Testing Microsoft Office 2013 and 365 with huge changes

If you’re shocked by the revelation that the retail editions of office 2013 can be costlier than their predecessors and is available with additional severe license restrictions, you haven’t been observant.
The retail editions of office 2013 contain some basic changes that go well on the far side easy changes within the license agreement. They basically alter the method we predict of desktop software package.

The biggest modification of all?

You cannot obtain Microsoft office, Microsoft’s flagship product, on removable media. You can’t even transfer offline installer files for the three retail editions of Office: Home and Student, Home and Business, and professional.

If you buy a single-user copy of Microsoft office 2013 from an internet reseller (including the Microsoft Store) you get a product key code. If you purchase a boxed copy of Microsoft office 2013 from a product retailer, you get a product key on a card. In either case, you have got to browse to office.com/setup, where then you’ll see this prompt:
Enter your product key

That kicks off the web installer, which streams the setup files to your computer employing a method referred to as Click-to-Run. The Microsoft office programs you will end up with—Word, Excel, Outlook, and so on—look and act rather like standard Windows desktop programs, however they’re truly running in a system virtualized environment, permitting them to be updated automatically, while not requiring that you just use Windows Update. The underlying technology is that the same enterprise-grade codes that powers application virtualization (App-V) on business networks.
If you get a replacement computer with a trial version of Microsoft Office 2013 preinstalled and enter a product key, you get a related result.
Microsoft Office Activation Wizard

But Microsoft doesn’t wish to sell you that uninterrupted license. As I detected once I did the maths on Microsoft office subscriptions last Sep, “Sticking with ‘traditional’ software package will definitely cost you dearly.”
That’s additional true than ever with Microsoft office 2013. Here’s a listing of the stark distinction between perpetual-license editions of the Microsoft office 2013 and therefore the equivalent products sold through subscription:
You get a lot of less software package compared with the subscription editions. Microsoft office Home and Student, at a price of $140 for one license, offers you Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. With a Microsoft office 365 Home Premium subscription, you get those programs and Outlook, Publisher, and Access.
you've got to pay for Microsoft office future versions. The subscription version continuously entitles you to the foremost recent version. With a perpetual license, you pay once however need to pay everywhere once more for brand new versions.
Multi-PC editions are not any longer out there. In some editions of previous Microsoft office releases, Microsoft added the right to put in the software package on 2 or 3 PCs. With Microsoft office 2013, the retail editions are for one computer, no exclusions.
Your perpetual license is barred to at least one computer. The new license agreement contains identical language for all 3 retail editions: “Can I transfer the software package to a different laptop or user? You will not transfer the software package to a different laptop or user. You will transfer the software package on to a 3rd party solely as put in, on the authorised laptop, with the Certificate of Authenticity label and this agreement.” That’s a modification from the license terms of previous Microsoft office retailed versions, which entitled you to designate licenses between devices you own, as long as you are doing so not over each 90 days.
Some versions of Microsoft office 2010 embrace a comparable restriction. The Microsoft office 2010 license agreements for the editions (Home and Student, Home and Business, and Professional) embrace 3 separate sets of terms. The Retail License Terms, that apply to boxed (aka "Full Package Product") software package, embrace the flexibility to transfer licenses. The terms for OEM and products Key Card copies, however, embrace this language:
A copy per device. The software package license is for good appointed to the device on that the software package is originally activated. That device is accepted as the “licensed device.”
That's almost like the means Windows licensing has traditionally worked. OEM copies are sold at a considerable discount and are barred to the device they are sold with. The License Key Card for Microsoft office 2010 could be a means of quickly activating the trial version of Microsoft office 2010 that comes with several new PCs. Primarily, it's an O.E.M copy by another name. What is new in Microsoft office 2013 is that the elimination of the license Key Card terms and therefore the removal within the Retail License Terms of the flexibility to designate the license rights for retail copies.
That last restriction is that the one that has Microsoft office users howling the most. And Microsoft’s response is simple: If you would like to manoeuvre Microsoft office licenses between PCs, obtain one in every of the subscription editions that make the process practically painless. From a web-based administration page, you'll be able to deactivate a license on one device and install a fresh copy of Microsoft office on another, while not ever having to enter a product key.
Install Office Through Subscription

You also don’t need to worry regarding putting in the original version and now applying a service pack and any following updates. The Click-to-Run installer continuously includes the current up-to-date version.
And if you do not desire paying for associate upgrade, or paying in any respect, earlier Microsoft office versions can still work. You may still obtain Microsoft office 2010 licenses with their additional generous terms for a minimum of another year, maybe two. And therefore, the Microsoft office web Apps that became quite rich and full-featured, are free for anyone, with a free 7GB SkyDrive allowance enclosed.
The biggest losers during this product transition are software pirates, who have grown fat and wealthy shopping for multiple product keys from Microsoft services like TechNet and MSDN and so reselling them to unsuspecting customers. The new retail editions aren’t out there through those IT-focused channels.
For computer traditionalists, the sticker shock that comes with attempting to shop for a standard perpetual license for Microsoft office is bound to cause some rage. From what is seen, Microsoft is totally ready for that reaction and plans to stay to its guns. It sees perpetual licenses as a fading business, one that it can’t wait to fall.
This fast shift in tactic is symbolic of the new Microsoft, that isn’t afraid to form massive changes that might ne'er are tolerated at a modest recent Microsoft. In fact, what Microsoft is doing with Microsoft office 2013 and Microsoft office 365 is disrupting its own business, before some other person will do it to them.