The PC thread

[faizoff]

Have you tried any of these options listed here?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/activate-office-using-the-activation-wizard-1144e0de-e849-496e-8e33-ed6fb1b34202?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us

I think I've done it once before but it was a while back, can't recall what I did to transfer from old to new.

[Orbert]

That's exactly the information I was trying to find.  "Activate after reinstalling or installing Office on a different device" looks promising.  Thanks!

[ReaperKK]

wrong thread...

[Orbert]

This is frustrating.  They seem to be intentionally blurring the line between Office and Microsoft 365.  The first step in the process of downloading Office to the new PC is to log in to my Microsoft account and choose which Microsoft 365 subscription I want, either yearly or monthly.  There do not seem to be any other options on that page, and no way to just say "No thanks, I just want to install Office 2016".  I don't care about the online storage, automatic backup, or any of that other shit.  I just want the desktop software so I can work with my Word and Excel documents, and I want the option where I don't pay every year or every month.  Nowhere to be found.

What a fucking scam.

[faizoff]

Do any of these links work for you?

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/useful-microsoft-download-links-for-office-direct/7bcaa971-9493-44b6-a1ba-0db4c6957c47

[PMSummer]

Oh man, I feel your pain. It really does seem like they're pushing everyone towards those subscriptions for Microsoft 365, making it super hard to just get the standalone Office suite. I remember the days when you could just buy your software once and be done with it.

Have you considered giving Google Docs and Sheets a try? I've switched over a while ago, they're a solid alternative and totally free. You can do pretty much everything you can do in Word and Excel, plus you get the added bonus of having everything saved online automatically. Plus, there's no yearly or monthly fee to worry about. It might be a bit of a shift at first, but it could be worth the hassle if you're tired of dealing with subscription models.

[ReaperKK]

Oh man, I feel your pain. It really does seem like they're pushing everyone towards those subscriptions for Microsoft 365, making it super hard to just get the standalone Office suite. I remember the days when you could just buy your software once and be done with it.

You still can with office: https://www.stacksocial.com/sales/microsoft-office-pro-plus-2021-for-windows-lifetime-license?aid=a-ceempx7z&utm_source=zdnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=microsoft-office-professional-plus-2021-for-window_100823&utm_term=scsf-581299&utm_content=a0xRn0000001bwnIAA&scsonar=1

[Orbert]

I guess I can try those links, so thanks to both of you.  But the goal here is to download and install Office 2016 which has already been installed on a different PC, using the product key and the Microsoft account it's tied to.  Presumably there's a way to do this without paying for Office again; they just have no incentive to make it easy for me.

If it turns out that there's literally no way to do this without paying for a monthly or annual prescription, then fuck that, I'll buy a new copy and pay $70 (once!)

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

I feel your frustration. I only use word and excel at work. Private at home I have been using the freeware Apache Openoffice for years, it works great.

[Orbert]

Ah yes, there are free alternatives.  Thanks for reminding me.

[XJDenton]

Open office is great right up until the point you need to open a document created in MS office.

This is frustrating.  They seem to be intentionally blurring the line between Office and Microsoft 365.  The first step in the process of downloading Office to the new PC is to log in to my Microsoft account and choose which Microsoft 365 subscription I want, either yearly or monthly.  There do not seem to be any other options on that page, and no way to just say "No thanks, I just want to install Office 2016".  I don't care about the online storage, automatic backup, or any of that other shit.  I just want the desktop software so I can work with my Word and Excel documents, and I want the option where I don't pay every year or every month.  Nowhere to be found.

What a fucking scam.

https://support.microsoft.com/sv-se/office/ladda-ned-och-installera-eller-ominstallera-office-2019-office-2016-eller-office-2013-7c695b06-6d1a-4917-809c-98ce43f86479#bkmk_signin

My understanding is if the product key of Office 2016 is linked to your 365 account you should be able to download standalone installers of office 2016 from the Microsoft dashboard. If not, then you may be stuck. But you can also find old school office 2016 ISOs in less legitimate places online and install from there.

[cramx3]

I stopped bothering with Microsoft Office for my home PC many many years ago.  I'm just not paying monthly subscriptions or even a base pay for an older version when google has it all for free.  It may also just be that I don't find myself using office products at home too much to warrant spending money.  Google docs just work and being integrated with my google account also means all my work is easy to access on any device.  Once again, it's free and painless.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

I stopped bothering with Microsoft Office for my home PC many many years ago.  I'm just not paying monthly subscriptions or even a base pay for an older version when google has it all for free.  It may also just be that I don't find myself using office products at home too much to warrant spending money.  Google docs just work and being integrated with my google account also means all my work is easy to access on any device.  Once again, it's free and painless.

