Office 365 combines the familiar Microsoft Office desktop suite with cloud-based versions of Microsoft's next-generation communications and collaboration services—including Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Office for the web, and Microsoft Skype for Business Online—to help users be productive from virtually anywhere through the internet. With Office 365, your digital pen is a more powerful document editing tool than ever. Use your pen to intuitively make edits directly in Word. Strikethrough words to delete them, circle text to select it, and automatically snap highlighter ink to text. Office 365 Subscription. Office 365 and Microsoft 365 are governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy, which requires customers to stay current as per the servicing and system requirements for the product or service. This includes using Microsoft 365 Apps on a Windows operating system that is currently in support. If you need to reinstall Office, select the version you want to install and follow those steps: Microsoft 365, Office 2019, Office 2016, Office 2013, Office 2010, or Office 2007. Internet Explorer. Download the automated tool. At the bottom of the browser window, select Run to. Get Microsoft 365 You can use Outlook to read and send mail from Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, and other email accounts. If you want to manually add another email account to.
Office 365 is a cloud-based suite of apps for productivity, collaboration, and communication, hosted on the cloud and accessible anywhere.
Essentially it’s a web-based version of the classic Microsoft desktop office setup: productivity apps like PowerPoint, Word and Excel, Outlook for email, and an increasing number of add-ons for more expensive packages that help you run your whole organization. It integrates with desktop and mobile apps and is updated monthly with features and security updates.
What’s included with Office 365?
Office 365 comes with a wide range of plans. At its core is the Office suite of productivity apps, surrounded by an ever-expanding range of tools for collaboration, communication, admin and more.
Every Office 365 plan includes web-based versions of the core Microsoft productivity apps:
Word
MS Word needs no introduction. The Office 365 version offers integration with other 365 apps, letting you embed material from Excel, PowerPoint and more. Documents can be co-authored, shared and collaborated on in real time. Word for 365 also comes with spelling, grammar and stylistic checking built in.
Excel
Excel similarly needs little explanation; from basic spreadsheets to the kind of charts-and-pivot-tables functionality that lets power users leverage it to maximal advantage, it’s familiar to an army of business, scholastic and personal users. Office 365’s Excel comes with AI-enabled assists and a feature called Data Types that lets users enrich data sets easily and rapidly.
Powerpoint
PowerPoint is another familiar sight: if you’ve never made one, you’ve sat through a few. Office 365’s take on the veteran presentation software includes animation, design and a library of 3d models and icons.
OneNote
OneNote is Microsoft’s note-taking application. Organizable into sections and pages, it allows you to use type, highlighting and handwritten annotations via stylus. OneNote can also be shared and collaborated on in Office 365.
Outlook Web App
Microsoft’s email client, Outlook, is available to Office 365 clients as Outlook Web App. With similar performance and functionality to the familiar desktop email client, it comes with email templates, integration with other MS tools and a familiar interface.
Cloud Company Email
Some of the Office 365 plans come with company email too. You’ll be able to easily add, edit, and remove email users across your company. This makes it much easier than having to create email users with your web host and connect that email account to Outlook for each person at your company.
The Extras
Depending on the plan you opt for, there’s a range of more advanced business tools, including:
- Microsoft Flow: Lets you create automated workflows that flow between Microsoft and other apps and services.
- Microsoft Forms: Lets you easily create surveys, quizzes, and polls.
- Microsoft Sharepoint: Lets you build an intranet for projects or teams and share files, resources, and applications.
- Microsoft PowerApps: Gives users the ability to build their own apps on the 365 ecosystem.
- Microsoft Teams: Offers users group chat, online meetings, calls, and web conferencing — all the tools you need to collaborate.
- Microsoft Graph API: Lets you deeply integrate third-party apps with Microsoft services.
- Microsoft Yammer: A tool for collaboration and communication, giving users an internal business social network.
Why use a subscription service?
Using a subscription service can work out cheaper than buying software outright. And it can give you more control.
For instance, purchasing Office 2019 — the most recent desktop version of Microsoft’s seminal productivity suite — gives you access to the basic functionality of the core Office apps. But buying from Office 365’s seemingly more complex menu can give you far more control.
Updates
Instead of running a version that could be increasingly insecure, Office 365 lets users concentrate on their tasks; whether you’re an admin or an entry-level employee, you don’t need to worry about security or functionality updates. They happen automatically without you needing to do anything.
Cloud Storage
One of the major selling points of Office 365 is large amounts of cloud storage. All the standard plans come with 1 TB of online storage. That’s more than enough for most folks.
