Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

Matt S — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:09:09 GMT

This takes extra time, but I installed Vista Business 64 bit clean, put in no key code.

I then re-ran setup again from the disk inside of Vista Business 64, and put in the upgrade key code.

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

David Overton — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:45:05 GMT

Colin,

in word (for example), you can save in a number of formats, including .doc which is called Office 97-2003, plus lots of others, including PDF which is nice for quotes that people can't change :-). To get Office 2000 to open Office 2007 documents load this tool - uksbsguy.com/.../how-to-open-office-2007-word-excel-and-powerpoint-2007-files-on-office-2000-office-xp-and-office-2003-by-downloading-the-microsoft-office-compatibility-pack-for-file-formats.aspx

ttfn

David

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

Colin Hargreaves — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:03:09 GMT

Brilliant, thanks David;

That is the info I have been waiting/looking for and hoped existed.

But how many sites and pages did I look through. Pity PC World Staff are known for misleading customers or I would have asked them a long time ago.

as for

"Yes - you might hit a snag activating, but a call to the centre will fix that too, so no worries"

From the bottom of my heart "thank you".

One final concern; I recieved an office 2007 (about a property) Word? document from Office 2007 doc and my Office 2000 would not open it.

WTF?

Howzat?

Maybe

incompatibility between 2000 and 2007?

(Unless it was one of those weird shared documents one-note or the like.)

Wide Choice of saves in 2007?

Probably.

I'm a bathroom fitter (house rennovator) and ues the PC for quotes and letters and stuff; but like to keep up to speed with some of the usual developments. So thanks for not squashing me.

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

David Overton — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:17:27 GMT

Colin,

Yes - you might hit a snag activating, but a call to the centre will fix that too, so no worries.

ttfn

David

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

Colin Hargreaves — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:14:23 GMT

Hi, good page; I am lost trying to find out about Office 2007 Ultimate. Tooo much information out there?

New Laptop Vista Premium (Toshiba X200- with back up disc).

I installed my Office 2000 (without [Problem] MS Outlook)

Works fine.

Thaks for the site info Dave.

I can Re-install Office 2000 Everytime on all my PC's.

Will Office 2007 re-install if my hard drive fails?

I ask because I have had 2 hard drives fail in the past and lost everything. And I don't want to lose hundreds of pounds of licence too.

Maybe

Clone the Laptop on a New Spare Hard drive first?

Or will registration fail?

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

Steve H — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:20:53 GMT

I want to add one more comment for those thinking about doing the upgrade from the MAPS Vista Business to Vista Ultimate. Microsoft is saying your Ultimate license is good even if you stopped your MAPS subscription. But, if you were to need to reinstall, the only method for this I've seen is to install XP, then upgrade to Vista Business, then upgrade to Vista Ultimate. But, if your MAPS is expired, your MAPS license keys for XP and Vista Business are expired too. So if activation of XP or Business are required for the upgrade to Ultimate to work, then I guess we're just screwed, and that Ultimate license wasn't so permanent afterall.

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

Steve H — Wed, 16 May 2007 07:37:53 GMT

So, I'm currently a MAPS subscriber. I upgraded an XP box to Vista Business using the upgrade disk from MAPS. Then I purchased the anytime upgrade for Vista Ultimate and installed that. If I read the EULA correctly, I can legally install Vista Ultimate in Virtual Machines that run on this licensed PC. But just how am I supposed to do that? Could it really be true that I have to install XP, then install Vista Business, then perform the very time consuming upgrade install of Ultimate over that??!! And what if I want to do this a year from now after my MAPS subscription has expired, and I no longer even have a valid license or key for Vista Business? This update only disk is horrendously inconvenient.

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

David Overton — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 22:06:44 GMT

Panos,

you should not be seeing this problem - contact your regional support or MAPS support center. You do not have to install Office from MAPS on a PC that is running a MAPS copy of Windows.

thanks

David

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

Panos — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 08:34:15 GMT

Hi, I have a question and haven't found the answer neither here nor in the FAQs.

