A way to tell if Office was installed in a refurbished computer?

[mark4x4]

Is there a way to tell if Microsoft Office was installed in a refurbished computer I bought from BestBuy online?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Beside looking in uninstall a program/ programs and features and see if it's listed there ?

 

[mark4x4]

The hard drive been cleaned professionally I believe.
When I had it, there was only one icon on the desktop and no programs in Control Panel.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Did you buy it there or get a machine serviced there or something ?

Even if it had office doesn't mean you can restore it even if it was installed

 

[mark4x4]

I bought a refurbished aka used computer from BestBuy.ca, its a HP EliteDesk 800 G1 with an i5-4570 and W7 Pro 64 bit, it has a Q87 motherboard made by HP, its a business motherboard with a few extra business features that come with that chipset, and these computers are used in companies, most likely a major corporation so I would highly guess that it originally had MS Office installed.

Then wouldnt BestBuy just reinstall MS Office and up the price a bit?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I'm sure they could install office for you if you requested it and paid the additional costs.

You could just pay yearly for office 365 and rent it from Microsoft directly
Then after purchase you'll get a download or they might have a trail ?
https://products.office.com/en-us/home

 

[mark4x4]

Yeah yeah I know all of that.
Any store anywhere sells 365 or 2016, or if I want older and cheaper I can go to ebay, amazon etc.
For 365 - I will NEVER pay for monthly subscription anyways. Thats just dumb for a home user.
You forgot to mention Office online, as an option.

It boils to I am pretty sure this computer had Office installed on it. If the hard drive is original I could somehow retrieve the old over-written data, but I am sure the QueekSquad technical service branch of BestBuy would have had the HD securely wiped. I could spend hours searching and figuring out how to get the old data, maybe spend $100 in software too, when MS Office is only $100cdn anways.

I thought maybe that the MS Office install code would be linked to the operating system somehow.

I have another thought, maybe the Office the corporation had was a retail full version and not an OEM version stuck to the motherboard.

 

[LMiller7]

If the computer previously belonged to any organization the hard drive would have been completely wiped to prevent data recovery. There is no way to determine what software was previously on the drive. Not that it matters anyway. If Microsoft Office was previously on the drive the license to use it was not transferred to you.

Edit: A secure wipe of the hard drive is standard practice with almost all organizations when a computer is taken out of service. Either that or physical destruction of the drive but that significantly reduces the resale value of the computer.

Bottom line is that whether or not the computer had Office installed is of zero consequence to you.

 

[Ranger4]

In your earlier post (#3), you state that you think the HDD has been professionally cleaned, if that is the case then any remnants of previous programs will have been removed & are not able to be recovered, so it's a waste of time trying.

Office comes with it's own activation code & this code is not associated with the Windows 7 operating system activation code.

 

[Eric3742]

Don't forget that they can track you.

Unless you re-installed the original OEM Windows and then MS Office.
It is most probably bundle in as a complete set of Windows and MS Office.

Most do not take such risk as they are reliable for all these.
Hence BestBuy have to get a separate OEM Windows version.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Good luck with that and I mean both recovery and EBay

 

[mark4x4]

Office comes with it's own activation code & this code is not associated with the Windows 7 operating system activation code.

I just learned this now. I thought Office was stuck to the motherboard just like Windows OEM is.
I wasted $100 on MS Office 2016 Student & Home, I could have used Office 2007 if it was compatible with W7 which I doubt it was.

Anyways, thanks for the help guys. I really do appreciate it!

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I have office 2007 installed on win-7 and 8.1 and even on win-10
It works well

 

[mark4x4]

Hmmmmmmmmf
Damn-it!

So only one MS Office allowed on one PC.
Or more maybe
"Copy". "Move" or "Transfer" an Office - Microsoft Community

Now for both Office 2016 and Office 365 the license is now primarily associated with the email account, no longer with the hardware it is installed on. Licence "management" is through the MyAccount page/site.

Many people would like to know how to "move" an existing Office installation to a new computer when they buy one.

To do that you need to meet 3 conditions:

1. have a license type that allows "transfers", ie for consumers that is a "Retail" or "FPP" type license
2. your unique 25 character Product Key
3. a generic installation disk or file for the Office bundle that matches the Product Key

I got to go on my old system and see what type of license I have for Office 2007.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
At the moment I have 3 machines two of which have multiple versions of windows
All versions have office 2007 on them
Of course I have a full retail 2007 small business license with an activation key and it was not cheap either if memory serves it was about 400.us from Micro... store

If yours came preinstalled on a machine you'd have to contact the manufacture of the machine office was bundled on.

 

[Layback Bear]

mark4x4 it's not complicated.

The hard drive was wiped. What ever programs were on the hard drive are gone.
The only thing on the hard drive is what was installed after the wipe. Simple Do Da.

If one wants a Office program, that is simple also.
1. Pick a free office program and install it.
2. Pick a paid for office program and install it and go through the proper activation process.
That is it. Done.