Office 2016 (OEM) questions

kwyjibo · 31 Jul 2017 at 10:36

Thought it was time to upgrade from 2007 and I have a couple of questions that maybe someone can answer.

From what I've heard, the product key has to be tied to an MS account, but once it's done, will I have access to Office 2016 forever? Like with Steam games?

If I reinstall the OS (on the same machine), will I still be able to reinstall Office? (Probably yes but I want to make sure.)

I heard that the key is tied to the CPU of the machine it is first installed on? Is this true? If so, am I out of luck when I decide to upgrade my CPU?

Is a single key only valid for one machine at a time? I know that Adobe Photoshop allows 2 machines per licence but maybe it's wishful thinking that MS will be as generous.

Cheers

malachi · 31 Jul 2017 at 18:27

Some of your questions maybe answered here

https://products.office.com/en-us/download-back-up-restore-microsoft-office-products

nightmare99 · 3 Aug 2017 at 09:32

kwyjibo said:
Thought it was time to upgrade from 2007 and I have a couple of questions that maybe someone can answer.

From what I've heard, the product key has to be tied to an MS account, but once it's done, will I have access to Office 2016 forever? Like with Steam games?

If I reinstall the OS (on the same machine), will I still be able to reinstall Office? (Probably yes but I want to make sure.)

I heard that the key is tied to the CPU of the machine it is first installed on? Is this true? If so, am I out of luck when I decide to upgrade my CPU?

Is a single key only valid for one machine at a time? I know that Adobe Photoshop allows 2 machines per licence but maybe it's wishful thinking that MS will be as generous.

Cheers

A single key is valid for one machine only, it is tied to a Microsoft account and can be re-installed at any time by logging into Office.com. If its a perpetual version of Office 2016 then yes it should last forever.

#Chri5# · 3 Aug 2017 at 10:41

By OEM do you mean a PKC (Product Key Card)?

I've got a mental note that MS changed the T&Cs in 2013 (so I think it applies to 2016) that allows you to move the installation to a new PC.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-restores-transfer-rights-for-retail-office-2013-copies/

AFAIK, there's no "retail" versions of Office 2013 / 2016, it all moved to the PKCs. From that link

Technically, in fact, the new terms for Office 2013 are looser than those that applied to Office 2010, because the new Office will be available to retail buyers only via Product Key Cards (PKCs). In Office 2010, the PKC license contained a no-transfer clause.