying a license can be cheaper in the mid-term, but in the short term, Office 365 subscriptions cost less than even the base Office 2019 Home & Student license. In the long term, a subscription can also end up costing less as long as Microsoft releases new versions of Office that require their own (and potentially gradually more expensive) license and someone can't use old versions.

This is the way technology in general, and Microsoft specifically, are going. The company hardly sells new versions of Windows 10 anymore, has revealed plans to shift gaming over to subscriptions via Project xCloud and Xbox Game Pass, and has ratcheted up the pressure to ditch Office licenses in favor of Office 365. Eventually those of us who remember buying software are going to be looked at like people who remember buying gas for 10 cents a gallon.

Security company FireEye reported today that a new hacking campaign, Felixroot, uses old Microsoft Office flaws to install backdoors and steal files from victims’ machines. Felixroot was previously linked to another campaign from September 2017 targeting Ukrainian computers.

Felixroot

In September 2017, FireEye saw the Felixroot campaign for the first time. It was sending malicious Office bank documents to Ukranian users. The documents contained a macro script that would later download the Felixroot malware to the victims' PCs.

Fireeye observed a new version of the campaign recently. This time the campaign is using documents related to environmental protection. The malware in these documents was exploiting the unpatched CVE-2017-0199 and CVE-2017-11882 security flaws found in Microsoft Office last year. The first flaw is used to download the backdoor, while the second one is used to weaponize it.

The Technical Details

The downloaded Seminar.rtf file comes with another embedded file that is downloaded in Windows’ %temp% directory, from where the downloaded backdoor is later executed. The backdoor executable arrives encrypted via custom encryption.

This executable is then decrypted and run directly in memory, without ever being stored on the disk. The backdoor sleeps for 10 minutes before being executed by the rundll32.exe Windows component. Afterwards, it connects to the command and control (C2) server, from where the attackers can send remote commands to the victim's PC or steal files.

All data sent over the network to the C2 server is first encrypted with AES encryption and then converted to Base64 encoding to ensure that the data is not lost during transmission. The malware then sleeps before executing the next task.

FireEye said that the CVE-2017-0199 and CVE-2017-11882 Microsoft Office bugs are among attackers’ favorite flaws to exploit lately and warned that malicious parties will continue to exploit them until most organizations bring their Office software up to date.

Zscaler security researchers uncovered new techniques that malware authors use to evade virtual machines and helps protect their code from analysis by security researchers.

The researchers noticed that a recent wave of malicious Microsoft Word documents were evading automatic analysis by using anti-virtual machine and anti-sandboxing techniques. Security researchers tend to use VMs or other types of sandboxes to protect their systems when analyzing files or malware code.

The attackers that created the malware in the first place would normally want their code to remain undetected, because then they can use it for longer periods of time and on more machines.

Malware Through Microsoft Word Macros

Using Word documents by taking advantage of “macro” scripting capabilities is a popular way to infect targets. Malware authors also obfuscate their code to bypass signature-based antivirus software and have implemented techniques that can evade virtual machines or other analysis tools.

These tests are written in macro scripts inside the download document. However, the user must first enable macros, as many years ago Microsoft disabled Word macros by default for obvious security reasons. Through social engineering techniques, the malware authors can get at least a portion of the users who download the file to activate macros.

Then, the script checks for standard virtual environment strings that may be present on the system. It also checks the Windows Management Instrumentation to see whether any analysis systems, virtual environments or popular analysis tools interact with it.

If any of these checks returns positive, then the macro code execution stops and the final malware payload, which was meant to infect the PC, is no longer downloaded. Otherwise, if the tests fail, then the malware will download on the computer.

Zscaler said that many types of malware families use Word documents as the initial vector for infection, including ransomware and banking and backdoor trojans.

New Anti-Sandboxing Techniques

The Zscaler researchers said that in May, they found that malware authors were using some new techniques to evade sandboxes. For instance, they use the Office “RecentFiles” property with a set value of 3 or larger, which would check to see whether the user had recently accessed three or more documents.

Typically, security researchers would use a clean operating system and Office installation, with no more than one or two Word documents opened for testing. Then, they would save a snapshot of that VM, so they can always revert back to that clean state when they test something new. Now, the malware authors try to take advantage of this typical behavior of security researchers to evade detection.

