Using Outlook on a second machine for free

Yesterday’s tip was about getting rid of the EULA notification but have you taken the time to read it before?
It’s actually worth it as it states that you can use it on a second device as well within the same single license without any additional cost. How does it work?

Ok, so “free” is a relative term here as basically it is included with the license of the original which you already paid for. However, many people are not aware of this benefit of having a retail license.

You most likely have a retail license when you bought Outlook or an Office Suite that contains Outlook “in a box”. This means that you bought Outlook or Office separate from the machine that you want to install it on (this could still mean that you have bought it at the same time though but they are just not “linked” to each other).

With a retail license you have the choice on which machine you want to install Office or Outlook on; this is called your main PC. In addition to that main PC, the main user of that PC is also allowed to install it on 1 mobile device that he/she is also the main user of.

So when you have a desktop computer and a laptop and you are the main user of both machines, then you can use Office/Outlook with only 1 retail license.

Another benefit of having a retail license is that you can reassign the license to another main PC without needing to buy a new one. So if you buy a new PC, then you can install Office/Outlook on that machine as well. You’ll of course have to uninstall it from your old PC then.

To read the End User License Agreement for your version of Outlook or Office Suite or any other Microsoft software you can look it up here at the “Microsoft Software License Terms” website.

If Outlook or Office was already installed on your computer when you bought it, you probably have an OEM license. If you got a version of Outlook with a mobile device (like a phone or PDA), you probably got an OEM license as well. In those cases the above mentioned license will not apply to you. You’ll have to check the documentation of your device (computer, mobile phone, etc…) which license it got shipped with then and with which kind on conditions. You can also contact the vendor of the device to get an up-to-date version of the license. Most of the time these are more restrictive and will allow you to install the software on a second device or reassign it to a new PC.

Note: Although the Home and Student version of Office 2007 doesn’t contain Outlook, note that the license conditions are quite different for this version. For instance, with this version you are allowed to use the software on 3 machines within a single household as long as the main users of those machines are also a member of that household.