Student Software Deals Microsoft Windows, Office, plus Mac software for cheap

Until 15 June 2010, Microsoft is offering university students the chance to buy up its software super-cheap. It's possible to get its new Windows 7 operating system for £30 (2 versions available), and its Office 2007 Ultimate package for £38.95.

Considering Windows 7 has an official retail price of around £250, and Office 2007 Ultimate's around £600, this ain't bad at all.

Do I qualify?

To qualify for these prices, you need to fit 2 criteria:

1. You have an active university email address which ends with .ac.uk, ac.im, ac.gg, ac.je or open.ac.uk.
2. You are currently enrolled at any university, taking on at least one half-course. You needn't be studying full-time.

You can get the discounted downloads from Microsoft's special promotion website, The Ultimate Steal. Simply click buy, then fill in the forms as you would for any other online purchase.

Windows 7 upgrade for £30

For £30, you can upgrade to the latest incarnation of Microsoft's operating system, Windows 7, which improves on Vista's performance and offers a more intuitive and slick interface. We shan't get into the details here as there are far too many; read TechRadar's full review for the lowdown.

Both home and professional upgrade versions are available for the same price. The professional version adds a few extra features; 'Windows XP mode', which emulates XP to run older programs that won't work properly on 7; 'Domain Join', which is for quickly joining office domains remotely; and automatic backup, which does just that.

Can I upgrade?

Chances are most users of XP, and all users of Vista, should be able to upgrade without too much hassle, though some will need to do a clean install (i.e. back up all important files and then totally erase the hard drive and start again from scratch).

To save people grabbing the software that can't actually use it, Microsoft offers a free Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, which'll tell you what's possible and what you need to do to get up and running, so download and run this first. Here's a quick list of basic system requirements for running Windows 7.

Office 2007 Ultimate for £39

Microsoft isn't skimping on the package you get for the cash, though it's worth noting that it's due to launch a new version - Office 2010 - in the first six months of next year. This is the top of the range 'ultimate' edition, including:

• Word 2007 (Word processing)
• Excel 2007 (Spreadsheets)
• PowerPoint 2007 (Presentations)
• Outlook 2007 (Email)
• Access 2007 (Databasing)
• Publisher 2007 (Desktop publishing)
• OneNote 2007 (Note-taking/organising)
• Groove 2007 (Information sharing for team projects)
• InfoPath 2007 (Electronic form building)

The software and license are only provided as a download for this price. If you want the safety of receiving a hard copy on a DVD as well, you'll have to pay a surcharge for it.

It's a full retail license, rather than an academic one, entitling you to install it on one PC only.

Cheap Office for Mac

Mac users can also get discounted Office software, though not direct from Microsoft. Both RM software and software4students sell Office 2008 Mac to students for £35.33 with free delivery, though this version isn't as comprehensive, comprising Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage (email & task manager) only.

The websites above also offer cheap student deals on a whole range of other software, so they're worth checking regardless. To qualify for the cheap prices, the licensee must be a full-time school, college or university student, though purchases can be made by parents.

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Free office alternatives

Whilst the prices above are far more palatable than the list prices, there are numerous other applications that provide the same functionality (or, in the case of online versions, even more) for the grand price of nada, zilch, zip. All of them and more are listed in the Free Office Software guide (plus free anti-virus etc in the Kit Out Your PC guide), but here's are the top few.

• OpenOffice 3. An open-source project which includes equivalents of most of the programs above, OpenOffice 3.1.1 will even open many Microsoft documents. The latest version is speedier than previous incarnations, and available for both PC and Mac.
  
  
• Oxygen Office. Based on OpenOffice's source code, OxygenOffice Professional adds a wealth of templates, clipart and photos. In fact, over 3400 graphics are included, and you also get 90 new fonts and a more detailed help guide. For some people, these extra features will seem like unnecessary bloat, but if you'll use them it's well worth considering.
  

Online Suites

Online office suites are a big growth area, with even Microsoft itself getting in on the action; its Office 2010 will add a range of online features. As well as Google's docs, popular ones include:

• ThinkFree. Almost 100% compatible with Office, ThinkFree is a free online suite which bears a striking resemblance to the latter, and has received glowing reviews all round. It includes the equivalents of Word, Excel & Powerpoint, looks pretty, and most importantly for an online suite, is responsive and simple to navigate.
  
  

• Zoho. Basic-but-superfast, Zoho's constantly being updated, and has great user feedback. It offers a wider range of applications than ThinkFree, but they aren't as detailed. Zoho stores all your documents in its 1GB free storage space, and allows you to share them with (member) friends via email invitation.