Office 365 subscription

Anonymous
2022-01-30T01:02:30+00:00

My computer died. Dead, finito, nada mas. I bought a new computer (16 MB RAM!). I thought I could just download office from the web, enter my subscription key and all would be good to go. Well, that ain't happenin'.

What I ended up with is a copy of office from the official Microsoft website which with each document or spreadsheet I open displays the bar across the top begging me to buy office 365, which I already own. It also errors a lot and will not work with my Dragon VR (which, with my disabled left hand making it impossible to type well, is a true bummer when writing my business letters in Word).

Is it true that you only have to buy office once in a lifetime? I got the first one from a friend who was a Microsoft affiliate as a birthday present so never had to worry about money at all. I currently have five tabs open with instructions on how to correct my situation. They all say I need to disable office on my old computer but that one is, as mentioned, a memory in the biosphere by now. So my question is…

How do I get office 365 on my new machine without having to purchase it for $99 a year?

Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, OS build 19043.1466, Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3920.0. Processor – Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4570 CPU @ 3.20GHz, 16.0 GB RAM.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T18:10:12+00:00

    Okay, I deleted everything from Settings. What I now show in the Start menu are icons for Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word. Clicking these each brings up a new window of Microsoft Edge. Right clicking reveals nothing but "Pinned to Start" and "More". The "More" option reveals the following…

    Note that there is no uninstall here. I really want to get rid of these before I purchase 365. Opening the file location would allow me to "delete".

    My biggest problem with all this is that it's just not right. To show a PowerPoint icon that opens an Edge window means some wire is cross somewhere.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T18:42:18+00:00

    Not going to lie - this is not something I've encountered before where there is no option to <unpin> something from the Start menu along with no <uninstall> option and don't know where these are coming from. Am going to ask an associate who is a Windows/Edge expert to see if he can shed some light on this which is probably going to be an obvious simple answer so we'll both be learning something (hopefully).

    Don't know how fast I'll be able to get a response given we are in different parts of the world - might be a while but rest assured, I'll come back to this when I hear back from him. Will be sending off my question as soon as I hit submit on this post

    Just to confirm something, you don't see any entries in the <Settings> --> <Apps & Features> for these individual Office apps - correct? (am assuming the answer is "there are no entries for those") so no need to respond if that's the case.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T19:13:34+00:00

    "there are no entries for those" and please take your time, I am in no hurry so go smooth. I would likee to get office going but feel like I should wait until this situation is corrected before purchasing anything. Do you see any problem with me installing the 365 "Individual" now or is it best to wait. Either wayy is okay with me.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T19:16:31+00:00

    Okay, I deleted everything from Settings. What I now show in the Start menu are icons for Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word. Clicking these each brings up a new window of Microsoft Edge. Right clicking reveals nothing but "Pinned to Start" and "More". The "More" option reveals the following…

    Image

    Click on the "Open file Location"

    This will open FIle Explorer in the place the shortcut is located, with the shortcut selected.

    In this capture I used a Start menu entry for Booking.com. The specific location it is in may vary

    Delete the shortcut, it will be gone from the Start menu

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T19:24:22+00:00

    >>

    Do you see any problem with me installing the 365 "Individual" now or is it best to wait. Either wayy is okay with me.

    <<

    Since I don't know why those icons are on the Start menu, would expect that the worst that will happen is that you will have 2 entries for each app - one that you're trying to get rid of and the other that will appear after Microsoft 365 is installed. For all I know, the stubborn icons may disappear after MS 365 is installed but am not betting on it. Regardless, there shouldn't be any negative impact by installing MS 365 now. If this was happening to me, it wouldn't stop me from installing MS 365 if I needed to get things done.

    Have already sent off my question but we're 12hrs apart in terms of time zones so it's early in the morning for him.

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