Microsoft unveiled Office 2013 consumer preview and
according to the CEO of the company, this is the most ambitious release
of Microsoft Office that ever done. Office 2013 is having lot many new
features including inbuilt PDF reader and editor i.e. now MS Word can open and edit PDF documents. Apart from that, Skype integration
is also a cool feature which allows users to collaborate with other
users or teammates using this VOIP service. Microsoft also incorporated Cloud features like SkyDrive integration and Office 365
integration with this version. But if your computer is running older
version of Windows like XP or Vista, you will not be able to run Office
2013. It is made for Windows 7 and Windows 8.
According to the system requirement section released by Microsoft for Office 2013, you need Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012
to install and run the Office applications. Microsoft has already said
that they will discontinue the support for Windows XP from April 2014.
Company will continue support for Vista till 2017 but they are fully
aware that wither most of the Vista users upgraded to Windows 7 or
shifted to Mac. Yeah, we all know the reason behind.
Windows XP and Vista are not there in System Requirements for Office 2013 Preview
Is it worth to upgrade the system for Office 2013?
Lot many companies are still using Windows XP as they don’t see any
loss in keeping it as it is. Individuals who are running Windows XP are
either having old configuration computer or they don’t want to invest in
Windows 7 upgrade. Office 2013 is a cool upgrade with new features and
touch friendly layout but still Office 2007 and 2010 are sufficient for
daily documentation and even for complex tasks and presentation. I
always recommend to try new features and application but it depends
whether you want to invest in that or not. If you are fine with Office
2007, there is not any critical need to upgrade to 2013. BUT I would definitely suggest you to upgrade from XP or Vista to Windows 7
not just because of Office 2013 compatibility but for overall
performance improvement. Windows 7 is no doubt the best upgrade released
by Microsoft after XP.