Another new evasion technique involves having the macro script check the user’s external IP address, and then comparing it to known server locations and data centers of multiple security vendors. If the user’s IP matches one of the vendor’s IP addresses, then the macro would not send the malware payload and it would terminate itself.

Although these sort of anti-sandboxing evasion techniques are becoming increasingly more popular with malware authors, it can also be used against them. For instance, HitManPro.Alert 3, an anti-exploit tool, has added exactly this kind of feature, called “Vaccination.” It gets sandbox-aware malware to self-terminate by fooling it into thinking that it’s inside a VM or that it’s being monitored for reverse engineering.

However, as usual, this will continue to be a cat and mouse game between black hats and white hats, with each trying to exploit each other’s code weaknesses. Malware authors will look for new ways to evade analysis tools, while anti-malware vendors will continue improving their products to catch them.

Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware. You can follow him at @lucian_armasu. 

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Windows 10 will be launching on July 29, and one of the company's biggest pushes is for each platform running the OS to have familiar applications that offer an essentially platform-agnostic experience. Microsoft's solution for this is Universal Apps.

Universal Apps will run natively on any platform running Windows 10, whether it be on your PC, tablet, phone, Xbox, or what have you, and they will operate in the same fashion no matter what device you run them on.

Microsoft has previously revealed that Outlook Mail and Outlook Calendar will be pre-installed in Windows 10, but the company has also been developing Word for Windows 10, Excel for Windows 10, PowerPoint for Windows 10 and OneNote for Windows 10. These applications will be available through the Windows Store and will be free of charge. The Universal Windows Application versions of these are touch enabled and will work in much the same way as the Android versions released earlier this year.

Word broke that Microsoft's Universal Windows Apps will be available in the Windows store on July 29, coinciding with the launch of Windows 10, but Microsoft had not made any public statements to that effect. We reached out to Microsoft for confirmation, and we were told by a company spokesperson that Universal Windows Apps will indeed be added to the Windows Store when Window 10 becomes available at the end of the month.

This is good news for users who may have been getting a little nervous about the staggered releases that Windows 10 will be getting (see below):

• Windows 10 Is Coming, But Don't Expect It This Month
• Here's What's Coming To Xbox On Windows 10
• Windows 10 Mobile Coming Later This Year
  

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Microsoft Office 2016 is still in the works, but some users are testing it out with Office 2016 Preview, which started in May. Numerous updates have been added in the last two months, but Microsoft wanted to create an overall recap of the biggest improvements from June.

Excel received an additional six charts to its roster called Waterfall, Histogram, Pareto, Box & Whisker, Treemap and Sunburst, which could be a godsend for those who want to use the program to input large amounts of data numerous times without the same boring layout. There's also the introduction of Insights in both Excel and PowerPoint; the feature, first implemented in Word and Outlook, provides a quick reference guide, via Bing, to various terms in your presentation or report. Think of it as a little notecard that can help the presenter with more information.

For Word, users can now see real-time typing on every document, if it's shared with other users. You can test it out by putting the document file in OneDrive for Business and sharing it. The feature isn't new for those who have used Google Docs and other online word processing tools, but it could certainly prove useful for those who prefer using Microsoft Office.

If you're having trouble finding various commands on Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook, there's a simple bar at the top of each app called Tell Me. By typing in your desired command, it will list a few results that match your command description. There's also Insert Equation, another interesting function in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, that allows you to write equations with a stylus, mouse or your finger, and it will automatically transfer to the document as a typed formula. Math and science users will get the most out of this implementation, which should shave off a few minutes from creating tests or writing long research papers.

We're only two months into the Preview stages, so there's bound to be even more improvements to the new Office. While it won't be ready by the time Windows 10 launches in a few weeks (a release date is set for the second half of 2015), there's no doubt that it plays an integral part in the operating system, specifically with Universal Apps. The new features are no longer exclusive to the desktop version of Office, so we'll be curious to see how new charts and inserting hand-written equations will work on your Windows mobile device or tablet.

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On May 19, Microsoft released Office for Android phone preview, and just five weeks later the company has made the apps available for general release. The company said it received feedback from users all around the world, and the software was tested in over 83 countries and on 1,900 different phone models.

During that period, Microsoft heard from thousands of users and said that much of the feedback has been incorporated into the current release. One such change is easy access to third party cloud storage such as Dropbox and Google Drive, in addition to the company's own OneDrive solution.

