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back to article Microsoft: Office 2013 license is for just one PC, FOREVER

Microsoft has clarified the licensing for retail versions of its Office 2013 productivity suite, confirming that boxed editions of the software are licensed for a single PC only and that the license may never be transferred, even if the user upgrades to a new PC. Over the past week, Office users around the web have expressed …

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      1. itzman
        Reply Icon

        Re: FFS

        Dunno. But I reinstalled a different OS on my desktop machine set up virtual box and copied the old virtual machines to it and told virtual box 'there is a VM: use it' and the whole caboodle was there and ran..

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      2. Volker Hett
        Reply Icon

        Re: FFS

        Yes, VMs can, but you have to have a license to install Windows 7 or 8 in a VM first. This is certainly not the license your computer came preinstalled with.

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        1. Ken Hagan Gold badge
          Reply Icon

          VMs (Re: FFS)

          "Yes, VMs can, but you have to have a license..."

          Not only that, but most VM hosts are optimised for the performance of the guest rather than the concealment that there is a VM. Windows is perfectly well aware when I am running it in a VM. If people start habitually using VMs to get around licence restrictions, Microsoft will simply add code to prohibit this.

          It will probably turn up as an "update". Leave your machine running one Tuesday and wake up the following morning to discover none of your documents are readable anymore.

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          1. Lallabalalla
            Reply Icon
            FAIL

            Re: VMs (FFS)

            And I have to be cognisant of all that just to write a friggin letter? "The hell I will."

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          2. The Specialist
            Reply Icon
            Go

            Re: VMs (FFS)

            Then I will simply *roll back* that update and carry on as before!

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      3. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: FFS @frank ly

        >>So, can VMs deal with this situation?

        Yes, here is my VirtualBox settings for XP. Create a virtual disc and run this script before installing XP (OEM version from a restore disc)

        I hardly use it these days and I won't be buying MS Office

        #! /bin/bash

        VM_NAME="xp01" # Name of your Virtual Machine

        VSETED="VBoxManage setextradata $VM_NAME"

        CFG_PATH="VBoxInternal/Devices/pcbios/0/Config"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiBIOSVendor "Hewlett-Packard"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiBIOSVersion "F.0C"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiBIOSReleaseDate "06/05/2008"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiBIOSReleaseMajor "15"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiBIOSReleaseMinor "12"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiBIOSFirmwareMajor "113"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiBIOSFirmwareMinor "45"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiSystemVendor "Hewlett-Packard"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiSystemProduct "HP Compaq 6715b"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiSystemVersion "<RK154AV>"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiSystemSerial "xxxxxxxxxx"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiSystemUuid "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"

        $VSETED $CFG_PATH/DmiSystemFamily "103C_5336AN"

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      4. Roland6 Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: FFS - Can you set up a VM

        YES !!!

        "Computer. In this agreement, "computer" means a hardware system (whether physical or virtual) with a storage device capable of running the software. A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a computer."

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  2. Graham 24
    FAIL

    Ship of Theseus for the modern age

    So, if I install Office 2013 on a computer, and then, on progressive weeks, upgrade the motherboard, processor, memory, hard disk and video card, is it still the same computer five weeks later? Have I invalidated my licence? Do I need to reassemble the previous components into a working system to be legally allowed to use the software?

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    1. LaeMing
      Reply Icon
      Meh

      Simples.

      You are not Microsoft's target demographic and your situation is not worth their consideration. Only mindless consumers of IT please. Hey! It works for 21st century Apple!

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      1. Dana W
        Reply Icon

        Re: Simples.

        Except of course Apple does not actually DO that.

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      2. Chris Parsons
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        Headmaster

        Re: Simples.

        Downvoted for thinking it's clever to say 'simples'.

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        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Simples.

          Sorry, Chris. But it IS clever to say "simples". That's just a fact.

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        2. Steve the Cynic
          Reply Icon
          Headmaster

          Re: Simples.

          "Downvoted for thinking it's clever to say 'simples'."

          Sorry, but "simples" is a perfectly good word.

          ...

