MS Office 2010 Professional for £43.99 (normally £429.99) Edited

seert

Thank you for your efficient answer as always, i'm extremely grateful

NewForest_2

I’m going to purchase MS Office (two children at school, all legit!) from either software4schools or The Basement (rm.com). May I first just say what a fantastically useful thread this is. (Yes, I’ve read all 8 pages!) Thanks bugeyed in particular.

I’ve studied the S4S website carefully and phoned/emailed them to clarify details.

At this time, both Office 2007 and 2010 are available to download or on DVD. (S4S say they have the 2010 academic version discs now in advance of the retail version release, eg Amazon, on 15/6/10.)

It may seem a no-brainer to go for Office 2010 immediately, but S4S Sales told me that by getting 2007 first and then upgrading to 2010 (for £5 or £8) I could legally use Office on three PCs rather than just two! They said that only one of the two installed copies of 2007 can be upgraded to 2010 and the second copy of 2010 must be a clean install, which could be on a third PC, and you could continue to use the non-upgraded copy of 2007 as well. So it could work like this:

PC(1): Install Office 2007; not upgraded further
PC(2): Install Office 2007 and then upgrade to Office 2010
PC(3): Install 2010 as clean install.

On the basis that "if something sound too good to be true, it probably is" I need to confirm this! Have you heard of this? Does it sound correct to you? I did double check it by repeating what I’d understood and by calling S4S back, but all calls and emails were answered by the same operator! Thanks!

bugeyed

NewForest wrote: »

At this time, both Office 2007 and 2010 are available to download or on DVD. (S4S say they have the 2010 academic version discs now in advance of the retail version release, eg Amazon, on 15/6/10.)

It may seem a no-brainer to go for Office 2010 immediately, but S4S Sales told me that by getting 2007 first and then upgrading to 2010 (for £5 or £8) I could legally use Office on three PCs rather than just two! They said that only one of the two installed copies of 2007 can be upgraded to 2010 and the second copy of 2010 must be a clean install, which could be on a third PC, and you could continue to use the non-upgraded copy of 2007 as well. So it could work like this:

PC(1): Install Office 2007; not upgraded further
PC(2): Install Office 2007 and then upgrade to Office 2010
PC(3): Install 2010 as clean install.

On the basis that "if something sound too good to be true, it probably is" I need to confirm this! Have you heard of this? Does it sound correct to you?!

Very very interesting. Thanks for your kind comments.
Okay - bit by bit. Firstly the version available. There is a difference between the academic version and the Pro Plus (academic misses out Info path, communicator and Sharepoint) - see the useful wiki guide at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_2010 about 3/4 down page for comparison chart. Personally, I think most people won't miss those 3 bits. Click the 3 missing programs on the wiki chart to see what each part does.

As for the advice from S4S about being able to put Office on 3 computers. That is an extremely interesting idea and seems plausible. The catch is really on how the Microsoft licensing system interprets it. When you upgrade, a special key is generated on validation. This key is made from the originating product's product code (Version of Office being upgraded from) + the product code for the version of Office 2010 you are upgrading to + the product key for both the originating product and your new upgrade copy. There are some other bits of the equation, generally hardware mac codes from your processor, hard drive, motherboard and graphics card. This special key will be unique to the computer you just installed the upgrade onto.
So the question is - will Microsoft notice that you have 3 generated keys.
Answer - in this scenario, probably not.

This leaves the question - what if I do this and they do notice.
The policy of Microsoft is to no longer warn you that you have used all the licence keys for the product. They treat the final 2 installations as the valid copies and any older installs will not receive updates. This will leave the first computer open to vunerability attacks. Not something you may want to consider with a child's computer. It would be a gamble. As I have stated, I believe this maybe a scenario Microsoft haven't considered, but, what if they have.

It is a difficult choice, and if I was asked by a friend or relative whether they should try this, my answer would be no. The risk isn't worth it for the sake of twenty odd quid (the cost of one of the two licenses that come with each copy).

So, the choice is yours - it may be a glitch that they have missed
But I cannot really recommend the risk. It is entirely yours to take.

You could try running the licensing system past the op you spoke to at S4S and ask what their opinion is of it. Maybe they have had advice from Microsoft saying that this scenario is a legit glitch, in which case :beer:.

Thank you for the valuable info in your post :T

bugeyed

NewForest wrote: »

I’m going to purchase MS Office (two children at school, all legit!) from either software4schools or The Basement (rm.com).

