Skip to content

Buy Office 2007 - Get Office 2010

Prepare for buying Office 2007 now and get Office 2010 later.

Microsoft has announced their usual Technology Guarantee will apply to Office 2010. You’ll be able to buy Office 2007 sometime soon and get Office 2010 later for a small charge or free.

Actually Microsoft has partially announced it – their CFO has said that the Office 2010 Technology Guarantee will apply before the end of March with no other details. This is the second ‘leak’ about the upgrade policy which makes us wonder if it’s part of a media strategy to get more coverage of an otherwise predicable development.

Since all this unofficial all we can say is to hold buying Office 2007 until the starting date of the Guarantee is announced. At the very least keep your receipt. Even if you don’t want Office 2010, you might as well get it for free, just in case.

In any event here’s what we know or at least can reasonably surmise:

Purchases of Office 2007 after some date in March 2010 (guesses range from the 5th to the 31th) will qualify for a free or low cost copy of Office 2010.

The most likely Technology Guarantee path will be:



  • Buying Office Home and Student 2007 gets you Home and Student 2010
  • Buying Office Standard 2007 get you Office Home and Business 2010
  • Buying Office Small Business 2007,Professional 2007 or Ultimate 2007 gets you Office Professional 2010.

The Office 2010 software will be available to those who qualify as a free download (actually a download plus the all important product key to activate the software). Since Microsoft loves adding extra charges to their download products (see past articles in Office Watch) we’d not be surprised to see ‘options’ offered to otherwise free downloaders like the ‘Lock Box’ and ‘Digital Backup’.

If you want a DVD copy there’ll be a charge.

The Technology Guarantee will have end dates. A past leak indicates that you’ll be able to buy Office 2007 until 30 September 2010 to qualify and there’ll be a date after that to claim your copy of Office 2010.

About this author