I'm about to pull the trigger on a laptop replacement for my wife's aging (~9 year-old) Toshiba Satellite.

The one I'm looking at is $400 shipped from Buy.com: Buy.com - Toshiba Satellite C655-S5193 15.6" Notebook, Intel Pentium P6200 (2.13GHz), 4GB DDR3 Memory, 320GB HDD, DVD Super Multi-Drive with Labelflash, Intel GMA HD, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (http://www.buy.com/retail/Product.asp?sku=220974501)

I've seen on many laptops the "Microsoft Office Starter 2010". It's my understanding that this is a pre-installed limited, ad-supported, version of MS Office. I never can find out how much it is to purchase the full version to eliminate the ads and obtain full functionality. Does anyone know how this works? Do you make the purchase directly on the laptop via the 'net? How much is it?

You also might try out OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite (http://www.openoffice.org) 's free office suite for windows. It will read/write all the MS office files.

Yep, I'm aware of OpenOffice. I wanted to know how the process for upgrading the Office Starter installation goes and how much it costs.

Essentially you buy the version you want and use the key card to unlock the features. About $115 to go to home version. You do not need the media, just the license key to unlock the features. If you want a business version about $180.

Cool, thanks.

So, ultimately, there's no "savings" by having the Starter version pre-installed on your machine.

Cool, thanks.

So, ultimately, there's no "savings" by having the Starter version pre-installed on your machine.

Correct, Microsoft gives away office starter to OEMs for new PCs. It is ad supported and a stripped down version of Word/Excel.