Microsoft Products from other vendors

[gjm120]

I recently bought a new desktop PC. The one it replaced had Office 2007 on it and I want something more recent for the new machine. In a web search I came across a bunch of vendors selling what they say are fully licensed Office packages at $50- $100. Any experience with this? Is it legal? Will it get MS updates?

[Banana Hammock]

Are you talking about websites that sell CD keys only? They're legit keys but it's kind of a grey market. A lot of people use those keys for many years for the Operating System with no issues.

[detroitm2]

Agree on the "gray market."

However, I ordered a Windows 10 license for Kinguin.net, and it went well. I had some issues activating, but getting on their live chat got me sorted within a few minutes.

The install seems 100% valid, windows update works, everything is fully functional.

[gjm120]

I did a little digging and it seems like grey market is a good categorization. These are likely multi-license packages sold to developers or companies for use within that organisation.

[Dang3r]

I bought my W7 Ultimate Key just as a DL and Office 365 also. Never encountered problems with it.
Office 2010 was last version with CD's.
W10 is no match for me, W7 is fully operable and needs no replacement.

[gjm120]

I found a fairly good free substitute for Office - at least the programs in Office I care about. Libre Office has document and spreadsheet programs that are not bad at all. Not as pretty and probably lack some features. I have no idea if the spreadsheet does macros and all the other stuff in Excel, but, for basics it is fine. So far carrying over changes to the docs or spreadsheets into the MS products works.

For an email client, Thunderbird is pretty good also.

I've only had the Libre Office suite for a short while so this is an initial impression. Have had Thunderbird for about 2 months now and happy with it.

[Poiseuille]

.

[Ximian]

Those keys are most likely not legitimate. However, your employer may have a relationship with Microsoft that would give you certain products for a very reasonable price through the Home Use program - https://www.microsofthup.com/hupus/home.aspx

[Z K]

If you don't want to pay for Office 365 as a subscription, you can buy the latest Office 2019 without a subscription as well.

[gjm120]

I know. Already have a valid Office suite on 2 computers and having it on another machine is just a nice to have. Thus my reason for trying to save. Actually, since I started this I've used Thunderbird and Office Libre and for what I need they aren't bad.