Windows 7 question: Activating Office2003?

I have Win 7 without Office. I would like to try AutoEZ and ZPlots.

If I buy a **broken link removed**, can it be "activated" after I install it on my computer considering that it likely was previously "activated" on some other computer? In other words, does the previous installation/activation interfere with installing it a different computer?

Does that change if the CD set/activation key you get from a FleaBay seller is an "OEM version" vs a "FPP version"?

If buying from an EBay seller, do you have to ascertain if the copy they are selling is OEM or FPP?

I think the original user has to phone MIcrosoft and de-activate it. Microsoft never intended for OEM versions to be moved between computers so they might just outright refuse if it's OEM. For FPP they would likely de-activate it (though it might be contingent on whether they think the same person will be using it on the new install)

This is why I never ended up buying a used copy of 2003.

That is a complex issue and has been in US courts a few times.

You may be familiar with the "first sale" ruling in the US. That may not apply to software that is subject to a EULA as well (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...major-ruling-upholds-tough-software-licenses/). To complicate matters more, I found one case in which a business bought another business and wanted to resell the software from the purchased business. In that case (2009) the court found in favor of the buyer, but the circumstances were clearly different.

Before I would buy that off eBay, I would want to check for more recent cases. Adobe has made some of its earlier stuff freeware, like Photoshop CS3, as I recall. Maybe M$ has done the same, but I doubt it. Still worth checking.

If you find it is legal, and before you buy (unless it is really cheap), let us know. I am currently running 2007.

OpenOffice and LibreOffice (AFAIK) can read some (at least) MSOffice file formats. Would one of those meet your needs, or is there some particular reason you need 2003?

alec_t said:

OpenOffice and LibreOffice (AFAIK) can read some (at least) MSOffice file formats. Would one of those meet your needs, or is there some particular reason you need 2003?

Click to expand...

The application I want to run uses ExCel Macros which will not run on OO or LO. The author of the application says his stuff will run on any version of ExCel from 1997 on up (excluding 365) provided that the Service Packs have been applied. He suggests getting 2003 like I linked to from EBay, and then applying the service packs. That presumes that it can be "activated", hence my questions.

alec_t said:

OpenOffice and LibreOffice (AFAIK) can read some (at least) MSOffice file formats. Would one of those meet your needs, or is there some particular reason you need 2003?

Click to expand...

Hola Alec

Please be aware that compatibility between them and Microsoft's software has a limit. Be ready to find it at any moment.

Spent two days trying to make my Excel macros to work in one of them. What a frustration! That's when I learnt.

EDIT:
Mike posted while I was composing my post. And precisely about macros!

Just in case, when trying to adapt them to one of those frees, I found that I should learn everything from scratch. No thanks.

/EDIT

EDIT2:

Good to note that my two valid Win XP failed to be recognized as such when installed in new motherboards (few months difference) because of the original ones failed. I realized that the whole SP3 is available somewhere in the Web. I downloaded it and both started to be recognized as the original valid ones.

Not interested in that sort of stunts, it worked for me. Not a hacker in this area, really.

/EDIT

Hola Agustin,
I have a couple of laptops which I currently need to run XP on for legacy programs. Since I already previously paid for XP on 2 machines, which incidentally got scrapped before I moved, I have absolutely no qualms about running an activation-free downloaded XP SP3 ISO.
Both machines will never be on the net.

Mickster said:

Hola Agustin,
I have a couple of laptops which I currently need to run XP on for legacy programs. Since I already previously paid for XP on 2 machines, which incidentally got scrapped before I moved, I have absolutely no qualms about running an activation-free downloaded XP SP3 ISO.
Both machines will never be on the net.

Click to expand...

Not sure where your comment is aimed to Mickster but at the moment I did that was necessary to ensure I had SP3 installed.

Both are defunct now so all that is history.

You wrote in post #6:
"Good to note that my two valid Win XP failed to be recognized as such when installed in new motherboards (few months difference) because of the original ones failed. I realized that the whole SP3 is available somewhere in the Web. I downloaded it and both started to be recognized as the original valid ones."

You seemed to be indicating that you did a hardware change on a registered machine and then XP was no longer recognized as valid.
At that point, it was possibly suggested that you called Microsoft and had them re-activate your license because of a hardware change, but you found it worked when you installed SP3?
Is that correct?
I was indicating that I did a hardware change recently, albeit quite a few years after I had scrapped the machines I originally bought the XP licenses for.
I previously bought the licenses, used the machines, scrapped the machines, XP reached it's EOL and I found I needed XP again - I had already paid twice for two license seats, so instead of calling Microsoft to have them re-activate an EOL OS, I found an XP SP3 download which catered for my needs.

Mike, I have a Office 2003 Professional Edition last uninstalled around 2007. Original Microsoft disk including the key. You are welcome to it if you want to give it a try. Shoot me a message of where to send it and I'll mail it to you. Figure nothing ventured.

Ron