Does anyone really understand Office for Business licensing?

[Dahak]

Mushkins, just to be clear, are you talking about Windows 8/8.1 Core or 8/8.1 Pro Because 8/8.1 Pro always had downgrade rights.

Windows 8/8.1 Core is like the Home Premium Edition of Windows 7, which does not include downgrade rights, unless you are now saying that CORE now has downgrade rights

MS Downgrade Rights

 

[Kaido]

Only if the MS account stays signed in. Now as I had mentioned before we usually use the
MAK versions, but I had another one that added the PKC version. I usually sign out of the MS account after the install as they do not need to stay logged in.

Awesome, thank worked, thanks! It showed 2 accounts: the "master" IT account for MS Live & the local AD account. When you sign out of the master account, it defaults to the local AD account (which you cannot remove, I tried for kicks), which links up to their Exchange & whatnot. Excellent. That's a good stopgap if a site is too small for MAK/KMS.

Activation via license key still blows. The procedure is basically:

1. Download the offline IMG, mount it, and run it
2. Skip the email login, click on the 'activate by product key' link, and punch in the key
3. It will require you to redeem it online (opens webpage, sign into your Microsoft Account, it emails you a login code, activate it, then go back to redeem it in the program window now that it's activated)
4. The program requires you to do the login code again, so look for another email after you sign in to the program
5. Once it's done installing & you verify that it's activated, sign out of the master account

It's a small hassle, but I just did an install in under 10 minutes. Nice. Again, the crappy thing is that you can't change the product key - I didn't have my manual key list organized when I did this install & used a previously-activated keycard; there is no way that I am aware of to change it post-install, so you have to do a complete uninstall, then reinstall from the image (or streaming) using an unactivated key. I still have some unanswered questions I'm digging into:

1. How do you deactivate an Office key without uninstalling Office? For example, if a computer gets stolen, or the hard drive fails, or you do an OS reinstall without doing an uninstall first?

2. I'm assuming an uninstall deactivates the license with Microsoft, based on the old days, but I'll have to verify that too at some point. So the question is, does uninstalling Office 2013 from a computer send a deactivation signal to Microsoft's servers under your account? (I'll try this on my next keycard...curious about it, especially if you sign out from the master account locally)

3. Is it technically legal (and proper) to purchase a single Open License and then use keycards? (for non-Terminal Server machines)

4. Is there any way to change a product key post-install? Everything I've read & tried points to "no" due to the "virtual environment" installation method that doesn't actually have the full code locally. If I remember right, you can check the last few digits of the license key via a BAT file:

cscript "C: \program files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" /dstatus
pause

So things are starting to make sense. The overall idea is that Microsoft's goal is to push customers into an Office 365 subscription so that they can make more money, so they are making it super difficult to manage small business operations that require multiple keys, outside a KMS or MAK management solution. Microsoft has an overview of activation methods for Office 2013 here:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/activate-office-2013-programs-HA102819770.aspx?redir=0

MAK activation methodology:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn385359(v=office.15).aspx

KMS activation methodology:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624357(v=office.15).aspx

There is also one offshoot of this that I've come across: Active-Directory based activation, which is only available for Office 2013 on Windows 8 & Windows Server 2012.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624358(v=office.15).aspx

It seems that most organizations would use a combination of KMS & MAK, which Microsoft actually recommends. For on-site computers, they'd use KMS since they can ping your server. For portable computers, they can use MAK (assuming they're not constantly on VPN) since that activation method is Internet-based. And with MAK, you can do an independent activation via Internet connection, or you can do "MAK proxy activation by using VAMT" if you have computers in a place with security concerns or in places that don't have Internet access using the Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) as kind of a middleman.

I feel like you need a college degree in Office licenses these days!

 

[Kaido]

Ahah:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/activate-volume-editions-of-office-HA010381834.aspx

MAK is appropriate for organizations with computers that are not connected to the corporate network for long periods of time, such as portable computers. For this to work, a MAK key must be installed instead of the default KMS client key that is used in volume license editions of Microsoft Office.

