MS Office on my laptop - got 365 personal currently, expires soon

[Infrasonic]

MS365 removal guides here...https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/off ... df5dbf61d8

[Infrasonic]

You can create custom images of Windows so that with a new machine you can save set up time, or if you clean re- install to an old machine to get it back the way it was more quickly. If your OS backups are corrupted then a clean re-install might be a better solution.

Loads of GUI options - this is one..https://christitus.com/windows-tool/

[monabri]

I bought a new Dell Inspiron in the Black Friday "sales" to replace my 16+ yr old Dell Inspiron. It came pre-installed with Office 365 (in multiple languages). I decided to pay the £8.33 for Microsoft Office 2021 Standard 1 User PC from Livecards.co.uk

https://livecards.co.uk/en/microsoft-of ... -1-user-pc

All is "well" and installation is reasonably straight forward but there were some things to note.

(1) It took quite a while to download Office 2021 from Livecard and I have fibre to premises so a reasonable broadband connection - but I simply went away and did something else!

(2) I found that it was necessary to uninstall Office 365 and One Note in ALL installed languages (French/Italian/US/German/Dutch). This took a good time to do.. ... ...over 1 hour. I found this out because Office 2021 complained that it could not install unless Office 365 was removed first. It listed out what needed to be uninstalled.

(2a) EDIT
I restarted the computer.

(3) One must deactivate any virus checker before installing Office 2021.

(4) Installation of Office 2021 was "Right Click - Run as Administrator"

(5) Livecards sends a 25 digit product key by email which one cuts and paste into (I used) Word (account - change product key).


Nothing that difficult..it was the deletion of the various Office 365 & One Note that took the time!

[ReformedCharacter]

1 PC - Digital Email Delivery - One time install
1 PC - Digital Email Delivery - Reinstallable from Official Office website office.com Extra + £19.95#

What does this mean in practice? If my hard drive fails or I change laptop, I have to buy again?

I'm not sure quite what the second option refers to but the first option allows you to install Office on 1 computer, since the license is tied to your computer hardware, should your disk fail then you can just download it again from Microsoft and it will still be licensed. However you will not be able to upgrade to a later version of Office with the same license nor transfer it to a different PC if you buy a replacement. Probably the second option gives an upgrade option. The chat facility at PCkeys will clarify the difference.

RC

[ReformedCharacter]

1 PC - Digital Email Delivery - One time install
1 PC - Digital Email Delivery - Reinstallable from Official Office website office.com Extra + £19.95#

What does this mean in practice? If my hard drive fails or I change laptop, I have to buy again?

I'm not sure quite what the second option refers to but the first option allows you to install Office on 1 computer, since the license is tied to your computer hardware, should your disk fail then you can just download it again from Microsoft and it will still be licensed. However you will not be able to upgrade to a later version of Office with the same license nor transfer it to a different PC if you buy a replacement. Probably the second option gives an upgrade option. The chat facility at PCkeys will clarify the difference.

RC

I just tried the PCkeys chat facility to ask your question and got an email back about 10 minutes later:

Single install is one time install and cannot be installed again.* If you change your device or if anything happens to the windows then you cannot reinstall again. The reinstallable edition is a little more expensive but allows you to reinstall on same device or transfer to new device

*I'm a bit confused about the first line. It is my understanding that as long as you are using the same PC without major modifications - replacing a disk drive doesn't count as a major modification - then you should be able to download another copy and the MS licensing service should make it legit. I would suggest making a disk image as a part of your backup procedures to cover the chance of disk failure.

RC

[Infrasonic]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/off ... r%20sooner).

You can install a one-time purchase of Office such as Office Home & Business, Office Home & Student, or Office Professional Office on only 1 PC or Mac. However, you may transfer Office 2021, 2019, or 2016 to another computer that belongs to you, but not more than one time every 90 days (except due to hardware failure, in which case you may transfer sooner). 

Any time you transfer the software to a new computer, you must remove the software from the prior computer and you may not retain any copies.

Cont.

[ReformedCharacter]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/transfer-your-office-license-to-another-device-or-another-person-8a967fb6-6c65-433e-800e-b9ae3436c2de#:~:text=However%2C%20you%20may%20transfer%20Office,case%20you%20may%20transfer%20sooner).

You can install a one-time purchase of Office such as Office Home & Business, Office Home & Student, or Office Professional Office on only 1 PC or Mac. However, you may transfer Office 2021, 2019, or 2016 to another computer that belongs to you, but not more than one time every 90 days (except due to hardware failure, in which case you may transfer sooner). 

Any time you transfer the software to a new computer, you must remove the software from the prior computer and you may not retain any copies.

Cont.

Thanks yes, that was my understanding but PCkeys' response muddied the waters somewhat.

