Help needed for Office 365

[oggbashan]

I have a three-computer subscription for Office 365.

But I can't work out how to put it on the other two computers. Office 365 and Microsoft store insist I have to pay again.

What am I doing wrong? Or not doing?

 

[jsmiam]

I have a three-computer subscription for Office 365.

But I can't work out how to put it on the other two computers. Office 365 and Microsoft store insist I have to pay again.

What am I doing wrong? Or not doing?

Log in. Somewhere buried in there in the options area of word, is a place to sign into your Microsoft account.

I know you are the master of not seeming too worried about family members seeing what you’re up to. Remember, if you opt to save things to your online Microsoft account, they’ll be visible to anyone using the other computers. (And it’s sooooo very easy even if you didn’t mean to, to save something to the online account). Edit: opt was poor word choice. Online is the default and some vigilance is needed to change that. )

I’ll look up the exact place to sign in in a bit.

 

[jsmiam]

“File” menu, then way down in the left menu bar, bottom aligned, is “account”. Click there and log in.

 

[JGittes]

I defer to jsmiam on the nuts and bolts of IT stuff. I use Office 365, and it is possible to redirect where your saved work is located. I use the paid version of Dropbox and it took a little fiddling to stop saving to OneDrive, I'm sure others have other solutions.

I do not know if it is possible to set up different save locations for separate computers under the same Microsoft account, though.

 

[oggbashan]

jsmiam.

I have tied what you suggest but can't find it, perhaps because I am on Win 7.

 

[MillieDynamite]

We activate the computers by logging into the online account and downloading the version from there. The Win 7 might be an issue because it's a bit out of date at this point.

 

[jsmiam]

jsmiam.

I have tied what you suggest but can't find it, perhaps because I am on Win 7.

My answer included a possibly wrong assumption, I interpreted it as if the program was already installed, at which point you probably will have to log in.

I see an idea in another online post: go to www.office.com on the new (second and third computers). Log in to office.com. From there, pick the “install office”. It should carry forward the license and account and such while installing.

 

[oggbashan]

It might have done. It downloaded the application and then said 'there is a problem with installing office' - unspecified.

 

[jsmiam]

It might have done. It downloaded the application and then said 'there is a problem with installing office' - unspecified.

Hm. Tough call. Try using it anyway, if it lets you? (Maybe it will, maybe it won’t)

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

From the Microsoft website: "Microsoft 365 Apps is no longer supported on Windows 7. "

You should be able to update win 7 to the latest version for free though. If you go to the windows 11 download page, and click the download button, it should get you from 7 to 11 https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11

Good luck!

 

[oggbashan]

From the Microsoft website: "Microsoft 365 Apps is no longer supported on Windows 7. "

You should be able to update win 7 to the latest version for free though. If you go to the windows 11 download page, and click the download button, it should get you from 7 to 11 https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11

Good luck!

Thank you, but that won't work. My Win 7 system isn't good enough even to upgrade to Win 10 (and as for my Win XP system?) Forget even trying to go to Win 7.

As I thought, I need some new computers. My Win 10 system is ten years old and cannot be updated to Win 11. I am using Word 2010 on the Win 7 system. It produces docx files that work with 365.

 

[Defluer]

Yeah, the only other option is... I think you can work in Word/Excel/Powerpoint in the Web versions. I don't know how good they are.

I know you are the master of not seeming too worried about family members seeing what you’re up to. Remember, if you opt to save things to your online Microsoft account, they’ll be visible to anyone using the other computers. (And it’s sooooo very easy even if you didn’t mean to, to save something to the online account). Edit: opt was poor word choice. Online is the default and some vigilance is needed to change that. )

I was given a key and a generic email account for my work computer, when I hired in at my last job. Right when the online Microsoft stuff came out. Just to get Office products installed. HR lady seemed kinda frazzled when she had to look it up for me. I installed Office, had to plug in the generic account (think MS.Office.011@ thisbusiness.net) opened up Word and saw ALL the CEO's files. Knew it was him right away because his name was plastered all over. One of them was titled something like "What to do when I die." I freaked out, uninstalled, thought better of it and deleted my profile completely, ran to HR and said it was the wrong one. She got the right license/account for me and if I was a dishonest bastard I could have had the keys to the kingdom. Obviously even the HR lady didn't realize how much she'd given me access too by giving me that license.

Which is why I use Google Docs, it's the same concept but there will be no innocently opening Word/Excel to print something out and finding out I'm a giant pervoid. All my secrets must stay with me!