With MAK activation, there is no requirement to periodically renew activation. You must reactivate if significant hardware changes are detected. In addition, you must request more activation allowances after the number of activations passes the predetermined limit. You have to manage the installation of MAKs and the potential need to manually activate systems by using a telephone when no Internet connection is available.

So with a KMS server, you install it, activate it once against Microsoft's servers, and then you're good to go. The clients install the KMS-activated Office suites, which will become unlicensed (but still usable) after 180 days of not checking in (in which case you'd probably want to use the MAK w/ VAMT). So that's becoming clearer now.

My problem is that a lot of places use a very mixed suite of existing retail & OEM licenses (ex. ones they've purchased off the shelf for custom-built machines, as well as say a Dell they purchased that came pre-loaded with Office 2013 for Business), so you get the headache of having to track all the different versions, and then bringing in a network-based activation system such as KMS, MAK, or AD.

 

[kn51]

I feel everyone's pain. As a volume license purchaser (have around a couple hundred machines to deal with) combined with the fact we qualify for charity/education pricing it becomes a burden. Usually my reps need to research what the heck to buy when I say "hey, I need 10 licenses for so and so."

Anyone suffer through the e-open to VLSC migration debacle a few years ago? That was painful for me anyways.

 

[Kaido]

I feel everyone's pain. As a volume license purchaser (have around a couple hundred machines to deal with) combined with the fact we qualify for charity/education pricing it becomes a burden. Usually my reps need to research what the heck to buy when I say "hey, I need 10 licenses for so and so."

Anyone suffer through the e-open to VLSC migration debacle a few years ago? That was painful for me anyways.

The biggest pain is simply getting clear answers. If I buy a Dell business machine pre-loaded with Office & it comes time to reload it, is that license legally under my site's Open License for KMS? How about keycards purchased retail?

Now that I've done some reading up as an "amateur" Office for Business purchaser, it's not all that complex - there's really only 5 channels: Retail, OEM, MAK, KMS, and AD (AD-based auth is new & requires Win8 & Server 2012). Then choose the key method or subscription (365) method for home or business. Done. The details are what's confusing. I can't tell if it's obfuscated on purpose to drive people to 365 for convenience, or if Microsoft is just so bloated that they can't tell their right hand from their left. Either way, it stinks.

 

[kn51]

The biggest pain is simply getting clear answers. If I buy a Dell business machine pre-loaded with Office & it comes time to reload it, is that license legally under my site's Open License for KMS? How about keycards purchased retail?

Now that I've done some reading up as an "amateur" Office for Business purchaser, it's not all that complex - there's really only 5 channels: Retail, OEM, MAK, KMS, and AD (AD-based auth is new & requires Win8 & Server 2012). Then choose the key method or subscription (365) method for home or business. Done. The details are what's confusing. I can't tell if it's obfuscated on purpose to drive people to 365 for convenience, or if Microsoft is just so bloated that they can't tell their right hand from their left. Either way, it stinks.

When my software rep needs to conference in on someone else and they are doing their best guess on what to get is no fun. Plus it sounds like you are dealing with mostly smaller outfits. For the record, I do mostly MAK activation. I run KMS for server licenses.

Wish they'd go back to the model they had in 2000. Server. Workstation. Client licenses. That's it.

Could be worse, you should see the Symantec license portal. That is probably the greatest pile of crap made by man.

 

[CSMR]

1. Office 2013 Business "Download": $219 (previously a CD version, I believe)
2. Office 2013 Business "Keycard": $169 (...also download, so what's the point of #1 now?)
3. Office 2013 Business Open License: $369 (previously "Volume License", note that tiers are available)
4. Office 2013 Business "365 Subscription": $150 annually (minimum - more if you need more than 25 seats)

The 365 subscription is a combination of Exchange/lync/sharepoint ($60 annually, which is very good value) and office so you pay $90 extra annually for office. From your list it looks like this could be a bit much compared to buying office every 3 years. You do get licences for phones/tablets, and personally I don't think Office 2013 was a good release, and wouldn't like to get stuck on it for 3 years.

