Depending on the number of pictures it may be faster to save each manually from within the Office document, or use a third party application like Office Image Extraction Wizard to let the computer do all the hard work. The latter may speed things up considerably if you need to extract images from multiple documents.

You can save images in Office documents by right-clicking them in the Office program and selecting Save as Picture from the context menu.

That’s fine if one or two images are embedded in the document. The core benefit of using a software program is that it takes away the tedious process of right-clicking and saving images. Plus, it can be a lot faster.

Office Image Extraction Wizard can extract images and pictures from a variety of formats. It supports the Office formats docx, pptx and xlsx, the OpenDocument Formats odp, ods and odt and the epub and cbz formats.

It unfortunately does not support doc, xls or ppt documents which seems like a big oversight. You can convert those document formats into support formats though.

Office Image Extraction Wizard supports single document and batch document extraction. Just load documents either via drag and drop or the built-in file browser into the interface. The computer desktop is automatically selected as the output directory. You can change that if you prefer a different directory for the images.

The program then extracts all pictures from all documents. Batch mode users have the option to store images in separate folders which may be handy to avoid them getting mixed up. Images are always extracted in their natural format (that is their original format used by the document creator or editor) and without processing or compressing to ensure maximum quality.

Windows users can download Office Image Extraction Wizard from the developer website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The particular version of Office ships with basic versions of Microsoft Word and Excel, the two most popular programs. It is basically free but comes with advertisement to make up for that.

Office Starter 2010 is not available as a public download. The only way up until now was to buy a PC that ships with it to use it. Caschy now discovered that Microsoft stores Microsoft Office Starter 2010 on their servers. Downloads are publicly available and install the product on compatible systems. Compatible currently means that they will install on Windows Vista and Windows 7, but not on Windows XP or Windows 8.

Here is a list of available versions that you can download:

• Microsoft Office Starter 2010 English
• Microsoft Office Starter 2010 French
• Microsoft Office Starter 2010 German
• Microsoft Office Starter 2010 Spanish

I only tried those four country codes. It is likely that Microsoft Office Starter 2010 is available in different versions. Just replace the LCID string in the web address, e.g. en-us with another one. You find a list of strings on this page.

Office Starter 2010 can be installed and used without entering a product key. Also interesting: It is possible to create a portable version of Office Starter 2010 from the program’s start menu listing.

Office Starter does not offer all of the functionality that a “full” version of Office offers. It is however a suitable alternative for users who only need to do some light editing and reading.

There are definitely comparable solutions for users who do not want to use Microsoft Office. Among them Open Office, Libre Office or Google Docs.

Update: Microsoft has removed the download links from their servers. You may still find the program on software repositories.

The first thing any Windows user would think to do is uninstall Microsoft Office 2010. This doesn’t work. Files still do not open. This is Microsoft’s way of goading users into buying the Office 2010 suite, which is fine if you want to do so. For users who do not, more steps need to be taken to regain control over the Office suite that you paid for.

When a file association is missing between a file and a corresponding application, various problems occur and the file cannot be opened. This is what happens when the Microsoft Office 2010 trial expires and you do not purchase the suite.

Click the Start menu and open the control Panel. Select Uninstall a program.

Scroll to find the instances of Microsoft Office 2010. Uninstall all instances of Office 2010 and you should be prompted to restart your computer. Restart as suggested.
The problem will most likely remain unsolved due to the instance of the Microsoft click-to-run application. Use the same steps to uninstall click-to-run (you don’t need it) and restart again.

Try opening a .doc, .docx, or .xml file and see if you get the same error message. You probably will because the default application to open the file has not been changed. Open the Control Panel again and click on Programs (indicated in green). This will open the Programs options. Under Default Programs, click “Make a file type always open in a specific program”.

A list of all file associations will be presented. Scroll down to .doc, .dochtml, .docx, etc.

The screenshot above shows the default applications to which you will need to change the file type to. This demonstration uses Office 2007. Change doc, dochtml, docm, docx and docmhtml files to Microsoft Office Word as the default application. Do this by double clicking each one individually and changing the file association. Change docxml, dot, dothtml, dotm, dotx and dqy file associations to the appropriate Microsoft Office component, which would be Office 2007 in this case (ideally in any case).

Files should open properly now. The process is slightly different for XP and Vista, but this should give you a good idea of how to approach this issue. There is absolutely nothing wrong with switching to Office 2010 if you want to. If you do, all of the above steps will be unnecessary. However, Windows 7 users who have encountered this problem will find this useful.

