Thinking about buying PowerPoint or Office pre-installed on a new computer?

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If you can, purchase Office or PowerPoint separately. Try not to get it pre-installed on your new computer.

When you buy a pre-installed copy of Office, you typically get a low-end version that doesn't include PowerPoint or other Office applications.

Strike one.

When you buy a pre-installed copy of Office, you typically don't get an Office CD. This makes your life very, very complicated when a service pack or upgrade installer asks you to insert the Office CD..

Strike two.

What if you need to re-install Office? It happens.

If it happens to you, you're out of luck without an Office CD. Your PC may have come with restore CDs of some kind, but typically they restore your computer to the way it was when you bought it. As in "without any of the applications and service packs you've installed, without any of the data you've saved ... wiped clean, reformatted and everything re-loaded from scratch, in other words. You don't want to go there.

Strike three.

Support? MS doesn't know you. The company that sold you the computer is usually responsible for support. And many do a pretty bad job of it. They're in the business of selling hardware, not supporting software like Office.

Strike four. Oh .. wait. You only get three.

That copy of Office may seem to be attractively priced, but it could turn into more hassle than it's worth in the long run. The little extra a full copy with CD costs can be a very good investment in the long run.

If you already have a copy of Office that came with your PC, check with the vendor to see if you can get CDs from them or from Microsoft.

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