The Android phone version of Office integrates directly into the cloud to sync up with Office365 accounts. Microsoft said that transitioning from a PC to the phone will pick up right where you left off.

Word will let you read and edit documents, and easily add or change comments. Excel lets you create charts easily, and formulas have been optimized to use touch control. Power Point allows you to run a full presentation, complete with animations and transitions, directly from your phone.

Microsoft has been working with partners around the globe to sell phones with Office apps pre-installed. Over 30 OEMs including Samsung, Sony and LG will be selling phones later this year with Office already included.

Word for Android, Excel for Android and PowerPoint for Android are available now, at no charge, in the Google Play store.

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ASRock jumped into the ever-growing NUC market with the Beebox series of NUCs, offering silent operation and updated features as a result of utilizing the latest Intel Atom Braswell SoCs.

ASRock's Beeboxes will be available in three configurations: a barebones kit, a full system with OS, and a full system without OS. The three systems are identical at heart and are fanless, making them exceedingly quiet when in use. They will also be available in three colors, as show above.

To make this possible, ASRock opted to utilize Intel's Braswell-based N3000 SoC, but this is a bittersweet SoC to use. According to Intel's spec page for Braswell, the N3000 SoC has a TDP of 4 W, which makes the fanless design possible; however, the N3000 is currently the only dual-core Braswell SoC, and is therefore the lowest-performing SoC.

Though these systems are targeting low-performance market segments anyway, this isn't a major problem for most people, but it does make the Beebox less desirable as an HTPC. As a result, the Beebox feels targeted more towards workplace environments, to be used for tasks such as digital signage or simple Web browsing systems.

The available configurations ASRock sells the Beebox in seem to reinforce this.

Many NUC devices are sold as barebones systems, but not all businesses have the time to install RAM and storage into the systems, not to mention the time required to install the OS. Large businesses may need dozens of these devices, and not having to order and install additional hardware and software can save time and money.

At the same time, businesses who will only need one or two of these would likely benefit from the barebones unit, as they might ultimately reduce costs by shopping around for cheaper RAM, storage and OS. The completed model without OS gives a balance of the two scenarios, by saving time not needing to install additional hardware, but also letting users install a free OS such as Linux to reduce overall costs.

In addition to the hardware configurations available, the systems include numerous other feature enhancements compared to older Baytrail-based NUCs. The Beebox includes a USB 3.0 Type-C connector for fast charging and much greater bandwidth when transferring data. The Wi-Fi standard was also improved to the newer 802.11ac.

Also, Braswell features greatly improved graphics compared to Baytrail. While Baytrail's iGPU only had 4 EUs, was locked at a max resolution of 1080p, and supported dual-monitors, Braswell's iGPU has 12 EUs, can drive up to three displays, two over HDMI and one over display port, and features resolution support up to 4K.

ASrock said that its full-system-without-OS Beebox is the only NUC vendor that can claim that it does true 4K video because of its dual-channel memory design. This Beebox has 2 x 2 GB RAM as opposed to a single DIMM, and the company ran a demo that showed that its 4K solution outperformed NUCs using a single-DIMM design.

Furthermore, ASRock said that the first of these NUCs (the one sans OS) should enter the market in the middle of June. The barebones Beebox will cost just $140 (and users will need to purchase RAM and storage separately), while the no-OS black or white Beeboxes will be $220. (The gold model will be an extra $10, at $230.)

The Beebox that ships with a full OS installed will be "under $200." It may seem somewhat counterintuitive that a system with an OS installed should cost less than one without, but the cost difference is due to the latter's more RAM and larger storage. (Note the specs in the chart above.)

In terms of availability for the two non-barebones, they will likely launch after Windows 10 makes its official appearance on July 29.

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Jared Spataro, general manager for Microsoft's Office 365 marketing team, recently updated the Office blog with news that Microsoft has unleashed new Office for Android Preview apps for smartphones. Confused? Don't be. The previous Office for Android Preview launched back in January was for Android tablets only.

To check out the new apps on an Android smartphone, testers must first be enlisted in the Microsoft Office for Android community. After that, users can click on the "Become a tester" button and download and install Word, Excel and PowerPoint from Google Play. However, potential testers may not be able to retrieve these apps immediately.

"After 'Become a tester,' your access permissions to preview builds becomes active only after a few hours while Google Play replicates your access permissions," the FAQ said. "So, please try downloading the Apps after ~4 hours from the same links. In the absence of access permissions to preview version of apps, Google Play store app shows you currently publicly available Android Tablet version which isn't compatible for Phone devices."

