Warning on Cheap Office LTSC 2021 Licenses

Some of these licenses have been "Pre activated" via KMS methods (OK that's legal for officiallylicensed servers for business etc and are usually VL editions although this method of licensing is being phased out by Ms (probably about time too)

Speaking the other day to a collegue in Shanghai (these people know all about these things !!!) he says a lot of these convert basic Retail copies into VL and use a KMS sever to activate

Now when the poor user gets one of these more dubious licenses they work for a while and then a message pops up that "Your License might not be genuine" . That's because the KMS server key is not present on the target machine.

So you've been warned -- you might be lucky and actually have a genuine one but in reality this stuff is about 98% hacks.

Unless you can get Office from School, Uni, or Work and you really want it (there are 2 good FREE alternatives - LibreOffice and APS office (which is exceptionally good even for EXCEL equivalents if you don't use vbs programming) then get Office/365. Then you know it's safe, works and in reality isn't too expensive - just pay the cost up front and forget about it.

So to those cheap users of Office 2021 -- That software might not be what it seems. In any case Office 2010 and Office 2019 if you have either of those still work perfectly on W11 and for 99% of users the newer features aren't really significant.

So "Caveat Emptor" !!!!


Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

... That software might not be what it seems...

Click to expand...

Perhaps!
I've had my cheap copy for almost a year now, it's paid for itself ten times over!

I also have my cheap copy of O365 Home as a sub. 1 + 5 Licenses with 1TB of OneDrive storage each. Have had it for the past 15 years or so... Haven't regretted it ever since.

Appreciate the warning but my 'cheap' 2021 version has been humming fine for over a year now.

Later versions may be more problematic. I bought an activation key for 2019, activated on the MS and working fine. It is registered to me. I need basic Words, Excel. So, it does the job.

Hi folks
If stuff is working --great -- its the newer versions that are problematic (or updates) on mainly office 2021. I think Office 2019 is OK though.

It's just a warning to people -- and if you have one of these recent ones which still work you might just stop further updates.

Cheers
jimbo

It's peculiar alright!
Mine doesn't say Product Activated but, it doesn't say Activation Required either!

They're all some sort of Grace editions..., they'll probably self destruct at some point!

I recently installed Office 2007 Home and Student on my Win11 Desktop. I also have Office 2000 on an older Notebook with Win10 but did a custom install leaving out Outlook.

Berton said:

I recently installed Office 2007 Home and Student on my Win11 Desktop. I also have Office 2000 on an older Notebook with Win10 but did a custom install leaving out Outlook.

Click to expand...

Those things still work perfectly -- unless you really need the brand new features in pivot tables in EXCEL and are a real power user there's no reason to upgrade. Office 2010 is still working brilliantly on a VM I'm using on the latest insider build.

Don't get sucked in to "Update-itus" or "Feature-itus" for stuff you'd never use even if you knew it existed.

I like modern hardware and proper new features but a lot these days just don't cut it.

Incidentally if you are using any Linux VM or the Subsystem for Linux feature in Windows -- a really mega fast and tiny full featured email program is claws-email. 100% FREE, Mega fast and for those who don't have outlook in their Office package or have Office at all then have a look at the link.


Might even work on Windows too. !!! 100% Free. The link includes a version for Windows. Multiple accounts, different server config, manual config etc etc. Haven't tried it on Windows yet but it works a treat where I have used it. Fast, tiny and easy to set up.

Cheers
jimbo

Hi folks

If this stuff does appear even with a 2019 office update (best to stop updates) then a post I made ages ago called "Nagez Vous" will fix the issue -- disable updates though.


Cheers
jimbo

BTW that FREE claws mail works on loads of platforms !!!



So if you need a quick cheap (i.e zero cost) email system compatable with a load of phone system email systems e.g android then it's worth a look. Won't have all the bells and whistles of some full featured email systems but who cares -- it works, multiple accounts, all sorts of email providers including exchange servers and can be set up manually unlike a load of these new things that almost make it impossible if you have different servers or use different logins to inbound and outbound stuff. Attachments and HTML no problem.