 

[oggbashan]

Decades ago, I was the second IT person in my local government dept. We had a dedicated IT unit but they seemed to be staffed with incompetents who couldn't get a better-paid job elsewhere.

The director wanted weekly statistics and the IT dept recommended a commercial spreadsheet, produced by the main computer supplier, of course, which I had to adapt for our needs.

But the whole operation was run by cheapskates. Apart from my relatively inexpensive program, everything else was freebie software adapted by the IT incompetents and awful.

Because my program was produced by the mainframe supplier, and nothing else was, that mainframe gave it the highest priority. I knew that and scheduled all my updates for the early hours of the morning, long after everyone else's updates had been done.

By one night, the incompetents scheduled a mainframe processing program update. When that was finished, the new operating system looked for the highest priority program - mine - and started to run it before everyone else. But they had made a mistake in the upgrade and my program went into a loop. They couldn't break out of the loop because I was the system manager for that program - the only one with Admin facilities. They had crashed every other program on their mainframe including the Police and Fire Brigade.

I had a frantic phone call at 3 am. How could they access my program? I was forty miles away and the Police and Fire brigade across the whole county couldn't operate. I talked them through it and the Police and Fire Brigade systems were operational by 4 am. On arrival at work, I had to change my password and reset the update for the following night.

But they crashed the whole county's system four more times in the following months. I used a PC spreadsheet under C/PM and deleted my program from the mainframe.

I was then asked by the IT department's manager HOW had I deleted the program without technical help from his staff? I told him that the program, recommended by his staff, gave me master admin access to everything, including the Police and Fire Brigade's operational data.

He was horrified and several of his staff were bollocked.

 

[MillieDynamite]

My father has a laptop he bought back in 2008. I remember him working on it at home, taking it to work with him, and bringing it back home when he returned. He used the thing constantly on trips, in the evenings, as we watched tv, he'd send messages to friends, and the thing was his constant companion. He still has it. Despite updating desktops every few years, he still hangs on to his Acer dinosaur. Last week, he texted me from that laptop and said, "I think I have to put ole Bess down now, Millie. She can barely boot nowadays. Takes at least forty minutes to get to the login screen and fifteen minutes more before I can even open Word or WhatsApp. She's been a good beast, but time to let her go to the happy computing land."

The thing has caused him no end of aggravation for four years. So, hopefully, he's shopping for a new "Bess" for the next 14 years.

In the meantime, mum has murdered about five laptops showing no mercy. Overloading the operating systems with too many programs open at one time. Tossing them about like they are military-grade. And in general, abusing them at every turn. Mum being from England via Australia, should be the gentile one, as dad is a died-in-the-wool, horse-riding, cow-roping, hat-wearing cowboy who makes stuff last, and has to pay the freight for her manhandling ways.

Thank you, but that won't work. My Win 7 system isn't good enough even to upgrade to Win 10 (and as for my Win XP system?) Forget even trying to go to Win 7.

As I thought, I need some new computers. My Win 10 system is ten years old and cannot be updated to Win 11. I am using Word 2010 on the Win 7 system. It produces docx files that work with 365.

 

[oggbashan]

Thanks for all the help. I'll stick with what I have and when Office 365 is up for renewal I will change to a one computer only - unless I have upgraded my computers by then.

 

[jsmiam]

… (snip) Which is why I use Google Docs, it's the same concept but there will be no innocently opening Word/Excel to print something out and finding out I'm a giant pervoid. All my secrets must stay with me!

I’ll have to respectfully disagree on google being the bastion of privacy or security. The hr person gave you the wrong credentials, that’s her fault.

That’s not to defend Microsoft, but more to say both Google and Microsoft have their own major flaws, embarrassments, and evil acts in their histories.

 

[Defluer]

I’ll have to respectfully disagree on google being the bastion of privacy or security. The hr person gave you the wrong credentials, that’s her fault.

That’s not to defend Microsoft, but more to say both Google and Microsoft have their own major flaws, embarrassments, and evil acts in their histories.

Hah! LOL I agree with your disagree. I'm not saying Google Docs is perfect. Just... If Family/Friends come over and want to do something on my computer, they aren't gonna find Chrome, I've got the shortcut hidden. They are gonna find Firefox and Edge to use. Right there. If I used my home copy of Office for these writings then they could (and people have come around looking to use my computer/printer) open up Word to print out their document and see my recent documents, which would be a lot of work to keep up on, clearing out all the time. It's more about ease of pervoid use, not actual brand issues.

 

[oggbashan]

I have ordered a new Win 10 computer to replace my Win 7 one. It has a much better specification than my current Win 10 computer and could run Win 11 as well if I wanted to.