Microsoft also provided a list of devices that are not compatible with the new Office apps for phones. This list reveals devices provided by Asus, Google, Hewlett Packard, LG, Lenovo Mobile, Samsung, Sony and a number of others. The fine print says that Microsoft is "working towards enabling support for many of the large screen phone devices."

Microsoft Word was the only app that could be downloaded for this article (the other two are waiting on permissions). After the initial sign-in process, the app asks for the user's Dropbox credentials. Once that's done, users are provided with a screen that lists documents under "Today," "Last Week," "Two Weeks Ago" and "Three Weeks Ago."

However, at the top, Word offers a choice of opening a doc or creating a new one. Hit the "Open" option and users can grab documents from "Recent," "This device," OneDrive, Dropbox and "Other cloud storage." This last option shows the "Downloads" folder, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Users can also add a place to retrieve files: OneDrive Personal, OneDrive Business, Dropbox or a SharePoint location.

All in all, Word is really slick on an Android smartphone. Once a document is opened, users can zoom in and out with one tap, save a document and share the file as a link or an attachment. A menu tucked away on the left side provides additional options such as "Save As," "Share," "Print," "Close" and even "Feedback."

As of this writing, the "Print" feature saves the document as a PDF or sends it to Google Drive (Cloud Print). There's also an "All Printers" option, which presumably shows the local printer along with an option to save to Google Drive.

"Bringing these apps to Preview first provides you with an early look at the apps, while enabling us to gather critical user feedback helping us shape and improve the app experience on a wide range of Android phones across the world," Spatoro said. "The feedback we received from the Office for Android tablet Preview in January was critical to ensuring a high quality and consistent Office experience across Android tablet devices."

To join the Microsoft Office for Android community, head here.

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Jared Spataro, general manager for the Office marketing team, updated the Office blog with news that consumers can now check out a public preview of Office 2016. The new Office release includes real-time co-authoring in Word, smart applications that "learn" as you work, new data analysis capabilities, new deployment and security features, and more.

Spataro said in Monday's blog that Microsoft is now looking for feedback from a wider audience after having released the IT Pro and Developer Preview back in March. This method is similar to how Microsoft is handling the Insider Preview of Windows 10, by providing a tool that will help Microsoft shape the product based on consumer feedback.

"Office 2016 previewers will get an early look at the next release of Office on Windows desktop, but more importantly they'll help to shape and improve the future of Office," he said.

There are actually two versions for consumption: Office 2016 Preview for the home and Office 2016 Preview for enterprise. For Office 365 subscribers wanting the home version, simply go to the My Account page, click "Language and Install options," click "Additional install instructions," and then choose the 32-bit or 64-bit Office 2016 Preview in the drop-down menu. Office 365 customers will remain on the Office 2016 Preview release schedule until (1) Office 2016 is released to retail or (2) Office 2016 Preview is uninstalled.

If you don't have an Office 365 subscription, you can still download the beta by using the product key located here and downloading either the 64-bit or 32-bit version. Naturally, customers can't keep using this version forever. They will have an option to purchase an Office 365 subscription or to reinstall the original Office retail version using the original product key.

For businesses, Office 365 administrators with an Office 365 ProPlus subscription can now download the preview by turning on "First Release." These customers can sign in to the My Software page, click "Try the next version of Office" and click "Install." For those not willing to join First Release, you can obtain the Office 365 Preview by heading here.

One of the neater features provided in the new Office 2016 Preview is real-time collaboration. Customers using the desktop and online versions of Word will be able to see what the other is writing in real time when editing the same document. There's also an updated Clutter folder in Outlook that, according to Microsoft, uses machine learning to figure out what emails are important to the user and what is considered clutter.

On the business side of things, the new Office provides one-click forecasting, an easy way to publish and share Excel workbooks to Power BI users, improved Power Pivot features in Excel, an integrated Power Query and more. For IT, Data Loss Protection is now available in PowerPoint, Excel and Word. Microsoft has also added multi-factor authentication in Outlook.

As Spataro pointed out, Office 2016 Preview is a "work in progress," so keep in mind that the suite may not run as smoothly as the final retail version. Plus, there are a number of features that are not included in this release, but new features will be added each month. Spataro will provide more information about each build as they are released.

