Transferring Ms Ofice

[New Judge]

My old laptop is nearing the end. It has a number of problems (hardware, not software) and I plan to replace it. However, it has a nice Office "Professional" suite on it which I am more than happy with. I had this installed when I bought the laptop and do not have dics for it. Surely I do not have to buy a new version of Office to go on my new machine do I? Can I transfer the software on to my new machine?

[Hypognosis]

If you weren't supplied the CD of the bundled MS Office then either you've been diddled, by the retailer, or there's something about the OEM s/w bundling business that I don't understand - such as the retailer having some arrangement whereby Micro$oft, of all companies, allows a retailer to dish out multiple copies of one of their products for a one-off licence fee. Which doesn't sound like them at all.

In practical terms, because of what happens during install (registry changes), you cannot simply copy the program folder to another machine and expect it to function correctly.

[New Judge]

Thanks for the reply, hypo.

No, I know that I cannot simply copy files across. The Office software was supplied by a reputable dealer but it was installed from a download rather than from discs. I've got a load of gumpf that he left me. I'll have a ferret through that to see if I can find anything useful.

[Old_Geezer]

No expert but I think MS likes customers to jump through hoops before they can change the PC that the software the caller bought (should not be a licence con) is installed/run. They prefer everyone pays them again. Might pay you to ask advice from your reputable dealer ? Especially in your position ;-)

[New Judge]

Thanks, og. Alas my reputable dealer went skint a year or two ago.

[Buenchico]

If you got Microsoft Office via a download that presumably means that you actually downloaded a 'setup' file and then double-clicked on it to start the installation. That setup file might still be in your 'Downloads' folder (or wherever else you stored it). If so, you can probably copy it to a USB memory stick and then to your new laptop, and run it again to start the installation. However it's likely that you'd then be required to enter the registration code which you needed first time round, which might be a problem.

However (even if you didn't write that code down) you might be able to access it anyway. On your old laptop, download, install and run Belarc Advisor:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
That collects together masses of data about what's on your machine, including all of the registration codes for all its software.

If you finally have to admit defeat, consider using Apache OpenOffice instead. It's at least as good as Microsoft Office:
https://www.openoffice.org/
(I use Microsoft Office on my desktop, simply because it was there when I bought my computer secondhand, but OpenOffice on my netbook, with no problems whatsoever).
However if you use OpenOffice you should note that it's best to change the default 'Save' settings, so that OpenOffice automatically saves documents in Microsoft's formats, rather than in its own. (It's a simple one-off job):
http://voices.yahoo.com/how-set-openoffice-writer-save-as-microsoft-11017880.html

[Hypognosis]

If you can locate anything resembling a product registration key then you stand a good chance of being able to download the product yourself.

As long as the old machine never goes online again, M$ cannot detect the same reg key on two different hardware signatures, then you'll be okay.

Needless to say, make sure new machine's Antivirus is fully up to date before transferring documents. There are *.doc and *.rtf-specific viruses now, I hear.

[Hypognosis]

Was hoping Cheech or methyl would show up. Doesn't half type faster than me! ;-)

[New Judge]

Thanks for the tip, methyl. My versions of Excel and Word are 2007.

Thanks everybody for the various tips and info. Best answer to Buenchico mainly for the vast amount of info and links. I'll have a look at "belarc" tomorrow to see what can be done. I don't feel inclined to shell out for something I've already got so I may go down the "Open Office" route if all else fails.

[New Judge]

Yes thanks methyl.

Existing system is Windows Vista. New machine I'm thinking of buying comes with Windows 8.1

[HansUrbancka]

From all that I have heard and read, Windows 8.1 is not an ideal system.

Perhaps Methyl will agree with me.......Stay away from W8.1 and have a good look for bargains with Windows 7.

Hans.

[ChuckFickens]

Windows 8.1 is fine.. in fact it's loads quicker than windows 7 and more stable.

There is a little bit of a learning curve and you need to know that you can modify it to suit you..

Unpin the crap you don't want from the start screen.

Pin what you do want to the start screen.

Pin what you use everyday to the taskbar.

Unpin the crap from the task bar.

Do the above and you've got the best and quickest OS microsoft have ever released..

Or you can listen to the "OMG it's crap" brigade, although they are stuck in the past and haven't bothered to learn how to use it!

[Buenchico]

What annoys many people about Microsoft, Chuck, is the way that their developers assume that everyone wants all the 'bells and whistles' by default, then requiring them to work out how to cancel those functions (which most definitely isn't always obvious to anyone who struggles to cope with technology).

For example, if I'm typing a Word document, I often want to use a numbered list but with MY OWN numbering system, MY OWN spacing between lines and WITHOUT indentation. If I try to do that using Word's default master page I'll find that my own preferences are over-ridden by what Microsoft employees think I ought to be using. Yes, I know that I can cancel Microsoft's default settings but the Help file doesn't make it easy. Yes, I know that I can create a new master page, with all default settings turned off, but why (for example) should a 90yo computer-illiterate user (who wants to do exactly the same thing as me) have to pay a computer expert to do that for her? Functions such as auto-numbering should be AVAILABLE BUT DISABLED BY DEFAULT.

Similarly, Windows 8 should OFFER its 'bells and whistles' to users but not try to IMPOSE them upon people who'd rather not have them and who aren't 'computer-savvy' enough to know how to get rid of them.

Windows employees might understand TECHNOLOGY (although they often seem to do their best to prove otherwise) but they most definitely don't understand PEOPLE!

[ChuckFickens]

I kinda agree.. Chris.

MS software and its OS's is getting better and better in what it can do (believe me... the stuff available in windows 8.1 and server 2012 R2 combined is awesome!)

But... How they are putting that across to the user is crap.

When I build a new PC most of my time is making the user experience decent... The systems experience they have sorted.

[ChuckFickens]

"Windows 8.0 is a complete waste of space and should never have been released in that state."

Yeah... I agree.

8.1 sorted most of it out though.

[ChuckFickens]

The IE thing is as funny as F***

Previous versions of IE rendered everything in a totally non-standard way, but because it was the most popular browser web servers put work-arounds in place to fix it.. when IE actually started rendering stuff correctly the "work arounds" then broke everything (and in came compatibility mode)

IE these days is an OK browser... but loads of sites recognise it as being IE and apply the work-arounds for the older versions which screw it all up