OPA Backup (which stands for Office-Produktaktivierung Backup, German for Office product activation backup) is a free portable software for the Windows operating system that can backup and restore the activation of Office on a computer system.

To backup, Microsoft Office needs to be activated on the system. The program won’t work if it is not. When you first start the program you may be asked to run it with administrative privileges. The main interface of OPA-Backup then displays a pulldown list where the installed version of Microsoft Office needs to be selected.

The program does not support auto-detection of the installed Office version. The user then has the option to make a backup of the Office activation on the system or to restore a previously recorded backup.

The backup path has to be selected on the next screen. The program displays a warning if a folder is selected that is part of the current Windows installation as it may be removed during a new installation of the operating system.

A status report is then displayed on the final screen of the backup or restoration process.

The process is nearly identical if the restore Office authentication option is selected.

The software can be handy in situations where Office cannot be re-activated over the Internet.

OPA-Backup supports all recent versions of Microsoft Office, including Office 2010. The software requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 on the system. The program can be downloaded from the developer website.

The third service pack includes two main categories of fixes. The service pack includes all public updates, security updates, hotfixes and other updates that were released for Office 2007 through September 2011. It also includes fixes that were made specifically for the service pack. This includes according to Microsoft “general product fixes and improvements in stability, performance and security”.

Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 3 is a cumulative update, which means that it includes all fixes that were part of Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 for Office 2007. Office users and administrators can install the third Service Pack release to apply all patches to the software.

The service pack can be downloaded via Windows Update or Microsoft Update automatically, or manually from Microsoft’s Download Center.

The following link points to the download of the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 3 (SP3) on Microsoft’s Download Center. The Office Language Pack 2007 is available as an alternative download as well. Please note that there is only one version of the service pack available (no 32-bit and 64-bit edition).

The core improvements are the following ones:

• Documents that require custom security trimming are not returned from alert search queries, even if the user who created the alert could see and query for these documents.
  Non-Unicode characters in certain error message strings now display correctly.
• Four new bibliography styles are now available in the “Word Citations & Bibliography” feature: Harvard Anglia, IEEE, APA Sixth Edition, and MLA Seventh Edition.
• Chinese New Year holiday is now included in the Outlook calendar for Singapore.
• Fixes an issue in which Excel 2007 sometimes crashes when you open an Excel workbook previously saved in a newer version of Excel. This occurs if the file uses a new feature that is not available in the 2007 Office system.
  Fixes issues with the Pre and Post Reform rules in the French Thesaurus.
• Fixes an issue in which encryption settings are not configurable when they are used with a file format compatibility pack converter and Office 2003 or an earlier version of Office.
• Fixes an issue in which a crash sometimes occurs when an Excel workbook is opened in Excel and then previewed by using the Windows Explorer preview pane feature.
• Fixes an issue in which Excel Slicers and Ribbon customizations are lost when an XLSX file is first saved as an ODS file, and then saved as an XLSX file in Excel 2007.

Office users and administrators who notice issues after installing the service pack can use Microsoft’s Service Pack Uninstall Tool for the 2007 Microsoft Office suite to uninstall the service pack without affecting the core Office 2007 installation.

Go to the Docs.com website and you can get started. Click the Sign in link. You are asked to enter your Facebook login credentials if you are currently not logged into the social networking site. Afterwards you can add the app to your Facebook account. Enter your e-mail and password and click Log In. You will be asked to allow Docs to access your basic information. Click Allow.

The Facebook screen will disappear and you will be at the homepage for Docs.com. From here, you can either create a new document or upload an existing document to share. Click “Upload here” to share an existing document.

Click on the Choose a Doc box or on Browse to find the desired file. Add tags if you would like. Tags are especially useful if you are going to openly share the file with all of your friends and also make it accessible to others outside of your Friends network. For this demonstration, a single Word document is being shared with only one friend. You may choose as many friends to share the document(s) with.

This pane will allow you to indicate the name of a single friend, choose to share with all friends, or customize a list of friends to share the document. You may either post it to your Profile or not. Finally, there is an Editors pane.

