While Office 2013 was released to manufacturing just over a month ago, the productivity suite isn’t actually due out until the first quarter of next year. Luckily, it looks like Microsoft is already offering the RTM build as a free, 60-day trial.
The trial can be downloaded from this page on Microsoft’s TechNet Evaluation Center. You just have to log in with your Microsoft account credentials, fill in a form with your name and country of residence, and choose whether you want the 32-bit or 64-bit installer. Click next, and you’ll be served with a product key and a download link.
The download weighs in at around 769MB for the 64-bit edition. It includes the full-fat edition of Office 2013—dubbed Professional Plus—with all available applications: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, and Lync. There’s just one little kink. Instead of an installer, Microsoft serves up an .img disc image. Windows 8 will happily mount that image and let you access the installer inside if you just double-click, but earlier versions of Windows may need third-party software to get the job done.
Oh, and by the way, you can still buy Office 2010 if you need a legit, non-trial copy of the software. As we reported last month, Microsoft has set up an upgrade program so that folks who bought Office 2010 after October 19 get a free upgrade to Office 2013 when it comes out.