Office 2010 beta now available

[javajolt]

As expected, the public betas for Office 2010, Project 2010, Visio 2010, and SharePoint Server 2010 have now been posted for download by Microsoft. At the time of writing, the Office 2010 Beta webpage on (http://officebeta.microsoft.com/en-us/) still gives the following message: "The Office 2010 Beta will be available soon.

Please come back later and try again." The download links are starting to appear in other places though.

For example, the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta (which includes Word, Excel PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Publisher, InfoPath, Communicator, and SharePoint Workspace) is available in 32-bit and 64-bit over at Microsoft.com/Office/2010 (registration required). The portal that seems like the best starting point for learning more about the whole 2010 wave of Microsoft products is actually Microsoft.com/2010.

In addition to the Office 2010 beta, the Microsoft Download Center (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/default.aspx) has the rest of the downloads, so we've compiled the following list of all the related links Microsoft has posted:

•Project 2010 Reference: Software Development Kit

•Microsoft Office Web Apps (Beta)

•Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Beta

•Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Internet Sites Beta

•SharePoint Foundation 2010 (Windows SharePoint Services 2010 Beta)

•2010 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity Components

•Visio 2010 (Beta) Viewer

•Visio 2010 (Beta): Software Development Kit

•Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Beta (64-bit)

•Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Beta (32-bit)

•Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2010 Beta (32-bit)

•Office 2010 (Beta) Administrative Template files (ADM, ADMX/ADML) and Office Customization Tool

•Microsoft Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack

•Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products (Beta) Management Pack

•Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 (Beta) Management Pack

•Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2010 Beta (64-bit)

•Microsoft Office 2010 (Beta) Filter Packs

•Access 2010 Beta Download: Access Runtime

•Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 Beta (64-bit)

•Microsoft SharePoint Server for Internet Sites Enterprise 2010 Beta

•Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 Beta (32-bit)

•Microsoft SharePoint Server for Internet Sites Enterprise 2010 Beta

•Microsoft SharePoint Server Enterprise 2010 Beta

•Microsoft SharePoint Server Enterprise 2010 Beta

•Microsoft Search Server 2010 Express Beta

•Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 Beta (64-bit)

•Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 Beta (32-bit)

•Microsoft Project Server 2010 Beta

For reference, here are the Office 2010 system requirements:

•Computer and processor: 500MHz processor or higher

•Memory: 256MB of RAM or higher

•Hard disk: 3GB; a portion of this disk space will be freed after installation if the original download package is removed from the hard disk.

•Display: 1024 × 768 or higher-resolution monitor; 1024 × 576 or higher for Excel 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, and Word 2010

•Operating system: Windows XP with SP3 (32-bit), Windows Vista with SP1 (32-bit or 64-bit), Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-bit or 64-bit) with MSXML 6.0 installed,
Windows Server 2008 with SP2 (32-bit or 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit). Terminal Server and Windows on Windows (WOW) (which allows installing 32-bit versions of Office 2010 on 64-bit operating systems) are supported.

•Additional: Requirements and product functionality can vary based on the system configuration and operating system. Use of graphics hardware acceleration requires DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card with 64MB or higher video memory.

The most ambitious goal Microsoft is striving for with Office 2010 is making it available via a familiar experience across the PC, phone, and browser. Office 2010 is the first release of the productivity suite that will come in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors and on one DVD no less. In addition to the five editions of Office 2010 announced in July 2009 that are in Technical Preview, and the ad-supported one announced last month, Microsoft is also working on the Office Web Apps: Web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. As of September 2009 they were in the Technical Preview status but this week they moved into beta. Last month, rumors swirled around Office Mobile 7, the last piece of the Office puzzle we've heard the least about, being ready for Spring 2010.

Last month, Microsoft announced it would close down the Office 2010 Technical Preview Program to make room for the public beta. Earlier this week, Microsoft gave MSDN and TechNet subscribers to the above downloads, and now it is making them available to the public.

[Chuck E]

Hi; Thanks for the Christmas message. I'm a bit late but still have a few hours to wish you the best of new years.I have rather simple questions about Office 2010. To tell the truth about the only parts of Office 2007 are Outlook and Word. Is there any way that I could install just those? What is likely to be the charge for minimal usage like this or is there a basic version like in Office 2007 that's pretty bare? Will it have to be a clean install?
my other question is only tangentially related to W 7, but I would really like to get it corrected. I've got a Creative Titanium sound card that has an optical port for S/PFIF data which I really want to get access to for the 5.1 audio, since the card feeds a Logitech z5300 speaker system. my source has both an optical out port as well as one that would use a coax. I know that the optical port is live as it has a faint red glow and the source provider insists that it would supply S/PDIF signals. The problem is that though I've written many times to Creative i can't find any card settings that will make any signals at all, its just dead though the card does deal properly with 5.1 from video discs including Blu-Ray. I know that this isn't your specially, but if either you or some other person reading this can correct the situation I sure would be thankful. Again - Happy New Year.

[javajolt]

Thanks for the new Year Wishes and may you have a good 2010 as well.  You should be able to do a custom install of Office 2010 and install the modules you want.  When you click on custom you will be presented with the options then click on the arrow down on each option you DO NOT want and click the last option DO NOT run on this computer.

There is not charge for using this Beat version for the life of the Beta test period.

Locate the speaker in the System Tray and righ click it and select playback devices, by clicking on speakers highlight them and right click for more options, this will allow you to set them as default.  I am guessing your S/PDIF is currently set as default.

Hope this helps, I am currently in an airport going back to San Francisco, once back I will check more current drivers etc and report back.

Wayne