The Ultimate Steal (Office 2007) £38.95

bestpud

superscaper wrote: »

I know some academic versions (I think home and student edition as well) come with 3 licenses. So you can install them on three separate pcs.

Unfortunately not the case of the ultimate offer as that is essentially 1 retail license for an academic price/cost.

Sorry, that is wrong, to put it bluntly.

It is another thing that has been said on older threads and quickly argued and proved wrong.

You CAN use it on two machines. It says so in the T&Cs although they are difficult to find! From memory, someone has posted a copy of the relevent bit on an older thread though.

I have it running on two machines with no problems btw so can say for sure it works!

superscaper

bestpud wrote: »

Sorry, that is wrong, to put it bluntly.

It is another thing that has been said on older threads and quickly argued and proved wrong.

You CAN use it on two machines. It says so in the T&Cs although they are difficult to find! From memory, someone has posted a copy of the relevent bit on an older thread though.

I have it running on two machines with no problems btw so can say for sure it works!

Whether it'd work or not wasn't the point, but you only get one license. That license as I think I've said on other threads I believe covers you also installing it on a laptop (I'd thought I'd posted that in this thread but it appears I missed it off) but you don't get two licenses for two separate pcs. You only get the one license.

"a. Licensed Device. You may install and use one copy of the software on the licensed device.
b. Portable Device. You may install another copy on a portable device for use by the single primary user of the licensed device."

Only talks about your rights to install on one licensed device in the license terms.

If you've got it on a desktop and a laptop then that's fine (I think 2 laptops should be ok as well) but two desktops and having it installed on someone else's computer is breaking the terms. Depends on what you mean by "two machines". But it's completely factually correct to say you only buy one license.

bestpud

superscaper wrote: »

Whether it'd work or not wasn't the point, but you only get one license. That license as I think I've said on other threads I believe covers you also installing it on a laptop (I'd thought I'd posted that in this thread but it appears I missed it off) but you don't get two licenses for two separate pcs. You only get the one license.

"a. Licensed Device. You may install and use one copy of the software on the licensed device.
b. Portable Device. You may install another copy on a portable device for use by the single primary user of the licensed device."

Only talks about your rights to install on one licensed device in the license terms.

If you've got it on a desktop and a laptop then that's fine (I think 2 laptops should be ok as well) but two desktops and having it installed on someone else's computer is breaking the terms. Depends on what you mean by "two machines". But it's completely factually correct to say you only buy one license.

Ah, ok, I get you.

Good to point out the difference I think, as many people who have a desktop and a laptop (as many students do) will want to know they can install it on both computers.

I personally would be put off buying it if I thought I could only run it on one of my computers and (being a tad thick ) I'd assume that one licence meant one computer.

So, out of interest, are you saying those who buy the full product could feasibly run it on 6 computers - 3 deaktops and 3 portables? Or does this version have unique T&Cs?

superscaper

bestpud wrote: »

Ah, ok, I get you.

Good to point out the difference I think, as many people who have a desktop and a laptop (as many students do) will want to know they can install it on both computers.

I personally would be put off buying it if I thought I could only run it on one of my computers and (being a tad thick ) I'd assume that one licence meant one computer.

So, out of interest, are you saying those who buy the full product could feasibly run it on 6 computers - 3 deaktops and 3 portables? Or does this version have unique T&Cs?

Not sure about that. Definitely not with the ultimate steal offer though as that's definitely only one license, hence one desktop and one laptop at most. But if you bought an academic version that had three licenses it would seem that you could install each licence on one desk and lap so giving six in total. As I said the ultiamte steal offer you are actually getting the full retail license of the office ultimate so there's no difference between that and buying the retail version at amazon. Unfortunately the retail versions only seem to allow one license. Although I think the home and student version does allow three licenses but it doesn't include things like outlook etc. So it depends on your individual circumstances as to which one to go for and which would be best value.

Degeneratemoo

I was not aware that it could be installed on a PC & a laptop. How does MS know where it is installed, also if I were to install it on my PC and my girlfriends laptop (on which I do a lot of my work), would that be breaking the T&Cs? Would MS even know I've done it? Would they care?

superscaper

Degeneratemoo wrote: »

I was not aware that it could be installed on a PC & a laptop. How does MS know where it is installed, also if I were to install it on my PC and my girlfriends laptop (on which I do work), would that be breaking the T&Cs? Would MS even know I've done it? Would they care?

The quote I gave in my earlier post about allowing you to install on a portable device was taken directly from the license installed with the copy of office. I'd imagine it could tell the hardware was a laptop motherboard etc and allow a second activation.

bestpud

I wondered how ms would know too. It's feasible that they know when one licence has been activated more than once, but how would they know a laptop from a desktop, or indeed who owns it?

Seems even more difficult when you consider the scale of ms - how can they possibly monitor individual uses as much as they say they do?

superscaper

bestpud wrote: »

I wondered how ms would know too. It's feasible that they know when one licence has been activated more than once, but how would they know a laptop from a desktop, or indeed who owns it?

Seems even more difficult when you consider the scale of ms - how can they possibly monitor individual uses as much as they say they do?

The activation request that is sent to MS is made up of a key derived from the state of hardware of the computer. I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to determine the difference between a desktop and laptop as they use quite different hardware and therefore allow that second activation from a laptop but would refuse an activation on a third machine or second desktop.

Degeneratemoo

I did wonder about what would happen if I purchased a new PC and wanted to reinstall it on there, i.e. if I upgrade from XP to Vista. Is there anyway to deregister the software with Microsoft and then reinstall? What if someone wanted to sell the software on later, would this be possible?

superscaper

As it's the retail version you're allowed to transfer it to different PCs. I'm not sure if uninstalling it deregisters the activation (use the original installer to uninstall everything). But from experience with activating Windows, the worst that could happen is that you have to phone MS to manually put in the activation code which isn't a big deal.