Office 2007 Conversion - exisiting educational site license

P

Patatone

I have pre-installed MS Office Professional 2007 on my new laptop
(Misco-supplied Toshiba) and I am rapidly approaching the end of my 60 day
trial. I work for an University and can hence use their Site license. Given
the option to convert it to the full version, can I just enter the University
License Product Key to my current installation or do I have to uninstall the
current installation and replace it with the University copy?
 
B

Bob I

It is generally recommended to Uninstall the trial and then install the
desired version. Prevents odd leftovers from cropping up later.
 
P

Patatone

Thank you, Bob. I think the answer I was looking for is that the
pre-installed OEM trial can only be converted by using the Product Key from
the OEM supplier. The University Key will not work with the OEM. From my
perspective it is pretty irritating to have to uninstall a perfectly good
installation which is integrated with my Anti-virus and reinstall, download
updates etc etc, thus invalidating the guarantee given by the laptop
supplier. The other option is to pay about £500 to get the OEM supplier key.
Not a great choice.
 
B

Beth Melton

I've never heard of uninstalling/installing software/updates invalidating a
guarantee. I'm also not sure what you mean by "integrated with my
Anit-virus". Do you have some information on this you can share?

You are correct that paying an OEM for a product key is not a good choice.
(I know that's not exactly what you meant. ;-) ) Doing so will tie the
Office installation to that laptop (it's non-transferrable) and you must
rely on the OEM to provide support in the event you lose your product key or
installation media, which most OEMs do not provide anyway. Retail, or in
your case volume license, is the only way to go and involves less
frustration in the long run.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton

What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs
 
B

Bob I

First the "trial version" is exactly that, a trial, and the "guarantee
given by the laptop supplier" doesn't apply to it. As to the
"installation which is integrated with my Anti-virus", once again, that
doesn't mean anything as we are referring to a "temporary piece of
software". And once the issues caused by the so called "integrated with
my Anti-virus" start showing up, the recommended procedure is to DISABLE
the "Anti-virus Office Plugin" because it provides NO additional
protection from viruses. So your quandary results solely from being
confused about what you actually have installed on the computer and your
rights. You have a great choice, IF you pick correctly.
 
P

Patatone

Thank you Beth and Bob for your follow up. I will go with uninstalling the
trial version and will install a new version - what you both say regarding
transferability and avoiding problems is quite right. My belief from past
experience is that once you start loading 'new' software on a computer and
get problems, it is always a nightmare trying to get either the computer
manufacturer/supplier or the software manufacturer/supplier to accept any
responsibility - they will invariably blame the other and the customer is
left to sort it out. At least by using pre-installed software, I could
justifiably lay any problems at the door of the laptop supplier.
As to antivirus integration, I bow to your superior knowledge. My
simplistic view was that when Norton Antivirus was set up it looked for and
linked to Office - so that on opening a file, Office requests a virus scan
(if set). Presumably that can be relinked once the new Office suite is
installed?
Thank you both again.
 
B

Beth Melton

I agree, licensing issues and support can be a nightmare!

When it comes to pre-installed versions of Office my experience is the
manufacturer/supplier is more inclined to deny responsibility. Not to
mention with most, once your support runs out they won't help you at all and
since they are supposed to support their installations, such as provide
replacement installation media and product keys, Microsoft won't help. :-(
Once I cut out the middle-man (the OEM) I've been much happier with support
issues that I can take directly to Microsoft.

Regarding Norton, it works in the background outside of your Office
applications and recognizes when an Office file is opened. It isn't tied to
the installation so you don't need to do anything special after installing
Office again. BUT there are numerous known issues with the Office Plug-in
and the current advice is to turn the option off in Norton Options since you
will still be protected by Norton's AutoProtect layer. The only thing the
Office Plug-in can do that the AutoProtect layer can't is scan password
protected documents prior to opening them. If you don't work with password
protected documents there are no additional protection measures the Office
Plug-in offers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton

What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs
 
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