 

[Kaido]

One of my reps got back to me:

1. KMS is for larger rollouts of 25 or more. MAK is more of a check-out service for keys.

2. The Volume Licensing program does not use keycards. It cannot use keycards to link to volume licensing, so it sounds like legally, tying keycards into a KMS system isn't kosher. I suppose technically, in the event of an audit, you could whip out the keycards to prove your purchase history, but technically-speaking under the Microsoft licensing terminology, keycards and VL are completely separate systems and do not talk to each other.

3. I still don't have a definitive procedure for deactivating Office 2013 (retail) on a machine. I ran into this issue this past weekend - I built a custom engineering computer, did the install, activated Office, and then next day the new SSD crapped out - no recovery. I keep spares, so I swapped in the new SSD, went through the OS re-install rigmarole, and re-activated Office. Fortunately it took it (same machine, just a different SSD drive) - no problem with activation when cross-referenced with the site's Microsoft Account Excel tracking sheet (fwiw this site has nearly 20 keycards without issue under their IT email account). I guess I'd have to call Microsoft otherwise. Some more info on that:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/activate-office-2013-programs-HA102819770.aspx

Office 2013, for a single PC:

For a first install or a reinstall on the same PC, Office for one PC—Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013, and Office Professional 2013—automatically activates if you’re connected to the Internet (you won’t see the Activation Wizard during the installation). But if you aren’t connected to the Internet during install, you’ll see the Activation Wizard. It will give you options to either activate online or by telephone—choose the telephone option if you’re still not connected.

If significant hardware changes have occurred on your PC and you reinstall Office OR if you install Office on a different PC, you’ll see the Activation Wizard after the install and whenever you start any of the Office programs. Use the telephone option in the Activation Wizard to contact the activation center.

IMPORTANT: Please remember that you can only have Office 2013 installed on one PC at a time. Telephone activation can only help you activate Office if you’re transferring Office to another PC.

Can I transfer the Office 2013 software to another PC?

You may transfer the software to another PC that belongs to you, but not more than one time every 90 days (except due to hardware failure, in which case you may transfer sooner). If you transfer the software to another PC, this PC becomes the “licensed computer.” You must remove the software from the previous PC. You’ll need to use telephone option in the Activation Wizard to contact the activation center after you transfer the software to another PC.

Help, my PC died. What do I do?

After you set up your new PC, you can install Office 2013 on it and contact the activation center to transfer the software.

Can I transfer the Office 2013 software to another person?

You may transfer the software (together with the license) to a computer owned by someone else if:

You’re the first licensed user of the software.

The new user agrees to the terms of this agreement before the transfer.
Any time you transfer the software to a new PC, you must remove it from the previous PC and you can’t keep copies. The new user will have to choose the telephone option in the Activation Wizard.

How do I contact the activation center?

Choose the telephone option in the Activation Wizard to get the phone number to contact in your country. For more information, see How to contact a Microsoft Product Activation Center by telephone.

This is the webpage the "activate by telephone" goes to:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950929

Microsoft Office 2013

To start the Product Activation Wizard, follow these steps:

Open any Office program. For example, open Microsoft Word 2013.

Click the File tab.

Click Account, then click Activate Product.

In the Microsoft Office Activation Wizard, choose I want to activate the software by telephone, then click Next.

Click the drop-down menu, and then select the country or region in which you're located.

The Product Activation Center telephone number appears under Step 1.

For more information about activating Office 2013 products, see Activate Office programs.

So you really only need to call Microsoft if you've changed a bunch of hardware in your machine, or if you're transferring the license to an entirely new machine. My guess is that the rep will deactivate the license under your Microsoft Account, which would then free it up for a fresh activation. I'm not exactly sure how they would do that if you have multiple licenses under your account, short of giving them the entire license key, so I'm hoping they have a system like that. I'm sure I'll find out at some point! Haha. I hate having sketchy answers to things, especially things involving business & significant amounts of money that those businesses will be using to invest in software.

 

[Kaido]

Finally tracked down a Microsoft Licensing Specialist & had a good chat with them. Here's what I've learned so far:

1. Retail licenses let you hold a max of 30 Office keys per account, so you have to create an additional account for every 30 licenses. If you have 100 users, you'll need 4 accounts. Not the cleanest way to manage things.