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LibreOffice claims to be one of the world's best free and open source office suites. Users can download the app for any desktop OS, or it can run on a virtual platform on Chrome OS, Firefox OS and iOS. Additionally, LibreOffice is currently in development for Android.

Even with its wide availability, the company has yet to create its software for the cloud. That changed today when it announced LibreOffice Online.

In order to create LibreOffice Online, the organization collaborated with IceWarp for its synchronization software, and Collabora, a company that has expertise with helping companies take the open source route. According to The Document Foundation, the organization behind LibreOffice, the process of getting LibreOffice online started in 2011 with a running prototype of the online version using HTML5.

With this new product, the organization seeks to challenge other office suites in the market, specifically calling out Google Docs and Office 365. LibreOffice Online will also be the first suite to support the Open Document Format, an XML-based document file format, which makes file conversions easier by "leveraging and reusing existing standards wherever possible."

Considering that the founders of The Document Foundation were former members of OpenOffice.org, one of the earliest open office suites, LibreOffice Online is sure to attract customers. Although Google Docs has a huge number of users, LibreOffice Online has the added advantage of being open source, allowing a large amount of collaboration from developers.

ln any case, it's good to know that there are free, online, and cloud-based alternatives to the likes of Google Docs. Availability for LibreOffice Online has yet to be announced, but this announcement is a sure sign that it's in the final stages and almost ready for launch.

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Microsoft launched the "Outlook for iOS and Android" app yesterday, which was in fact a rebranding of an existing app called Acompli that Microsoft purchased in early December 2014. However, according to IBM developer René Winkelmeyer, the app presents some major security issues for the companies that intend to use it, and access should be immediately denied to enterprise users.

By far the biggest security issue that the developer found is that Microsoft itself has access to the users' email credentials, including both the username and the password:

“What I saw was breathtaking. A frequent scanning from an AWS IP to my mail account. Means Microsoft stores my personal credentials and server data (luckily I've used my private test account and not my company account) somewhere in the cloud! They haven't asked me. They just scan. So they have in theory full access to my PIM data," said Winkelmeyer in a blog post.

Only Gmail emails, which require OAuth authorization, don't give Microsoft your credentials, according to Acompli's own current Privacy Policy. However, Exchange emails do:

"Some email accounts (ones that use Microsoft Exchange, for example) also require that you provide your email login credentials, including your username, password, server URL, and server domain. Other accounts (Google Gmail accounts, for example) use the OAuth authorization mechanism which does not require us to access or store your password."

The second major security issue concerns Microsoft's servers acting as some sort of "man-in-the-middle" servers by intercepting a company's private emails as they pass from one user to another.

“Those messages, calendar events, and contacts, along with their associated metadata, may be temporarily stored and indexed securely both in our servers and locally on the app on your device. If your emails have attachments and you request to open them in our app, the service retrieves them from the mail server, securely stores them temporarily on our servers, and delivers them to the app."

Microsoft and Acompli promote this indexing service as making email delivery slightly faster, but that comes with a rather significant privacy and security cost for the companies utilizing Microsoft's new app. This email interception could be especially worrisome for companies that don't want their data easily shared with certain U.S. government agencies. Those agencies may not have proper jurisdiction over that data when it's held by Microsoft's enterprise customers in other countries. However, they could get access more easily to Microsoft's copies of the data. The Outlook for iOS and Android app also collects all calendar and contact data.

The third security issue, which Winkelmeyer described as a "data security nightmare," is that Microsoft has built-in connectors to OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive, which allow an enterprise user to easily share confidential company data with others, or worse, to access files that could be infected with malware, for example. Winkelmeyer's point is that this feature can easily bypass a company's security policies, such as app containerization.

Some of these security issues seem to be older Acompli issues, and given that Microsoft has merely rebranded the app as Outlook, it's possible the company didn't take a hard enough look at the app before re-launching it.

At the same time, Microsoft may have already been aware of the issues but decided to keep the service as is, because indexing of other companies' private email is something Microsoft may want to do. It remains to be seen how Microsoft will react to this discovery, and that reaction should tell us more about the company's intentions regarding these security issues.

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Julia White, general manager for the Office Product Management team, updated the Office Blog on Thursday with news that Office 2016 for the desktop will arrive in the second half of 2015. She didn't add much to the announcement but noted that the team is hard at work on this release and will reveal additional details in the next several months.