What’s the difference between Office 365 and Office for desktop?
Desktop versions of Office are a one-time purchase. You buy a license and can install the office suite on a single computer.
Desktop version do get some ongoing updates but these are mainly bug fixes and security updates. The core features don’t improve after you purchase the product. So you’ll need to plan on purchasing the office suite again in 2-3 years in order to take advantage of all the product improvements.
Office 365, on the other hand, gets updated continuously as you pay for it every month or every year.
When you choose an Office 365 plan, you get all the products from Office 2019 plus regular updates and all the cloud services like OneDrive storage.
Office 365 Pricing
Here’s how Microsoft displays the pricing for the Office 365 Business plans:
There are a few key items missing from this chart. The order of plans also makes things a bit confusing. Here’s a clearer chart on the differences between plans:
Watch out of the lack of company email on the Business plan. You’ll either have to plan on setting up your own email or upgrading to Business Premium sooner than you would have liked to in order to easily manage your email accounts.
Office 365’s Main Competitor: G Suite
Office has several competitors: Apple’s iWork suite, free options like Office Libre. And the main competitor is G Suite.
We have a detailed breakdown between G Suite and Office 365 here.
As a quick overview, this chart shows the key differences:
G Suite and Office 365 are about equal on price, they cost about the same.
And Office 365 does clearly win on storage (more space at all plans) and with PowerPoint and Excel. Both these products are much more powerful than Google’s versions: Slides and Sheets.
Overall, G Suite is easier to use and has much better collaboration features in its products. The Net Promoter Score (a measure of user satisfaction) is much higher on G Suite than Office 365. Office 365, on the other hand, has much more powerful features. For example, anyone that uses spreadsheets heavily greatly prefers Excel over Google Sheets.
While we recommend G Suite overall, Office 365 is a great choice if you need that extra power.
Office 365 Sign In
Should You Get Office 365?
First, Office 365 is clearly superior to the one-time purchase for desktop versions of Office. If you haven’t moved to an Office 365 subscription yet, now’s the time. The cost is about the same, the updates add plenty of value, and you get tons of extra services you won’t get from a one-time purchase.
Whether you choose G Suite or Office 365 for your office suite will depend on if you need products with advanced features. If you do, get Office 365. If not, go with G Suite.
And if you’re not sure, we recommend G Suite. The user satisfaction score is much higher.
-->Important
- Support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020. Learn more
- Microsoft 365 Apps is no longer supported on Windows 7.
- If you're a home user running Office on Windows 7, see Windows 7 end of support and Office instead of reading this article.
Office 365 and Microsoft 365 are governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy, which requires customers to stay current as per the servicing and system requirements for the product or service. This includes using Microsoft 365 Apps on a Windows operating system that is currently in support.
Using Microsoft 365 Apps on older, unsupported operating systems may cause performance and reliability issues over time. Therefore, if your organization is using Microsoft 365 Apps on devices running Windows 7, we strongly recommend your organization moves those devices to Windows 10.
Security updates will continue for Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 7
Even though Windows 7 is no longer supported, we've decided to continue to provide you with security updates for Microsoft 365 Apps for the next 3 years, until January 2023. We're doing this to give you additional time to make the transition from using Microsoft 365 Apps on devices running Windows 7 to devices running a supported operating system, such as Windows 10. But, during that time, as long as the device is still running Windows 7, your installation of Microsoft 365 Apps won't receive any new features updates.
Important
- Even with these security updates, Microsoft 365 Apps is no longer supported on Windows 7.
- This information applies even if you have purchased Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows 7. After January 2020, security updates for Windows 7 are only available with ESU. For more information, see FAQ about Extended Security Updates for Windows 7.
How to manage Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 7 after January 2020
Version 2002 is the last version of Microsoft 365 Apps that you can install on devices running Windows 7. Version 2002 is available in Current Channel, Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview), and Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel.
This means that if you want to continue to deploy and update Microsoft 365 Apps on devices that are running Windows 7, you need to use Version 2002. If you try to install a newer version of Microsoft 365 Apps, such as Version 2005, on a device running Windows 7, you'll receive an error message.
Note
You can continue to use a version of Microsoft 365 Apps earlier than Version 2002 on devices running Windows 7 if that version is still available. For example, you can continue to use Version 1908 of Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel until March 2021. To see the version available in each update channel of Microsoft 365 Apps, refer to the table in Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps.
Office 365 Student
To deploy or update Version 2002 on devices running Windows 7, you can keep using the same management tools that you're currently using, such as the Office Deployment Tool or Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager. Also, Microsoft 365 Apps can remain on the same update channel as before.
