Transferring Office 2003 to a new system

A

AtownPA

I am planning on buying a new system and giving my old one to charity. Long
ago, I purchased Office 2003 Professional Edition (via CD) and installed it
on my old system. I would like to install it on my new system and then
delete everything on my old system before giving it away. Is this possible
or does the Microsoft license agreement prevent me from putting it on the new
system?
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

When you go to activate the product using the online method you may have to then use the telephone method to explain your scenario
to the activation folks. If it's an OEM edition ('OEM' in the product ID in Help=>About) it's not transferable. The license binds
it to the original machine where activated.

=======
What is the solution then Gordon? Can I do as DL said and just install it
from the CD to the new system? What happens then when I try to activate it
with Microsoft? Won't they see that it was already activated on my old
system and refuse to activate it on the new one? >>
--

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
 
A

AtownPA

So if I uninstall Office from the old system instead of just deleting it,
Microsoft is somehow informed that it's off that system?
 
G

Gordon

AtownPA said:
So if I uninstall Office from the old system instead of just deleting it,
Microsoft is somehow informed that it's off that system?
Click to expand...

no it's not - and it is almost impossible to just "delete" it - there are
many entries in the Registry and files and folders all over the place
 
A

AtownPA

What is the solution then Gordon? Can I do as DL said and just install it
from the CD to the new system? What happens then when I try to activate it
with Microsoft? Won't they see that it was already activated on my old
system and refuse to activate it on the new one?
 
L

LVTravel

Since you are going to "delete everything on my old system" you don't have
to worry about uninstalling the software, just reformat the hard drive and
reinstall the original operating system (if desired) to delete the old
information. Microsoft doesn't monitor uninstalls only activation after
installs.

As long as this is a retail purchase, not OEM version of the software,
install the software on the new system. If it has been more than a certain
period of time (90-120 days, can't remember the exact timeframe) since the
last install you will be able to install on the new system and internet
activate the software. If within the time period, which probably won't
apply to you, you would have to use the telephone activation method when it
said can't activate.
 
A

AtownPA

I would like to thank everyone who has responded to this question. Yes, my
copy of Office 2003 was a retail purchase and it's here in the box. So I
don't expect any problems now that I have this information.

By the way, my "method" for deleting the hard drive before giving systems to
charity is to physically remove the hard drive from the case and then use an
electric, bulk eraser on it to just suck everything off. I do not believe
this hurts the drive but it's better than just deleting files which as
everyone knows aren't really deleted until they are overwritten by something
new. I've also heard that even formatting can leave data on a drive which is
why I use a bulk eraser. It looks like an iron. I think I got it from Radio
Shack long ago

Once again, thank you very much for the information.
 
L

LVTravel

The bulk eraser from Radio Shack that my school used years ago (which also
looked like an iron) were designed IIRC for erasing floppy disks. Don't
know if the magnet in them is strong enough to erase a hard drive. Don't
have a hard drive that I want to attempt it on to determine. There are
secure erase programs on the market that run enough passes on the drive that
it is almost impossible to get anything off of them. In most instances,
unless you have really sensitive information on the disk most erasing
programs will work well enough. I have donated more than one privately owned
computer to charity and did not have to worry about people attempting to
recover my information. If the data would be that sensitive, the disk
should be physically destroyed.
 
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