Word of warning - The Basement do not appear to be offering the free upgrade to 2010. It is not an automatic right - Microsoft appear to have given S4S express permission to offer the upgrade but I can't see any such deal with The Basement.

Please post if I am wrong

NewForest_2

An update to your comment about The Basement (rm.com). They have replied to me regarding Office 2010 upgrades as follows:

“We have been advised by Microsoft that they will not be upgrading Student Select licences as part of the 2010 free upgrade scheme so the licences on the Basement will not be eligible for this upgrade.”

So it has to be software4schools (S4S) if you want to get upgraded from 2007 to 2010. But now that Office 2010 is becoming available directly (rather than by upgrade), The Basement is a worthy competitor (unless you disagree, bugeyed) and they won’t charge you the £1.95 transaction fee that S4S sneak onto your bill at the last stage without warning or explanation (very shoddy practice by S4S IMHO ). The Basement confirmed:

“Thank you for your query. There are no additional charges when ordering through the Basement – the cost of the software is £47.34 inc vat with free delivery.”

NewForest_2

Thanks bugeyed for the prompt and informative response regarding Software4Schools (S4S) etc. I’m pleased that my question contributed to the sum of MSE users’ knowledge on this valuable deal! :beer:

As for my question regarding Software4Schools's (S4S) suggestion how to legally install three copies of Office and taking into account your advice, I am still tempted to give it a try for at least one of the two purchases I intend to make. I could put the additional (non-upgrading) copy of 2007 on the PC that my children would use least. I take your point about gambling the effective cost of £20-odd per PC, but I only have two children = four licences but five PCs/laptops, so I don’t have the option to buy further cheap copies of Office from S4S – so if I can get “three out of two” it would be a bonus.

Thank you for your detailed explanation regarding MS Office licensing (about which I know nothing and am completely guided by you). Inevitably, your comments give rise to further questions :question:, please:

1. Are you saying that if you install Office on more PCs than MS thinks are allowed under the licence, all copies would continue to function fully but the oldest wouldn’t update? Is that the worst that can happen? I assumed one copy would be deactivated and crippled – is that not the case?

2. Presumably the worst case scenario is that my first copy of 2007 somehow gets deactivated and I have to pay to get 2010 for the other two PCs? In other words, an extra cost of £8 for the gamble, compared to buying 2010 straightaway rather than 2007 – and I’d still have my four usable copies?

3. If you do all installations and upgrades in quick succession, might you run into problems in terms of which version came first? ie. might MS get confused and possibly deactivate or stop updating the wrong copy? Or can you guard against this by running MS Update or Windows Update after each installation/upgrade?

4. When installing the third copy as an Office 2010 fresh install, which product key would I use? Would it be the new one generated by the first upgrade? I still don’t understand why/how this copy, the third installation, would be “allowed” by the licensing system?

5. I generally prefer to have CD/DVDs rather than downloads. But given the restrictions on Office installations here – you can’t move it to a replacement PC according to S4S: if your PC’s lost/stolen/broken that’s tough – is there any real benefit in getting DVDs? NB I don’t think the S4S download is an ISO file; I think that’s only for Windows 7 OS.

I fear it might be expecting too much to quote all that detailed licensing stuff to the S4S Ops – they’re geared to answering two quick questions and then taking the next call – I think I’m already starting to irritate them with my unusually detailed questions! Emailing is no better: I asked two questions but only one was answered and they didn’t answer the follow-up - par for the course with "helplines" these days – sigh!

Just to clarify the Office versions issue, following on from your comments. I may have caused confusion by referring to the “academic” version: what I meant was the full version software at academic prices (S4S’s phrase). Indeed, S4S are only offering the very full Professional Plus version of Office 2010. All purchases of Office 2007 from S4S after 5/3/10 are eligible for upgrade to this version. So you could buy 2007 Standard for £38.99 (£8.35 less than Pro Plus) and get upgraded to 2010 Pro Plus – not bad! Regarding the included programs, as far as I can see from the S4S MS Office 2010 page (see features table halfway down), Pro Plus does include Info path, communicator and Sharepoint (not that a home user would need them). (Sorry, I can’t paste links as a Newbie – grrrr!!)

