Great Big Microsoft Cheat!!!!

Warning: MAJOR RANT AHEAD

I started using Microsoft products in the ’80’s. Back then, you bought your software and installed it. End of story. Over time, Microsoft introduced activation/product codes. Not a problem. Then, around about Office 2016, you had to go to the Microsoft store and download from there. Annoying, but still not a problem…

…until today.

As a long time reader of New Atlas, an online tech magazine, I jumped at the chance to upgrade my Office 2016 software to Office 2019…for $30!

I paid my money, downloaded the setup.exe file and then, more fool me, I decided to do a clean install of my new Office software. ‘Clean install’ means uninstalling the old version before installing the new version. It’s old school and most people don’t bother these days. I wish I hadn’t.

Long story short, I uninstalled Office 2016, tried to install Office 2019, and discovered to my horror that Office 2019 is not compatible with Windows 7.

Yes, I know. I should have checked the specifications first, but I didn’t, did I?

I was ticked off, mostly at myself, but I was not terribly concerned until I tried to re-install Office 2016. I had the folder with the activation code, but no setup files. What the…? Then I remembered that I had to go to the Microsoft store to download the files. Only…the Microsoft Store doesn’t support Office 2016 any more so there were no files. I’d bought and paid for a product that I could no longer use because it wasn’t on a DVD or USB stick or some other location that I could access.

Was I angry? You bet. Then things became even worse when I realised that the file in which I keep all my most important data needs Excel to open.

By this point I was really starting to panic. Could I still upgrade to Windows 10? Searching the net seemed to indicate that no, that was no longer possible. I was going through my very short list of techie friends, wondering if I could get one of them to print out the Excel spreadsheet when I remembered that I also had Office 2013. Could I re-install that?

Thank all the gods, yes, I managed to re-install Office 2013 because I had the necessary files ON MY COMPUTER. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t activate the friggin’ thing because Microsoft doesn’t support it either.

In desperation, I decided to at least try to open my spreadsheet with 2013…. Oh my god…it worked! I printed off that spreadsheet so fast it just about beat the speed of light. So now I have my most important data, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep using Office 2013 before the lack of activation shuts me out.

The only good thing about this whole comedy of errors is that I now have a little bit of time to find a solution to my bigger problem: how to upgrade to Windows 10 so I can install Office 2019. And before anyone asks, the reason I’ve hung onto Windows 7 for so long is because of the utter disregard for user privacy shown by Microsoft. Windows 10 is bad in terms of privacy, but it’s nowhere near as bad as Windows 11.

Microsoft doesn’t sell us products any more, it makes us the product by ensuring that it controls the software we use, and has access to all the personal/private data that we don’t even know we’re handing over. In other words, we’re paying for the privilege of being shafted by Microsoft.

I don’t know how any of this can be fixed. Yes, I know I could move to a MAC or Linux operating system, but most of the third party software I use is only available on Windows. Or I’d have to pay to buy a different version. Hah…

If anyone out there has any advice, I’d love to hear it. -sigh-

Meeks

p.s. My thanks to Jaye Marie for introducing me to Bitmoji.