How many times can you install Office 2003

[atct86]

I have office 2003, and have installed it like 10 times, maily do to re-imaging laptops.

I dont think its installed on any more than 2 computers now.

So this brings up the topic of do they really validate how many computers it is installed on?

Can i run it on more computers?

[jdhurst]

Microsoft allows you to install Office 2003 Standard on one computer and Office 2003 Professional on two. Same for Office XP. They define two as a Desktop and a Laptop, but I don't think they get carried away with the disctinction. To install on more than two violates copyright.

Now here it gets interesting.

I installed Office XP Pro on my Desktop and on my Laptop. Then I got a different hard drive for the Laptop and Office XP said "You have done this twice, you're out of luck". I called Microsoft and said I needed to move forward and would happily delete the first Laptop copy, that is, uninstall it before formatting the drive. They said OK and for a short while I had three copies of Office XP.

Then I moved on the Office 2003 on both Desktop and Laptop. Both activated just fine. A month or so ago, my Desktop gave out because of a bad UPS (another post by me), so I changed hard drives, installed Office 2003 Pro (third copy, now), and it activated just fine. Based on my XP experience, it should not have, but it did. I formatted the original drive (it was baffed anyways), put it in my experimental desktop and installed Windows 2000 on it.

So I still have just two copies of Office 2003 Pro (legal limit) but I have activated it three times. I could only activate Office XP Pro twice (as is the legal limit for it).
... JD Hurst

[atct86]

IIRC, Office 2000 could be installed on an unlimited number of machines. They could even all use the software at the same time and perform updates.

[440roadrunner]

IIRC, Office 2000 could be installed on an unlimited number of machines. They could even all use the software at the same time and perform updates.

I guess what you meant to say is that


"Office 2000 could be installed ILLEGALLY on an unlimited number"

[epbrown]

So I still have just two copies of Office 2003 Pro (legal limit) but I have activated it three times. I could only activate Office XP Pro twice (as is the legal limit for it).

Few understand more than Microsoft the need to frequently re-install one's software. You can install Office 2003 Pro several times, but there has to be a minimum of 30 days between activations. More often than that, and you'll need to call MS and get a special code in order to activate it. I ran into recently when I re-installed everything on my Transnote.

[jdhurst]

<snip>
Few understand more than Microsoft the need to frequently re-install one's software.<snip>

Thanks for your note. However, if Microsoft understands even the slightest amount of what we have to put up with because they are more concerned with fluff and eye candy than with quality, they most certainly hide it very, very well.
... JD Hurst

[tomh009]

Thanks for your note. However, if Microsoft understands even the slightest amount of what we have to put up with because they are more concerned with fluff and eye candy than with quality, they most certainly hide it very, very well.

Alas, in the software business one has to balance good internals with the eye candy as it's the eye candy that does a lot of the selling, especially for consumer software. If your product doesn't look good, it won't sell well, either.

Now, whether Microsoft has that balance right today is arguable, but I do believe they are moving in the right direction ...

[Miller88]

My desktop came with Office 2003 Basic. After I reinstalled xp it wouldn't activate. So I switched to open office.

[o1sowise]

I have MS Office 2003 Pro and they let me install it on three PCs, my laptop and my two sons desktops.

I had a problem with my laptop last week that caused me to have to restore the C: partition, and then my sons OFFICE stopped working (it said I had too many copies installed). I just called the phone number in the error message, and 10m later it was working again. They even asked me how many copies I had installed. I said three, and they said ok, here's the new authentication code.

[jdhurst]

<snip> They even asked me how many copies I had installed. I said three, and they said ok, here's the new authentication code.

Interesting. And because of problems with my desktop, I have installed Office 2003 Pro three times and did not have to call. I have only two copies running - the third was lost due to re-install.

However, some time ago, I tried to install Office XP Pro three times and it would not. Even calling Microsoft, I had to push. They wanted me to uninstall one copy while building a new machine over time. They eventually relented, but it was still a pain.

... JD Hurst

[Stargate199]

You can install Office 2003 Students and Teachers edition on 3 machines. If you go to school, are a teacher, or you are a parent of student in the household, you can use it legally.