"This suite will remain the comprehensive Office experience you're long familiar with, best suited for a PC with keyboard and mouse. We have compelling new experiences coming as part of this Office suite," White wrote.

In addition to the Office 2016 announcement, White's blog also talked about Office for Windows 10, which will provide touch-optimized apps for Word, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. According to White, these apps will be installed for free on small tablets and phones that are running Windows 10. They will also be made available in the Windows Store for other larger devices.

Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet pointed out in a recent report that it's unknown whether or not these touch-first apps will be free, or if they will require an Office 365 subscription. Currently, the touch-friendly apps for Android and iPad require a subscription to unlock the full set of features.

According to White, those using the Windows 10 Technical Preview will see these "universal" apps in the next several weeks. The apps will then be made available to Windows 10 users "later this year." White promised that the apps are built from the ground up for Windows 10 and will work well on any size screen, from mobile phones to Microsoft's just-revealed Surface Hub.

"As 'universal' Office apps, they truly are the same app across device size, providing a consistent way for independent software vendors and developers to extend and integrate with Office apps," White wrote.

The blog provided links to two demos showcasing Office for Windows 10 including Word for Windows 10 and PowerPoint for Windows 10 on Windows Phone. The blog also briefly talked about each Windows 10 app, such as the new Insights for Office feature in Word for Windows 10's "Read" mode. White even indicated that users won't even miss their mouse and keyboard when using Excel for Windows 10.

2015 should be an exciting year for Microsoft with the introduction of Windows 10, Office for Windows 10 and Office 2016 for Desktop. After taking a beating from Windows 8 feedback, there's a certain vibe emanating from Microsoft that indicates the company so wants to "wow" customers with these upcoming products. The Windows Insider program should be evidence enough that Microsoft wants to build the best consumer experience possible.

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On Thursday, Microsoft launched Excel, PowerPoint and Word apps for the iPhone, allowing users to create and edit Office-based content without the need for a subscription. The company also updated the iPad apps that were released earlier this year and launched a "preview" program for Excel, PowerPoint and Word apps for Android tablets.

"Office 365 subscribers will continue to benefit from the full Office experience across devices with advanced editing and collaboration capabilities, unlimited OneDrive storage, Dropbox integration and a number of other benefits," said John Case, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Office.

According to the Word app for Apple's iPhone, customers without a subscription can create and perform basic editing for free. However, subscribers will receive premium features such as Dropbox support, which was announced earlier this week, the ability to add or remove chart elements, coauthoring, printing straight from the phone, tracking changes and more.

Adding a Dropbox account in Word is rather easy. Simply tap on the Account button at the bottom, choose the "Add a Service" option under "Connected Devices," and then choose the Dropbox option. This will lead to a sign-in page in the Safari browser. Once that is completed, Dropbox will send users two emails confirming the device (iPhone) and app (Word) additions.

As for the Android apps, they're expected to be available for mass consumption in early 2015. However, as previously stated, customers can sign up for the preview. Android fans simply provide their name, email address, and list the type of tablet that will be used. Microsoft will email these customers once a spot in the preview program opens up.

"Our vision of Office everywhere wouldn't be complete without Windows, so I'm pleased to confirm that new, touch-optimized Office apps for Windows 10 are in the works and we'll have more to share soon," John Case teased.

The move to bring Office to Android and iPhone is part of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's vision of a "mobile first, cloud first" approach, which steers away from former CEO Steve Ballmer's "devices and services" direction. Bringing Office apps to all devices is simply brilliant, as it means Microsoft could possibly score new subscriptions from customers wanting a bit more than simple editing.

Customers using an iPad or iPhone will need to have their device updated to iOS 7.0 or later. As of press time, the signup sheet for Office on Android either crashed or was pulled for some reason, so keep checking back.

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Previously we reported that Microsoft delayed the “Gemini” touch-focused apps for Office 2013 in order to work on the Android version of the suite. Now there’s evidence on Microsoft’s SharePoint site revealing that the company is gearing up for a private beta of the upcoming software.

The site doesn’t specify if the pre-release program will in fact include Office for Android, provide the long-awaited Office for Windows “Gemini” apps to eager customers, or offer both sets. In fact, right now Microsoft appears to have put the beta submissions on temporary hold, possibly due to a large turnout.

