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tivoboy

macrumors 601
Original poster
May 15, 2005
4,083
894
So, I just bought a new imac, and was trying the O2004 for mac trial, but it says expired. Is this an office expiration, or one for the computer?
 
Your free trial of Office has expired for that computer. That's what it means.

You could try reinstalling it, although that possibly won't work.
 
tivoboy said:
So, I just bought a new imac, and was trying the O2004 for mac trial, but it says expired. Is this an office expiration, or one for the computer?

The Office for Mac copy that came with the computer is just a demo that lasts for a month. Only that trial itself expired. Nothing is wrong with the computer. If you like Office, now's your chance to buy it. ;)
 
thanks

I just wonder why a brand new computer, would have a trial that had expired?
I mean, we just bought it a week ago and turned in on three days ago.
 
tivoboy said:
I just wonder why a brand new computer, would have a trial that had expired? I mean, we just bought it a week ago and turned in on three days ago.

You need to pursue that aspect ... and do not rule out the fact that your computer was possibly in the hands of another and then returned, only to be subsequently sold to you. The prior person may have activated the 30-day trial period a few weeks before you ever touched it.
 
Microsoft trial versions come with two different types of time-bombs: Specific date time-bombs (where the software will stop working on a predetermined date), and countdown time-bombs (where the software "knows" when it was installed, and will only operate for a certain amount of time, 90 days for example).

You can try removing and reinstalling the software, but you need to make sure to remove EVERYTHING associated with that software... a countdown time-bomb's end-date could be stored in any settings file used by Office. Once you've removed and reinstalled, try to run the software; if it still doesn't work, you could try setting your Mac's clock back a couple of weeks and see if that works.

Otherwise, you may be out of luck.
 
I tried to uninstall and I removed everything, but no luck. I ended up getting it as a gift anyway ($150 EDU). But there is openoffice.org that you can have for free, I hear it sucks by way of GUI, but works extremely well.
 
wanted to buy

I wanted to buy it, and would have done the 50$ rebate, but didn't get it at purchase. anyway to get around the rebate term, ON SAME TICKET?

that seems like a really silly rebate term.
 
clayj said:
Microsoft trial versions come with two different types of time-bombs

You forgot to mention the third kind of timebomb... Microsoft code! :eek: ;) :D

Hehehe...just kidding. Office 04 is a wonderful product, and well worth buying. And MS has the best technical writers I have ever seen. *sucks up shamelessly*
 
uptime

Is there a way to confirm uptime on a unit? Or a better way to tell if the machine has been used before.

This was a direct purchase from amazon, I sure would like to know if it was used before.
 
tivoboy said:
This was a direct purchase from amazon, I sure would like to know if it was used before.

Hmmm, in that case, I would tend to doubt it. It's possible that they repacked it and sold it to you, but Amazon is pretty credible, and I tend to doubt they would. Am I being too naïve? :(

And uptime is only how long it has been booted. You can get that easily -- type "uptime" at the terminal prompt. But unless the previous user used it at your house, and didn't turn it off... ;) You might be able to find this from the system logs, but it's a little sketchy, because they get rotated....
 
thanks

mkrishnan said:
You might be able to find this from the system logs, but it's a little sketchy, because they get rotated....

thanks,
what is the access method for the syslogs?
 
mkrishnan said:
And MS has the best technical writers I have ever seen. *sucks up shamelessly*

Shameless indeed!

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little :p
 
low priority! logs

Yeah, the logs all start on the day we booted it up.

I wonder why the msft software thinks it has expired, I mean this computer cannot be that old
 
Sorry for interrupting this thread with another question, but is sort of related.

I had MS Office test version installed on my iBook and I started using it, then I got the full version! but I'm unable to uninstall the test version... it appears that I have two MS Office version in my computer... everytime I drag the whole MS Office Trial Version to the Trash and empty it, I get a message saying that these can not be don cause Entourage is being used or something like that (don't remember the exact wording) I NEVER USE ENTOURAGE!!!

