Office 2013 tied to single PC

[altus 540]

Microsoft have confirmed that Office 2013 is tied to a single PC according to this Computerworld article.

[Dardandec 32]

This is taken from the licence agreement on office 2013-

 

 

Are there things I’m not allowed to do with the software? Yes. Because the software is licensed, not sold, Microsoft reserves all rights (such as rights under intellectual property laws) not expressly granted in this agreement. In particular, this license does not give you any right to, and you may not: use or virtualize features of the software separately, publish, copy (other than the permitted backup copy), rent, lease, or lend the software; transfer the software (except as permitted by this agreement), attempt to circumvent technical protection measures in the software, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the software, except if the laws where you live permit this even when our agreement does not. In that case, you may do only what your law allows.

[altus 540]

This is taken from the licence agreement on office 2013-

 

 

Are there things I’m not allowed to do with the software? Yes. Because the software is licensed, not sold, Microsoft reserves all rights (such as rights under intellectual property laws) not expressly granted in this agreement. In particular, this license does not give you any right to, and you may not: use or virtualize features of the software separately, publish, copy (other than the permitted backup copy), rent, lease, or lend the software; transfer the software (except as permitted by this agreement), attempt to circumvent technical protection measures in the software, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the software, except if the laws where you live permit this even when our agreement does not. In that case, you may do only what your law allows.

 

I know in the EU you can legally install it on another machine but if they implement a way of stopping you from doing that through their online activation/licence checking system you'll be faced with a big legal bill and loads of hassle to enforce your rights.

 

It's far better for people[1] to switch to LibreOffice or one of the other alternatives. Trying them costs nothing so investigating them before parting with more cash for MS Office 2013 seems a no brainer to me.

 

 

[1] Yes I know some people need to have a copy of MS Office because of complex spreadsheets, etc., but the proportion of people who really need it is low.

[clarissa 10]

It's far better for people[1] to switch to LibreOffice or one of the other alternatives. Trying them costs nothing so investigating them before parting with more cash for MS Office 2013 seems a no brainer to me.

 

Another vote for LibreOffice.

 

If you need Word, Excel or PowerPoint then these are available for free in SkyDrive... no need to purchase Office.

[Dardandec 32]

I know in the EU you can legally install it on another machine but if they implement a way of stopping you from doing that through their online activation/licence checking system you'll be faced with a big legal bill and loads of hassle to enforce your rights.

 

MS haven't changed the activation process, If online activation failed for any reason it can always be activated by phone. This process is usually automated but you can speak to a representative if need be. Put it this way I don't think your going to need 100k in the bank to activate it lol

[altus 540]

MS haven't changed the activation process, If online activation failed for any reason it can always be activated by phone. This process is usually automated but you can speak to a representative if need be. Put it this way I don't think your going to need 100k in the bank to activate it lol

 

Microsoft have changed the activation processing a number of times in the past, there's no reason to assume they won't again. In those circumstances if you try to install MS Office 2013 on different computer and it fails, phoning Microsoft up is not going to help - they'll just tell you you are not allowed to do that.

 

Far better to just use one of the alternatives and avoid the issue completely.

[Dardandec 32]

Microsoft have changed the activation processing a number of times in the past, there's no reason to assume they won't again. In those circumstances if you try to install MS Office 2013 on different computer and it fails, phoning Microsoft up is not going to help - they'll just tell you you are not allowed to do that.

 

Far better to just use one of the alternatives and avoid the issue completely.

 

And you know this for definite? there seems to be a lot of assumptions in your post.

[altus 540]

And you know this for definite? there seems to be a lot of assumptions in your post.

 

I know for certain they have increased the product activation requirements over the years - originally they had none, then they had a product key you had to type in, then you had to activate it online. It doesn't take a genius to realise that they might further increase the checking in the process.

 

As for phoning them up, try calling them and saying you've got a copy of Windows that came preinstalled on your Dell PC, i.e. tied to that PC, and ask them if you can move it to your new home built PC and see how far you get.

 

Nothing unreasonable about any assumptions I might have made.

 

 

As I said - it's much better to avoid the problem altogether by using one of the alternatives.

[swarfendor437 14]

It is clear that Windows 7 (possibly Vista - I don't know - fortunately I skipped that release - like ME!). But when I changed the hardware in my youngest's PC it said that Windows 7 was not valid and I had to reactivate - no doubt Office 2013 will gather system information (just as all previous versions of Office did (it just might be that M$ never bothered to collect that but we won't know that would we because their OS is 'closed source'!) All previous versions of Office could list your machine details in Help | About | System Information button!

[Alky 10]

Just to clarify something - I had a HDD with Win7 which was dying. I cloned the drive onto a new, larger drive and there was nothing at all to reactivate.

 

I used Seagate's Acronis to clone the drive and it just ....worked.

 

I have also changed the GPU as the last one died. Again no problem.

 

I have not tried changing the CPU or MoBo though so can not comment on that aspect. I suspect tho that this may throw up a problem which would (hopefully) be resolved with a call to MS.

 

This is not the same as de-licensing one machine and putting on another I know - just trying to say what I have done without problems.

[howden 10]

Microsoft has done a U turn,

Office 2013 can now be transferred from one computer to another.

 

Office blog post...

http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2013/03/06/office-2013-retail-license-agreement-now-transferable.aspx

[altus 540]

Microsoft has done a U turn,

Office 2013 can now be transferred from one computer to another.

 

Office blog post...

http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2013/03/06/office-2013-retail-license-agreement-now-transferable.aspx

 

It still breaks the first sale doctrine rules.

 

You may also transfer the software (together with the license) to a computer owned by someone else if a) you are the first licensed user of the software

 

The above extract means if you bought it new, you can pass it on to someone else but they can't pass it on to anyone else.