In older versions of Excel, folks had to install Solver manually, but such is no longer the case with the newer version of the program.

FrontLine developed the original Solver for Excel 2004, and developed the Excel 2008 version at the request of the Microsoft Mac Business Unit (Mac BU).

Minimize costs? Create a conference schedule with fewest early-morning sessions? In this excerpt from the book Data Smart, find out how to use Excel's free Solver add-in to do some data science ...

Excel can solve for unknown variables, either for a single cell with Goal Seek or multiple cells with Solver.