The Editors pane is very important. If you want the document left alone and you do not want friends changing it, highlight the Only Me option. Much like the previous pane, you can choose a single friend, all friends or a specific group to be able to edit the document. This is useful for collaborative purposes and can save a good amount of time. This also allows for clear communication regarding the document among a group of friends like a business team, for example. Click Upload to finish.
The Web Apps on Docs.com work exactly like the Office Web Apps on SkyDrive. There is a limitation. Documents created on Docs.com cannot be opened in Office on your computer. You will have to do all editing online. You can download a copy for separate editing, so this is not a severe limitation.

All documents that you are sharing can be accessed from the tabs at the top of the Docs.com homepage. Additionally, on the homepage, there are a number of featured public documents which you may find interesting and want to share with friends on Facebook. You may “Like” or write comments on documents others have posted. If you give them permission, your friends can share documents you uploaded with other friends.

This is a wonderful tool to have and a great way to share informative documents with others. It works well for a small business too. However you choose to use it, it is simple.

Open Office 2007 and then open Excel. Using the Excel Options menu, select Add-Ins:

A window will open for View and Manage Office Add-ins. At the bottom of this window, ensure that Excel Add-Ins is selected. Once that is done, click Go to move on to the Add-Ins window itself. The Add-Ins window opens:

Highlight each option for a clear description of each one. This takes only a single-click, but it allows you to determine if the Add-In is needed for any particular purposes. If it is not needed, there is no point in selecting it. Remember that this is customization and all options do not need to be added unless that is the desired outcome. If there is an intention to later create Hot-Keys for the functions, the fewer the better. The ultimate point of this is to simplify, not complicate Office 2007. Select the appropriate functions one at a time. With each selection, the following window will open:

Click Yes and the configuration will begin. Once complete, any given Add-In is installed and available in the Ribbon. This example shows a conversion function for Euros:

Each different Add-In will come up under different headers. This one was under the Formulas tab because it is a conversion. Expect similar comparatives for each Add-In function included to the Ribbon. This allows for a certain degree of convenience, but is also where Hot-Keys might ideally be created for functions most frequently used.

Add-Ins can also be installed from the Microsoft website. Just search for Add-ins in the Office 2007 section and they will be clearly presented. They are updated frequently, so options are growing over time. These installations are free. One of the options, for example, is to create a function for adding a Creative Commons license to documents. These functions serve a convenience that cuts document creation time down significantly. Third party Add-Ins will have to be purchased to authenticate the license for use, generally after a trial period of use. At least there is the advantage of trying the Add-In before use. Otherwise, most of the practical functions can be added without cost.

The description of Office 2010 SP1 page details the new features and updates of the service pack. Here is a short list of the most promising new features, fixes and updates.

• Stability, Performance and backward compatibility of Excel 2010 has been improved.
• Office 365 support has been added to Outlook 2010
• PowerPoint Viewer is now included when selecting the Package for CD option
• Fixes the following error message in Word 2010: Microsoft Office Word has encountered a problem and needs to close.
• Fixes Word co-authoring issues and conflicts.
• Open OneNote notebooks from Windows Live SkyDrive
• OneNote synchronization improvements with SharePoint and Windows Live SkyDrive.

As you can see from this list and the official listing at the Microsoft KnowledgeBase, there has not been many feature additions. A lot of the features improve cloud connectivity or fix minor issues. That is, apart from all the updates, especially security related, that the majority of Office 2010 users have probably downloaded before.

Last month’s Technet blog post announcing the upcoming service pack 1 for Office 2010 offered additional details on feature additions.

• Office Web Applications are not officially supported under Google Chrome.
• Outlook Web Application Attachment Preview (with Exchange Online only)
• Backup and restore has been improved for SharePoint Server

The very same blog post lists the fixes and updates that have been previously released by Microsoft and are included in the service pack.

Microsoft Office users can download the service pack from Windows Update, Microsoft Update or via Microsoft’s Download Center.

The 32-bit Service Pack 1 for Office 2010 has a size of 361 Megabytes, the 64-bit SP1 one of 439.

Microsoft Office 2010 SP1 Download Links

Here are the direct download links of Office 2010 Service Pack 1, helpful if you want to update more than one Office 2010 installation without downloading the update multiple times.

Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2460049) 32-bit Edition [link]
Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2460049) 64-bit Edition [link]

That day has come and users from all over the world can now join the beta of Microsoft Office 365. Users who sign up are informed that it may take between two to four weeks before they receive their official invitation.

Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses is a subscription service that combines the familiar Microsoft Office Web Apps with a set of web-enabled tools that are easy to learn and use, that work with your existing hardware, and that come backed by the robust security, reliability, and control you need to run your business.