If Microsoft 365 Apps is configured to get updates directly from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN) on the internet, Microsoft 365 Apps on devices running Windows 7 will be updated automatically to the most current release of Version 2002 for that update channel.
Guidance when using Configuration Manager for updates
If you use Configuration Manager and the Software Update management workflow to update installations of Microsoft 365 Apps, we recommend that you create a separate collection for your Windows 7 devices. Then, use a query rule to add members to the collection.
On the 2nd Tuesday of each month, a new update package for Version 2002 that is only for devices running Windows 7 will be made available in the Microsoft Update Catalog. There will be an update package for each architecture (x86 or x64). That update package can be used with whichever update channel of Microsoft 365 Apps you have deployed. There won't be separate update packages of Version 2002 for each update channel. For example, the same update package can be used to update a Current Channel or a Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel installation of Microsoft 365 Apps on devices running Windows 7.
In the Office 365 Updates node, you'll see entries like the following, where ##### will be replaced by the most current build number:
- Microsoft 365 Apps Update for Windows 7 – Version 2002 for x64 based Edition (Build 12527.#####)
- Microsoft 365 Apps Update for Windows 7 – Version 2002 for x86 based Edition (Build 12527.#####)
Office 365 Sign In Email
These update packages are configured to apply only to devices running Windows 7. These update packages can't be used to update Microsoft 365 Apps on devices running other supported operating systems, such as Windows 10.
If you use an automatic deployment rule (ADR), you should create a new rule for these update packages. Then, use the new rule for your collection that contains your Windows 7 devices. We recommend using the 'Title' property and searching for 'Microsoft 365 Apps Update for Windows 7' as well as the architecture you support. If you support both x86 and x64, you can include both updates in one Software Update Package as clients will apply the appropriate update. You should also check other existing ADRs to make sure they don't incorrectly try to apply these update packages, which are only for devices running Windows 7, to devices running other operating systems.
Extended availability of Version 2002
Version 2002 will be available until January 2023 and will receive security updates, as needed, during that time. For a list of security updates included in releases of Version 2002, see Release notes for Microsoft 365 Apps Security Updates.
Versions of Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel are available usually for only 14 months, but we're making an exception for Version 2002 in order to align with the availability dates of Windows 7 ESU. This extended availability for Version 2002 also applies to other update channels, such as Current Channel and Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview).
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The extended availability of Version 2002 until January 2023 applies only to devices running Windows 7.
After moving Microsoft 365 Apps to a supported Windows operating system
After you move Microsoft 365 Apps to a supported Windows operating system, you can configure Microsoft 365 Apps to begin receiving newer versions and feature updates again. Since updates for Microsoft 365 Apps are cumulative, you'll receive all the feature updates that you missed while your device was running Windows 7.
If you're getting updates directly from the Office CDN on the internet, after the device is moved to a supported operating system, Microsoft 365 Apps will be updated automatically to the most current version available for that update channel and will start receiving new features again.
What about other versions of Office on Windows 7?
Non-subscription versions of Office used by organizations, such as Office Professional Plus 2016 or Office Standard 2013, will continue to be supported based on the Fixed Lifecycle Policy. To see specific end of support dates for non-subscription versions of Office, go to Search Product and Services Lifecycle Information.
Even if your version of Office is still supported, Windows 7 will no longer receive security updates after January 2020, leaving it vulnerable to security threats, unless you have ESU. We recommend that you move to a supported operating system, such as Windows 10.
Additional information
- This information also applies to the following products:
- The subscription versions of the Project and Visio desktop apps. For example, if you have Project Plan 5 or Visio Plan 2.
- Microsoft 365 Apps for business (previously named Office 365 Business), which is the version of Office that comes with some Microsoft 365 business plans, such as Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
- For information about Windows Server 2008 R2, see Windows Server end of support and Microsoft 365 Apps.
- For end of support dates for different versions of Office on various versions of Windows, see the Office configuration support matrix.
- Other Microsoft resources are available to help you make the transition to using Microsoft 365 Apps on devices running Windows 10, including FastTrack and App Assure.
- To discuss or learn more about end of support for Office versions, visit Microsoft Office End of Support on the Microsoft Tech Community.
- If you're using Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise on a device running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you'll continue to see Office 365 ProPlus under the Product Information section when you go to File > Account in an Office app, such as Word. If you're using Version 2002 of Microsoft 365 Apps for business, you'll see Microsoft 365 for business under the Product Information section.