Microsoft Excel 2010 is now available for free download on Windows and accessible through a traditional license purchase. Microsoft Excel is the go-to software for anybody who has ever needed to organize a laundry list of items, whether it be names and addresses for mailing out Christmas cards or sales figures for a multimillion-dollar company. As part of Microsoft Office 2010, you’ll have an even easier time seamlessly integrating your work from other Microsoft products into working with Excel. Since this is an older model of Microsoft Excel, it is not included in the Microsoft 365 collection. The only way you can access Microsoft Excel 2010 is through a traditional license purchase of Microsoft Office 2010, and you will need to ensure that your computer is running a version of Windows that is old enough to be compatible with the 2010 version of Excel.

Features and integrations

This is the perfect tool for compiling large data sets and using automation to analyze and present numbers in a clean, concise manner. If you work in the data management field or are involved with large numbers, you have probably spent a lot of time staring at a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. You can compile and organize data in tables with cells dedicated to certain identifiers and use the organization tools of Excel to run these numbers through formulas and calculations to automate your work. Another great benefit of Microsoft Excel is that you can pull in data from other spreadsheets across the Excel program to work in multiple tabs and screens in cohesion.

Microsoft Excel 2010 is one of the earliest versions of Excel that switched from a toolbar layout to a ribbon layout. With the ribbon layout, you have greater access and control over which tools you can access with a single click. Instead of going through the toolbar and waiting for the drop-down menus to populate each time, the ribbon design has popular tools available at all times with a single click. You can choose to see them constantly while you work or appear when you move the cursor over the space where a ribbon can appear.

Compatibility and system requirements

Since this is an older version of Microsoft Excel, you can run a much older version of Windows and still have compatibility. You should be running Windows XP SP3 or later or Windows Server 2003 SP2 or later. It is available by purchasing the Microsoft Office 2010 collection, which can run on these same system requirements. 

You can access the most recent version of Microsoft Excel through several Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Since this is one of the most popular programs, it is considered a “core program” and included in every subscription model.

If you are looking to subscribe, there are two categories of subscriptions: Consumer plans (also called personal accounts) and Business plans (also called work or school accounts). Under the Consumer plans, you can choose from Microsoft 365 Personal (formerly Office 365 Personal) and Microsoft 365 Family (formerly Office 365 Home). 

• Microsoft 365 Personal: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft Publisher. You can use your software on up to five devices, whether on computers, phones, or tablets. Includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage and one hour of international calls via Skype.
• Microsoft 365 Family: Same software access as Microsoft 365 Personal, but designed for use by families. Up to six users can be working on five devices per person, and each user has 1 TB of OneDrive storage and one hour of international calls via Skype.

If you’re looking to access Microsoft Excel for your business, you can choose from four options that vary according to the size and needs of your business. Again, you will get Microsoft Excel in some version of each of these. 

• Microsoft 365 Apps for business (formerly Office 365 Business): Five computers or other devices have access to Office applications, which includes Microsoft Excel.
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic (formerly Office 365 Business Essentials): Optimal for small to medium-sized businesses. Access the Office 365 online apps, which include Microsoft Excel. It also offers Microsoft Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, Teams, SharePoint, Exchange, Forms, and Visio. 1 TB of cloud storage for the business to share.
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard (formerly Office 365 Business Premium): Optimal for medium to large-sized businesses, combines the access of Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Microsoft 365 Apps for Business.
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium (formerly Microsoft 365 Business): Optimal for large businesses with as many as 300 employees, includes all the access of Microsoft 365 Business Standard plus Defender for Office 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, Microsoft Intune, Azure AD P1, Defender for Business, Windows 10 Business.