Office 365 combines access to Office Web Apps with services like email, online meetings or websites. Two different beta programs are offered, one for small businesses with up to 25 employees and professionals, and one for enterprises.

Pricing and service availability differs between both programs. The small business subscriptions start at $6 per user, the enterprise plans at $10 per user per month.

Microsoft Office 365 for Professionals and Small Businesses

• Rich client access via Office applications on PCs and Macs.
• View and edit documents with Office Web Apps across a broad range of browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari).
• Access your email from most browsers with Outlook Web App.
• Access mail, contacts, calendar, and SharePoint® sites from mobile devices including Windows® Phones, Nokia, Android, iPhone and BlackBerry.
• Manage and share important documents to keep teams in synch, with SharePoint Online.
• Find and connect with colleagues and customers from virtually anywhere with Microsoft Lync™ Online.
• Synch email, calendar, and contacts across PC, phone, and browser with Exchange Online.

Microsoft Office 365 for midsize businesses and enterprises

A total of four Enterprise plans are offered starting at $10 per month and ending at $27 per month.

Depending on the plan this includes all of the features of the small business plan plus additional features like Enterprise voice capabilities, advanced archive capabilities, unlimited email storage, hosted voicemail, ability to publish Access databases or all features of Office Professional Plus.

Interested users can sign up on the official Microsoft Office 365 website for either beta program. You need to fill out your country, name and a valid email address for this.

When you look at the number of critical vulnerabilities of each individual operating system you will notice that Windows Vista leads the pack with nine critical security vulnerabilities followed by Windows 7 with eight and Windows XP with seven.

The security patches protect the system against remote code execution, information disclosure and elevation of privileges.

You find information about each individual security bulletin, their severity rating and impact over at the Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for April 2011.

Another interesting read is the risk assessment of April’s security updates. Microsoft is aware that some issues are already exploited, while others are likely to be exploited in the coming 30 days.

Windows Updates are as usually available on various channels. Most Windows users are probably using automatic updates to install the new patches. Those who do not can check manually for updates or visit the Microsoft Download Center to download the patches individually. Another option is to download the April Security Release ISO which contains all Windows patches released in April.

Google has just announced the general availability of Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office which acts as a bridge between Microsoft’s desktop application and the Google Docs online service.

Cloud Connect adds sharing and simultaneously editing of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint to Microsoft Office.

Documents can be synced with Google Docs which has the additional benefit that they are constantly backed up from that point in time and since all documents can be accessed via a unique web address it is easy to share files with other users and access them from other computers and via mobile devices.

Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office remembers edits if the user is offline to sync the documents once a net connection becomes available again.

Users need to install Google Cloud Connect first, then log in with a Google account. It is possible to log in automatically from that point on to avoid having to log in every time Google Docs need to be accessed in Microsoft Office.

A toolbar displays the features, for instance the web url of the current document, syncing button or the share button.

A click on the share button opens the sharing menu with options to give other users permissions to access the document.

The integration into Microsoft Office is solid. Documents can only be shared with other users once they have been synced with Google Docs.

Google Cloud Connect Feature Overview

Collaborative editing

Multiple people can edit the same doc at the same time. New users can be added as editors by the document owner. They then receive an email with a link that allows them to view the document in read only mode in Google Docs. Documents can be downloaded to Microsoft Office and edited simultaneously, providing that both users have Google Cloud Connect installed on their system.

Edits are automatically synced with all collaborators.

Revision History

Google Cloud Connect tracks, manages and syncs all changes into one updated version of a document. Older versions of a document can be retrieved directly in Microsoft Office.

Share a doc

It is possible to share documents with other people and give them specific access rights. Sharing and visibility settings are configured in Microsoft Office.

Resolve Overlapping Edits

Edit Offline

Syncing in the cloud

Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office can be downloaded and installed from Google Tools. The application is compatible with Microsoft Office 2003, 2007 and Microsoft Office 2010. It runs on Windows XP with the .NET Framework 2.0 and Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Google on Friday announced that they have added support for 12 new file formats in the Google Docs Viewer. Support for all file formats mentioned above have been added plus support for Apple Pages .pages, Adobe Illustrator .ai, Autodesk AutoCad .dxf, Scalable Vector Graphics .svg, Postscript .eps and .ps, TrueType .ttf and XMP Paper Specification .xps.

