Should you activate Office immediately?
It’s prudent to delay activating MS Office until well after installation.
Microsoft’s setup encourages you to activate your copy of Office as soon as you install – however you don’t have to do that and we’d encourage people NOT to.
Getting a product activation registers your use of Office on a particular computer – you should not do that until you’re sure you are happy with that computer.
Sometimes the new computer doesn’t work properly and has to be repaired or replaced. Or you might decide to switch Windows versions (eg XP to Vista or vice-versa). Using Office on an existing computer might make you decide to upgrade or replace the machine. These or other events can force you to reinstall Office yet again after a short time. Sure, you can call Microsoft and explain what happened but if you didn’t activate Office in the first place, the later install and activation is more likely to go through quickly.
You can use Office 2007 without product activation (or even a Product Key in many cases) for the first 25 times you start an Office program.
There is no risk that you’ll forget to activate Office later. There’s a prompt to activate when you start Office and after the ‘no activation’ limit Office goes into a ‘reduced functionality’ mode. Once you’ve activated Office returns to it’s full glory.
If you’re using a laptop, make sure Office is activated before you start travelling, especially if you might be disconnected from the Internet.
Delaying activation is quite possible and lets you ensure that the computer you’re using is a stable and suitable platform for Microsoft Office. Make use of that opportunity.
See Also
- Can you only install Office twice?
- Office 2007 licence terms
- What the Vista ‘kill switch’ decision means for Office
- Generated Product Key trap?
- If your product key is stolen, part 2
- What happens if your product key is stolen?
- The ‘Kill Switch’ that won’t die
- The real Office 2007 installation guide, part 3
- Office 2007 ‘kill switch’ true or false?