          In French, where it is the plural form of the adjective "simple" (which can mean 'simple', but also, in the context of railway tickets, one-way, as opposed to "aller-retour"). So I might have one "billet simple" but if I have two, then they are "billets simples".

          Simple, non?

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      3. Lallabalalla
        Reply Icon
        WTF?

        Re: Simples.

        Is that the same Apple that charges £25-odd for a new OS, £6.99 for Pages which includes free updates virtually forever and the right to install it free on any device with your appleId?

        Or some other Apple that exists in your head :)

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    2. dajames
      Reply Icon
      Angel

      Re: Ship of Theseus for the modern age

      So, if I install Office 2013 on a computer, and then, on progressive weeks, upgrade the motherboard, processor, memory, hard disk and video card, is it still the same computer five weeks later? Have I invalidated my licence?

      So, the same case then? You should be OK ...

      Microsoft are relying on the fact that most people don't upgrade, they go out and buy a new PC and so need a new licence. If this change in licensing terms means that more people upgrade their systems in future, and less old kit ends up in landfill, it may even be a good thing.

      ... up until the point at which Microsoft persuade the hardware industry to start making motherboards that won't fit in the old cases, anyway!

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    3. stucs201
      Reply Icon

      Re: Ship of Theseus for the modern age

      “This will become, in time, the ax of someone’s grandfather,” said the king, lifting it out. “And no doubt over the years it will need a new handle or a new blade and over the centuries the shape will change in line with fashion, but it will always be, in every detail and respect, the ax I give you today."

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    4. Steve the Cynic
      Reply Icon

      Re: Ship of Theseus for the modern age

      "on progressive weeks, upgrade the motherboard, processor, memory, hard disk and video card, is it still the same computer five weeks later?"

      Sounds like my old machine. I bought it in 97 with Win95 OSR2. Over the years I replaced every part of it - motherboard, RAM, video, sound, monitor, hard disks, OS (--> 98SE then --> 2K), CD-ROM drive, case, the keyboard, and eventually even the floppy drive (it was the longest-surviving of the original components, probably because it had the lowest rate of wear and tear).

      Because I had already started this process when I first included it in a network, it got the host name "grandfathersaxe"...

      Oh, and based on what I've read so far, all the comments and even the article suggest strongly that nobody remembers the OEM Windows licences, where you couldn't transfer them anywhere. Not to a new machine of yours, nor on the original machine to another person (along with the machine, duh). This Office 2013 thing isn't as bad as that.

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      1. BorkedAgain
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        Pirate

        Re:Grandfather's Axe

        Perhaps we should deploy Ganto's Ax instead...

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  3. pPPPP

    Well, if you really need to have office, just stick with an old copy, or install it in a VM running Windows. I find that I need it for some office docs that simply won't work properly in Libre. So it's in a VM running a minimal install of XP.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Much like Triggers broom, my PC has had the same case for a decade. It might have had five different motherboards, processors, memory and graphics cards... So surely I'd be ok on their license. Likely story.

    Though I was never going to buy it anyway, I do about two office files a year outside work and it's nothing LO or Google Docs can't handle.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Same case for a decade?

      I take it that you have a plastic beige one?

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Same case for a decade?

        Nope, I invested in a nice black aluminium Lian Li PC6070B in 2002! Turns out despite everyone raving over BTX the following year or so, it turned out remarkably future proof.

        It's only real problem has been it didn't foresee the rise of the 3ft graphics card and larger CPU coolers, so I had to put the hard drives in a hot swap bay. Though, in reality the need for a physical drive is nearly pointless now so I do have plenty of space up there and now with SSDs they will fit in the place where the hard drives wouldn't. Funny how it all works out really. Because of the removable motherboard tray, some larger heatpipe coolers won't fit (but can be fitted once it's slid in)... and there is no real useful mounting point for something like a Corsair H60... though the largest air cooler I did fit was the Scythe Infinity, which was absolutely ridiculous.

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        1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
          Reply Icon
          Devil

          Re: Same case for a decade?

          BTX - What a waste of time!

