Your Advice: Win 8 Pro + Office 365

[kristalsoldier]

Hi all...

Need your advice so here it goes.

I recently bought a Surface RT. This was/ is my first introduction to Win 8 (albeit RT). I quite like it - even though I don't know too much about it.

I have been using Win 7 Pro (64-bit) for a couple of years now and it's rock stable on my ThinkPad R400. I used to have a X201, which I gave away - long story and won't go into it now.

My R400 has Office 2010 Home and Student version on it, which I have used extensively and which I like.

I used to be a heavy user of Google services - still use Gmail a lot - but am weaning myself away from them especially after having got the Surface. Moving onto Outlook.com, which is not bad at all. Don't like Bing too much though.

I will be able to get Win 8 Pro for a heavily subsidized cost - got to do with my work etc. If the same subsidization works for Office, then I found out that I am eligible to get the Office 365 deal - for 4 years.

So, my question: Should I go ahead and do it? It here being get Win 8 Pro and the Office 365 deal?

When I ran the Upgrade Assistant, it showed that while generally the laptop would be upgradable, there would be some issue - mostly drivers, which I presume will not be too big a problem. My main worry is about Office 365 though. I know very little about it.

I have to decide in about 72 hours and would greatly appreciate your inputs.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bosamar]

I'm running Office 365 Home Premium at home on my two desktops and a laptop. I love it and have nothing bad to say about it. You can put it on up to 5 PCs.

 

[J515OP]

I say go for it! If you are getting a substantially reduced price and you are already comfortable with Windows 8 it sounds like a deal. Office 365 might take a little learning but no more than going from Windows 7 to 8. You will also get much better touch support with Office 365. The only reasons not to do it is if you need to maintain the Windows 7 environment for some reason.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Thanks guys....so this ends up being my b'day present...this plus the Wedge mouse. While I don't have a touch screen laptop/ monitor, I don't think I will need one. I'll just use a touch-enabling mouse - and something a bit bigger than the Wedge. The Wedge is for the Surface.

Edit: Total cost for me for Win 8 Pro + Office 365 + Wedge mouse = £177 or about US$265

 

[kristalsoldier]

OK. Another question concerning Office 365. It comes with Outlook, which will reside on my laptop + monitor. Like you guys I have the RT and we all know the Mail app sucks. Hopefully MS will fix things. But in the interim what do you guys do? How do you sync your mails on your desktops with your Surface? For me this is and will be quite important.

 

[bosamar]

How do you sync your mails on your desktops with your Surface? For me this is and will be quite important.

I've got three separate IMAP email accounts on my RT mail app plus a few others being 'forwarded' to one of those accounts. Works the same way on my Windows Phone. I consider Outlook 2013 on my main desktop as the main email handler. Everything is coming to my RT and I haven't had any problems.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Hi all...

OK. I just installed Win 8 Pro (upgrade). The installation was a very interesting experience. The integration with Outlook.com is fascinating. However, that being said, Win 8 Pro is complicated. I now get the import of the comments that I have been reading about Win 8. On WinRT (as on the Surface), the movement between the desktop and the Modern UI is not very jarring. However, on my main machine, the jarring is more obvious. Not being able to keep a Modern UI app and a desktop app open at the same time - side by side - calls into question the utility of the Modern UI on such machine. While I can understand the utility of the Modern UI (and the desktop) on tablets and machines like the Surface (which I classify as hybrids), on conventional desktops, the reasoning is a bit difficult to follow. Essentially, there is no need to even go to the Modern UI in the first place. All work can be done on the desktop. Otherwise, I have found my laptop + monitor (which functions as my primary desktop) booting up very quickly. Drivers were found rapidly by the OS and installed. And, the system - its about 4 years old though it has 4GB RAM and a 7200 rpm HDD - feels snappy. I appreciate this. I just hope MS is able to do something about the integration between the Modern UI and the desktop (including stuff like having a seamless integration of the two versions of IE) quickly. One last thing - I appreciate the linkages between my laptop and the Surface through Outlook.com. It makes things very convenient though I wish there is some way by which Office 365 (which is next on my list to acquire) can work on the RT. Maybe it does - I just have to look into it.

