Microsoft to charge for Office 2007 beta 2

Microsoft said on Friday that it will begin charging $1.50 for users to download a copy of the Office 2007 beta 2 from next week.

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"In just the past two months since its launch, more than 3 million people have downloaded the 2007 Microsoft Office system beta 2," the company said.

"Given how dramatically the beta 2 downloads have exceeded our goals, we have made the business decision to implement a cost-recovery measure for downloading the beta."

Microsoft will begin charging users starting Wednesday, the statement said. The company released beta 2 of Office 2007 in May.

Though users will be charged for downloads of the actual Office 2007 beta 2 software, Microsoft will continue to offer an online test drive of Office 2007 it launched In late June that users can access through a Web browser.

Users can visit Microsoft's Web site to access the online test version.

Microsoft plans to release Office 2007 to business customers before the end of the year, and to consumers in early 2007. Both of those releases have been delayed from their originally scheduled ship dates.