2. Terminal Servers are either licensed or not licensed. The accepted method of licensing is to have one TS licensed with the volume key (i.e. all users have access to Office) and then purchase enough Open Licenses to cover the actual number of users (so 20 licenses for 20 RDP users), then have a separate TS for non-Office access. Technically you can do them on the same server, but then non-licensed users (ex. if you only buy 10 Open Licenses for Office) also have access to Office since it's an "install for everyone" type of deal on a Terminal Server.

3. You have to purchase a minimum of 5 CALs to get your KMS/MAK code. However, only one of those needs to be Office, the others can be cheapo whatever CALs, like server access CALs, so if you need to start small to get your Microsoft codes, you can do so apparently.

4. Legally, a retail keycard for Office 2013 Home & Business does NOT apply to an Open License installation (KMS or otherwise). So you can't buy the minimum quantity of Open Licenses @ $375/ea to get a KMS server and then cover yourself with the $175 Retail Licenses for those Open License activations. They are different products and do not equate to each other, unfortunately.

I do not like the pricing because an equivalent Open License is more than DOUBLE the same product in Retail format ($200 more, to be exact). Open Licenses do come with some benefits, however, such as ability to be used on Servers (including Terminal Servers), authorization to be imaged, same-day rollout for new hires (as long as you purchase an Open License from an authorized vendor within a month from first usage), etc., but honestly, most business users just use the standard Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Outlook setup & don't need or want any of the extra features, so you'll have to carefully audit each business case to see what is most applicable to the situation.

Ultimately, you have to decide if the cost of going KMS/MAK is worth it. If you have a site with 200 users, you'd have to create 7 Microsoft Accounts to manage all of those Retail licenses, and manually keep track of the order installed, and have to call into Microsoft if you want to transfer any given license to another machine. However, before bulk pricebreaks, 200 seats of an Open License would cost you $75k vs. $35k, which is a $40,000 difference, which suddenly makes creating 7 Microsoft Accounts (an easy process that only takes a few minutes) a lot more attractive.

There's also some additional programs like Software Assurance, Select Plus, etc., as well as some additional benefits like getting access to Publisher, BCM, bulk discounts, and so on. Really depends on what your needs are. From what I can tell, Microsoft is purposely making it super confusing so that you'll give up & go into their recurringly-charged cloud program (Office 365), which is even more ridiculously priced for a non-huge business.

For example, it's $20 per user per month for the Enterprise package = $240/year = $720 over the course of 3 years, or what would be the typical upgrade cycle for new Microsoft Office releases that only cost $175 retail for a permanent key...granted you don't get the extra goodies, but again, how many people really use much beyond Word & Excel, and maybe Outlook in a corporate setting? At least for the ones you'd be consulting with that don't have a large number of users with their own on-site IT staff to manage this stuff.

 

[Dahak]

I agree with you on them making it confusing intentionally to try to get you to either going MAK/Office 365.

Just my experience below, doing a new rollout of 17 office 2013, company does not want to go with the open licensing, and to be honest for this client, its not really needed, there is 1 File server and the 20 users

What I had to do ultimately for this is
1) go to office.com/setup
2) enter the key
3) on the download page, fine the one with the heading that says "to get started with office choose install"
4) download that and number it
5) Click on Install from disk just below the install, same page
6) click have disk, and view product key
7) associate key with download number
8) add key to machine inventory with note of key and dl install

Which is a nice pain in the butt.

 

[Kaido]

I agree with you on them making it confusing intentionally to try to get you to either going MAK/Office 365.

Just my experience below, doing a new rollout of 17 office 2013, company does not want to go with the open licensing, and to be honest for this client, its not really needed, there is 1 File server and the 20 users

...

Yeah, I'm glad at least there's a (hidden) option for doing it that way. Subscriptions are kind of the way the world is going though - iirc, Adobe doesn't even let businesses purchase their creative products anymore, I believe it's 100% subscription-based now. Makes sense from a business perspective - you have to keep the money rolling in to keep paying your developers. Just stinks for the end user!