 

[HD_Dude]

Just for your situation, there is a great write-up about Office 365 in the New York Times, by David Pogue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/technology/personaltech/pogue-microsoft-office-365.html?ref=personaltech

His only issue would be the cost...which in your case is a non-issue.

I'm thinking about going for it too. Although my company has Microsoft HUP licenses (home use program) which allows us to put Office 2010 on our home PC, That doesn't cover all my machines. Office 365 allows 5 machines per license. Plus, if you're on a PC that's not one of those 5...you can download a temporary version, do your work, and when you're done the temp version self-destructs.

Buying full-blown Office for 5 machines? Roughly $2500, if you get the best version out there. Office 365 for those same 5 machines? $100 per year. So for the same money I could have the latest versions of Office on all those machines - for 25 years.

(just having a little fun here...but you get my point)

 

[kristalsoldier]

Just for your situation, there is a great write-up about Office 365 in the New York Times, by David Pogue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/technology/personaltech/pogue-microsoft-office-365.html?ref=personaltech

His only issue would be the cost...which in your case is a non-issue.

I'm thinking about going for it too. Although my company has Microsoft HUP licenses (home use program) which allows us to put Office 2010 on our home PC, That doesn't cover all my machines. Office 365 allows 5 machines per license. Plus, if you're on a PC that's not one of those 5...you can download a temporary version, do your work, and when you're done the temp version self-destructs.

Buying full-blown Office for 5 machines? Roughly $2500, if you get the best version out there. Office 365 for those same 5 machines? $100 per year. So for the same money I could have the latest versions of Office on all those machines - for 25 years.

(just having a little fun here...but you get my point)

Thanks. That was an interesting read! I am still unsure about Office 365 - primarily because of the RT that I have. I'm still a bit confused about how to use the RT with O365 as it (the RT) already comes with a truncated version of Office and the fact that Outlook is not a viable option on it - though that may change (or not!). If you have any insights on this particular issue, do tell.

 

[J515OP]

Krista stick with Windows 8 and it will come to you. Keyboard shortcuts are important when you don't have touch, check out the faq section. You can in fact use desktop and Modern apps at the same time side by side using the snap feature just like on the RT. You can also try stardock's new app (forum search) to run modern apps directly in desktop windows if that is what you want.

JP

 

[kristalsoldier]

Krista stick with Windows 8 and it will come to you. Keyboard shortcuts are important when you don't have touch, check out the faq section. You can in fact use desktop and Modern apps at the same time side by side using the snap feature just like on the RT. You can also try stardock's new app (forum search) to run modern apps directly in desktop windows if that is what you want.

JP

Thanks for the heads-up on the FAQ. Yes, I did read about Stardocks app - but I'd like to avoid it if I can. I don't think MS has designed Win8 to be used with apps like this. Plus, I have also read that it may break the sandbox features in Win8. It's only been a few hours since I've installed Win8, and I'd like to give myself some more time before I try workarounds, if you know what I mean.

 

[HD_Dude]

Thanks. That was an interesting read! I am still unsure about Office 365 - primarily because of the RT that I have. I'm still a bit confused about how to use the RT with O365 as it (the RT) already comes with a truncated version of Office and the fact that Outlook is not a viable option on it - though that may change (or not!). If you have any insights on this particular issue, do tell.

Nothing like a free trial. Office 365 is available to try for free, in all its configurations.

You might give it a shot, and try to configure Outlook on your RT. If it works, you could segue into your corporate version. If not, still a plus, because you'll know, and so will all of us on the forum.

Thanks

Edit: I'm as interested in all this as you are, so I dug deeper on the web, and found this:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/home-and-student/office-home-student-rt-FX103790095.aspx

It says Office Home & Student 2013 is all you can use, and actually states, and I quote: "Other versions of Office cannot be installed on Windows RT devices."

Darn.