Those of you still running the beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 have only three more weeks to use the software.

Today's Microsoft Office blog broke the news that the Office 2010 beta will expire on Sunday, October 31, meaning that all installations of the software will stop working the night of Halloween.

Launched almost a year ago, the Office 2010 beta has proved very successful, according to Microsoft's figures, triggering 9 million downloads, more than six times the number seen by the Office 2007 beta.

People who want to install the released version of Office 2010 will have to uninstall the beta software first. Microsoft is asking consumers who plan to buy the paid edition to download it, instead of ordering it in the box, as a way to help the environment. Office 2010 is available from a variety of online vendors, including Microsoft itself.

Full story: c|net