Microsoft Makes Office 2013 Transferrable

Microsoft has finally succumbed to the pressure. Many consumers were outraged when Microsoft told them that its Office 2013 product would not be transferrable. The company made the changes in order to better promote their newly launched Office 365 service. With Office 365, users would be able to install Office 2013 on up to 5 devices, but they would have to pay either a monthly or annual subscription fee.

Before, Microsoft would offer some leeway for Office 2013 users. If your PC died on you, and if it's still under warranty, you would be able to transfer your Office 2013 software onto a new computer. But now Microsoft is opening up the transfer gates entirely. You are now able to transfer your Office 2013 software to a new PC, but only every 90 days. If your computer experiences hardware failure, you will be exempt from the 90 day rule and can have Office transferred "sooner".

In order to transfer Office to another computer, you have to uninstall the software from your old computer first. You are still limited to only one copy of the software. Microsoft is also allowing you to transfer Office 2013 to another user's computer, but only if you're the "first licensed user" of the product, and only if the other user agrees to Office's terms of agreement (which no one probably reads).

This is definitely a step in the right direction for Microsoft. While it still sucks that you're only able to install Office 2013 on one computer, being able to transfer Office 2013 makes things more flexible. For those of you who need more licenses for Office 2013, it'd probably be best to opt for Office 365. Though it is expensive, you get 5 licenses of Office 2013 plus its web apps, and you will receive updates every 3 months for the product.

[via Microsoft]