Microsoft Windows 10

[fang37]

When one upgrades to Windows 10, you receive an AUTHENTIC product of both Windows & Office. There is NO product key.

Lately, Office is requesting a product key.

REMEDY?

[Richard-BKK]

If you upgrade to MS Windows 10 you will not be upgraded to a new version of MS Office. You will get security updates for your MS Office installation. The remedy is to take your official MS Office package out and re-enter the product key.

If that's not working you should contact Microsoft

[Crossy]

I think you'll find that you get a trial version of Office with W10.

After a while you have to pay for it, or uninstall and re-install your licensed version.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2881312/office-for-windows-10-is-not-free-for-everyone.html

[fang37]

Crossy - silly question - where do you buy it?

[MJCM]

Obtain a purchased legitimate version or key from Microsoft.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/877773-ms-office-2013-product-key/#entry10179046

[Crossy]

Crossy - silly question - where do you buy it?

The pop-up that's asking for a key should tell you how to obtain same.

EDIT or open the MS Store and search for Office.

[Pib]

When you upgrade to Win 10 one of several products keys is issued but it's the digital finger print of your computer maintained on MS activation servers is the important thing.

Office product activation is unrelated to what version of Windows you are using. They come with their own product key that activates the product permanently assuming it's not a cracked Key Management System version that will only stay activated if able to periodically validate against a pirate subcription server probably located in Russia.

Or maybe you have a subcription based Office as in Office 365 whose product key is only valid for one year of service. You must renew the subcription annually unless signed up/paying for auto renewal.

Or you just had a trial version of Office installed which was only good for X period of time.

I'm going to guess you had someone else install Office for you...like a local shop/tech for a couple hundred baht. Expect you need to buy a genuine product key or visit the local computer shop again who will no doubt arrange another activation which may or may not last.

[MJCM]

http://www.invadeit.co.th/category/office-systems-software/

[Crossy]

Thanks for the link MJCM.

IMPORTANT NOTE Absolutely any indication of 'unofficial' ways to obtain Office will result in this thread being closed.

EDIT Fang, what were you using before you upgraded to W10? You ought to be able to re-install that version (assuming it was legal of course).

[billd766]

I upgraded to W10 from W7 a few weeks ago. I had previously downloaded a trial copy of Office 2013 using W7 which worked on W10 as well and at the end of the trial period I was asked to buy a subscription.

I didn't bother and after a while I downloaded a trial copy of Office 2010 and had the same problem.

I then downloaded a free copy of Libre Office5 which has no subscription at all and is indeed free with no subscription. It took me a little while to get used to it but I am glad that I did. It will read and write to any version of MS Office and save in those formats too, or you can save in Libre Office format which can be read by MS Office.

I am slowly changing all my Office files over to Libre.

Give it a try. It is free and if you don't like it you can always uninstall it.

[MJCM]

I upgraded to W10 from W7 a few weeks ago. I had previously downloaded a trial copy of Office 2013 using W7 which worked on W10 as well and at the end of the trial period I was asked to buy a subscription.

I didn't bother and after a while I downloaded a trial copy of Office 2010 and had the same problem.

I then downloaded a free copy of Libre Office5 which has no subscription at all and is indeed free with no subscription. It took me a little while to get used to it but I am glad that I did. It will read and write to any version of MS Office and save in those formats too, or you can save in Libre Office format which can be read by MS Office.

I am slowly changing all my Office files over to Libre.

Give it a try. It is free and if you don't like it you can always uninstall it.

Good One !!

But the only problem with this is if you have documents with Macro's

Maybe a good read : https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Using_Microsoft_Office_and

And the following lists provide a general overview of Microsoft Office features that may cause conversion challenges

https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/About_Converting_Microsoft_Office_Documents

Edited December 11, 2015 by MJCM

[fang37]

When you installed Windows 10 was MS Office free too?

[flyDelight]

No Win 10 for me, thanks. Unless your hobby is constantly checking and updating the privacy settings and killing spyware.

Finally moved to Ubuntu and should have done this years ago, love it.

[billd766]

I upgraded to W10 from W7 a few weeks ago. I had previously downloaded a trial copy of Office 2013 using W7 which worked on W10 as well and at the end of the trial period I was asked to buy a subscription.

I didn't bother and after a while I downloaded a trial copy of Office 2010 and had the same problem.

I then downloaded a free copy of Libre Office5 which has no subscription at all and is indeed free with no subscription. It took me a little while to get used to it but I am glad that I did. It will read and write to any version of MS Office and save in those formats too, or you can save in Libre Office format which can be read by MS Office.

I am slowly changing all my Office files over to Libre.

Give it a try. It is free and if you don't like it you can always uninstall it.

Good One !!

But the only problem with this is if you have documents with Macro's

Maybe a good read : https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Using_Microsoft_Office_and

And the following lists provide a general overview of Microsoft Office features that may cause conversion challenges

https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/About_Converting_Microsoft_Office_Documents

Thank you for that info.