RC

[AleisterCrowley]

Thanks for checking RC. As I've got a cheap laptop (£150) I think a complete disc failure would probably mean getting a new one anyway (no doubt with Win 11 and Office 365 bundled in...)

[Infrasonic]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/transfer-your-office-license-to-another-device-or-another-person-8a967fb6-6c65-433e-800e-b9ae3436c2de#:~:text=However%2C%20you%20may%20transfer%20Office,case%20you%20may%20transfer%20sooner).

Cont.

Thanks yes, that was my understanding but PCkeys' response muddied the waters somewhat.

RC

The only thing that springs to mind is that PCkeys are using single use link codes to prevent casual re-use or reselling?

If you want the multi use/install option you pay the extra £20.

As long as you have the actual license key string and it's on MS' system registered to you I'm sure you could just ring up Microsoft and get it it reauthorized if it's within MS' linked ToS.

[AleisterCrowley]

Well, done it..
Went with PCKeys eventually
Office 2021 Professional, with a Black Friday discount - £23-66
The online chat was very responsive

It wasn't entirely straightforward, but everything seems to work OK

First job was uninstall Office 365. I used the downloadable app on the Microsoft help page - which unexpectedly launched something called Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant. I eventually found a 'I'm having trouble uninstalling Office 365' button, so hit that and off it went. It took ages, particularly the cleaning up bit (stage 3)
Rebooted and thankfully all gone.

The link had arrived from PCKeys, and instructions that didn't precisely match what I had to do (as usual for this sort of thing)
Hitting the link downloaded a file called ProPlus2021Retail (4.71GB) after what seemed like forever (prob 30 minutes -40 minutes) - this was a Disc Image File (.img) which was unexpected. I eventually managed to work out what to do with it - right click then 'Mount' and opened in File Explorer.
There was a 64 bit install exe in there so I hit that and off it went. Another long wait and it eventually finished. Then it popped up and said "We're just downloading your apps, stay connected" - I thought that's what it had been doing for the previous 30 minutes???!!
But finally everything finished. Rebooted (IIRC) , opened Word and put the key in. All seemed to work fine. Closed everything again but when I opened Excel, then Word and Access they all came up with a Microsoft 365 label. Hmm. Rebooted yet again and now all the apps say Office 2021 and the Account info says Product Activated - Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2021

It seems to be fine- just a few things;
I've gained an app called Microsoft 365 (Office) - I knoweth not why. I've still got 2 days of my 365 licence left, perhaps that's the reason.
Can I get rid of the ProPlus2021Retail.img file from my downloads, or is it worth keeping, or saving to a removable drive?


Thanks for your help everyone!

[Urbandreamer]

I know that this is too late, as a decision has been made to remain with MS Office.

However, given the discussion of cloud storage and the security of unfamiliar programs this recent youtube video might be of interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnXZKphq-XM

Rob Braxman runs a privacy business. It's worth watching the video for the history of LibreOffice. He doesn't use macros so seems unaware that they are available on LibreOffice, as many TLF know who run HYPTUSS.

[monabri]

It seems to be fine- just a few things;
I've gained an app called Microsoft 365 (Office) - I knoweth not why. I've still got 2 days of my 365 licence left, perhaps that's the reason.
Can I get rid of the ProPlus2021Retail.img file from my downloads, or is it worth keeping, or saving to a removable drive

Thanks for your help everyone!

I'd uninstall/delete the Microsoft 365 (Office ) as you are going to use Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2021.

I'd keep a copy of the .img file on a separate storage device and make a note of the product key...5Gb isn't that onerous storage space wise nowadays.

[AleisterCrowley]

Is there any way to guard against having to purchase again I need to reinstall Windows/Office?
I'm assuming a disc image isn't a simple clone of my hard drive, and I couldn't just drop a new drive in and copy it all back over and expect it to work ??!!
I really don't know. Downside of temporary retirement - no IT support team

[monabri]

You downloaded the Office software but it was of little use until you entered the password key. If your hard disc was to need replacing or you needed to move to a new PC, could you not simply download again and then enter the 25 digit password key?

[Infrasonic]

...Downside of temporary retirement - no IT support team

The upside is you now have plenty of time to study how all this IT stuff works in advance of ever needing it in an emergency, rather than scrabbling around in a panic post catastrophe - which is what we see on this board a lot of the time...

At least the basics anyway, like proper 3-2-1 backup procedures - OS/app/files / email + restore procedures etc.

Case in point.
I once had a total SSD C drive failure on my current W10 box - *I just booted into the existing SATA D drive clone and carried on until I got a replacement SSD and then set that up as my primary C drive again. Since then I always have at least one boxed SATA SSD lying around so the potential downtime is even less. SSD/HDD's are always on discount offers.

