quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:
Another forum member clued me into this website. I used it to buy a 5 machine license of Office for very cheap. No trouble with activation and they continue to work fine… maybe a cheap upgrade is your best bet.

https://shop.winandoffice.com/usa/

When I build a new desktop last year I bought Office 2021 pro here. No issues.

Not sure what the read only problem is/was but a bit of fatherly advice. Using old versions of Office is not necessarily bad. There are exploits out there but typically they involve opening a doc you didn't create. Really bad things can happen to your OS if you get a bad doc from someone. Same old shit, don't open stuff you don't know where it came from. PSA complete

The consequences of a pwning are often quite costly. I highly recommend staying patched.

One thing to try is checking the properties of the files to ensure they aren't set to read-only, and also making sure your Office license is still active, sometimes it can cause issues if it lapses or gets deactivated.

Another tip is to ensure you're saving files to a location with full write permissions (like your documents folder), or try saving the file under a different name. It’s possible there’s some kind of permissions conflict going on.

Also, make sure you buy Microsoft products from reliable sources to avoid potential licensing issues in the future. It’s always best to get software from trustworthy places to prevent weird bugs like this.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Phelen_Kell,

This thread is as old as the OP's version of Office.

Older versions had a sunset on use of the license.

After a certain date, all files were made as "read only" if you continued to use a version that was no longer supported, or if a subscription based version, the subscription lapsed.

The files are the creator's content (if you created the file, you have rights to it), and can be opened and writable in a supported version of Office, an active subscription version of Office or a supporting version of open source software for each file type. (ex. Open Office).

Due to exploits mostly, MS started depreciating their software rather than continue expense of supporting legacy apps. It's business.

And for what it's worth, you pay to license the software, you do not "own" it, and you agreed to the license terms upon installation, activation and/or use. If you read the terms, the license can be amended, by the publisher/owner (MS) at their pleasure.

And as to the "really low cost versions", they are typically "greyware", and MS does not pursue the market like they used to do with such copies of the software.

You are pretty much on the integrity system. If you have no problem using it, it is a choice you may make.

I was a certified and licensed developer, systems builder, trainer and MCSE, so I had to carry the MS Water™, but have not for quite a few years and the "rules" changed all the time.

This is just some information some folks may not know, but you never know when you might be on a gameshow...