Feedback regarding Office license portability

Hello Folks,

Yesterday, the "TechNet eNews - Revisiting Windows 8 and Your Feedback" mailing went out and in it I did "encourage you to continue to provide great feedback".

Well, provide feedback you did…. My mailbox suddenly filled with all kinds of feedback. Some was request for help troubleshooting issues, some was constructive (which I love) some were rants.

But there was one particular comments that I received several times.

A lot of you were unhappy with the inability to transfer licenses of Office to another machine. There may be some confusion here so let me set the record straight. In February, the Office News published an article outlining how our Office 2010 and Office 2013 licenses compare.

Since then, because of the feedback received, we have changed the Office 2013 retail license agreement to allow customers to transfer the software from one computer to another.

The updated license text is as follows:

Updated transferability provision to the Retail License Terms of the Software License Agreement for Microsoft Office 2013 Desktop Application Software:

Can I transfer the software to another computer or user? You may transfer the software to another computer 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 computer, that other computer becomes the "licensed computer." You may also transfer the software (together with the license) to a computer owned by someone else if a) you are the first licensed user of the software and b) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement before the transfer. Any time you transfer the software to a new computer, you must remove the software from the prior computer and you may not retain any copies.

I also got a lot of questions regarding the different Office flavors, the different listing of flavors can be found here for business, here for home, and here For University and college students, faculty and staff only. (Find out if you're eligible.)

The second set of Office comments that came to me was in regards to Office 365, Skydrive and legal requirements not to have some information on the cloud. Nowhere do we say that you can't save your data on your own premise. Skydrive is a great option when you're a mobile worker. I use both Skydrive (for home) and Skydrive Pro (for business) and it has really saved my bacon on several occasions. I love the fact that my files are on my PC and synced up to the cloud using the SkyDrive App for both my personal and work files. That way I always have access to all my files regardless where I am.

I hope this helps. And I'll keep answering as much of the questions as I possibly can.

Cheers!

Pierre Roman, MCITP, ITIL | IT Pro Advisor
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