Transferring Microsoft Office

tigershoops31

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Apr 13, 2006
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Does anybody know if you have to do anything special to transfer a program like Microsoft Office from one PC to another? Our current laptop is not long for this world and we are looking at getting a new one from dell.com but don't really want to pay the $120 for Office when we already have it on our old one. Is there any problem with doing that?
 

IcSyU

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Does anybody know if you have to do anything special to transfer a program like Microsoft Office from one PC to another? Our current laptop is not long for this world and we are looking at getting a new one from dell.com but don't really want to pay the $120 for Office when we already have it on our old one. Is there any problem with doing that?

I think I just installed it on both of my machines but I could be wrong...
 

tigershoops31

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I think I just installed it on both of my machines but I could be wrong...

Good...I was hoping I wouldn't have to uninstall it from our old one. I'm sure we'll rarely use it once we get the new one but it'd be nice to have it on there still if we both had projects to work on at the same time for some reason (and I guarantee I'm the one getting to use the old crapper in that scenario:sad:)
 

IcSyU

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Just saying I think...and if not, find a College of Business student at Iowa State and ever so kindly ask if they've bought their license yet...we got it for $9 from the Bookstore.
 

tigershoops31

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Just saying I think...and if not, find a College of Business student at Iowa State and ever so kindly ask if they've bought their license yet...we got it for $9 from the Bookstore.

Good call...if my wife's brothers don't get kicked out for next year at ISU I'll have to hit them up :yes:
 

jumbopackage

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Sep 18, 2007
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You should just be able to install and activate it. If worse comes to worse, you may end up explaining to someone in India what is going on and they will give you an activation code
 

Cyclone62

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You should just be able to install and activate it. If worse comes to worse, you may end up explaining to someone in India what is going on and they will give you an activation code
Do you know if that might work for getting a license for computers in a school computer lab as well using one disc?
 

Cyvilian

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Years ago, my hard drive crashed and it didn't want to let me reinstall. The Microsoft validation process thought I was installing as a second copy. I just called Microsoft customer service and explained that my hard drive crashed and I was reinstalling the software. A few clicks on his end, and I was good to go.

Since then, I've also installed on a new PC when I replaced the machine above, and had no issues whatsoever.
:confused:
 

Cyclone62

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Years ago, my hard drive crashed and it didn't want to let me reinstall. The Microsoft validation process thought I was installing as a second copy. I just called Microsoft customer service and explained that my hard drive crashed and I was reinstalling the software. A few clicks on his end, and I was good to go.

Since then, I've also installed on a new PC when I replaced the machine above, and had no issues whatsoever.
:confused:
Now they tend to let you install their programs on up to three computers. So you basically have three licenses. Maybe that's what it is?
 

jumbopackage

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Do you know if that might work for getting a license for computers in a school computer lab as well using one disc?

You can probably get an educational discount from MS.

The way I described was how to transfer a license legally. What you are describing is illegal, at least unless you have a volume license agreement with MS, in which case you wouldn't need to worry about activating anything.
 

Cyclone62

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You can probably get an educational discount from MS.

The way I described was how to transfer a license legally. What you are describing is illegal, at least unless you have a volume license agreement with MS, in which case you wouldn't need to worry about activating anything.
I was getting at the volume license thing. I didn't know if you know how that worked for MS or not. I've heard about it, but never seen it. Since it would be for a computer lab just so that all students could work on the same project at the same time instead of having to take turns at one computer.
 

jumbopackage

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I was getting at the volume license thing. I didn't know if you know how that worked for MS or not. I've heard about it, but never seen it. Since it would be for a computer lab just so that all students could work on the same project at the same time instead of having to take turns at one computer.

Well there's a difference between a Volume License Key (VLK) and a standard retail key. VLKs generally don't need to be activated, while retail ones do.

I think the installation media is different for the two as well.

At any rate, MS has very favorable rates for educational institutions, so it shouldnt' cost much, if anything, to get some office volume licenses.
 

Cyclone62

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Well there's a difference between a Volume License Key (VLK) and a standard retail key. VLKs generally don't need to be activated, while retail ones do.

I think the installation media is different for the two as well.

At any rate, MS has very favorable rates for educational institutions, so it shouldnt' cost much, if anything, to get some office volume licenses.
What's the difference between the two? Aside from one being for personal use.

I'm meaning the license keys, not the actual software.
 
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jumbopackage

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What's the difference between the two? Aside from one being for personal use.

I'm meaning the license keys, not the actual software.
I'm pretty sure that VLKs generally only activate VLK media..

And retail licenses only activate retail copies.


The actual software is identical, and I'll be damned if I can tell you which key is which by looking at them.
 

CRCy17

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Check the back of the box I know ive seen in the past it say "can be installed on up to 3 computers"
 

SeattleClone

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Good...I was hoping I wouldn't have to uninstall it from our old one. I'm sure we'll rarely use it once we get the new one but it'd be nice to have it on there still if we both had projects to work on at the same time for some reason (and I guarantee I'm going to use the old one in the crapper :smile:)

That's what you meant to say, right?