* Set up in advance with free EasyBCD 2.4 multiboot app.

[Itsallaguess]

‎
Ah, the joys of MS Office installs...

I got a new Windows 11 laptop in the summer, and quickly discovered that whilst my trusty Office 2007 package could get installed on it without any issues, the Windows 11 automatic-update process, that's now a juggernaut without any useful brakes on it, didn't contain a complete list of relevant Office 2007 updates, which shouldn't be too much of a surprise for something that's been out of support for 6 years I suppose...

The worst thing was though, that one of the updates that was forced on me was one which completely broke the Active-X form process, which meant that none of my macro-enabled tools would then work with my new laptop.

When Office 2007 was still in support, Microsoft had released a further update that subsequently fixed that earlier Active-X breakage, but now that further fix-update is missing from the Windows 11 automatic-update process, and there's no way beyond completely turning off ALL Windows 11 updates to ignore any specific updates that are known to break stuff, like there used to be with earlier versions of Windows.

So I was either stuck with no Office, or I could install Office, but the forced and incomplete updates meant that it wouldn't function as I needed it to...

Fast forward a few weeks, and just by chance and I suppose a good slug of dogged perseverance, I found a Powershell script online that could EXTRACT all the currently-installed Office updates from a Windows machine that was already fully patched and working, and so I was able to run that Powershell script on my old Windows 10 machine that has Office 2007 on it already, extract all the MSP update-files from that fully-patched install, and then copy those MSP update-files into the 'Updates' folder of my Office 2007 install package.

When next running the Office 2007 install on my Windows 11 laptop, the install process then goes through it's normal first-run installation-steps, and then automatically looks into the 'Updates' folder to see if there's any further MSP-based patching-tasks to complete, and it runs through those MSP-file patches one by one, until my new laptop's Office 2007 install is as up-to-date as my main PC, complete with the update that fixes the Active X issue...

I've been trying hard to avoid Office 365, and also trying to avoid having to have a Microsoft account through which to activate any of the more modern standalone versions such as Office 2010, and I'd managed to do that fairly easily until I eventually hit this unfortunate Windows 11 update issue with Office 2007, but the good news is that I've managed to get over the line one more time, which should keep me going for a few years yet I imagine...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[AleisterCrowley]

...Downside of temporary retirement - no IT support team

The upside is you now have plenty of time to study how all this IT stuff works in advance of ever needing it in an emergency, rather than scrabbling around in a panic post catastrophe - which is what we see on this board a lot of the time... ...

I'm surprised I had the time to do any 'work' to be honest. Studying IT is not top of my to do list- although I was a computer 'hobbyist' back in the early days (ZX81, MZ80K at school..BASIC...) I rather gave up on it when it got so opaque, and MS took over the world

[Lanark]

Given that it's coming from Amazon themselves, and it clearly states 'Multilingual' in the product description, along with all the other important details that you'd want to rely on as an Amazon customer, then I think that product, at that price-level, provides a good solution for you that doesn't expose you to any of the third-party risks that you're currently wary of.

Im late to this thread but just to add, ALL of the stock at Amazon is co-mingled with their thousands of 3rd party sellers, including many who are drop shipping from China, everything is literally sitting on the same shelves in the same warehouse.

"Direct from Amazon" meant something 15 years ago, but it no longer does. That's how Bezos has enough money to fly to the moon.

[Breelander]

‎When Office 2007 was still in support, Microsoft had released a further update that subsequently fixed that earlier Active-X breakage, but now that further fix-update is missing from the Windows 11 automatic-update process, and there's no way beyond completely turning off ALL Windows 11 updates to ignore any specific updates that are known to break stuff, like there used to be with earlier versions of Windows.

So I was either stuck with no Office, or I could install Office, but the forced and incomplete updates meant that it wouldn't function as I needed it to...

Fast forward a few weeks, and just by chance and I suppose a good slug of dogged perseverance, I found a Powershell script online that could EXTRACT all the currently-installed Office updates from a Windows machine that was already fully patched and working, and so I was able to run that Powershell script on my old Windows 10 machine that has Office 2007 on it already, extract all the MSP update-files from that fully-patched install, and then copy those MSP update-files into the 'Updates' folder of my Office 2007 install package.

I find that the Microsoft Update Catalog is a good place to look for those 'hard to find' updates....

KB2920794 article: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2920794
KB2920794 in update catalog: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.co ... ?q=2920794

I've been trying hard to avoid Office 365, and also trying to avoid having to have a Microsoft account through which to activate any of the more modern standalone versions such as Office 2010...

Office 2010 was, I believe, the last one you could install without needing a Microsoft account. I've installed and activated it on one of my W11 laptops.