Here I have a UK server and an Icelandic one -- no probs !!. Most email clients other than outlook make this sort of stuff a real pain especially when the ports are all different.

Cheers
jimbo

@jimbo45
You need an image editor with Blur option!

Thanks @Edwin

I've nothing to hide though !!
!!!

Mailbird Business Pro is still my go-to...

jimbo45 said:

Hi folks
If stuff is working --great -- its the newer versions that are problematic (or updates) on mainly office 2021. I think Office 2019 is OK though.

It's just a warning to people -- and if you have one of these recent ones which still work you might just stop further updates.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

Indeed you may get Shanghaied

Hmm, I was a TechNet member for many years, up until the end when I exported all my keys into a excel spreadsheet.
The Office go through XP → 2013 w/ the XP being a Static Activation Key the rest Retail.
After my O'2010 ran into its (MS) Lifecycle EOL I bought & installed O'2019.
Then found these "deals" on O'2021 so I updated several OS's w/ that also.
--
So now on the new laptop I have no Office on either (Win11) OS's.
After reading jimbo45's 1st post I want to install O'2010 on them... what could go wrong besides not getting any security or other updates
Fortunately I saved copies of O'2010 SP1 & SP2.
--
The reason I like O'2010 is because it has Picture Manager built in which I have installed separately on newer Office's w/ the O'2010 key.
+ the familiar interface.

SlicEnDicE said:

I also have my cheap copy of O365 Home as a sub. 1 + 5 Licenses with 1TB of OneDrive storage each. Have had it for the past 15 years or so... Haven't regretted it ever since.

Click to expand...

Same boat that I am in. I have had Office 365 for about 5 years now. Honestly, the fact that I get 6TB's of OneDrive space with my 6 accounts makes the $99 a year worth it alone. Getting Office itself is just like a freebie extra for me. I can install it on an unlimited number of devices, multiple desktops, laptops, windows, Mac OS, etc.

Just recently found out that I was eligible for a discount to $69.99 through the home use program though my employer. No brainer here for me, worth every penny.

pparks1 said:

Same boat that I am in. I have had Office 365 for about 5 years now. Honestly, the fact that I get 6TB's of OneDrive space with my 6 accounts makes the $99 a year worth it alone. Getting Office itself is just like a freebie extra for me. I can install it on an unlimited number of devices, multiple desktops, laptops, windows, Mac OS, etc.

Just recently found out that I was eligible for a discount to $69.99 through the home use program though my employer. No brainer here for me, worth every penny.

Click to expand...

Well I don't need 6TB of storage but just wondering the cost benefit vs other Office suites with a 1TB external - unless you are a hoarder you don't need most the stuff..

Superfly said:

... just wondering the cost benefit vs other Office suites...

Click to expand...

Dunno! The $39.99 roped me in!

Superfly said:

Well I don't need 6TB of storage but just wondering the cost benefit vs other Office suites with a 1TB external - unless you are a hoarder you don't need most the stuff..

Click to expand...

@Superfly
EXCEL is probably the one app that makes the most difference between Office 2010 and newer versions, but only if you are a real power user. For 99% of stuff Office 2010 works brilliantly still on the latest versions of Windows 11.

@SmokeMe

Office 2010 installs perfectly in W11 if you have install disk and activation key -- even if you don't you can download from various Windows archive sites and then enter your technet key.

I still like the Office 2010 GUI with the simple and easily customisable interface (use CTR + F1).

Security isn't that much of a problem if you use email etc carefully -- scamming is more of a problem on "Home" type computers -- not corporate ones which have other issues to deal with. I doubt whether any N.Korean (or other hacker) will waste time trying to get 50 EUR out of my home computer !!!!.

@Edwin

If the 40 USD (or EUR -- almost dollar EUR parity these days) got you a product that works -- OK -- but remember it might not work in a few months time -- or it could work indefinitely -- Your Risk of course. !!!

For Brexit loving GB folks -- soon 1 GBP will be LESS than 1 EUR -- today 1 GBP was at one time 1.05 EUR !!!!!. Pre Brexit referendum was 1.56 GBP per EUR.



Cheers
jimbo