Free Downloads

[driverdale1]

Anyone ever downloaded word doc and powerpoint for free from the internet, if so was it safe ? seen a few for free but son says to steer clear. thanks in advance.

[Old_Geezer]

They're paid for MS Office Suite programmes so I'd be sceptical of it being legit, unless it was just a trial of some sort. Or a look-alike programme.

[Buenchico]

Any freebie will be illegal (unless it's only a time-limited trial) and almost certainly come with loads of malware.

You don't need Microsoft Office anyway. OpenOffice is just as good, completely safe and totally free:
https://www.openoffice.org/product/index.html

OpenOffice can work with files that have been created in Microsoft Word, Excel, etc and also save files into Microsoft formats. To do so you can either remember to use the 'Save As' command (instead of just 'Save'), and then select a Microsoft format or, far better, change the OpenOffice default so that 'Save' will automatically use Microsoft formats. It's easy to do:
http://helpdeskgeek.com/office-tips/set-openof%EF%AC%81ce-org-to-save-in-microsoft-of%EF%AC%81ce-format-by-default/

[Huderon]

Why would you want to download a "free" copy of MS Office, which is more likely than not to be dodgy software, when there are legitimate free alternatives available ?

Try these two links for brief reviews of the main free suites :

http://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-office-software
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-office-suite.htm

[goodgoalie]

I've used Buenchico's recommendation - Open Office - for years, and really like it, as it's easy to use and doesn't have all the fancy bits of Word which I don't need. I think Word is a rip-off