Question about Migrating MS Office 2008

I recently upgraded from my 10 month old MacBook White to the new 13" MBP (picked up a 2 week old one for $700, couldn't pass it up lol). I immediately wiped the HD and did a fresh install of SL and the applications.

Before migrating my stuff, I used the second of my product keys from my MS Office to load onto the new MBP (first was used on the white). Anyway, the applications disc had an issue and iPhoto wouldn't work so WITHOUT uninstalling MS Office, I wiped the HD again and reinstalled OSX and the apps. I then went ahead and migrated my stuff and realized that my original Office migrated as well.

So my question is this; did I waste my second product key of Office by failing to un-install it before wiping the HD? Help me out y'all. Thanks!!

No, the product key was not wasted. (You can reuse it.) Office for the Mac legitimizes itself differently than on Windows. MS requires all Windows versions of Office since 2002 to be activated via the net or by phone. Not a requirement for the Mac version.

Completely removing Office 2008 from one machine (that you own) and placing it on another (that you own) using the same product key will work. The Home and Student version allows installing on up to three machines in your same household. Legally you can run Office 2008 at the same time on those three machines.

Regards.

chscag said:

No, the product key was not wasted. (You can reuse it.) Office for the Mac legitimizes itself differently than on Windows. MS requires all Windows versions of Office since 2002 to be activated via the net or by phone. Not a requirement for the Mac version.

Completely removing Office 2008 from one machine (that you own) and placing it on another (that you own) using the same product key will work. The Home and Student version allows installing on up to three machines in your same household. Legally you can run Office 2008 at the same time on those three machines.

Regards.

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Thanks for the info. However, I didn't "remove" it from the MBP, I just erased it off the hard drive by doing an "erase and install" OSX install. Does that matter?

Thanks for the info. However, I didn't "remove" it from the MBP, I just erased it off the hard drive by doing an "erase and install" OSX install. Does that matter?

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Nope. Same thing applies, it's gone.

Regards.

chscag said:

Nope. Same thing applies, it's gone.

Regards.

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Thanks bro!

One last thing, if MS doesn't keep track of these things, couldn't I potentially install the same code on multiple computers? I have 3 product keys (and only one MBP now) so I'm not looking to do anything illegal, but it seems like the door is left open for someone to use the same code on as many systems as they want. Am I wrong in thinking that?

No, you're not wrong in thinking that. There is nothing to stop a dishonest person from installing Office 2008 on a whole barrage of machines.

Microsoft is trusting us to do the right thing... Which is certainly saying a lot since they're paranoid about everything in Windows.

Regards.

chscag said:

No, you're not wrong in thinking that. There is nothing to stop a dishonest person from installing Office 2008 on a whole barrage of machines.

Microsoft is trusting us to do the right thing... Which is certainly saying a lot since they're paranoid about everything in Windows.

Regards.

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Wild. Well I have 2 more keys should I ever need them so I'm not worried about that. Again, thanks for the info.