Activating Office 2013

[homerdog]

In my job I install Office for customers all the time. The process is simple and I can do it really fast.

I won't go into details but with Office 2013 Microsoft has made it not so simple any more to do online activation.

So I fucked up the online activation for one of my customers and had to do the phone activation. I called and entered that really long ass code into the automated system. At the end, the cyborg asked me how many computers I had installed this on. Why would he ask me this question? Because he wants to make sure I am not installing it on multiple PCs, obviously.
This is a brand new copy of Office and of course I had already installed it on the brand new PC because that's how you get to the phone activation wizard. I assumed the correct answer was 1 at this point. It is not. THE CORRECT ANSWER IS ZERO.
After I said 1 he immediately went on a little spiel about how I was violating the licensing terms and I was a fuckbag and I should purchase another copy of office, then hung up on me.

RAGE

 

[John Reynolds]

I have to call 1-866-432-3012 (typed from memory) all the f'n time because I run a closed network and can't activate software like Project via the online option.

 

[Arwin]

Ugh, that sounds terrible.

I'm test-driving Office 2013, the online/subscription based version at home right now, while waiting for a home licence key to come in from work (they are like a $15, one-time fee). It's pretty good, and you can install on 5 machines, but at $10 a month, it still feels a bit too steep.

 

[UniversalTruth]

Agh, We pay here 10 $ a month for the TV service and I get almost everything to watch- almost the full package. 10 $ a month for the shitty office service?!

 

[Mize]

I use LibreOffice as much as humanly possible. I also contribute $ to the LibreOffice project.

 

[Daozang]

We have a few thousand Office 2010 licenses...
There was a time, neither us, nor MS knew how many licenses (and for which product) we had as a company...
The chaos that ensued was frustrating, hilarious and maddening at the same time...

You don't want to install office 2010 (with a software delivery system) on a pc that started on 2003, went to Outlook 2010 (because of new exchange version) and at some point was upgraded to 2007.

Lately all I see is, vbaext problems, or the office installer running every time you start a component, or the outlook window not starting, or, orororororororor... I can go on forever!!!

 

[Arwin]

You're sure you've not also made some silly mistakes like not distributing the Interops or something like that? Also, may be worthwhile to occassionally just distribute a fresh image?

 

[Daozang]

Oh I'm sure we made lot's of mistakes!!!
What our software delivery systems does, is cache the installation files, and run a silent (or not, you have the option to choose) setup.
So, I don't think you need to do anything really other than having the whole process running with the right privileges (and the client running on the pc of course)...
Then again, I had little to do with the whole project, so I might be missing something.

Those errors I said earlier, are attributed to having two versions of office installed, or in the case of the VB dlls, a specific version of crystal reports that was messing everything up in the registry...

We would certainly benefit a lot by distributing a new image, but unfortunately, we let our users have too much freedom, so a fresh install, almost always requires a technician present...

 

[Squilliam]

I have office 365 but I have no idea whether I'm using that or the Office 2013 which came on my laptop as a trial. They stopped bitching about activation but I have no idea whether I'm pirating the latter whilst paying for the former or if office 365 is Office 2013 and what I'm doing is legitimate.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

AFAIK, Office 365 is just the digital version (with subscription) of Office 2013.

Regards,
SB

 

[imaxx]

AFAIK, Office 365 is just the digital version (with subscription) of Office 2013.

Regards,
SB

uuuh.... does it mean I have to pay next year for using the office 365 pre-installed in my new lumia???

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Absolutely no clue about the smartphone version. The only apps I run on my smartphone is offline GPS, camera, and music player.

Regards,
SB

 

[homerdog]

uuuh.... does it mean I have to pay next year for using the office 365 pre-installed in my new lumia???

Certainly.

 

[AnalogNomad]

I've pretty much given up on Microsoft and it's annoyware activations.

Moved over to LibreOffice for my MSOffice needs (wish I could do something similar for Windows but Linux just ain't there yet). It does everything for me that MSOffice 2010 and 2013 does without me having to talk to Silicon Sam or Rajesh in India.

Just as an aside -- I'm always farting around with my hardware and have the MS activation 800 numbers on speed dial. I have always answered "1" to their silly question and never failed to activate.

 

[homerdog]

Office 2010 has never given me trouble with activation. The only other MS product I ever had activation issues with was Windows Vista.

Office 2013 is confusing to activate if you have multiple copies registered to the same account. I'm still not sure how you're supposed to know which copy you're activating when you look in your products page and it shows a bunch of separate entries for Office 2013 and they are all identical.

 

[Squilliam]

I only use office 2013 because it is somewhat good on a touch screen.