But the two soon diverged: Microsoft began rolling out new features to Office 365 that the perpetual Office 2016 version didn’t get. When Office 2016 was first released in late 2015, the perpetual version and the Office 365 version had the same features. Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscribers pay ongoing fees to use the software, while buyers of the perpetual version pay a one-time fee and own it forever. Before we get into those new features, though, let’s look at how Microsoft has differentiated its subscription and non-subscription versions of Office.įor years now, Microsoft has been pushing the subscription version of its office suite - known as Office 365 or Microsoft 365, depending on the license - over the non-subscription version, which it calls the “perpetual” version of Office. The enterprise and consumer Office 2021 versions have a similar set of new features. To reactivate your Office applications, reconnect to the Internet.Two weeks after releasing Office LTSC 2021, the new non-subscription version of its office suite for enterprises, Microsoft has released Office 2021 for consumers, students, and small businesses. If you don’t connect to the Internet at least every 31 days, your applications will go into reduced functionality mode, which means that you can view or print your documents but cannot edit the documents or create new ones. You should also connect to the Internet regularly to keep your version of Office up to date and benefit from automatic upgrades. Internet access is also required to access documents stored on OneDrive, unless you install the OneDrive desktop app.

For Microsoft 365 plans, internet access is also needed to manage your subscription account, for example to install Office on other PCs or to change billing options. However, Internet access is required to install and activate all the latest releases of Office suites and all Microsoft 365 subscription plans. You don’t need to be connected to the Internet to use Office applications, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, because the applications are fully installed on your computer.

Microsoft home and student 2013