What can I do? I don't want the trial version on my computer is a waste of HD space..

By the way after I installed the full version I had to take out all the icons from the dock and drag them again, otherwise everytime I tried to open word or excel I would get the message of how many trial days I had left... FU... I've already installed the FULL VERSION!!!
 
i am also a pissed of user of this..., i got my ibook on christmas as people know, and i started it up and tried it and the trial had expired when i had only had it on for like 3 hours, it seems they activate the trial when they package the ibook which is stupid cuz mine had been sitting in a factory for 4 months before i got it.


PS anywhere i can complain and get a new trial cuz i want to "try" it before i buy, other wise ill have to go the illegal way just to try it before i buy
 
tivoboy said:
Is there a way to confirm uptime on a unit? Or a better way to tell if the machine has been used before.

This was a direct purchase from amazon, I sure would like to know if it was used before.

I'm in exactly the same situation. I bought from Amazon, and on day 2 of having it, I tried to open a .doc file I had transferred from my PC... so the trial version of MS Office fires up asking to install itself... I click OK, it loads some fonts and what not, and when it's done, I click word... only the message pops up that the trial period has expired /shrug/... so I uninstall the sorry pile of spaghetti code using the provided uninstaller (the best part of the application IMHO... don't like MSWord, was forced to use it for years at work, flaky piece of offal... would always, always, always crash on documents over 30 pages long, plus a million things wrong with it... hate it with a passion /end rant/).

Anyhow, I downloaded Cocoa Battery on the advice of the poster California here, and that piece of software informed me that my iBook is 7 weeks old... so, it must have sat somewhere before I bought it :) ... so it is possibble that if it is a 30 day trial and somehow the mongos count trial as having started the moment it's loaded onto a machine, well, there you go. BWDIK /shrug/
 
Mmmm, sounds as if there was a bad image file used on a bunch of Macs. Like whoever prepped the image file accidentally triggered the Office "timebomb," as Clay so eloquently called it, so that it was almost ready to go off by the time you got your Macs.... :(

Although, then again, this is MS Office for God's sake. It's not like you've never seen it before! :eek: ;) :D
 
mbopy22 said:
Sorry for interrupting this thread with another question, but is sort of related.

I had MS Office test version installed on my iBook and I started using it, then I got the full version! but I'm unable to uninstall the test version... it appears that I have two MS Office version in my computer... everytime I drag the whole MS Office Trial Version to the Trash and empty it, I get a message saying that these can not be don cause Entourage is being used or something like that (don't remember the exact wording) I NEVER USE ENTOURAGE!!!

What can I do? I don't want the trial version on my computer is a waste of HD space..

By the way after I installed the full version I had to take out all the icons from the dock and drag them again, otherwise everytime I tried to open word or excel I would get the message of how many trial days I had left... FU... I've already installed the FULL VERSION!!!

Same thing happenned to my girlfriend's mini. I just deleted both the trial and standard versions, then reinstalled the standard. It works great for her now.
 
mbopy22 said:
I had MS Office test version installed on my iBook and I started using it, then I got the full version! but I'm unable to uninstall the test version... it appears that I have two MS Office version in my computer... everytime I drag the whole MS Office Trial Version to the Trash and empty it, I get a message saying that these can not be don cause Entourage is being used or something like that (don't remember the exact wording) I NEVER USE ENTOURAGE!!!

You need to uninstall both versions of Office:Mac. There's a utility on your Office:Mac disc to do this. It will detect all old versions on your Mac and ask if you want to delete them. Then re-install your retail version of Office:Mac, and you'll be fine.

/nm
 
There's a big message when you start installing Office that points out that you need to delete the trial version before you install the full one.

I'd forgotten completely about that while setting up my aunt's iMac until I saw it appear on the screen just before I clicked that 'install' button.
 
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