Microsoft releases Office 2016 for Windows

PanARMENIAN.Net - Following the release of Office 2016 for Mac in July, Microsoft launched Office 2016 for Windows on Tuesday, September 22, VentureBeat reports.

Microsoft announced Office 2016 in January and released the first preview for Windows back in March. While the test version of the productivity suite was free, this isn’t true for the final release: You either have to pay upfront or purchase an Office 365 subscription. That said, Microsoft is promising that subscribers can expect “more frequent updates with new features and improvements.”

The options are as follows. Users can purchase an Office 365 subscription, starting at $6.99 per month (Office 365 Personal) or $9.99 per month (Office 365 Home), and get new features as they come. Alternatively, people can get Office 2016 via a one-time purchase: Office Home & Student will set you back $149 while Office Home & Business costs $229.

As promised, Microsoft also released a standalone Office 2016 for Mac one-time purchase option (the above prices apply to OS X users as well). Unlike the Mac version of Office, the Windows release requires that users uninstall any previous version of Office, according to VentureBeat.