Microsoft Office coming in ad-supported version: Microsoft will offer virtualized version of Office also available for test drive

Microsoft Tuesday said it would include an advertising-supported version of Office 2010 on new PCs as well as offer users a virtualized version that stream Office to a PC to run alongside existing versions.

Microsoft Office Starter 2010 is an advertising-supported, introductory version of the productivity software. The bundle includes Office Word Starter 2010 and Office Excel Starter 2010 that have limited functionality centered on creating, editing and viewing documents.

Microsoft Office 2010 highlights

The software replaces Microsoft Works, which has long shipped with new PCs. On the Office Product Development Group blog, Takeshi Numoto, corporate vice...