Software Question

[Coyote_Bandit]

I'm being forced to upgrade my pc and software. Long ugly story involving bad hard drive sectors that corrupted the security software resulting in some type of malware infection. Not cost effective to make repairs.

I've been running XP Pro SP2 and Office Professional. Both were OEM versions - so new Office software is required. The new laptop I bought runs Vista Premium.

I was wondering if the Excel and Word products in the MS Home and Student edition are full featured. I need to have all of the data analysis and solver capabilities of Excel in particular.

[CatholicEdHead]

1. You should have no problems with the Home and Student edition

I assume that would be for Office 2007. Of course if you have sperate disks for Office XP or 2003, you could install the CDs on the new machine. Office 2003 products do work with Vista.

But Office 2007 Home and Student has fully functional Word, Powerpoint, and Excel.

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. There's something I don't understand about that

I can buy a retail version of Office Home and Student for about $130 and add a retail version of Outlook for another $85. A total of about $215. That would include word, excel, powerpoint, onenote and outlook.

Meanwhile the retail vesion of the standard office package runs about $325 and includes word, excel, powerpoint and outlook. A retail version of onenote is another $85. There is also a cheaper ($60) retail version of Onenote 2007 that is designated as the home and student version. That makes the comparable non home and student package sell for over $400 - nearly double the cost of the home and student edition.

I figure there has to be something different between the packages and suspect the home and student version lacks some of the features of the full package. I have searched the microsoft sites but not found an answer to this question.

The OEM Office product that I was using on my old machine was only licensed for use on that particular machine. The retail product license permits installation on up to 3 machines simultaneously. Licensing rather than compatibility is the reason for the purchase.

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. The Fine Print in the Licensing

says that the Home and Student version of Office is only licensed for noncommercial use. No small business or home business use permitted.

Haven't determined yet if there are differences in features. That is a really a moot question for me since I intend to use it for commerical purposes.