100% this. If you already have a Gmail/Google account, this is a no brainer. If you don't have a Gmail account, it's still a no brainer.

[Orbert]

I use Word and Excel every day.  Are you guys saying that Google docs are 100% compatible?  That I can use Google docs to create and edit Word and Excel documents with zero loss of content?  All I've ever heard is that they're "pretty much compatible" but believe me, if there's some obscure function that doesn't work properly, I will find it, and it will turn out to be one that I use a lot.

[cramx3]

I use Word and Excel every day.  Are you guys saying that Google docs are 100% compatible?  That I can use Google docs to create and edit Word and Excel documents with zero loss of content?  All I've ever heard is that they're "pretty much compatible" but believe me, if there's some obscure function that doesn't work properly, I will find it, and it will turn out to be one that I use a lot.

I honestly don't know exactly how compatible they are, but they are VERY similar and since I was just using google docs, I know I can export/import word documents.  But without knowing more, I would imagine there are those obscure functions and whatnot that may be tricky to swap over.  I just don't know. 

[faizoff]

Not sure if it's the same for 2016, but when I log in to my MS account online, under Services and Subscriptions I see this for me which is how I install on new devices when I do need to. I just hit install and it downloads a small .exe and installs the whole shebang.

[El Barto]

I use Word and Excel every day.  Are you guys saying that Google docs are 100% compatible?  That I can use Google docs to create and edit Word and Excel documents with zero loss of content?  All I've ever heard is that they're "pretty much compatible" but believe me, if there's some obscure function that doesn't work properly, I will find it, and it will turn out to be one that I use a lot.

Open Office is probably the more comparable option. That's what I use. What you'll find with any other option is that there will always be some incompatibility, even if it's completely trivial. That's by design. It's a feature! Open Office will absolutely open word/excel docs, and I suspect that you can export your docs as .doc/xls. Even so, M$ will probably give you a trivial amount of grief about opening them up, which will most likely only go so far as to make you install a filter of some sort.

I'd be happy to send you a "word" doc and an "Excel" doc to see if they work for you, although you could just as easily DL it and see for yourself. Since it's open source it's completely free--they don't even want an email address from you.

All of that having been said, stick with M$. People who use programs professionally tend not to like change, and they'll find things that piss them off with any alternative. I'm saddled with Adobe at work, and it's all just fucking terrible. I bring it up because Adobe relies on that dislike of change to keep their customers. Illustrator and PS do weird things in peculiar ways, solely to make their competitors seem more annoying. Weird things that defy the standard conventions. I'm pretty sure M$ would incorporate similar "peculiarities" just to make Google and Open Office seem too foreign to their own addicted users. I know, my mom is one of those.

[Orbert]

Well, professionally I use actual Microsoft Office.  But at home, I use Word to create my chord/lyric charts, and the household budget has always been in Excel, with sheets for each bank account, credit card, etc.  Going on 30 years now, and I've got all the shortcuts figured out and have a few macros that I'd like to keep.  It's really more a matter of being picky, I suppose, but after all this time, it definitely would be a pain in the ass to have to work around those features that I actually use that the clone software doesn't support.  So I'd pay (once) to be able to continue doing things the way I've always done them.

Not sure if it's the same for 2016, but when I log in to my MS account online, under Services and Subscriptions I see this for me which is how I install on new devices when I do need to. I just hit install and it downloads a small .exe and installs the whole shebang.

This is exactly the type of thing I was expecting, but I didn't see anything like that.  I'm gonna try again when I feel like a little more Microsuffering.

[Indiscipline]

They knew what they were doing when they picked Start Me Up as anthem.

You make a grown man cry.

[Orbert]

Success!  Microsoft Office 2016 (yeah yeah, I know) is installed on the new PC, which is running Windows 10 because I still have never tried Windows 11 and haven't done any research yet.  I may get around to that later this year.  I'm not against upgrading, but I don't have to have the latest version of anything, either.  I need enough plusses for the new software to overcome the "if it ain't broke..." rule, otherwise I'll stick with what's familiar and what I know works.

The new PC is now another big step closer towards becoming my primary workstation.  Thanks, everyone!

