As is the case with Skype, you will get a tiny package that will then download the actual application. If Office 365 is what you're after, be aware that there is no offline installer for it. Of course, be aware that obviously you will need a product key to successfully install the suite.

However, the below links we provided with the original article still work to download the installer for Office 2016 (this then grabs the Office 2016 setup files on-demand). Therefore if you want to try out Office for free, you'll need to dip into Office 365 (see above). Obviously post-release, that isn't the case anymore – and there's no trial version of Office 2016. When this article was first published, it was before the release of Office 2016 when you could download a preview version to try for free.

If you have any suggestions or if you find that any of these are not working, do let us know.

You will never be charged for downloading these files for backup purposes.

All the files linked are genuine and legal, direct from the developer.

If so, use 7-Zip or a similar archive utility to extract the files and run the relevant executable file (usually setup.exe).

In some cases the downloaded file will be an IMG format.

Some security applications might quarantine setup.exe forcing you to manually whitelist the appropriate files.

After you get a Microsoft ID, you will be able to activate the applications should you want to own the products outright with the product key card being the cheapest and usually fastest way of doing it.

You will not need a product key to install the application but you will need one to activate the product.

To get them to work again would require you to reinstall your Windows operating system – using a restore point or any similar image-based solution is unlikely to work.

Once trial versions expire, they will revert back to reduced functionality, essentially becoming file viewers.

However, before you proceed, bear the following points in mind: We've rechecked all the links as of the time of publishing this update to ensure that they're fully working.

Microsoft office 2013 full version