Problems Solved
PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT
Why can’t I activate Microsoft Office?
Q In 2014 I bought Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 through a company scheme. I installed it on my laptop and desktop PC. My laptop failed in 2019 and I then installed Office 2013 on my new laptop with no problem. This year I had a catastrophic PC failure so I purchased a new PC, duly installing Office 2013 from my original disc. This would not activate and has become unusable. This is disappointing and in my opinion unfair. I’ve been using Word and Excel for 30 years now. Office 365 is not somewhere I wish to go. If I buy a copy of Office 2019 I get a limited set of programs and one copy, one PC. This is very limiting, as I have both a desktop PC and a laptop. There is also the spectre of failure: if my PC fails then do I lose the licence and have to fork out once again? Microsoft seems to be alienating a portion of the computer-using public.
Richard Avery
A The terms of Microsoft’s licences are generally impenetrable to us mere mortals, which we suppose is just the way the company likes it. If people are confused about what is allowed then they’re more likely to pay to ‘upgrade’ when they hit a brick wall – which is precisely where you’re at.
Now, while we’re in no way defending Microsoft’s modus operandi, with a few exceptions licences for traditional, boxed copies of Office have always tended to be for only one computer at a time. So, while we also do not know the specific conditions of