[ReaperKK]

Win 10 is still good but I've moved all my pc's over to windows 11. There are some quality of life features I really like about win 11 (I think I read some of these updates were coming to win 10 so this might be old info):

- Tabbed file explorer is really nice
- HDR works a lot better in Win 11 (although not perfect)
- Audio switching devices was worth the price of admission alone since I do some recoding through my main PC

[XJDenton]

My main problem with Win 11 is that for every good idea there are two stupid ones, or issues caused by trying to keep 4 decade old features alive in a half arsed way.

[ReaperKK]

Don't worry XJ, win 12 is right around the corner!

[XJDenton]

If they force me to link an MS account to that one I aint buying it.

[El Barto]

If they force me to link an MS account to that one I aint buying it.

Did they do that with 11?

- Audio switching devices was worth the price of admission alone since I do some recoding through my main PC

Ten allows you to select device for each app, but I've found it fairly wonky. What's up with this on 11?

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

If they force me to link an MS account to that one I aint buying it.

Did they do that with 11?

They did, but there are some ways around it. At least there was a few months ago. I haven't tried the workaround recently.

- Audio switching devices was worth the price of admission alone since I do some recoding through my main PC

Ten allows you to select device for each app, but I've found it fairly wonky. What's up with this on 11?

It's much smoother and less wonky on 11.

[Bolsters]

I don't remember signing up for a Microsoft account at all when I did this install, and I'm not logged into one according to account settings. I was under the impression it was entirely optional.

[faizoff]

I have Win 11 on a virtual machine and use it on and off to try features. I do like the aesthetic and with now having an ultrawide monitor, the start menu in the middle is actually fine. I do however do not like how gimped it is compared to what's in Win 10. The ability to resize the icons and live tiles are super helpful. I will have to install it on a regular machine and use it as a daily driver for a month and see if I miss win 10.

As far as the account sign in goes, I've personally used an account since at least win 8. It makes activation and restoring settings and apps quite smooth.

[Orbert]

Next first-world problem: The Dell came with a little 2.1 audio setup involving two little satellites and a subwoofer.  It's not bad and has served pretty well, but either the left speaker is dying or there's a bad cord or something, because the volume in the left satellite is about 20% of the right.  There's no individual channel volume or balance control anywhere.  In the old days, the Control Panel on the PC had all kinds of stuff, I remember Balance in addition to Volume, and possibly Bass and Treble as well.  The only thing I can apparently control anymore is Master Volume and the Volume of each of the various sound sources.  I want to shove the Balance over to the left (which I can do in WinAmp but not Media Player) to compensate, but it's not in the Control Panel.

Surely someone makes some kind of utility to allow you to mess with Balance, or hopefully other stuff, in your Sound settings.  Can anyone recommend one?

[ReaperKK]

You can still mess with the balance in Windows 10/11 it's just a pain in the ass.

1. Go to Settings
2. Click System
3. Click Sound
4. Scroll down to "More Sound Settings"
5. Select your speakers in the dialog window and click properties
6. Click the levels tab
7. Click balance

[El Barto]

Make sure they're connected to the right jacks, and that they're configured correctly in the panel RKK pointed you to. It sounds to me like the L speaker might be getting the sub out. Or perhaps Windows is outputting 5.1 and it's getting a rear channel.

[Orbert]

Thanks, guys.  I thought I'd gone through all the possible options, but of course there's always "more" settings and "other" settings, and then when you select the particular device, there's configuration there as well.  I eventually found the Balance setting, not quite where you'd described since they're all different, but I found it.

There's no way to plug things into the wrong jacks; it's all through the green mini stereo out from the sound card, and the old PC was having the same issue.

Anyway, problem solved.  Thanks!

[ProfessorPeart]

A Microsoft account is mandatory for the latest flavors of Win 11 to even install it. This is where Rufus comes in. I will be making my install media with that going forward.

[El Barto]

A Microsoft account is mandatory for the latest flavors of Win 11 to even install it. This is where Rufus comes in. I will be making my install media with that going forward.

It's neat when a company makes their product so annoying to own legally that it's far easier to just steal the thing. I'm not suggesting that you've stolen it, mind you. I legally own games that I only play pirated versions of for that reason.

[ProfessorPeart]

That's the beauty of Rufus. It technically has nothing to do with pirating, well, it probably does but that's not my point. I like having a local account on my machines. I like being able to make bootable install media where I can strip out that aspect of the install procedure. Just hardcode my local account into the process. Nice and simple.

And yeah, I do have Windows 11 installed on machines that 'don't meet spec'. Thing is, those are machines that got the automatic 10 license. I use Rufus to strip out the mandatory crap and guess what, the OS runs just fine on those machines. It's a handy tool.