Adding Software Assurance to your OEM Office licenses. What you need to know…
One of the questions we are asked quite often is, “Can I add Software Assurance to my OEM Office license, and what happens if I do or do not add it?” Here I will walk you through it step by step to answer this question for you:
First, let’s take a look at a short example to answer the question of, “What happens if you choose not to add Software Assurance to your OEM Office License.”
Let’s say you purchase a new PC and it comes with an OEM Office License on it. Within the first 90 days after the purchase of your OEM PC license, you do have the option to add Software Assurance to that OEM Office license.
For this example, we will assume you choose not to add Software Assurance to the OEM Office license.
By choosing to not add Software Assurance within the first 90 days, your OEM Office license remains bound by the OEM licensing rights. As such, it is now permanently attached to the original PC it was purchased with.
Now when you have owned your PC for more than 90 days, you no longer have the option to add Software Assurance. So what happens if you choose to replace that physical PC or upgrade its motherboard at some point down the line?
Because the OEM Office License is bound by the OEM licensing terms, the OEM Office license MUST stay with the original PC it was purchased with, so it is retired or disposed of right along with the original PC itself. Now, when you purchase your new PC hardware, you are not able to transfer your original OEM Office license to the new PC which leaves you with an unlicensed PC. As such, you would now need to purchase another full Office license for the new PC.
This new Office license could be acquired through OEM again from the PC manufacturer, or you could also purchase the Office license through Volume Licensing programs such as Open Business or Open Value. If you choose to purchase another OEM Office license from the PC manufacturer, you would then have another 90 days to decide if you want to add Software Assurance to this new OEM Office license.
Now, let’s say you purchase a new PC and it comes with an OEM Office License on it. Within the first 90 days after the purchase of your OEM Office license, you do have the option to add Software Assurance to that OEM Office license.
For this example, we will assume you do choose to add Software Assurance to the OEM Office license.
By choosing to add Software Assurance within the first 90 days, your OEM Office license now has full Volume Licensing rights, including transfer rights.
So now when you have owned your PC for more than 90 days, what happens if you choose to replace that physical PC or upgrade its motherboard at some point down the line? Because you added Software Assurance to the OEM Office License within the first 90 days, you now have Volume Licensing rights for that Office license.
This means, when you purchase your new PC hardware, you ARE able to transfer your original OEM Office license with the Software Asurance to the new PC. As such, you do not need to purchase another full Office license for the new PC since you can use your original OEM license+Software Assurance on it. Please be sure to keep track of your Proof of Ownership components for your OEM Office license though since you will need to maintain those in order to prove you own the OEM Office license as the qualifier for your Office Software Assurance purchase if you are ever asked to show proof of ownership for the computer software your company runs (for instance if you were ever auditted by BSA).
I hope this helps clarify the ability to add Software Assurance to OEM Office licenses within 90 days and what this means for the usability of the OEM license. Be sure to check out all of the Software Assurance benefits that are also included when you add Software Assurance to your OEM Office licenses within 90 days, such as: Upgrade Protection, eLearning, Home Use Rights, etc.
Thank you and have a wonderful day,
Eric Ligman
Microsoft US Senior Manager
Small Business Community Engagement
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
Comments
Anonymous
May 23, 2006
Thanks, pictures do help.
But what if the company is of the type that likes to refresh a pc every 3-4 years. Microsoft OEM software comes so inexpensively (and in most cases you can't get the hardware without the os or office app) where does SA fit in then?Anonymous
June 30, 2007
I received the following question after my “ Preview and Sneak Peek of the new Small Business DesktopAnonymous
August 01, 2007
OEM Microsoft Office and OEM Microsoft Windows licensing is a topic that seems to again be generatingAnonymous
August 01, 2007
OEM Microsoft Office and OEM Microsoft Windows licensing is a topic that seems to again be generatingAnonymous
August 22, 2007
Awhile back I posted about how to add Software Assurance to OEM Office licenses: Adding Software AssuranceAnonymous
October 29, 2007
With the release of Microsoft Office 2007, some of the Editions of Office were enhanced or updated toAnonymous
November 01, 2007
Transfer Rights grant the right to uninstall software from one device and then re-install that softwareAnonymous
November 01, 2007
Transfer Rights grant the right to uninstall software from one device and then re-install that softwareAnonymous
November 01, 2007
PingBack from http://msdnrss.thecoderblogs.com/2007/11/01/licensing-basics-what-are-transfer-rights/Anonymous
November 15, 2007
Since I published my, " Licensing Basics: What are Downgrade Rights? " post, I have been receivingAnonymous
November 15, 2007
Since I published my, " Licensing Basics: What are Downgrade Rights? " post, I have been receivingAnonymous
December 06, 2007
I have seen a conversation taking place in one of the online forums about how Microsoft Office is licensedAnonymous
January 16, 2008
In some of my earlier post, such as: OEM Microsoft Server software. New short video answers top questionsAnonymous
January 16, 2008
In some of my earlier post, such as: OEM Microsoft Server software. New short video answers top questionsAnonymous
January 16, 2008
PingBack from http://www.ditii.com/2008/01/16/software-assurance-and-more/Anonymous
March 12, 2009
Larry sent this question to me, asking what is actually a relatively common question and a good one toAnonymous
June 02, 2009
One of the topics I get asked about quite a bit or see being asked about is around the topic of Software