I'm setting up a Terminal Server next week with some thin clients, so I'll get that site setup with a KMS server & see how it fares.

 

[Kaido]

Quick update - Microsoft has added support for an authenticator app (via Google) for the 2-step sign-on, which makes life a little easier for doing activations from the desktop installer. They have support for Windows Phone, Android, iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, and "Other" (I'd assume Blackberries?). Works well, just added a seat to an existing email account.

 

[dxkj]

The part I am confused on is accountability, and how Open Open Licensing is... If you order 5 Microsoft Office keys, and are installing a mix of downgradeable office products, you get 50 activations... The part that confuses me, is why they would sell a random Joe 5 licenses ($1800 worth of software), then give them the ability to install it 50 times.

This happened with a company I did work for, some previous IT person told them about it, and I ended up as the bad guy explaining to them that if they installed it on 36 separate computers, that they would essentially be stealing $10k+ worth of software.

That being said, it isn't clear to me how they would get caught exactly, as they are a small business.

 

[Kaido]

Setting up multiple keycards under one account:

1. Download the offline installer (keep on USB stick or network drive)
2. Instead of signing in with your email address, click the "use product key" link underneath instead
3. It will launch the webpage to add the key to your account - login with the MS account. I use a generic activation@company.com address; if you'll be doing more than 30, do activation1@company.com, activation2@company.com, etc. (assuming you're not using a KMS/MAK Open License setup).
4. Go back to the installer to finish activation (you'll have to sign in again with your MS account)
5. It will add your keycard in sequential order. You'll have to keep a spreadsheet of license keys with what computers they're on, in order, for future reference. So if you have 14 keys in the account already and add one, you'll select #15 from the list (it doesn't show you the license in the installer selection list)
6. Once installed, I do this:

a. Pin the shortcuts to the Start Menu (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Office)
b. Launch Word, go to File > Account & sign out
b. In File > Account, change the theme to Dark Gray (MUCH easier to see the menus)
c. In Word/Excel/Powerpoint, go to File > Options > General (Default) and uncheck "Show the Start screen when this application starts" (that way it launches straight to a blank page instead of the different templates)
d. If using Outlook:

i. Right-click in a blank area of the toolbar & select "Customize the Ribbon" Click the "New Group" button in the lower right. Highlight "Send/Receiver All Folders" on the left side, then the "Add >>" button & OK. That will add a large Send/Receive button on the Home tab ribbon toolbar.
ii. I set Junk to "No automatic filtering" so that legitimate emails aren't missed.
iii. I set the send/receive groups to check automatically every 2 minutes.
iv. View tab > Folder Pane > uncheck Favorites so there's just one simple inbox instead of a vertical split.
v. Set the new/reply messages to automatically pop out (usually have to do a new or reply message first, then select & set the option). Especially good for people with dual monitors where they want to see some data or the original email when responding on the second screen. In Outlook Options > Mail > Replies & forwards, you can change it to "Open replies and forwards in a new window". Optionally disable the new mail notification sound in this area if you don't want it beeping you whenever you get a new message.
vi. If you're migrating from an older version, you can import the Autocomplete email address entries (the nickname cache), which is HUGE for some people (I have users who have hundreds or thousands of these that are not in their Contacts). If you're using an Exchange server, Outlook 2010 typically syncs up, but if not (or if using say Outlook 2007), you'll need to manually import them. Here's the procedure for an NK2 file from Outlook 2007:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2806550

For the Stream Autocomplete DAT file in 2010:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...mpletedat-file-for-outlook-2010?forum=outlook

You can also just use the Everything search engine to find it: (just do a search for "Stream_Autocomplete", it will have a long GUID after it - snag that one)

http://www.voidtools.com/

Anyway, this method of installing Office from a keycard for a business that uses multiple keycards works pretty well. I have found Office 2013 to be a tad bit slow. Occasionally I'll run into really horrible issues with updates - two or three times now, Microsoft updates have killed the Windows installation - after getting the system back up, Office refuses to start & cannot be repaired, requiring you to do a full Office reinstall & reactivation. That happens maybe one out of ten installs for me (using Office 2013 for Business); I have had to do a full Windows reinstall once to get Office reinstalled because it refused to reinstall even after doing a full uninstall, using Revo uninstaller to clean it up, etc. I haven't had a chance to trace which update is the culprit since I've always had to get the systems back up & running quickly, but since it's happened multiple times, it worries me.

