Office IT has given me a Office 2007. Quite boring after I have used 2013. So me being Raja HarishChandra went upto the IT guy and asked him if I can have a 2013 or atleast a 2010. He said "NO" and then I asked if I can get mine. So he asked if it's licensed copy to which I replied it is a pre-activated copy. He got the hint and went all bananas and "NO NO NO...sometimes some information goes to Microsoft as all the Windows here are licensed." Now my question is how true is that. Does any information go to MS of the programs we use? also, if I install a pre-activated copy of 2010/2013, would it make a difference to MS? Thanks... PS: Want to get 2013 cause it has the ability to save on cloud and plus a better UI.
Let me try explaining what happens when you install MS products that are are not activated legitimately or belongs to the leaked league of products. Every company needs to get into an agreement with MS if they use their products beyond a limit. Hence the reason for a different concept of licensing called Volume Licensing (VL). Every organization that uses MS products or VL licensing program is bound to undergo an audit. This audit basically focuses on software piracy & thrives on it. They come in, check your VAMT DB's, licensing servers & so on. MS team knows what programs you signed up for & what programs should be available on a user's desktop. So one day, you plan to install your own copy of Office 2013, being on the same network, we can actually find out what & how many MS products are installed using which keys & so on. It is only a matter of time before they figure out that your key does not belong to any licensing program that your org signed up for. This results into a breach of agreement between your org & MS. Such issues does take a toll on the relationship between your company and MS & can very well affect other licensing programs such as Dev tools & so on if tomorrow your company plans to take any. (We get VS 2012 licensing for all our user desktops for free just because we keep our asses clean). So think twice before you perform such an action. There is always a difference when you try to install stuff from your home onto your office PC/laptops. A lot of crap comes into picture then.
Big THANKS friend. I honestly didn't know if all this really happened. I thought the IT guy was just scaring me for nothing. It's so much better with my home PC where I can remove anything and no one gives a damn. So, in a nutshell, I shouldn't tamper with the office laptop and b happy with what I have. Hmmm... *looks for Office 2007 themes* heheh