Microsoft - Product...
 

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[Closed] Microsoft - Product Deactivated

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 J-R
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Has anyone else experienced this? - on my home computer I suddenly have a message when I open any MS Office products that says Product Deactivated and invites me to open a Microsoft account and enter a product key or pay them more money. At the moment the Office Apps seem to still be working OK but I suspect that is not for long.

I can't remember where I got my MS Office products, it was quite a few years ago. So what is the collective STW wisdom on how to proceed? Use an open source equivalent - are they really that compatible and easy to use? Or sign up for a subscription to Office with MS. Or go to one of the many apparently legit sites offering MS Office keys for £30-£50 and buy one for a slightly out of date version of Office? Or something else?


 
Posted : 26/03/2022 1:50 pm
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Google docs/sheets etc is pretty good if you don’t want to pay.


 
Posted : 26/03/2022 1:51 pm
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I'm guessing you bought your license off of someone you worked for under the 'home use' program and maybe there was an expiry date on it.

I'm a fan of paying for office365 for home if you have the cash. It just works and you can get on with something else instead.  I went down the open source route for a long time but in the end got fed up with messing around with the 1% that wasn't compatible

There was a thread on here a while back about these cheap keys you can find on the net.  People seem to have had reasonable success with them


 
Posted : 26/03/2022 2:07 pm
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Libre office (formerly open office) is free and compatible with MS documents to quite a good extent unless you're a power user.it kinda looks like an older version of Ms office.

Google docs also worth a look and cross compatible to a reasonable extent.

Or just pay for a new ms office key or 365 subscription.

That's probably the 3 main options.

You can buy cheap 'grey market' Microsoft keys but there is a possibility that it will deactivate itself at some point as they are not strictly legitimate.


 
Posted : 26/03/2022 3:03 pm
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What version of MS Office are you/ were you running?


 
Posted : 26/03/2022 3:25 pm
 J-R
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Looks like I am/was using Office 365.


 
Posted : 26/03/2022 7:15 pm
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365 is subscription only (Unless you have an ltsc enterprise version install, but that wouldn’t say 365) So technically you or someone else (employer?) has been paying for it somewhere.


 
Posted : 26/03/2022 7:54 pm
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I think it's to do with the rebrand (now Microsoft 365) and new versions, I had the 'deactivated' issue as well. Logging in again using my original sign-in details sorted it for me.


 
Posted : 27/03/2022 1:53 pm
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I think it’s to do with the rebrand (now Microsoft 365) and new versions, I had the ‘deactivated’ issue as well. Logging in again using my original sign-in details sorted it for me.

I had this too. Logging in again fixed it.


 
Posted : 27/03/2022 3:28 pm
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Do you use it a lot? MS Office online is free.


 
Posted : 27/03/2022 4:59 pm
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MS Office online is free.

Interesting...

Just got a new laptop and was debating what to do about Office. I need it to keep track of my fuel and shopping spending and that is about it.


 
Posted : 27/03/2022 7:28 pm
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Do you use it a lot? MS Office online is free.

Better check that, I was looking at pricing plans and the new basic Microsoft 365 is online only, unless you're paying for more Onedrive space I can't see them offering the paid for stuff for free.


 
Posted : 27/03/2022 7:34 pm
 J-R
Posts: 1179
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Do you use it a lot? MS Office online is free.

I don’t use it a lot for home use; I’ll have to look into the online option. As it’s a desktop that shouldn’t be a big limitation.


 
Posted : 27/03/2022 9:04 pm

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