I have the Action Pack, I have installed Office in 1 machine with the serial provided and when I try to install it with the same serial on another machine, there is an activation error, this product is already activated.

The pc I'm trying to install office on, doesn't have windows from action pack. My question is: Does office have to be installed on pcs with action pack windows on?

Action Pack: Praise Where Praise Due

Tim Long — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:35:52 GMT

I've been quick to criticise the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription (MAPS) this year, so I decided it

Windows Vista, Windows XP, Office 2003, Exchange 2007 and Office 2007 Action Pack Update - my FAQ

David Overton's Blog — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:55:37 GMT

[last updated 7th Mar 2007 - 22:51pm GMT] Inside Microsoft we have been toiling very hard to provide

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

Tim — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:44:18 GMT

Theres several others who have made comments who appear to be in similar positions to mine but I would like some extra clarification please.

MAPS states that as a partner we can ue the MAPS to run our in house business - both demo machines and also our work PCs. Following this (I have been a MAPS subscriber for 4 years) I have built a SBS 2003 server and 10 CP Pro PCs on a network for our 8 staff. Additionally we use the other 2 licences from time to time to run up demo machines or VM Machines to test cetain scenarios. This has enabled us to sell Microsft Products to our customers with some degree of comfort in our ability to understand the software and also enable us to run our business - using these licences.

At this stage I have no plans to change our OS to vista, after running demo versions, I am less than enamored with it. However we will continue to run demos on machines we build here and also in VM.

My question is can we do this?

Assuming I never use more than 10 licences can I use a mix of XP and Vista?

Can I install clean on a machine I put together from spare parts inorder to test certain motherbopard and hardware options without having to install XP first?

Can I install Vista in a VM eithout having to do an install of XP first?

I would echo others sentiments that every Partner I have talked to and every system builder I have spoken to are very frustrated by the licensing issues around this. I am sure there are some out there who are happy but I for one havent met them. I know of parnters who are not even going to bother trying to sell or support vista for theese very reasons.

I suppose there is nothing new in that for you but if you can pass onto Microsft the pain of a small business serving customers and trying to make a living selling MS products who feels he is being right royally shafted by the very corporation who he is trying to promote. It seems as if the small business owner has been forgotten in Microsofts desire to support the large PC resellers (dell and hp etc)

Thanks for all the work you have done to assist on this website (echoes not shooting messenger sentiment)

cheers

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

David Overton — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:33:24 GMT

Chris,

the best I can suggest is that you contact your local Action Pack Helpdesk. There is much more to the Action Pack than just Vista - and you can very cheaply upgrade from Business to Ultimate.

BTW, Vista has its own imaging sofftare in it, so something saved there.

Sorry I can't solve the problem, but MAPs is much more than just Vista and the Anytime Upgrade is designed to offer a path forward as cost effectively as possible for you should you want a machine to do great demos with.

ttfn

David

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

Chris Breen — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:27:55 GMT

Thanks David, read the FAQs but they were almost in legalese. The idea of purchasing the Action Pack was so I wouldn't need to spend extra money on a PC that will just sit there showing itself off. Would be able to setup a network to test, improve my skills and be better able to present and support the Microsoft products I was selling my clients. Now it looks like I have wasted AUD$799 for Action Pack (convert that and see the Premium we pay for living Downunder & you won the One Dayers:-) ) and have to go out and buy even more MS product. Reimaging the Demo machine is going to be a pain as I will then have to purchase additional imaging software to redo it every 30 days. It looks like I would have been better off saving my money and downloading 120 & 180 day versions of the software and using that. Try and do the right thing and I feel like I am bending over to pick up the soap in a jail.

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

David Overton — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 22:51:02 GMT

Chris - have you read the FAQ?

If you want a demo PC to last forever - buy the upgrade license. If you want a demo PC to last a month - load Vista without a product key and don't activate it.

If you buy the upgrade it is no longer bound by the time limits of the Action Pack.

