Office Home & Student 2010 on a Dual Boot questions about activation

marzipan · 12 Jan 2023

Hi there folks!

Well, it's been over a year since I've last posted, but I'm happy to say that as of last night, I am now dual booting my old Dell laptop with both Windows 7 and Windows 10. So far, so good, everything is working as it should...hopefully it stays that way. A big thanks to everyone who helped with their awesome tips and tricks to get me to this point.

Years ago, I had installed MS Office Home and Student 2010 on my Windows 7 and would now like to install it on my Windows 10 partition on the same SSD. Can I do this? The box reads that it is a Family Pack, so it's allowed on 3 computers but I actually don't know how many computers it's on - is there any way to check how many activations are left?

Am I correct in assuming that since I am dual booting both win7 and win10 with their own separate product keys, that this would be considered 2 separate machines and therefore I couldn't carry over the activation from the Win7 installation?

(The more I'm typing this out, the more of an aha moment I'm getting, but I thought I'd check in with the experts.)

And one more question, if I may - out of Libre Office and Open Office, which resembles the MS version the closest? Which is better as compatibility is concerned?

Thanks very much for all your help, folks. Seriously, you provide a wonderful service here.

Try3 · 12 Jan 2023

Just as an aside, why do you still want to use Windows 7?

Yes, it's two separate Office installations [one for each Windows].
If you merely added your Windows 10 then your existing Office installation in Windows 7 will not have been affected & should remain activated.

If you check the licence terms***, you will probably find that you have the right to install it on replacement computers and that MS trusts you to have removed it from the original ones when you do so.
Some Office versions specified a minimum 90 day period between such transfers but even that was not enforced by any technical block.
I imagine that, when you try normal internet activation, you might be told to use phone activation instead. That will merely be an inconvenience. If automated phone activation does not work & you end up talking to somebody, just stand your ground when they try to get you to sign up to an Office365 subscription instead.

*** You should find a link to your licence terms in any of your Office applications such as Excel - Office button, Options, Resources, About, View the MS software licence terms.

Some people have recommended LibreOffice as being a better choice than OpenOffice.
about LibreOffice [Bree #2] - TenForums
LibreOffice vs OpenOffice [RickC #30] - TenForums
Both Bree & RickC know a lot more than I do about the subject.
I use a lot of VBA code in my MSOffice so I don't have any practicable alternative.
Similarly, there isn't really an alternative to MSOffice Outlook but I don't think your Edition includes that.

Best of luck,
Denis

It's really worth making time to browse through the Tutorial index - there's a shortcut to it at the top of every page.

- At the foot of the Tutorial index is a shortcut to download it as a spreadsheet.
- I download a new copy each month.
- By downloading it as a spreadsheet I can benefit from Excel's excellent filtering capabilities when I search for topics of interest.

- Tutorials are also listed by category at Tutorials - there's also a shortcut to that at the top of every page.
- Both tutorial lists are searchable.
- You can also search for TenForumsTutorials in many general search engines, such as Google, by adding site:tenforums.com/tutorials after your search term. For example,
taskbar toolbars site:tenforums.com/tutorials

You can search TenForums using the search box in the top-right corner of all TenForums webpages or using Advanced Search - TenForums
- You can also search TenForums threads in many general search engines, such as Google, by adding site:tenforums.com after your search term. For example,
Search for drivers by HardwareID site:tenforums.com
- [This is what the search box in the top-right corner of TenForums webpages does automatically]

NavyLCDR · 12 Jan 2023

I doubt you will have any problems activating it.

MisterEd · 12 Jan 2023

Microsoft's activation servers reset activations after a certain number of days. Because of this someone can reinstall software at a later date and avoid an activation conflicts from a previous activation. For example, suppose you installed a program on a computer. Much later that computer dies. You can then install the program on a new computer and activate it without a problem.

This all says that even if you installed MS Office 2010 on another computer a long time ago you can install it again on a new computer. The new activation will overridden any previous activation. There shouldn't be a problem unless you try to use MS Office 2010 on more than three computers at the same time.

BTW, I have MS Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003 which can also be installed on up to three computers. Over the years I lost track of how many times I installed it. I even installed it again a couple times in the last few years. I didn't have any problem activating it each time.

The same goes for Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack. It can also be installed on up to three computers. I know I installed it on more than three computers since I got it in 2011. It always activated each time because I never had it on more than three computers at the same time.

NavyLCDR · 12 Jan 2023

@MisterEd just explained why I posted #3.

marzipan · 12 Jan 2023

Thanks everyone! You all were right - I installed it and it went through without an issue.

Just as an aside, why do you still want to use Windows 7?

Good question - I guess it's a sentimental thing. I'll probably get rid of it someday, but for now, I still want it, even though I won't use it online. I still have MS Picture It software on it and it works perfectly, as well as some old games that I hate to get rid of.

On Windows 7, I had a version of One Note 2010 that I was able to use locally - I didn't have to store anything on the cloud, and I didn't have to sign in either. Today, when Windows Update updated my Office installation, I was upgraded from the version I loved to the the cloud version, so I guess I'm finished with One Note now. Too bad - I kind of liked it for keeping track of things, but I don't like having to sign in to that to use it, and I don't like storing anything on the cloud. Oh well...can't have it all I guess!

In any case, thanks for your help everyone!

Try3 · 12 Jan 2023

marzipan said:

On Windows 7, I had a version of One Note 2010 that I was able to use locally - I didn't have to store anything on the cloud, and I didn't have to sign in either. Today, when Windows Update updated my Office installation, I was upgraded from the version I loved to the the cloud version

You might want to create a separate thread to ask other Office 2010 users about that apparent change.
I have never had Office 2010 but I find it hard to believe that such a radical change took place.

You might like to revert to your last system image of your Windows 7 C:\ drive and clear the update other MS products setting from Windows update to prevent any updates to your Office 2010. I cannot remember where that setting was in Windows 7 but it did exist.

All the best,
And thanks for the rep,
Denis

MisterEd · 13 Jan 2023

Try3 said:

You might want to create a separate thread to ask other Office 2010 users about that apparent change.
I have never had Office 2010 but I find it hard to believe that such a radical change took place.

You might like to revert to your last system image of your Windows 7 C:\ drive and clear the update other MS products setting from Windows update to prevent any updates to your Office 2010. I cannot remember where that setting was in Windows 7 but it did exist.

All the best,
And thanks for the rep,
Denis

I bought Office University 2010 when I was taking Microsoft Office classes in 2012. This version is internally the same as Office Professional 2010.

I can verify that One Note 2010 did receive the update mentioned. However, if I run One Note I am given the following options:

Open notebooks on the web or on this computer
Open notebooks on this computer only

Office Home & Student 2010 on a Dual Boot questions about activation-onenote2010.jpg

Try3 · 13 Jan 2023

Ed,

Since the OP seems to have already run OneNote, do you know if it can be changed back later on from within its own Preferences/Options?

This article implies, but does not state, that both can be used as the fancy takes you - Getting Started With OneNote 2010 - Universal Class
This makes me think there might well be an entry in OneNote options to make one or other the preferred method without completely inhibiting the non-preferred one.

Denis

Berton · 13 Jan 2023

Comment on the LibreOffice mention, I prefer it on some of my clients' computers as they have recipes created in Microsoft Works and LO can open those files, has support for more file formats than OpenOffice even though they both have their roots way back in Star Office. And just a couple weeks ago a client had received some attached files with the extension .pages, came from a Mac and LO opened them just fine.