Microsoft is advising its customers to install the 32-bit, rather than the 64-bit, version of Office 2010.
The advice is tucked away in an FAQ about the Office 2010 Tech Guarantee programme, which will ensure that buyers of Office 2007 will get a free upgrade to the new Office suite when its launched.
“We strongly recommend most users install 32-bit version of Office 2010 on both 32 and 64-bit operating systems because currently many common add-ins for Office will not function in the 64-bit edition,” Microsoft warns.
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“The 64-bit installation of Microsoft Office 2010 products will be available for users who commonly use very large documents or data sets and need Excel 2010 programs to access greater than 2GB of memory.
“There may be technical issues with the 64-bit version and in order to install a 64-bit version of Office 2010 product users must have a 64-bit supported operating system on their PC,” Microsoft adds.
Even some of Microsoft’s own Office plugins are not yet compatible with the 64-bit software, including the Outlook Social Connector, which hooks the software into social networks such as Facebook. Third party plugins from LinkedIn and Symantec are also 32-bit only.
Microsoft’s missive echoes the advice of PC Pro’s Real World Computing expert Simon Jones, who has been advising readers to stick to the 32-bit version of Office 2010 for many months.
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