          My brother brought me a Dell something-or-other that had stopped working and he wanted fixing. No problem says I, and open the case.

          Hmm, something wrong here, everything's arse about face. Ahhh. BTX mobo.

          Could I find anything either retail, eBay or other tat bizarre. No.

          Could not even reuse the case. Stripped the reusable bits and scrapped what remained.

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  5. mark l 2 Silver badge

    What if you run it in a virtual machine, a virtual PC would still be the same PC if you copied the VM over to another physical PC a few years down the line.

    But then just like the OEM versions of Windows which no one sells the COA labels for without the PC do they ;)

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    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      @mark l 2

      Typically, if you move a VM to a new PC, the guest sees the change of processor. Quite possibly it seems a change of motherboard, too. These are the changes that Microsoft are least likely to write off as "typical hardware upgrades". You VM will, however, have the same network card and hard disc (and possibly also graphics adapter). These are the changes the Microsoft are most likely to ignore for licensing purposes.

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  6. Khaptain Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Who actually buys office anyway ?

    Serious question :

    Obviously most people on El Reg will have Enterprise, MSDN copies.( Ok, the Windows crowd will)

    Employees machines use Enterprise licences.

    Student get it "free" from their university ( or LO or alternative).

    Linux folks use LO or alternatives.

    Pirates download it in torrents.

    Grannies and Grandpas dont really need it ( well not many of them).

    Teenagers have got more interesting things to do.

    The unemployed wont buy such an expensive piece of software when notepad is usually OK.

    So who is actually left and what actual percentage of the userbase does this relate to ?

    Small clubs and associations ?

    A very minor percentage of the working population ?

    Obviously someone outside of the above list is buying it but is is very difficult to imagine who exactly.

    Anyone have any stats or actual figures ?

    <--- Paris doesn't need it, she once tried to classify her nail polish collection with Excel but it left coloured marks on the screen.....

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    1. Dazed and Confused
      Reply Icon

      Re: Who actually buys office anyway ?

      errrrrrrrrr

      the millions of small businesses?

      all those people who get sent office doc files that don't quite work right in LO.

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      1. P. Lee
        Reply Icon

        Re: Who actually buys office anyway ?

        Keep squeezing a small-biz and you'll find LO works "well enough."

        Its a dangerous game MS are playing. It amazes me that so many businesses are insisting that there is no economic downturn and profits must keep going up.

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      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Meh

        Re: Who actually buys office anyway ?

        "...millions of small businesses?"

        Close, but more like...

        millions of small businesses who haven't yet used an alternative, but claimed they "tried".

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        1. Dazed and Confused
          Reply Icon
          Linux

          Re: Who actually buys office anyway ?

          > millions of small businesses who haven't yet used an alternative, but claimed they "tried".

          Oh, believe me, I've tried.

          I've got rows of Linux boxes around me, but I can't escape for M$Office, my customers communicate with me in orifice files and I keep finding formatting inconsistencies between LO and M$. Just working in LO often works better and more consistently than using M$ which lets face ain't ever going to win any prizes for SW quality (why can't it consistently position text boxes for example - my most recent screaming fit), but sadly I'm stuck in a world which uses M$ and so I need to be able to speak orifice.

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        2. SleepGuy
          Reply Icon
          Thumb Down

          Re: Who actually buys office anyway ?

          Uh, many of us *HAVE* tried. Try opening an RTF file that uses tables and form fields in LibreOffice. The file is completely mangled. Try document protection (the little padlock that is on Office 2003) to prevent the main document from being edited by allowing only the form fields to be filled. How about just try tabbing from form field to form field when the document is locked (Of course locking and unlocking is a multi-step process in Libre Office). It's a huge mess. So yes, I have a stack of Office 2003 licenses for the "small business" I work for. I've tried every alternative but we must use .RTF for compatibility with other software we use and the alternative office suites just don't work.

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      3. LateNightLarry
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Re: Who actually buys office anyway ?

