Posted on 12/11/2019 3:02:52 PM PST by LouAvul
I bought MS Office back in college and have installed it on several computers whenever I upgraded computers.
Now I have 3 new computers with Windows 10 OS and, like always, I installed the MS Office 2007 software. This was yesterday.
Today, I opened up a Word file and everything has been reformatted. The entire layout is different. And Microsoft is telling me I have to register the software with the original registration numbers by December 19 or service will be interrupted.
Seriously? I don't even have the original packaging/box. And I've been using it for 10 years.
Where's this headed? The annual subscription fee for the new online only Office software?
Anybody else had this issue?
The alternative is to go the subscription route?
Tomorrow I guess I'll get into the attic and see if I can find all the old software stuff. Steam driven OS CDs.
I purchased Office Pro 2016 on bonanza.com for $15 (might be $19 by now).
It is a lot easier. I even had an Office 2013 that I could not get to work and the license key would not take. After a few hours I realized my times is worth WAY more than $15 an hour and just purchased a new one.
Just jump on Bonanza.com (eBay will also work) — you can buy 5 user license packs for $40 or so.
I hear ya, I bought a copy of Office back when they were allowing employees of their corporate accounts to do so at a discounted price. Now it won’t run because “no longer supported”. Pissed me off enough I just learned to use Open Office instead. Screw Microsoft.
Where is it headed??
It headed me to Linux Mint and LibreOffice.
Microsoft is very much into planned obsolescence on their products. I have many programs I wrote for windows 3.1 that are still running just fine on windows 10 machines on an industrial scale. Some are graphic intensive and they print just fine on modern printers
Dirty bastids sure better leave my Microsoft Image Composer program alone. It came with FrontPage '97 or '98. VERY simple picture editing software.
I have purchased Microsoft Office Licenses on eBay a couple times for a few dollars. I never expected them to work, but so far they all have, and they have kept working. The actual software is downloaded from Microsoft’s office.com website. You use the license key to create your account. So far none of them have expired or stopped working. After about a year I managed to lose the password for one of the accounts that I created, but the seller fixed it for me when I sent him/her an email.
Yeah fo to Open Office. A bonus is far less formatting problems than that horrid Microsoft product.
If you have access to an installed/working version on another computer, there are software programs that can tell what the registration/serial numbers are.
10 Software to Recover Product Key Licenses from Computer
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/retrieve-serial-numbers-or-cd-keys-from-your-computer/
Or you can just search duck duck for “Office ‘95 serial number” and I am sure you will find a working one. it is one of those programs you can install as many times as you want.
FReepers may have noticed M$FT is moving towards a “software as a service” business model. Office 365, where you pay a monthly fee per user is a start.
Eventually, Windows will be like this.
Wonder what the monthly charge for Windows 7 will be? :)
I also use Open Office and have had no issues. I feel the same about microsoft.
Download LibreOffice. It’s free and has everything MS Office does and is compatible with ms office.
LibreOffice is a powerful office suite – its clean interface and feature-rich tools help you unleash your creativity and enhance your productivity.
LibreOffice includes several applications that make it the most powerful Free and Open Source office suite on the market.
Nice tip, great prices on a lot of it.
Check to see if they upgraded you to Office 365.. pretty common even with known MS Office 13 & 16 running on Win 10 and there’s a Win 10 update, they delete your office version and change to Office 365. It’s MS so expect this type of crap.
Go Open Office and don’t look back
I can’t help you but I can attest to the fact I am using a 20 year old version of MS Office I have on a disc and still have the ‘key’. It has worked on MS OS system since then and today on 10Pro.
I have been using (it’s free) OpenOffice for some years now. For the most part I only use the spreadsheet, it brings in all the MS sheets I get sent with no problem.
I use CorelDraw for my graphics work and it takes care of my limited word processor needs. I have no complaints with OpenOffice.
As a bonus, I enjoy not giving money to Microsoft.
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