Thank you (and sorry this is rather long)!

bugeyed

NewForest wrote: »

1. Are you saying that if you install Office on more PCs than MS thinks are allowed under the licence, all copies would continue to function fully but the oldest wouldn’t update? Is that the worst that can happen? I assumed one copy would be deactivated and crippled – is that not the case?

A: Effectively, the oldest copy (dated by activation) will be treated as though it were a pirate copy. It will function normally, but won't receive any updates even though Microsoft update says it has. The copy will work normally but will be vunerable to attack via vunerabilities. Also no bug fixes will happen. So - not the end of the world.

2. Presumably the worst case scenario is that my first copy of 2007 somehow gets deactivated and I have to pay to get 2010 for the other two PCs? In other words, an extra cost of £8 for the gamble, compared to buying 2010 straightaway rather than 2007 – and I’d still have my four usable copies?

A: Yes (replace deactivated with not updated or bug fixed

3. If you do all installations and upgrades in quick succession, might you run into problems in terms of which version came first? ie. might MS get confused and possibly deactivate or stop updating the wrong copy? Or can you guard against this by running MS Update or Windows Update after each installation/upgrade?

A: Only upon activation is the key generated by which microsoft know which copy is which on which machine. There will be no confusion as their servers can handle thousands of activations at the same time. So activate first the 2007 install for the copy you are least likely to worry about getting problems with as this will become the oldest and the one ignored by update.

4. When installing the third copy as an Office 2010 fresh install, which product key would I use? Would it be the new one generated by the first upgrade? I still don’t understand why/how this copy, the third installation, would be “allowed” by the licensing system?

A: Okay - we have 2 discs of Office 2007 (disk W and disk X) and 2 discs of Office 2010 upgrade (disk Y and Disk Z) [if you go for digital download replace word disk with download]
PC 1: Office 2007 (not going to get updates) = 2007 License key Disc W
PC 2: Office 2007 = 2007 License key Disk W upgraded to Office 2010 = Office 2010 license key Disk Y
PC 3: Office 2010 (straight install) = Office 2010 License key Disk Y
[note we have used only 2 license keys of each - yet 3 machines].

PC 4: Office 2007 = 2007 License key Disk X upgraded to Office 2010 = Office 2010 license key Disk Z
PC 5: Office 2007 = 2007 License key Disk X upgraded to Office 2010 = Office 2010 license key Disk z
[again we have used 2 license keys of each]

5. I generally prefer to have CD/DVDs rather than downloads. But given the restrictions on Office installations here – you can’t move it to a replacement PC according to S4S: if your PC’s lost/stolen/broken that’s tough – is there any real benefit in getting DVDs? NB I don’t think the S4S download is an ISO file; I think that’s only for Windows 7 OS.

A: The digital download is actually an executable file, not an ISO, you are correct. You can store the executable file in case of needing to reinstall or repair later though Office makes a special folder upon install which protects against the need to use the disk again (a kind of install file backup folder) so really the DVD once used is pretty much useless hence not worth paying for.

You have got the detail about the versions correct including that Software4students will upgrade the Standard 2007 to Pro Plus 2010
They are the only site offering to do this.

As for not being able to move the install onto a replacement machine, European law banned this practice. A quick call to Microsoft activation help-line (from the activation screen select install by telephone) and they will issue you with a replacement key (killing your old ones) if you can assure them that the old computer has been destroyed. If you need more detail on that you will need to go to the technical forums as the info on it is huge.

NewForest_2

Many thanks for the detailed reply, bugeyed - you're a gold mine of useful information! :T Sometimes you can only properly understand these things by going into great detail, and I'm grateful to you for doing that. It's just a pity that so many companies aren't prepared to be so clear and helpful but over-simplify things instead.

fairyprincess

I'd like to thank Bugeyed as I have now bought the MS Office package for my son's Mac and had no problems but saved loads of money. I also bought Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Mac at a huge saving and got a free upgrade to CS5 if I showed proof of purchase to Adobe. Purchased through 'software for students'. I'd been searching for the best price and then came across this thread. Sooo glad I waited!!!:beer:

skibster

fairyprincess wrote: »

I'd like to thank Bugeyed as I have now bought the MS Office package for my son's Mac and had no problems but saved loads of money. I also bought Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Mac at a huge saving and got a free upgrade to CS5 if I showed proof of purchase to Adobe. Purchased through 'software for students'. I'd been searching for the best price and then came across this thread. Sooo glad I waited!!!:beer:

Hi, where did you find the Photoshop at a savings, and how much was it?