What does it mean for users of the service? First, all major Microsoft Office 2010 formats are now supported by Google Doc Viewer. Supported are both Microsoft Word (doc and docx), Microsoft Excel (xls and xlsx) and Microsoft PowerPoint (ppt and pptx) formats which can now be viewed online.

As usual, support for new formats has an impact on other Google services that make use of the Google Docs Viewer. Google’s email service Gmail for instance now offers a View link for those newly supported formats so that they can be viewed directly online without need for a desktop software supporting the file format.

The new file format can also be uploaded and shared directly in Google Docs. Google Docs Viewer is accessible right here. It can be used directly to view a document that is located on the Internet. Just paste the url of the document into the form and click the Generate link button for options to view the document online.

While it is possible to integrate Windows live SkyDrive in Windows, for instance with the free Windows Live SkyDrive Explorer tool, it may not be as intuitive as integrating the online service directly in Microsoft Office.

The Office add-on is compatible with any version of Microsoft Office which adds support for SkyDrive in Office editions that do not support it.

Installation of the add-in is simple and straightforward. Users need to execute the file after download. It is probably a good idea to close Office in case it is open.

The new options are then available under the new Office Live Files menu entry in the main interface. The interface offers to load, browse and save files to Windows Live SkyDrive. A sign in prompt is displayed and users need to enter their Windows Live ID and password to make use of the features.

It is then possible to load documents already stored on Windows Live SkyDrive in the appropriate Microsoft Office application or upload documents from the local computer to the online storage.

Office Live Files is available for download at the developer website.

Microsoft is not offering a free download of Microsoft Word, or any other Office application like Excel or PowerPoint. The closes to using Word for free is to use Office Starter which offers Word and Excel free of charge. But there is a drawback to this: Office Starter is not available for download. It is distributed by select OEMs on PCs and notebooks. If you purchase a PC and find it installed you can use Word and Excel for free, if not you cannot.

Wordpad

But what are the alternatives? Windows itself comes with Wordpad, a free software capable of reading and editing Word text documents. Wordpad supports both old Office document formats such as doc but also the XML based Office document formats such as docx.

Microsoft Word Viewer

Word Viewer can only display Word documents. It basically is Word without the editing functionality. Users can view and print documents but that’s basically it. Unless there is some obscure file format that is supported by Word Viewer and not by Wordpad, your best bet is probably Wordpad, considering that it is already installed on most Windows systems.

Office Trials

Here is an interesting alternative, as it offers a time-limited free version of Office. Microsoft is offering trials of Office on their website. Users can download those trial versions and install them on their computer systems. The trials are time-limited, which means that they will stop working eventually, unless the user decides to buy the document suite.

Interested users can download trial versions of all Office 2010 editions directly from the Microsoft website. All editions include Microsoft Word and Excel at the least. It may not work forever but this is probably the closest to a free Microsoft Word download you can get. The third party tool Office Trial Extender can be used to extend the trial period of Office for up to five times.

Docs.com

The Internet offers several interesting options for users who need document editing functionality. It may not be for everyone, especially in cases where Internet connections are not available or unreliable, but most users can use free accounts to edit their Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents online.

Docs.com is the official Microsoft platform on the Internet. They have partnered up with Facebook to offer users options to work with Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents online. It is possible to create new documents, upload existing files and share them with friends and colleagues.

Open Office

When it comes to Microsoft Office alternatives, Open Office is usually the software suite that most users will think off. Open Office basically offers a free Open Source alternative to Microsoft Office. It offers a similar functionality, and comes with Word, Excel and PowerPoint replacements that can read, save and edit the document formats of Office 2010.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a free service by Google, that offers document management capabilities on the web. It basically allows Google account owners to upload documents from their computer to store, work and share them online. The service supports all Microsoft Office formats

Zoho Docs

Zoho Docs is another online document management service. It offers free basic access with one Gigabyte storage for users who want to edit their documents online.

To get back to the original question of this article: There is no such thing as a free download of Microsoft Word or any other Microsoft Office component for that matter. There are however valid alternatives available both online and offline that most computer users can use instead of Microsoft Office.

• MS10-087 – Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2423930) – This security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability and four privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office. The most severe vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens or previews a specially crafted RTF e-mail message. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS10-088 – Vulnerabilities in Microsoft PowerPoint Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2293386) – This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted PowerPoint file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
• MS10-089 – Vulnerabilities in Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (2316074) – This security update resolves four privately reported vulnerabilities in Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG). The most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if a user visits an affected Web site using a specially crafted URL. However, an attacker would have no way to force users to visit such a Web site. Instead, an attacker would have to persuade users to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker’s Web site.

