MS-Office (not 365) Licensing & linkage to MS-Account Questions

[britechguy]

@mikeroq: digital, I think. I've purchased cards in the past, too, but I really don't think this was one.

@nlinecomputers: OK. But I have no idea how/why the phone method wouldn't involve Microsoft servers, as there are long pauses where they say something like, "Looking up your key," and, in my case, after having found it, triggering a follow-up question about the number of installations. I have had a mixed bag of luck with online activation, but when it works it's absolutely lovely. But I've had it fail too many times when I'm moving something from one machine to another (that qualifies to be moved), so in those cases I go straight to the phone method. It hasn't failed yet, and if what you say is correct it probably "never fails." But we're back to, that's Microsoft's doing. All I do is submit the product for activation via any one of the methods they offer, and if it gets activated, that's good enough for me.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@britechguy It does... and I'm not sure why people insist on it being some magical thing. It does exactly the same thing as Internet activation, it just does so via an extremely inefficient mechanism. The codes that are passed are partially based on the activation server's date and time... so recording them is silly too. They're good for the hour they're presented, and POOF useless.

The problem is, we have jack holes out there that buy a copy, and sell the "new code" out of their account 5-10 times. You can use those to get an install, but MS kills them as they hit activation limits. Which is exactly why I don't mess with grey market. You can whine and complain about how things should be all day long... it doesn't change the fact that MS owns the software, we never do, and thanks to this DRM they can revoke access any time for practically any reason. And if you don't like it, you can hire a lawyer and get through their lawyers... Which isn't worth the cost of the software.

In the end, I have to do what I must to keep my time investment low. And that means, minimizing the amount of time I spend on on-premise software as Microsoft licenses it on top of staying the heck away from the grey market. This includes never purchasing software from Microsoft, or many other vendors... like Adobe from Amazon. That is, unless it's in a retail box of some sort. The emailed keys are simply not reliable.

There is a notable exception however for Amazon specifically. If it's delivered via Amazon fulfillment, this creates a record of the sale with the issued key in it in my Amazon account, or the Amazon account of my customer. This record is invaluable in recovering things that magically vanish from the Office.com account. But again, we're back to time again... if the client isn't willing to pay my hourly rate to chase down their licenses I'll just sell them a new one at $8.50 / month. Or direct them to purchase a home / family sub... Whichever is appropriate.

If the client is OK abandoning the MS ecosystem, they get open source solutions.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Sorry I should have said different server. Ive seen more than once where a gray market key has failed to activate over the internet yet work with phone activation. And I don’t think it’s because of some connection issues. They are simply making it harder for a suspected pirate copy. I’ve also had total failures but mostly from Office 2013 that I got via discount mountain.

And at the other end I have legitimate keys not gray market fail to activate after moving to new hardware. Office 2013 was originally going to be limited to one install but the public outcry made them change that. Yet it seems to have a limited number of times, about 3, that you can install it before the key dies. It’s one of the major reasons I only sell Microsoft 365 now. They don’t do that with the subscription version.