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Each product require 20-200MB disk space. But the installation requires a ~1.5GB base disk space regardless of what you install. What does it use that 1.5GB disk space for?

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It would appear that Microsoft is conservative in regards to the amount of disk space and purposely overestimates the amount you'll need. Taken from a Microsoft TechNet Article about the Office 2010 System Requirements underneath What About Disk Space?:


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So, it uses somewhere between .5 and 1.5 GB of space with nothing installed. What is that space for? –  Kruug Jan 7 '13 at 19:14
@Kruug Beyond Microsoft being conservative, the other parts of the above-mentioned article states: "Office-wide Ribbon implementation. In Office 2010, you’ll see the Ribbon in all Office applications. " Some of the actual (and not over-estimated) bulk of Office 2010 comes from the shared components (which includes the suite-wide Ribbon elements). –  Trav Jan 7 '13 at 19:31
I assumed something like that, but it still begs the question of why, if nothing is being installed, do the shared components need to be installed? –  Kruug Jan 7 '13 at 19:34

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