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I purchased Microsoft Office 2024 and three licences on April 30 from SoftMail.co.uk. Today I have had a pop-up message to say "Microsoft Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 Preview has expired." Most features of word have been disabled and my documents cannot be edited. The "learn more" link refers to Microsoft Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021, which is very odd. I purchased Office 2024 to replace Office 2016, support for which is ending. I installed Office 2024 on a new laptop after removing all traces of Microsoft 365. Why has this happened and what can be done to continue using Office 2024?
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Answer accepted by question author
>> Do you think the pop-up message and the link is a scam?
No, the message saying your trial ended is not a scam but the fact that the seller sent you a new key means they are not selling legal copies.
Answer accepted by question author
The software will continue work as long as Softmail remains in existence, but they may be skirting their license agreement. They are probably relying on the following clause for justification. In the excerpt below from the LTSC license agreement, the vendor (SoftMail.co.uk) is acting as the Customer, and its (primary) users are those to whom they are selling the software.
Roaming Rights
Customers with active Software Assurance for Office LTSC licenses can use Roaming Rights benefits. The single primary user of a licensed device can remotely access the software running on servers that the customer manages from a qualifying third-party device. They can also run the software in a virtual Operating System Environment (OSE) on a qualifying third-party device when they are not on the customer’s or their affiliates’ premises. Customers can host dedicated servers for this purpose in their own data centers or on servers that Authorized Outsourcers manage. A ‘qualifying third-party device’ refers to any device that you or your affiliates do not control, either directly or indirectly (for example, a third party’s public kiosk or an employee’s personal device). For example, an employee may not use their personal devices on premises and exercise their Roaming Rights benefits. This same user may access Office LTSC from this personal device when at home.
The 'primary user' is the individual who uses the licensed device more than 50 percent of 3 the time within any 90-day period. Non-primary users can also remotely access the software if they are using a device that has a license for the same version and edition of Office LTSC.
Answer accepted by question author
Office LTSC Professional Plus (any version) is a volume license, intended for corporate users. It is not legal for individual sale. What you bought was a scam.
If you want a perpetual license, you can get Office Home & Business 2024; see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/office-home-business-2024/cfq7ttc0pbm7. It is a one-time payment version for one user and one computer (PC or Mac). Note that this version cannot be installed on mobile devices.
Good to know. Helps to explain how it is that so many personal users end up with LTSC licenses.