Introduction

The Office brand covers 13 different Microsoft desktop applications aimed at business users, the four most prominent being Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word. All but three—Project, SharePoint Designer, and Visio—are bundled in at least one of Microsoft’s eight Office desktop application suite editions. Purchasing and managing licenses for Office desktop productivity applications and suites is challenging for many customers because of the variety of products that bear the Office brand name, their distribution in several different suites through different channels, and the complex assortment of rules governing the products’ licensing and use.

As with desktop OSs, Office desktop applications and suites are licensed on a per-device basis. The general rule for Office is straightforward—any device used by an individual to interact with an Office desktop application must be assigned an Office license. The most notable exception: the designated primary user of a device licensed for an Office suite or desktop application may use it remotely from other unlicensed computers. For example, a user can access his work computer from a home computer via a Remote Desktop connection even if the home computer is not licensed for the work computer’s Office applications.