Since your key is embedded in a download, it is easiest to upgrade from Vista Business.

thanks

David

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

Chris Breen — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 22:46:05 GMT

I have read all the above posts and am more confused than ever. I purchased the Action Pack in September 2006, have received ONE update so far, SBS 2003R2. I previously had 10 XP Pro licenses to install on a PC to demo to customers and run on my inhouse network. From the above I now understand we get the Vista Business Upgrade to do the same as I resently do with XP Pro. If I want to be able to setup a Demo PC with Vista Ultimate, I need to purchase an Ultimate Upgrade license to dump on top of the Action Pack Vista Business supplied version. Is this correct or should I give PCs away and go and obtain a Law Degree so I can try and understand Microsoft's EULA that gets more and more complex each time they release something.

And to echo others, David,I appreciate the work you have put into trying to answer our questions. MS should be ashamed of themselves for putting people like yourself in a position like this.

http://blogs.msdn.com/sbsc_australia/archive/2007/02/02/action-pack-downgrade-rights.aspx

TrackBack — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:29:59 GMT

Windows Vista, Windows XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007 Action Pack Update - my FAQ

David Overton's Blog — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:01:06 GMT

[last updated 13th Feb 2007 - 10:00 am] Inside Microsoft we have been toiling very hard to provide solutions

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

David Overton — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 23:50:50 GMT

For the answers to many questions, please go to http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/02/12/windows-vista-windows-xp-office-2003-and-office-2007-action-pack-update-my-faq.aspx

ttfn

David

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

David Overton — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:02:59 GMT

Please see the post I made today on upgrading from XP & 2000 - all versions - this is about upgrading using retail or Action Pack media, not Software assurance upgrading - one is licensing - one is the box product.

The Microsoft site explains that you can BUY AT RETAIL a box product of Vista and then do a clean install upgrade ... see the blog entry.

Please note that Action Pack is not a Volume License.

ttfn

David

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

Roddy Pratt — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 11:04:55 GMT

Hi David, thanks for digging into this Gordian knot - I wondered if there was any more official news coming out?

On a side note, do you know what OS'es are "qualifying" WRT the Vista business upgrade in the action pack. Eric Ligman's blog is suggesting that XP/Vista "Home" versions don't qualify you to use a Vista business upgrade.

http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2007/02/03/no-windows-xp-home-is-not-a-qualifying-desktop-operating-system-for-the-windows-vista-business-upgrade-or-upgrade-sa-through-volume-licensing.aspx

If that's right, it can only be used to upgrade from XP Pro... You can probably guess the rest!

Thanks,

Roddy

Partner access to Vista and Office

Views on Windows Vista — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 09:17:05 GMT

It has been over four years since the last major release of Office or Windows and twelve years since

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

JF in NJ — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 03:57:31 GMT

[moderated heavly]

Isn’t the whole point of the action pack software to help oem system builders prepare to sell / support / design and build PCs? To assist in small IT companies sell M$ software? You shouldn’t need to an attorney to read these complicated agreements. If you give me ten licenses, and tell me not to sell them, I’ll use up to ten internally if I want, period.

I think all of you are missing the big picture. If you’ve been following the industry over the last five years, you should have seen a massive movement by large corporations to get into the “services” industry, e.g., best buy’s geek squad, etc.

It's All About Office

Tim Long — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 17:27:02 GMT

After some initial disillusionment with the January Action Pack shipment, reality has set in and I've

re: Clearing up some things about Vista, Office 2007 and the Action Pack

David Overton — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 23:32:20 GMT

OK, the ability to run Windows XP if you have already been provided with it is stipulated in the addendum (apparently). I am still awaiting the "legal" wording, but less panic on this front

2) You do not have to uninstall and re-install everything, however there is a desire to have you benefit from, upgrade to and then tell your customers how you use the latest software. If you don't do it, how can you justify it to your customers

3) covered off by my pointer earlier

Once the legal statements come out - hopefully everything will be clear - thanks for your feedback - it is being used "oh so usefully" for us to understand the pain.

ttfn

David