Office 2013 Upgrade Now Available

The next version of Office is now available for those of you who bought Office 2010 and are looking for your Upgrade Guarantee.

Click on Redeem now and fill out Country, Product Key, Accept and Verify:

You are ready to download?? And therein lies the rub… there is a catch, sure there is. You need to sign up for Office 365 for 3 months, whether you want that or not. So no, you don’t just get the stand-alone application.

You have to Sign In to a Microsoft account to continue, so I used an old hotmail account and clicked on Select.

I selected my Country and Language and had no choice but to agree to additional marketing from Microsoft: Microsoft Office will be contacting you with surveys, promotions, tips and advice for using our products and services. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information on our communications options, please see our Privacy and Cookies Notice.

And finally, the INSTALL.

It dropped a 585kb “Click To Run” exe and that’s all you get. I’m sure once you click on the Setup.exe, it will install Office 2013, but I am waiting to implement Office 2013 with Windows 8.

UPDATE! I found where you can download the software. It is under your account settings under frequently asked questions.

That appears to be a continuous loop and you can only order a disc for $15.11. Ok, that’s enough nonsense for me this morning.

UPDATE: I have gone back to the account and am now able to download the *.img file.

Office 2013 Upgrade Guarantee Program

Microsoft typically offers its Office customers an upgrade guarantee program, allowing them to buy the current version of a product with a free or discounted upgrade to the next one being part of the package.

And when I went looking, sure enough, on the Office website you can “Buy Office now, get the next version free”

You know how we like FREE!

I already purchased Office 2010 and didn’t need to buy it. So how do we enroll for the next version free?!

Here is how to enroll in the program.

1. Buy and activate Office today

Purchase, install, and activate a qualifying Office product during the offer eligibility dates.*

2. Sign up for an email reminder

Provide your email address to be notified when you can redeem your offer.

Sign up for an email reminder

3. Download the new Office, when available

After you receive your email notification, return to this website, www.office.com/offer, to download the new Office.

I ran Office 2013 in a virtual environment whilst testing Window 8, but after the fiasco with Windows 8, I can’t pull the trigger to put Office 2013 (Beta) in production. Since it is still in PREVIEW, I’ll pass on testing it further.

Office 2013 Released for Your Review

Microsoft unveiled the customer preview of the new Microsoft Office, available at office.com/preview. The next release features an intuitive design that works beautifully with touch, stylus, mouse or keyboard across new Windows devices, including tablets. The new Office is social and unlocks modern scenarios in reading, note-taking, meetings and communications and will be delivered to subscribers through a cloud service that is always up to date.

Whoa, wait a minute. They want me to sign up for Office 365 first. Well, I already have that, on two different accounts.

Found the standalone MSI-based installation package. (Please note the traditional installation does not support fast streaming or side-by-side operation with older versions of Office, and you will need to uninstall existing Office programs on your PC)

You will need to sign in with your Windows LIVE ID and fill out an online form in order to download it.

Download the MSI-based package here