Microsoft has declared that Office 2010 has moved into the launch candidate stage. The company said it has distributed the software to those in the technology adoption programmed.

This means Office 2010 is now officially out of beta. Once it's go through the RC state, it will be launched to developed, and after that it is avialble for sale.

The release candidate period will permit for feedback from partners, which can impact the final build. The relase is expected in June, possibly close to the end of the month, as the company says it doesn't expect Office 2010 to have any big effect on 3rd-quarter earnings.

Ramp up, shut down
In a statement, Microsoft said: "This is one of Microsoft's planned milestones in the engineering process; though they do not have plans to make this new code set available generally."

As is to be expected, it gives new versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. As of previous month, the beta of the software had been downloaded 2 million times.
The news comes just as Redmond's finest has declared that the free preview version of Windows 7 will shut down next month. Users will have until 1 March to spend money on the real thing, or their computers will automatically shut down every two hours, with work not saved.
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