MS office licensing question

[bitslice]

Thought I’d double check here as I’ll never understand MS licensing.

Years ago, we had a bunch of Dell PC’s that came preinstalled with Office 2000, and all the PC’s had the Windows 2000 licence sticker on the side.
To licence these PC’s we had a code for Microsoft eOpen site that says we have “X” licenses for Office XP.
I’ve checked with Microsoft and they say they are happy that all the Dell PC’s are legitimately licensed for what is on them


Now I’ve also got a bunch of Office XP Pro CD’s and another pile of Dell PC’s (but without any Office software on them, …OS only)
They have a certificate of authenticity on the back with the “5 block” serial number, and the CD’s have the Hologram etc
I’ve checked with Microsoft and they say they are happy that I can install these CD’s on the other pile of Dells as although the CD’s are DELL OEM (it doesn’t say OEM, but I think MS check the code?) I am still just installing them on Dells.

The kicker is, these Office CD’s came in by mistake with the first lot of Dells…

Are these CD’s still OK to use ?


.

 

[Baz]

You can use any media, it is the license, whether electronic via Eopen, or the CoA that is the license so to speak. You can't install Office XP when you have a Office 2000 license, but you can do it the other way round. Our current batch of Office license are for 2007, but we can use XP or 2003 if you like.

 

[Ronaldo]

Thought I’d double check here as I’ll never understand MS licensing.

Years ago, we had a bunch of Dell PC’s that came preinstalled with Office 2000, and all the PC’s had the Windows 2000 licence sticker on the side.
To licence these PC’s we had a code for Microsoft eOpen site that says we have “X” licenses for Office.
I’ve checked with Microsoft and they say they are happy that all the Dell PC’s are legitimately licensed for what is on them


Now I’ve also got a bunch of Office XP Pro CD’s and another pile of Dell PC’s (but without any Office software on them, …OS only)
They have a certificate of authenticity on the back with the “5 block” serial number, and the CD’s have the Hologram etc
I’ve checked with Microsoft and they say they are happy that I can install these CD’s on the other pile of Dells as although the CD’s are DELL OEM (it doesn’t say OEM, but I think MS check the code?) I am still just installing them on Dells.

The kicker is, these Office CD’s came in by mistake with the first lot of Dells…

Are these CD’s still OK to use ?


.

yes that should be fine as u have the COA for the Office XP pro

 

[bitslice]

Thanks Baz
what I'm trying to say is we appear to have >two< lots of valid licences

1. the eopen virtual stuff (used on the 1st lot of Dells)
2. the actual Office disks with the licence sticker that came by mistake with the 1st lot of Dells

I'm trying to work out if the 1st lot of Dells need the eopen stuff AND the disks to be valid,
or can I just use the disks on some other Dells ?

 

[bitslice]

yes that should be fine as u have the COA for the Office XP pro

Ah, Thanks Ronaldo
so I'm OK to assign the Office XP disks to the second lot of Dells ?
That's handy... so now I've got 40 odd copies Of Office XP for free, cheers Dell...


in practice, I'm going to be doing a straight swap out of the old Dells for the new Dells, I just didn't want a FAST nazi catching me with my pants down.

.

 

[Ronaldo]

Ah, Thanks Ronaldo
so I'm OK to assign the Office XP disks to the second lot of Dells ?
That's handy... so now I've got 40 odd copies Of Office XP for free, cheers Dell...


in practice, I'm going to be doing a straight swap out of the old Dells for the new Dells, I just didn't want a FAST nazi catching me with my pants down.

.

lol

ps if u have 1 too many i dont mind taking 1 off your hands

 

[stoofa]

You can use any media, it is the license, whether electronic via Eopen, or the CoA that is the license so to speak. You can't install Office XP when you have a Office 2000 license, but you can do it the other way round. Our current batch of Office license are for 2007, but we can use XP or 2003 if you like.

Actually the last part isn't quite true.
You're allowed to go one version back but no more.
Office 2007 licenses are good for Office 2007 & 2003 but not XP or 2000 or 97 for example.
Same goes with all MS licensing - all licenses are good for the previous version, but not versions

 

[Burnsy2023]

Actually the last part isn't quite true.
You're allowed to go one version back but no more.
Office 2007 licenses are good for Office 2007 & 2003 but not XP or 2000 or 97 for example.
Same goes with all MS licensing - all licenses are good for the previous version, but not versions

I'm sorry stoofa, but that simply isn't true.

As far as I'm aware, and I only know for definate for Windows and Office, you have downgrade rights for any version of the same product. So if you bought Office 2007 licences you could quite happily run Office '97. However, they must be the same edition. So if you downgrade from 2003 Professional, you cannot use 2000 Standard as they are considered different products.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/2/3/d23b9533-169d-4996-b198-7b9d3fe15611/downgrade_chart.doc

If you buy the Microsoft Office 2003 Edition license through a Microsoft Volume Licensing program, you may use any prior version of the software in place of the version you order, including Office XP

Burnsy