My wife purchased a laptop + MS student Office and installed same for her daughter for college several months ago. The laptop screen failed, the daughter (not thinking <best excuse>) exchanged the setup computer for a new one with just the OS. Since we are here and she is there I'd appreciate some input on the following scenarios.

1. If the store has not returned her computer to the distributor and she can borrow it, take it to a tech, hook it up to another monitor, image the drive and install the image on the new computer...will MS regard (either on behalf of the OS or Office) see this somehow as a new machine and choke and reject the install (there were 2 of 3 installs against the Office key but I don't know how MS senses/handles the OS on a new machine)?

2. If she cannot get her original machine back, is there a link to a VERY easy and straight forward total technophobe download and install for those with a key (that has a help voice number)?

3. If she cannot get the machine back (to uninstall the Office copy), is there any way for MS to regard the install not as the last 3 of 3 installs but a reinstall of the 2 of 3 license?

4. If she has the key can she gain access to (not sure what it's called) Office in the Cloud (that I'm assuming has PowerPoint too)?



Thanks,

Mark

Hi Mark,

I'd suggest recovering just the data at this stage, plus any downloaded apps that might be needed in the future. On the loan PC, you could then install a trial copy of Office, which should be enough for the period your own will be out of action.

In all likelihood, the PC will be restored to its factory defaults immediately its returned and everything on it is going to be erased - that's one of the first things the repairers do to establish that it's not just a software error (eg faulty screen driver).

With a reinstall on new hardware (which may include transferring an image), one of the remaining licences may be 'used'. however, that doesn't mean your daughter won't be able to reinstall the software on another PC at a later time. At most it may require telephone activation. Note that reimaging only works if the core hardware is exactly the same. Any differences in video cards & mainboards can render a transfeerred image unusable.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Paul,

Thanks for the clarification on re-imaging to a new machine. I can now eliminate 1 potential.

If you have a licensed copy of Office student, does that entitle you to use MS' 'cloud office' that (I'm assuming) includes PowerPoint?

Mark

P.S. It seems that with a free MS Skydrive account you do have access to Word, Excel, PP, + to create and save documents. Just found this ability on my Skydrive account that I'd been using simply for duplicate archival storage.

I have no idea how the licences relate to MS Cloud. AFAIK, MS Skydrive is not about application, but storage.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I think it's a matter of once you have one you may have all.

Here's what I did:

Open Live Mesh website from desktop, click Live Devices, hover on Windows Live and click All Devices then click Office (amongst a page full of choices).

Mark

Have her download and install Apache Open Office.
It is compatible with MS Office (with a few differences in complicated Excel features), and can open MS Office files, allowing you to edit them, and then save them to be used later by MS Office, or Open Office.

Hi Gary,

Suggesting the OP install a differert suite really doesn't address the issue at hand - licence portability. The Open Office applications are not fully compatible with any of their MS Office equivalents.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Having used multiple computers, some with MS Office, and some without, I have found Open Office to be compatible in most cases.

As mentioned, the only problems I've encountered are related to complex issues in Excel.

In a "catastrophe", it will often bail you out. (my expereience)

Regards,
Gary

Thanks Gary--I've used OO myself in the past and agree. However, her co-primary need within Office was PowerPoint.

Btw, the situation resolved with her purchasing a new Office--a lesson not necessarily learned in school ;-)

Mark

Hi Gary,

If you want to know how incompatible Open Office is, just take a look in any Office application's help file for all the functionality that is not supported by the Open Office file formats. Presumably, Open Office will have the same kind of info relating to the MS Office file formats.

Even in Excel, the incompatabilities span much more than a few "complex issues". They include such basic stuff as themes, named ranges and expressions, workbook/worksheet protection, Active X & form controls, limited chart support, etc.

When we get to Word, we find no support for: ActiveX controls, Bibliographies, Captions, Content Controls, Tables of Authority, Table of Figures, Text orientation in table cells, Themes or Watermarks. Tables of Contents are also not fully supported.

That's just Word & Excel - and we haven't even got to the advanced stuff! For someone trying to resolve MS Office issues, using Open Office may bail them into far greater problems than they started with.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Your point is well made.
Thanks,
Gary