As I don't have any documents with macros that I know of I never really thought about it.

[billd766]

When you installed Windows 10 was MS Office free too?

No. Only the "free" trial version on the MS Office website

[DogNo1]

You can buy a subscription to Office 365 Home directly from Microsoft for about $79, the Thai price. That will give the right to install on 3 PCs and 10 phones or tablets. Office is now integrated with One Drive (1 TB) and One Note, which is now competing with the functionality of Evernote. I'm able to save any web page or email easily to One Note as well as create my own notes and reminders. I've using it instead of Evernote recently.

[Pib]

It's 5 (not 3) PC/Mac, 5 tablets, and 5 phones. Not sure how they distinguish between a tablet and phone since that line is kinda blurred for many models now days.

See below snapshots. Second snapshot is from my Office account as I have Office 365 (now up to Office 2016) installed on 3 of my computers. For my last subscription I bought it at either JIB, BananaIT, or ITCity...can't really remember which as they were all selling it for around Bt1,900. You can almost always find it cheaper in Thai stores than online like at the MS Store which is always full retail. Had a problem getting the subscription number to activate as I was trying to renew a Office U.S. subscription with the Office 365 APAC (Asia Pacific) subscription sold here in Thailand. Started an online chat session with Microsoft and they fixed the problem while on that chat...in fact, they gave me an extra year totally free since I had the renewal issue....I'm still good to go until May 17 subscription-wise.

A Office 365 subscription can indeed be a good deal if able to use enough of the available seats (i.e., device install) per subscription....like the 3 of 5 PCs seats I use right now. My sister in the U.S. may start using the 4th seat so she can get upgrade from Office 2007 and get up to Office 2016. Since you can share seats with family/friends/enemies it can make always have the latest version of Office, which is currently Office 2016, a pretty low cost and legal approach. Of course if you do use a Office seat from some one else's account, like if the sister starts using one of my 5 PC/Mac seats, that person needs to realize the subscription owner which is me in this example can deactivate the other person's seat in a heart beat. This MS link talks about deactivating a seat and a little bit about sharing the subscription. Just log onto your Office account and deactivate the seat....and when that person fires up one of the Office apps next time like Word, Excel, Outlook ,etc., you get a big banner saying it been deactivated...that deactivated Office seat can now only be used to Read and Print Office docs...can not create or edit. So, if using an Office seat from some one else's subscription be sure to stay on their good side.

Oh, yea, you get 60 Skype calling minutes per month good to call worldwide as part of an Office 365 subscription.

[fang37]

I have installed Apache for spreadsheet & word processing.

[Crossy]

I have installed Apache for spreadsheet & word processing.

That would be Apache Open Office https://www.openoffice.org/ before someone sparks up that Apache https://httpd.apache.org/ is a web server.

[lostinisaan]

You can buy a subscription to Office 365 Home directly from Microsoft for about $79, the Thai price. That will give the right to install on 3 PCs and 10 phones or tablets. Office is now integrated with One Drive (1 TB) and One Note, which is now competing with the functionality of Evernote. I'm able to save any web page or email easily to One Note as well as create my own notes and reminders. I've using it instead of Evernote recently.

It's a great software and it gives you access to all files you've got o your One Drive. Got it on my phone and have access to all photos, important documents and even my Windows, Office, Nitro and other keys.

The $ 79 for the 2016 version is for students only.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/cat/All-Office/categoryID.69403900

[Chicog]

I have installed Apache for spreadsheet & word processing.

That would be Apache Open Office https://www.openoffice.org/ before someone sparks up that Apache https://httpd.apache.org/ is a web server.

But Apache is a web server. Apache OpenOffice is a productivity suite.

Edited December 13, 2015 by Chicog

[DogNo1]

PIB: My mistake. It is 5 PCs or Macs, not 3. I'm sure that I paid about $79 for the APAC Office 365 Home through the Microsoft store. (The link that lostinisaan posted was to the US store.) At 1,900 you got a better deal than I did. I then had sort of the opposite problem from yours. While in Japan, I bought another license for Office 365 Home at the Yokota Base Exchange for $69. When I tried to install it on my 6th computer, I got an error saying that it couldn't be done. Apparently having an APAC license connected with your Microsoft makes it impossible to install US licenses on that account. I was told to establish another account and install the US Office 365 from that. I haven't done it yet because I am still thinking about being confused between One Drive and One Note on two different accounts. I'm going to investigate buying another APAC license and see if I can install Office 365 on my 6th, 7th and 8th computers using that. If I can, I'll try to sell my US license. What adds to my confusion is that I also have an Office 365 for Business license which grew out of a $39.00 subscription for One Drive for Business so I could use Sharepoint and Azure. Of course both of those will soon also be connected to the consumer version of One Drive. There was a recent Technet bulletin about it.

