August 2nd, 2007
Microsoft Works to go Adware
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
I heard about this a couple of days ago, but it wasn’t confirmed then. Today Microsoft stated that Works, its basic word-processing and spreadsheet suite, is about to go adware.
Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it will offer a free, advertising-supported version of its basic productivity software, Microsoft Works, as part of a test program with computers manufacturers. Source: Reuters
We Say: What can you say? When you have free products like Google’s Docs and Spreadsheets and open-source, full-featured suites like OpenOffice around, you have to do something. The ad cache on Works will refresh when you are connected to the Internet while running Works, to be sure you don’t miss out on the freshest ads 
.
John Corliss says:
What a seriously flawed idea, just like most of Microsoft’s. And it is to wonder if the stuff is going to be easy to remove or not.
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:25 am
Gene says:
At least it proves that Microsoft is starting to listen to the consumers. Adware can be ignored if the software if going to be free.
August 3rd, 2007 at 7:14 am
Kevin K. says:
Doesn’t Works come free with almost every PC and don’t I always remove it and replace it with Office XP (previously Office 95, previously….) or whichever full version I happen to already own?
When Open Office is free and so much more feature rich than Works, why would anyone put up with ads at all?
August 3rd, 2007 at 7:20 am