        Hundreds of federal and state and local government agencies.,. The USPS probably buys about 200,000 copies of MS Office for all of its computer systems in the administrative and post offices nationwide... Of course, they may not upgrade it for 3-5 years, until the next rollout of computer systems which will be even more locked down than the current ones.

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      4. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Who actually buys office anyway ?

        People who fall into a demographic technically known as "suckers".

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    2. Old Handle
      Reply Icon
      Trollface

      Re: Who actually buys office anyway ?

      According to Microsoft, nobody.

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      1. tony2heads
        Reply Icon
        Unhappy

        Re: Who actually buys office anyway ?

        Nobody buys OFFICE, just buy a license to use office

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    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Who actually buys office anyway ? @khaptain

      You're not from this planet are you, judging by the inane comment......

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    4. Khaptain Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Re: Who actually buys office anyway ?

      Judging by some of the above comments, it appears that some of you didn't actually bother readingor trying to understand what was written. I would hazard a guess that some of you didn't actually get past the comment title. Or alternateively you don't actually work in IT and therefore don't understand what Enterprise licences or MSDN are.

      I will allow you the pleasure of looking up the difference between an Enterprise Licence ( EASL) and a retail licence. Microsoft have several different licencing options which, although not free, definately help reduce the cost of buying multiple licences.

      9 2
    5. James 51
      Reply Icon

      Re: Who actually buys office anyway ?

      Student get it "free" from their university ( or LO or alternative).

      OU students get it for £42 approx. Not that much but certainly not free.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    I would tell them to....

    ...stick their sh*t software up their collective ar*es.

    But to be honest, I haven't used any of their stuff for years.

    LibreOffice does me and the family fine and has done in one form or another for years.

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  8. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Pirate

    Office 2010 PKC

    Will those people who bought a laptop and paid extra for a copy of Office 2010 to be bundled with it be happy to find out they can't take it with them to the next computer? They'd probably feel entirely justified in pirating it on their next computer, it wasn't so long ago that bundled software meant a DVD being included in the box.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Office 2010 PKC

      There was a copy of that installed on the Dell I bought, never activated it though and instead bought a retail version which I upgraded with a student licence. Have moved it several times, and correctly I might add.

      However the sneaky partition still resides on the hard drive just waiting to ambush me.

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  9. Pomgolian
    Linux

    May I be the first to say..

    ...Fark that for a game of soldiers.

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    1. AndrueC Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Re: May I be the first to say..

      Farkin' 'ell.

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  10. asdf

    hmm

    Yet another phase in the corporation slowly becoming irrelevant cycle. Monetizing (without vaseline) existing customers even harder to make it appear you are still growing and healthy. Unfortunately Apple is also starting to enter this phase but Microsoft is farther along.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: hmm

      'Monetizing (without vaseline) ' - awesome new phrase - thank you!

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  11. Paul Dx
    FAIL

    MS, FOAD !!

    That is all.

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    1. Swarthy
      Reply Icon
      Flame

      Re: MS, FOAD !!

      MS, FOADIAF !!

      -there, fixed that for you.

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  12. JaitcH
    Happy

    Who actually reads or even cares about licences?

    I stopped buying originals after sending a defective OEM version of Windows back to MS and they 'lost' it.

    Our local copy shop, only kilometres from MS VietNam, always laughs at the 'suits' from MS who regularly visit and tell him he is illegal or asks he want to sell legal MS products. The 'copyright' squad of Vietnamese Plods hasn't been around for a couple of years now - I guess their inspection 'sting' has faded, ever since they were forced to issue Notices advising when they were coming!

    His prices are unchanged, USD$1, for a DVD crammed with all manner of MS software starting with the latest versions.

    Really free enterprise rules!

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    1. Amorous Cowherder
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      Re: Who actually reads or even cares about licences?

      Take it this guy has never heard the song, 'Don't copy that floppy!'?

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  13. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Hey customer, not feeling f*cked enough? Smell Ballmer's sweaty armpits, then.

    So we will have yet another one of those NONREMOVABLE UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH ... I mean CONTRACT BREACH ... stickers on our machines?

    Nope.jpg

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