“Thank you for your interest in Microsoft Office programs!” the site reads for now “We are in the process of updating our submission site and expect it to be back online soon. We will be accepting applications throughout the next several weeks and hope you return later in the week to submit your interest.”

Previous rumors had pegged the Gemini apps as appearing in this quarter, and currently there’s no answers as to why they’re late save for the Office for Android rumor. Now there’s talk that the Gemini apps won’t be available until Spring 2015 when Windows Threshold is due to arrive.

PCWorld reports that the pre-release program will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Visio, Access, Publisher and Outlook. The program will also be open to businesses, who will also see beta versions of Exchange, Project and SharePoint.

Microsoft released Office for iPad back in March, which contains Word, Excel and PowerPoint for free. By May, the suite was downloaded by iPad owners a whopping 27 million times; 12 million times within the first week. The catch is that customers need a subscription to the Office 365 service, which costs $99 per year or $9.99 per month.

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On Tuesday, Microsoft announced the availability of Office 365 Personal, a new subscription plan for Office 2013 that allows customers to pay a monthly fee for one person. This plan will cost $6.99 per month, or $69.99 per year, whichever is easiest on the wallet.

So what do you get with Office 365 Personal? The software can run on one PC or Mac, one tablet (iPad included), and on smartphones (Android, iOS, Windows). Customers also have access to online versions of Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote), offline storage, and 27 GB of online storage (7 GB free, 20 GB extra). Subscribers also get 60 world minutes of Skype calling per month to 60+ countries.

For customers with more than one PC or tablet, the Office Home family plan is a better deal. For $9.99 per month, customers can install Office 13 on five PCs and Macs, five tablets, and on any Android, iOS or Windows phone. Family customers also have access to the online versions of Office, offline storage, and 27 GB of online storage for each user up to five. Also thrown into this bundle is 60 world minutes of Skype calling per month to 60+ countries.

"By offering Office 365 Personal, in addition to Office 365 Home, we are better positioned to deliver the right Office to a broader range of households–whether it's an individual or a family of five. Whichever Office 365 is right for you, you'll enjoy the freedom to get work done at home, school, or on the go–on any device," reads the Office blog.

Last month, Microsoft eliminated the requirement to pay for an Office 365 plan in order to use Office on mobile phones. That means customers with and without a subscription can get Office Mobile without having to share a dime. These two plans mentioned above are not for commercial use; businesses would need to get additional licenses from Microsoft in order to be compliant.

For customers who don't want to install the software locally, there's always Office Online (formerly Office Web Apps). These versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote are free to use within Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome. Even more, Word Online, PowerPoint Online and OneNote are now all offered as Chrome Apps. On the Apple front, Office is now also on the iPad.

In related news, Microsoft updated the Office blog with news of changes coming to Office Online.

"For those of you using Word Online for the creation of research papers and reports, we've simplified footnotes and endnotes—you can now simply add them inline," the blog reads. "Word Online is now smarter when it comes to list making, too. For example, when you're making a list, if you're directly below an existing numbered list and start typing, your next line automatically becomes part of the list—just like in desktop Word."

For more information about what is new with Office Online, head here.

Microsoft's Steve Chew, a senior product marketing manager in the Exchange group, said in an Office blog on Monday that Outlook Web App (OWA) is coming to Google's Android platform later this year. This app will provide the latest features, unlike the default email app on most smartphones that also works with Exchange.

"We're really excited to deliver these enhanced email and collaboration experiences in Outlook Web App and across mobile devices," he said in the blog. "We're bringing an entirely new way to think about email as a continued enabler to how people get work done whether in the office or on the go. Email is becoming more collaborative, more efficient, easier to manage and, yes, more social."

News of the Android client was part of a larger preview of what's to come in OWA for Office 365 later this year: "Clutter," enhanced document collaboration, and groups. The former "clutter" feature addresses the need for a simple, accurate way to manage the high volume of email messages customers typically receive. There should be a way to filter email without having to manage a huge number of inbox rules. Clutter addresses this issue.

"At its heart, it intends to remove as much unimportant mail, or clutter, from a user's inbox as possible so that a user's inbox can, well, become their inbox again," Chew writes. "At a high level, clutter is pretty simple. We know that in most businesses, people spend a great deal of time just trying to keep up with the volume of email coming into their inboxes throughout the day. How they manage that email can then serve as a blueprint for what is important to them."