The security patches are as usually available via Windows Update, Microsoft Update and direct download. Office and Forefront users should patch the security vulnerabilities as soon as possible, everyone else can relax this month and wait for things to come. (via)

Microsoft aims for a release in 2011 for Office 365. Currently a limited beta program is available in 13 countries. Actually, two different betas are available, one for small businesses and one for enterprises. The signup form is the same on the other hand.

Users who want to sign up for the Office 365 beta can visit the beta page to do that. They need to fill out first and last name, email address organization size and if they are interested in the small business or enterprise beta.

What’s the difference between the two beta versions?

• Office 365 Beta for small businesses: Designed specifically for smaller businesses and professionals who are looking for cloud-based productivity tools without the IT hassles.
• Office 365 Beta for enterprises: Best solution for organizations that are looking to move their productivity tools to the cloud, while staying in control of their IT services.

The beta begins on October 18, 2010 and ends on March 5, 2011. Interested parties will be contacted by Microsoft as soon as beta spots become available.

The beta is only available in “the fifty (50) United States (including D.C.), Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom”, and only for residents “who are at least the age of majority or older in their country of residence at the time of participation”.

We leave it at that for the moment. Now, Firefox users end up with plugins installed that they have not added to the browser. On our test system those were for instance: (name, description)

• Google Update: Google Update
• Microsoft Office 2010: Office Authorization plug-in for NPAPI browsers
• Microsoft Office 2010: The plug-in allows you to open and edit files using Microsoft Office applications
• Quicktime Plug-In: The Quicktime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
• Silverlight Plug-In
• Windows Live Photo Gallery: NPWLPG

Other Firefox users will probably find other plugins there that have been installed automatically.

Plugins can be disabled in the Plugins manager, but not uninstalled or removed completely from the web browser. Entering about:plugins in the Firefox address bar will display additional information about each installed plugin. Users who visit the screen for the first time may want to type in about:config first, to change the preference plugin.expose_full_path to true. This displays the path to the plugin in the about:plugins dialog.

Displaying the path to the plugin does one thing: It enables the user to locate the plugin source on the hard drive. Just open the folder on the hard drive afterwards, backup the plugin file and delete it afterwards to remove it completely from Firefox. Here is how it is done for the two Microsoft Office 2010 plugins.

Locate the plugin paths in about:plugins and open the folders on the hard drive. In the case of Microsoft Office 2010, both plugins are located in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\ folder on the hard drive (Please note, that the location on 32-bit systems is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\ instead).

The name of the first plugin is NPAUTHZ.DLL, the one of the second NPSPWRAP.DLL. We highly suggest to backup plugins before deleting them from the system, just in case they need to be restored at a later time. Plugins can be deleted while the browser is running, and doing so will immediately remove most of them from the about:plugins information window and the plugins manager in Tools > Add-ons. Some plugins may require a browser restart before they are completely removed from the browser.

To remove all plugins that are not used or needed simply go through the listing of plugins in about:plugins, locate the paths of those plugins on the hard drive, and backup and delete the plugin files.

There is also the possibility that some plugins have added themselves in the Windows Registry, Google Update comes to mind for instance. You can take a look at this guide How To Stop Automatic Plugin Installations In Firefox for an in depth walkthrough, or locate HKLM\Software\MozillaPlugins or HKLU\Software\MozillaPlugins in the Windows Registry to see if plugins have been added there as well. Again, export the Registry key first before deleting it, for the ability to restore the setting at a later time.

The software, which you can read about in full here, will be available in the following variations.

The microsoft publicity machine describes the different versions thus…

Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011

• Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 includes Mac versions of Word 2011, Excel 2011, and PowerPoint 2011; the most familiar and trusted productivity applications used around the world at home, school, and business.
• Reliable compatibility with the over 1 billion Macs and PCs running Office worldwide ensures you have the right tools to create, share, and collaborate with virtually anyone, anywhere, with no worries.
• Office for Mac 2011 offers top-of-the-line software with the most complete feature set, so you can deliver impressive, professional-looking documents and presentations.
• Office Web App support: New Office Web Apps let you post, access, edit, and share Office documents from where you want with nearly any computer with a browser; and coauthor a document with multiple people in multiple locations.
• Also includes Messenger for Mac 8 enabling you to communicate in real time with audio and video support, and Remote Desktop for Mac 2 so you can drive your Windows-based PC from your Mac.

Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011

• Office for Mac 2011 includes Mac versions of Word 2011, Excel 2011, PowerPoint 2011, and Outlook 2011; the most familiar and trusted productivity applications used around the world at home, school, and business.
• Reliable compatibility with the over 1 billion Macs and PCs running Office worldwide ensures you have the right tools to create, share, and collaborate with virtually anyone, anywhere, with no worries.
• Outlook for Mac 2011: Outlook 2011 lets you see your calendar from within your e-mail, read related e-mails in a single thread, import PST files, and preview attachments from within your email inbox.
• Office Web App support: New Office Web Apps let you post, access, edit, and share Office documents from where you want with nearly any computer with a browser; and coauthor a document with multiple people in multiple locations.
• Also includes Messenger for Mac 8 enabling you to communicate in real time with audio and video support, and Remote Desktop for Mac 2 so you can drive your Windows-based PC from your Mac.

There can be no doubt that Office:mac will be a significant and worthwhile update, and many people will welcome it warmly.  Apple’s own attempts at an integrated office suite have never been very successful.

The company has added a one-click preview for the world’s most common file format, Microsoft Word documents.  In a statement on the GMail blog they said…

If you receive Microsoft® Word files as attachments in Gmail, you can now view them with a single click — no need to download, save, and open files with a desktop application when you just want read them. The Google Docs viewer that allows you to view .pdf, .ppt, and .tiff files in your browser now supports .doc and .docx formats too.

Just click the “View” link at the bottom of a Gmail message and the viewer will take it from there. If you decide you want to edit the file, clicking “Edit online” will open it in Google Docs, or you can download it to your desktop from there.

Clearly here though the reason for this is a push to remind people about the company’s own Docs service, their cloud office ‘suite’ after the recent launch of Microsoft Office Live, the new free on-line version of Microsoft Office 2010 featuring the ribbon.

Whatever their commercial reasons for doing this, it’s going to be a good move for consumers as anything that makes users lives easier will always be a good move.  However is there a potential security risk with this new one-click viewer.

Word documents, lets not forget, are also a favourite for virus writers to hide their malicious code in.  Having the user being able to open the file in the browser could be a god-send for them, potentially being able to expose a user to a virus without their PC’s anti-virus software seeing it.

Which brings me back to how do you want to preview and open your files.  Is this new feature excellent and a real time saver, or is it a huge security risk waiting to happen.  I for one will continue to download all attachments and virus scan them before opening them.

Office Home and Student 2010 is the basic Office edition retailing for $149.99. It includes the core Office modules Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

Next in line is Office Home and Business 2010 which retails for $279.95. It includes Microsoft Outlook on top of the modules offered in the basic edition.

Top of the line product Office 2010 Professional retails for $499.95. It is the only retail Office edition that includes Access 2010 and Publisher 2010.

office 2010 edition comparison

Some customers, especially those that have not participated in the Office 2010 Beta might want to download trial versions of Microsoft Office 2010 before deciding whether to buy the new version or not.

Trial downloads are available for all three retail Office 2010 editions. Office 2010 can either be downloaded directly from Microsoft after logging in with a Windows Live account. The Office 2010 product key that is generated after logging in will activate the software for 60 days.

Below are the direct download links for all Office 2010 editions. Please note that these versions are the English versions.

Microsoft Office 2010 Direct Downloads

Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 [download]
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2010 [download]
Microsoft Office Professional 2010 [download]

The downloads can be initiated right away. The trial product key can be requested on this page over that the Microsoft Office website.

The try it now button leads to a Windows Live login form. It might be necessary to fill out the first and last name as well as the country before the Office product keys and download links are displayed.

download microsoft office 2010

Product keys are displayed on the same page after the login. System requirements for all editions of Office 2010 are nearly identical.

Computer and processor: 500 MHz or faster processor
Memory: 256 MB RAM; 512 MB recommended for graphics features and certain advanced functionality.1
Hard disk: 3.0 GB available disk space
Display: 1024×576 or higher resolution monitor

Will you be buying Microsoft Office 2010? Let us know in the comments.

Office 2010 users who want to test the new version for more than 60 days should take a look at the Office 2010 rearm instructions to do so.