
While Microsoft has not disclosed a ship date for Office 2013, it's expected to go on sale after the launch of Windows 8 for at least several months, OEMs will have to load their machines with Office 2010, not the new Office 2013. In the same documentation, Microsoft "strongly" recommended to OEMs that they use the new tools to install Office on PCs running Windows 7, and warned them that the OPK will be "required on all Microsoft Windows 8 PC builds." The same kit also can be used to install Security Essentials, Microsoft's free consumer-grade antivirus software, as well as complete editions of Office 2010. "The Office 2010 Transition OPK does not contain Office Starter 2010," documentation published on Microsoft's website stated. The new tools, which Microsoft has labeled "Office 2010 Transition OEM Preinstallation Kit," or OPK, do away with Office Starter 2010.

Microsoft currently offers 60-day trials of Office that can be downloaded from its website.īut Microsoft is putting Office Starter 2010 to rest, and has told OEMs to switch to new tools for factory-installation of Microsoft software on new Windows 7 PCs. They were not time-sensitive versions, however, as Office trial editions have been. Office Starter 2010 also included advertisements, the first edition of Microsoft's market-leading desktop suite to do that, and also limited the functionality of Word and Excel.
As Microsoft's free OEM offer, Starter was to give new PC buyers a taste of the full suite in the hope that they would later pony up for one of the paid editions, such as the $150 Office Home and Student 2010, or the $280 Office Home and Business 2010. Starter included Word 2010 and Excel 2010. Office Starter 2010, which Microsoft created in 2009, was the company's replacement for Microsoft Works, an entry-level application suite that had been offered to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) for bundling with new PCs.


ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley first reported on the demise of Office Starter 2010 earlier on Thursday.
