Can I give Office 365 to someone else?

[Windows Central Question]

I'm thinking about buying an HP Stream 7 which comes with one year of Office 365 Personal. I don't really want the Office 365 subscription, but my sister in law does, can I give that to her and how. I thought it just came with a key in the box but I've read other places that it doesn't work that way. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

I've often wondered the same thing. I have three year subscription keys that I'm not using.

 

[plot_almighty]

If I remember right, Office 365 ties to your account. I'm rusty on the specifics, but I think the only sharable versions of 365 are Home and Student and higher. You can visit the Office website and check your account page to see if any keys are posted there as well as how many computers they can be installed on. I can't say for sure as i don't use 365.

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

If I remember right, Office 365 ties to your account. I'm rusty on the specifics, but I think the only sharable versions of 365 are Home and Student and higher. You can visit the Office website and check your account page to see if any keys are posted there as well as how many computers they can be installed on. I can't say for sure as i don't use 365.

But what about when you buy a tablet that comes with a free year of Office? I already have a subscription to Office 365, so I don't need the other Office keys that came with the other tablets. Can I give those extra keys away?

 

[Sheffel]

I'm the original asker for this question and decided to clarify. If I buy a tablet that comes with a year of Office 365 Personal I would think that it comes with a card that has a product key on it. If I wanted to give that office away I just take that card with a code on it, hand it to someone else and say "Here you go, enjoy Office." If it was simply a product key on a card that would be easy (assuming that sort of thing is legal).

However, from what I understand when you get one of these tablets it's not just a card in the box but rather Office 365 is automatically activated when you register the tablet. If that's the case would it even be possible to give it to someone else?

This could also apply to someone who is currently subscribing to Office 365 Home, a Personal subscription would be worthless to that person. Surely there is a way for them to offload that free year of Office Personal to someone who could actually put it to use.

 

[plot_almighty]

But what about when you buy a tablet that comes with a free year of Office? I already have a subscription to Office 365, so I don't need the other Office keys that came with the other tablets. Can I give those extra keys away?

If you have product keys that can be used to activate Office I don't see why not. As far as MS is concerned the product was paid for. I'm sure you can gift Office if it comes with a product key.

My experience with tablets shipped with Office only encompasses my DVP8. It didn't come with 365. It came with a full blown standalone copy of Office Home and Student 2013.

The one thing about that I legitimately don't know about is if the tablets your talking about came with two keys, one for the OS and one for 365. Mine came with one key and im still not sure if its my Office and Win 8 bundled into one key.

 

[Sheffel]

I found this on another forum. It sounds like this guy did exactly what I want to do.

I can provide an answer to my own question as I did pick up one of these for my wife at the local MS Store (kiosk) and there was not a key card contained in the box (contrary to what the MS employee had told me...which isn't surprising given the quality of information/service I've experienced with MS sales/support reps of late).

Anyway, I began the activation of Office 365 on her Stream 7 but did so prior to setting up the device with an Outlook account (logged onto the PC with a local account). This enabled me to utilize my own Outlook email address during the activation stage and the Office 365 subscription was credited to my account. I now need to determine which devices I will apply this toward, although I believe Office 365 apps on tablets/phones have editing capabilities via a recent MS decision so I may not have to be selective in this regard and will just utilize on my PC desktop.

FWIW, after I had confirmed the Office 365 subscription was successfully set up under my account I then set up my wife with an Outlook.com account so she could download apps from the Windows App store for her Stream 7.

So it sounds like it's possible but takes a little bit of finagling to get it to work out since there isn't a physical card with a product key on it.

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

Thanks for the reply. There are strictly Office keys. The three tablets that I have all came without Office 365 installed. Instead, they came with a link to Office on the Start screen and an Office key card in the box. I was just curious to know if those keys were matched with the tablet they came with or just matched to the Office subscription. Thanks for your input.

 

[plot_almighty]

Thanks for the reply. There are strictly Office keys. The three tablets that I have all came without Office 365 installed. Instead, they came with a link to Office on the Start screen and an Office key card in the box. I was just curious to know if those keys were matched with the tablet they came with or just matched to the Office subscription. Thanks for your input.

Oh wow. Then yeah. Give em away to whoever. They aren't linked to the tablet in any shape or form. Those bad boys are good to be used by whoever.

On a side note, my wife could benefit from a key so she can stop using my tablet every other day. Should you feel so inclined. ;D

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

I'll send you a pm. Give me a minute.