Microsoft Office 2013 can now be transferred between PCs

The Office 2013 lineup is Microsoft's entry into the world of subscriptions thanks to Office 365 which is available for a yearly subscription fee instead of a one-time price. Subscriptions to have their advantages for customers, like being switched to the latest version of a product automatically. To make the subscription packages more appealing, Microsoft decided to make the product available to up to 5 PCs or Mac systems per user while limiting the boxed copy of Office 2013 to one system and one user.

Microsoft furthermore made the decision to link an Office 2013 purchase to a single computer after activation with no way to transfer it to another computer system unless in the case of it falling under warranty.

This caused quite the uproar in the community considering that if you bought a new PC, you had to purchase a new copy of Office 2013 if you wanted to run the suite on the new PC as well.

Microsoft today made changes to its license agreement that changes this practice again. According to the announcement, the feedback change was based on customer feedback. Starting immediately, customers can transfer their Office 2013 license from one PC to another.

Can I transfer the software to another computer or user? You may transfer the software to another computer that belongs to you, but not more than one time every 90 days (except due to hardware failure, in which case you may transfer sooner). If you transfer the software to another computer, that other computer becomes the "licensed computer." You may also transfer the software (together with the license) to a computer owned by someone else if a) you are the first licensed user of the software and b) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement before the transfer. Any time you transfer the software to a new computer, you must remove the software from the prior computer and you may not retain any copies.

The transfer options are similar to those found in the Office 2010 license agreement. So, if you purchase a new PC or have a second computer that you want to transfer your Office 2013 license to, now you can whereas before you could not do so. Definitely a good move by Microsoft even though it should have thought about the customer response to the limit before it made those changes to the product's license agreement.

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