Office programs, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, are part of the essential programs for any computer. However, contrary to what we may think, to use them it is necessary to buy a license from Microsoft, either through a one-time payment, or with a subscription. However, it is not always necessary to checkout, since there are times that, without knowing it, we have in our possession a key for this suite and it will allow us to use all Microsoft programs without having to checkout. These are the most common ways to have Microsoft 365 without paying.
We have a son at school
When we take a child to school, they may be working with two companies: Google or Microsoft. If the latter is the case, then the school almost certainly has a contract with Microsoft to offer students free Word, Excel, and PowerPoint licenses. And the way they do it is through a Microsoft 365 account.
To use it, all we have to do is ask the center for the access data (which will be the student’s email account, with their password) and download the installer. At the time of logging into Word, we will use that data, and that’s it. In addition to being able to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other programs on up to 5 computers or devices, we will also have 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage to save what we want.
Almost all public and private schools in Castilla y León have this possibility. And in other autonomous communities the same thing happens.
They use Microsoft accounts at work.
Another way to get Office 365 for free is if our company has a contract with Microsoft and the company provides these subscriptions for workers. This is common when the work depends yes or yes on the programs of the suite, and especially when we have some type of telecommuting. Otherwise, if our work is 100% face-to-face, we will not have the possibility of using Microsoft 365 at home, since it would not make much sense either.
Now, depending on the picaresque of each one, we can take the Office key from work and activate it on the computer from home to be able to use the programs on our PC. Of course, we must be careful, since the administrators can see how many computers the license has been activated on, and we can have problems.
We bought a new PC
Finally, if we have bought a new computer, it is almost certain that it also has a free Office. As part of the adware on these computers, Microsoft installs its office software by default, in the Office 365 version, so that we can use it whenever we want.
Of course, the company does not give us anything, and although we will have our subscription to Microsoft 365, it will only have a validity of between 3 and 6 months. After that time, the Office programs, such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint, will stop working on the computer, and then we will have no choice but to checkout to continue using them.