[Pib]

PIB: My mistake. It is 5 PCs or Macs, not 3. I'm sure that I paid about $79 for the APAC Office 365 Home through the Microsoft store. (The link that lostinisaan posted was to the US store.) At 1,900 you got a better deal than I did. I then had sort of the opposite problem from yours. While in Japan, I bought another license for Office 365 Home at the Yokota Base Exchange for $69. When I tried to install it on my 6th computer, I got an error saying that it couldn't be done. Apparently having an APAC license connected with your Microsoft makes it impossible to install US licenses on that account. I was told to establish another account and install the US Office 365 from that. I haven't done it yet because I am still thinking about being confused between One Drive and One Note on two different accounts. I'm going to investigate buying another APAC license and see if I can install Office 365 on my 6th, 7th and 8th computers using that. If I can, I'll try to sell my US license. What adds to my confusion is that I also have an Office 365 for Business license which grew out of a $39.00 subscription for One Drive for Business so I could use Sharepoint and Azure. Of course both of those will soon also be connected to the consumer version of One Drive. There was a recent Technet bulletin about it.

$79 at around 32 baht/USD which works out pretty close to Bt2,499 the going retail price in baht. But even ignoring the exchange rate, Microsoft has different prices for its products in different parts of the world....generally in low income regions their retail prices are lower.

What is happening to you is exactly what happened to me in trying to get my Office 365 English APAC subscription bought in Thailand to renew my Office 365 English US subscription I had bought from a U.S. online store & had mailed to me. This occurred around late March 15/this year. With that first Office 365 subscription which I got Apr 14 which was a U.S. subscription I setup an Office 365 account/User ID and it activated fine to Apr 15. But a year later (late Mar 15) when time to renew that subscription I bought the subscription here Thailand at a ITCity/BananaIT store for around Bt1900/approx $55....and I'm talking the Premium, 5 PC user version, and not the cheaper Personal, 1 PC user version. $55 is definitely better/cheaper than buying a US full retail $99 subscription.

But when entering the Thai bought APAC subscription to renew/extend my current subscription which was close to expiring it would not be accepted. I tried both with a Thailand IP address and using my StrongVPN service with a U.S. IP address.

I googled and started reading the same thing about "regional" based subscription...subscription bought in one part of the world may not activate if in another part of the world....and/or a person had to open another Office account to get it to activate. Kinda like having a separate Office account depending on the regional version of Office you bought. It's just getting it initially activated that's the problem...once activated it will stay activated no matter where you may move around on Earth. All of this regional activation stuff is done to help reduce piracy...or like buying a subscription in country X where the Microsoft intentionally sells it a a lower price (like in low income, 3d world countries) but don't want people from high income, 1st world countries buying a ton of their product in a 3d world nation only to resale it in the 1st world country at a profit.

I then tried setting up another Office account to see if I could get the Office 365 APAC version to activate, but I still could not get it to activate. I then started a online chat session with Microsoft who also had problem getting it to activate on my new Office account but they finally got it fixed...even the rep said it should have activated on the new account no problem but for some reason it didn't...but he got it fixed. As the rep was fixing my issues I asked about was the problem I was trying to renew a U.S. subscription with a APAC subscription and he said "probably, yes" which synced up with many other posts I had googled up. I also bent the rep's ear a little about not being happy in having this activation problem.

Anyway, once the rep got the APAC subscription activated I saw a "good to 1 Apr 16" subscription date showing on my account which was one year from the date of 1 Apr 15 activation. When logging onto my other Office account a few days later for my US subscription it showed the old date which has passed/expired as it was due to expire.

But here's the good part. A few days later when logging onto my new Office account again to check something I saw my subscription was now good to Apr 17. I'm going to guess that due to the problem I had and the bending of the rep's ear that Mirosoft had given me a extra year free...see below snapshot from my account...it originally said 1 Apr 16 right after the rep got the subscription to activate...but a few days later it changed to 1 Apr 17. Awesome...a free year.

So, yes, a person may indeed have an activation problem if trying to use a region ABC version to renew a region XYZ version....like APAC to renew a US subscription. Everything I've googled/read indicates a person needs to have a separate Office account per regional version.

Now I expect when I approaching my current Apr 17 subscription expiration date, if I would happen to get a US subscription again that for what ever reason I could get cheaper than a Thailand/APAC version I would need to activate that subscription under my Office account I still have for the expired US subscription.

Also, from everything I've read on the Miscrosoft web pages you can also "stack" one year subscriptions....stack up to 5 years worth. Like if I would buy another APAC subscription today because of a big sale/low price I would not need to wait until my current subscription almost expires to activate that subscription. I could log onto my Office account, enter the subscription number and it would just "extend" my current 1 Apr 17 date to 1 Apr 18. You don't lose any previous subscription time by entering a new subscription...it just stacks on/extends the current subscription by another year. So, based on that I keep my eyes open for good sales on Office 365.