Microsoft Office 2016 Public Preview For Windows PCs Now Available For Download

Microsoft has rolled out a new preview build of Office 2016 for Windows PCs (Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10). This is just the second preview build of Office 2016; the first was released in March and was specifically aimed at developers and IT Pros. Today’s release targets everyone, including general consumers.

For Office 365 subscribers that want to test out Office 2016, you can simply head over to the Office My Account page, click on “Language and install options” and next click “Additional install options” after which you will see a drop-down menu to install either there 32-bit or 64-bit version of Office 2016.

For users without an Office 365 subscription, you can select either the 32-bit (download here) or 64-bit (download here) version of Office 2016 and use the Microsoft-supplied product key.

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It should be noted, however, that if you already have Office 2013 installed, you will have to remove it order to install Office 2016. So if you’ve grown attached to Office 2013 and aren’t willing to let some bugs interrupt your daily work flow, you might want to install Office 2016 on a spare desktop, laptop, or tablet.

Office 2016 brings with it fresh features like real-time co-authoring, improved data analysis for Excel, “Smart Applications” that adapt to your work habits to make you more productive, and new tools to help you easily integrated your work flow with the “cloud.”

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Over the last 12 months, we’ve transformed Office from a suite of desktop applications to a complete, cross-platform, cross-device solution for getting work done,” wrote the Office 365 Team. “But that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten where we came from. While you’ve seen us focus on tuning Office for different platforms over the last year, make no mistake, Office on Windows desktop is central to our strategy.”

Microsoft released an Office 2016 preview for Mac users back in early March. The most recent retail version of Microsoft’s productivity suite for Macs is currently Office 2011.