What's the difference between Windows and Office?

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a special piece of software called an operating system. Your computer is useless without an operating system. Windows is not the only choice for this critical piece of software, but it is the most widely used in offices and homes. Without Windows (or some other operating system), you would not be able to run other software (like Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, or any games). You would not be able to type a letter and save it on the hard drive, play a game using your keyboard, mouse, or a joystick, or play a CD.

The most common versions of Windows that I run into are Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is not a single program. It is a package, or suite, of programs sold together to provide the tools a typical "office" environment might need. There are a few different Microsoft Office packages which have slightly different tools included. This can make things even more complicated for users, you may have Office, but you may not have a certain program (for example, PowerPoint) depending on which edition you own.

There are several modern versions of Microsoft Office in wide use today. Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2004 (Macintosh), Office 2007, Office 2008 (Macintosh), Office 2010, and Office 2011 (Macintosh). There are older versions, but I haven't seen them in wide use for several years now, so we won't mention them.

You might notice that there is some overlap in Windows and Office versions that tend to cause inexperienced users trouble. Office XP vs. Windows XP, Office 2000 vs. Windows 2000, even computer professionals find themselves saying one and meaning the other, on occasion. Windows and Office are very different and there is no connection between the version of Windows you are running and the version of Office that you have installed. You can run Office 2000 on Windows XP, and you can even run Office XP on Windows 2000.

There are also other companies that make office productivity suites, like OpenOffice.org (free) and Corel's WordPerfect Office

Which version of Windows and Office do I have?

I can't count how many conversations I've heard over the years like this:

Customer: I'm having trouble printing from Word.

Tech: What version of Office are you running?

Customer: '98, I think.

Tech: *pause* Are you using a Macintosh computer?

Customer: No... why do you ask?

Now, the more experienced readers should stop snickering at this point! Let's take a look at the problem here and see if we can prevent a few of these conversations in the future.

There have been several versions of Windows over the years. While there are older versions, we'll start our brief history with Windows NT. Here's the progression of Windows versions.

New computers since 2009 have been shipping with Windows 7, but there are still many computers in use with older versions of Windows.

Looking closer at Office 2003, you'll see that there are several editions within that one version. Each edition includes a different set of programs.

Office 2007 has eight different editions.

Office 2010 has seven different editions.

We hope you've found the information presented in this article useful. If you have questions about your computer or software versions, please, contact us.

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