Loading MS Word and Excel onto my new PC

[SurreyGuy]

I treated myself to a new desktop PC yesterday. It came without Word and Excel on - which the guy in PC World to me was now par for the course.

If I still have the MS Office set-up disks from my old PC, can I use them to load those programmes on my new machine?

The reason I ask is that the guy in PC World told me that they would be registered to my old machine and NOT to me, which would mean that I can't do it. As I have no idea whether he was just trying to get me to buy them from him, I thought I'd ask my fellow ABers for advice! :o)

T.I.A.

[heathfield]

I did just what you'd like to do without any problem. I didn't like the Winxp Word where you can't use Drawing directly on the page, but have to use a separate window. So I deleted the Works that came with my new computer and installed an older version from a disk I had for my Win98se.
Mind you, you might have to watch how old your disk version is. Some older versions may act up a bit.

[mattie]

Get Open Office from www.openoffice.org.
Its free and compatible with the equivalent Microsoft programs.

[rojash]

As mattie says, you could get openoffice, but the guy at PCWorld was talking out of his *rse. There is nothing technical or legal to stop you loading your old Office disks onto your new PC.

[smorodina]

There should't be a problem with installing office on a different pc - I've had no problem with this.

btw heathfield, you CAN draw directly on the page in Word xp. Just delete the drawing box and draw.

[SurreyGuy]

Thanks all - great help.