Enhanced Document Collaboration, another upcoming feature, allows users to easily share files stored in the cloud as attachments in an email. When sending an attachment from a device or computer, users can automatically upload the file to the OneDrive cloud and send it as a link. Users can also easily attach a file directly from OneDrive when sending an email in OWA.

As for Groups, this idea was taken from Yammer and extended across Office 365.

"Starting things off in Yammer, you'll notice a list of Public Groups here pinned to the left," he writes."These are Groups that have either been created or joined. Clicking on a particular group will show the conversation feed for that group. This is where you share information and collaborate with others. A new group can be created from here – in fact, anyone in the organization can create a group from anywhere in Office 365, which empowers everyone to be more productive."

To read the full blog, head here. OWA is already available for the iPhone and iPad.

Microsoft today announced the official launch of its latest program to give students access to Office. Redmond revealed that student attending a school that licenses Office 365 ProPlus or Office Professional Plus for staff and faculty will now be able to access Office 365 for free. Dubbed Student Advantage, Microsoft first announced this program way back in October. Now, Student Advantage is live. As of December 1, a total of 35,000 educational institutes worldwide are running Student Advantage programs.

Microsoft writes that 97 percent of students using productivity software are Microsoft Office users. What's more, proficiency with Microsoft Office is ranked number three on the list of skills employers look for in candidates for high-growth, high-wage occupations. Proficiency with PowerPoint and World come in at number 11 and number 13 respectively.

"Microsoft Office skills were sought after five times more than any other productivity tools. Even Google's own job postings require competency with Microsoft Office tools," Microsoft wrote in an official blog post. "Because Office is such a highly valued skillset with employers, students who use Office 365 will have the most up-to-date versions of the productivity tools they need to excel in the classroom and the workforce."

If you're not able to get access through your school and the Student Advantage program, you can still sign up for Office 365 University, which is a 4-year subscription for $79.99 or $1.67 per month.

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Microsoft on Wednesday finally released a version of Office 365 for Android smartphone users. Unfortunately, if you're in the UK, you won't be seeing any of that action. Not to worry, though, you're not alone. Microsoft's Julia White wrote in a blog post that the application is currently for Android users in the United States. 

Similar to the launch of Office 365 for iOS, the app is for Office 365 subscribers only, which means you'll have to get a subscription to Microsoft's Office 365 Home Premium and ProPlus before you can use the app. If you don't have an Office 365 subscription and don't fancy forking over the cash just to try the app, you can get a 30-day trial of Office 365 on office.com and take the app for a spin as well. 

The app will give you mobile access to the likes of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SkyDrive and more. Though you'll have to be in the USA to enjoy Office for Mobile on your Android phone right away, Microsoft has promised to release the app in other countries over the coming weeks. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long.

Apple's iOS finally got Microsoft's Office 365 at the end of June and now, a little over one month on, Microsoft is looking after Android users. The company today released Office 365 for Android. Similar to the launch of Office 365 for iOS, this one is for Office 365 subscribers only, which means you'll have to get a subscription to Microsoft's Office 365 Home Premium and ProPlus before you can use the app.

Interestingly, Microsoft has made it abundantly clear that this is Office for Android phones as opposed to Android devices (i.e., phones and tablets). Despite the fact that Microsoft's productivity apps would arguably be more useful for those with tablets, Office 365 for Android is explicitly for smartphone users (similar to how Office 365 for iOS doesn't have a dedicated tablet interface). 

If you don't have an Office 365 subscription and don't fancy forking over the cash just to try the app, you can get a 30-day trial on office.com.

Microsoft has finally announced the availability of Office Mobile for iPhone users. Redmond revealed the news via its Office News blog, explaining that the release of Office Mobile is part of its commitment to delivering regular updates and new capabilities to Office 365 users. As such, the application will be free to those that already subscribe to Microsoft's Office 365 online services suite (Office 365 Home Premium costs $100, or $10 per year).

Using the app, iPhone users will be able to view, edit, share, and create documents straight from their phone. Microsoft's announcement pushes consistency in a big way, harkening back to its recent ad campaign where it slammed Google Docs for messing up formatting for users. The company says support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics and shapes will keep formatting and layout intact when iPhone users are viewing, editing, or adding comments. 

While Office Mobile for iPhone is free for Office 365 users, there's no option to purchase the app if you don't subscribe to Office 365. Check out the demo below for a taste of what Office on your iPhone looks like.