Office 2007 Home and Student for $99

Just a note that the Microsoft Equipt license is also for up to 3 computers. (Which, of course, makes sense since Office 2007 Home and Student and OneCare both are up to 3 computer licenses)

fireboy92k: My renewal of OneNote this year actually was via a boxed copy. But that's because I wanted to switch it out of my old passport account which was keyed to a unique address in my domain, into my "proper" live ID. The old account couldn't be logged into for several months--magically resurrecting itself when there was an upcoming billing (and stale credit card) in it. I had a very pleasant telephone session with MS customer care doing the cancel of the old OneCare subscription. No hassle over the cut-rate renewal. The new OneCare subscription was set up routinely using the product key on the new package. It certainly won't be worth trying this every year. I think Equipt is a tempting solution for people who happen to be starting fresh with Office Home and Student and OneCare at about the same time.

johnbaxter Funny thing that timing. It was also strange how Symantec decided that the home market needed a simplified, easy to use, all in one product after OneCare shipped, too. I'm sure it was coincidence.

I bought Office 2007 Home and Student a month ago at Best Buy. It was labeled 140$ (something like that) on the box but they actually charged me 99$ + taxes. So I guess the offer is not exclusive to Circuit city.

Both Newegg and Amazon sell O2007 H&S for $85. Newegg's page is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116135

Waethorn: Your slightly mistaken in that I HAVE done it. To switch licenses with OneCare the last time I did it required a full de-install from every machine it was on, and then a complete re-install from the MSI installer. There is no 'switch to this license' capability that I've ever seen or heard of, nor that Microsoft indicated to me on the phone when I called to get my old license deactivated. The problem with uninstalling and re-installing of course is that your settings for OneCare are NOT persistent across installs. So after re-installing you have to go through all the annoying firewall popups while the firewall re-learns you software, redo your backups from scratch (and mess around with the special permissions required to delete the old backup directory), and change any other custom settings you might have had. That on three machines is more than $35 bucks worth of hassel if you ask me, but YMMV. As for Office, you are correct that I did not include OEM copies of Office. You don't get that media afterall, and I wouldn't think you'd expect it to work the same. *shrugs* As for the other retail copies of Office you mention, I believe you are wrong (but it's probably all sematics). ALL RETAIL copies of Office above Home and Student include the same following provision in the first page of the license (I went and checked, just to make sure): 1. OVERVIEW. These license terms permit installation and use of one copy of the software on one device, along with other rights, all as described below. 2. INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS. Before you use the software under a license, you must assign that license to one device. That device is the “licensed device.” A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a separate device. a. Licensed Device. You may install and use one copy of the software on the licensed device. b. Portable Device. You may install another copy on a portable device for use by the single primary user of the licensed device. c. Separation of Components. The components of the software are licensed as a single unit. You may not separate the components and install them on different devices. You can find copies of ALL the Microsoft current Terms of Use at http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/default.aspx We can have a legitimate discussion about if this really constitutes 2 copies or maybe more like 1.5 if you like. And we can get into all kinds of legal debates over what it means to be a 'primary user' (is that per person, per household, what?).

This sounds like a good deal considering that with web accessable email and calender services, Outlook could be given up for what is being offered. I know there are some people who can't live without Outlook, but I am definitely not one of those persons. I normally don't tell anyone to go to Circuit City, but for this one puchase it might be worth the visit.