 

[Dahak]

Actually great steps except for #5
5. It will add your keycard in sequential order. You'll have to keep a spreadsheet of license keys with what computers they're on, in order, for future reference. So if you have 14 keys in the account already and add one, you'll select #15 from the list (it doesn't show you the license in the installer selection list)

It does not add them sequentially. Or at least it did not seem to for me.
But part of the issue for me was, out of the 17 that I did, I was doing them in batches of 2-3 so I lost my place. If I was doing all 17 at one this would work.

 

[Kaido]

Actually great steps except for #5
5. It will add your keycard in sequential order. You'll have to keep a spreadsheet of license keys with what computers they're on, in order, for future reference. So if you have 14 keys in the account already and add one, you'll select #15 from the list (it doesn't show you the license in the installer selection list)

It does not add them sequentially. Or at least it did not seem to for me.
But part of the issue for me was, out of the 17 that I did, I was doing them in batches of 2-3 so I lost my place. If I was doing all 17 at one this would work.

Yeah, I just add them one at a time. I haven't had a problem with them going out of order. You can run that script from earlier in the thread to check the last 5 digits of the keycode on the local machine if you need to verify which machine has which keycode as well. It's lame, but it's all we've got

I do have one customer who will be buying a bunch next week, so I'll see if 30 is really the max limit per account. What a pain haha.

 

[Kaido]

Confirming a max of 30 licenses per account (single email address). Client has a combination of Office, Visio, Project, and PowerPoint (standalone version); they all count towards the maximum 30 license keys per non-MAK/KMS account. Easy fix is just to add an email alias to your main address (ex. microsoftadmin2@companyhere.com) & set that up as a second standalone account (emails still funnel into your main one, for easy management). Did that, no problem, back in business.

I've also found that the quickest method of activation is to either get the keycard (physical) or the download (just the key, like on Amazon.com's software library), add it to your Excel list (keys in the order activated) and activate it straight into your account using the Office setup page:

https://officesetup.getmicrosoftkey.com/

Then use the offline installer, sign in, select which number your key corresponds to (from your own records), and you're good to go.

 

[Kaido]

Edit: Looks like you can jumpstart the process simply by X'ing out of the activation window, then walking through the annoying screen that says "welcome to your modern office" over the speakers. Install is super quick with the offline installer (I extracted it to a folder for quicker installation).

Got a new trick for pre-loading Office 2013 due to some interesting behavior...I launched the offline installer on a standalone computer (hadn't plugged in the network yet), then got pulled away for a meeting. When I came back, Office had kicked off the install itself (!). I was able to launch Word, which is where it prompted me for the key:

http://i.imgur.com/PRwKrgT.jpg

It gives you a few days of usage with a warning message:

http://i.imgur.com/g3HLzSt.jpg

You can still sign-in if you'd rather do that instead of entering a product key: (which lets you either select from a list of previously-activated license keys, or launch the website to login to add a key to your account)

http://i.imgur.com/IZ9CxQP.jpg

So this is actually pretty handy for doing things like rolling out master computer images, because you can PXE-boot an image or restore via a USB dock or whatever you like to use (I'm a fan of Macrium myself for ghosting drives) & then simply load up the Office license using your Microsoft login without having to wait for an install & all that jazz. Nice!

My current procedure is:

1. Buy a license key (online download via say Amazon, or a product keycard)
2. Activate the license key on the Microsoft Office website
3. Add the license key to a number list in a text file or Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the licenses & order of the licenses activated
4. Use the offline installer to install Office, login with the Microsoft account, and select the appropriate license from the numbered list of pre-activated licenses in your account

You can do 30 licenses (mixed, including other Office products such as Visio & Project) per email account. Beyond that, simply setup another email account (ex. microsoft2@yourcompany.com). It's a pain, but this method gives you licenses at half the price of an Open License & doesn't require online or service check-in like a KMS or MAK licensing system does, so it's a lot better for small businesses to use. The big key is just to keep an ordered list of license activations so you don't get screwed when you have to install/re-install, and also to have a copy of the offline installer to save you download time during installation.

I feel like I have a pretty good system for managing non-server-based license rollouts at this point. What a pain tho!

 

[Kaido]

I haven't had to transfer a license to a different computer yet, but I have had to do an OS reinstall, and in some cases it sees it as a different computer & refuses to register it. Since it virtualizes the key locally, you can't just change keys post-install, which is super annoying. However, you can use the phone number to call in & have it re-register. You have to enter about 500 digits, then they ask you how many computers it's on (just say "one" & it lets you through - since it has the historical record that it was previously installed & activated on a prior Windows installation), then you have to punch in another zillion digits to activate it. But, at least that works, as annoying as it is, and you can use the numpad instead of your voice to expedite the process through the automated system (no human involvement needed or mis-hearing numbers you put in).

 

[Kaido]

One small update: If you select a key that has already been used, it doesn't bounce back to asking you to select a different number. You can reset this by right-clicking on the Office program in Programs and Features, selecting Change, and selecting Online Repair. However, this takes a long time...it's faster just to uninstall & reinstall. But it's one alternative!

There's some good information & discussion of the installation issues with 2013 in this thread:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...dc9-9b31-b24fb3eb25b1?page=1&tm=1426960862057

There is apparently a trick to not having to use a Live account to activate as well:

http://garvis.ca/2013/06/20/activating-office-2013-headaches-heres-your-aspirin/

Also, I posted a mini-guide at the end (page 3) explaining manual tracking & whatnot. Microsoft DOES store this information (because that's the information the installation activator relies on to reference a license key), but they simply choose not to show that information to you, which means you must manually track it. I keep everything in spreadsheets now. Still a pain

 

[Kaido]

Latest annoyances:

1. Any Office 2013 for Business purchases I make lately are already activated. This includes dozens of Amazon digital purchases (under various email accounts), as well as product keycards. Extremely annoying as I have to activate them by phone, which takes 5 or 10 minutes per license with the automated system.

2. They updated the automated system & made it worse. When you first call in, it now asks you to verify two numbers that it reads out loud before it even transfers you into the system. I'd imagine someone must have made a digital hacking system for activating various numbers, hence the addition security (and also explaining why the 20+ keys I've purchased have already been activated). Even more frustrating, the robot call system no longer recognizes my key presses, so you have to say all of the numbers audibly. It did okay with the license numbers verbally, but all of the other commands ("one", "no", etc.) were not recognized two or three times.

So for non-KMS/MAK/etc. type of systems, I know have to buy a license, call in to activate it, and spend five or ten minutes arguing with a robotic "helper" to get it activated. Good luck if you have to reinstall it or have some other kind of issue because you just end up talking to someone in India who is reading from a script & has no power to actually do anything. Horrible, horrible system. And only $219 per license currently! :awe:

 

[Kaido]

Additional annoyance...it converts your keycard code into a new online-activated key. So the key you have on the keycard no longer matches up with the key stored on the website (which you can get to by going into My Account > select a product > Install from a Disc > I want to burn a disc > "Your product key is". This is very annoying when you're trying to match license keys to accounts & in what order they were activated. Arg...

 

[Kaido]

Now that Office 2016 is out, they sometimes have issues with the 2013 activation servers giving out a message that the keys have already been activated, so you have to telephone in which is a pain. However, in light of that, they added an online activation system (when you call in, they can text your smartphone the link to activate online, which is SO MUCH QUICKER than having to say or tap the numbers in to do telephone activation). I've had to do this with retail purchased keys & online purchased keys for companies that want to stay on 2013 for boarder inter-company compatibility reasons.

Also, not all keys show up in my history list for some reason. So not all keys go against the 30-count on the master list. Not sure why. I've seen this happen on various keys occasionally, which just means more documentation