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I am getting several new computers for my office. I want to install Microsoft Office and my proprietary software and all updates on a single PC and create a system image that will be copied to every other PC.

How do I deal with Windows/Office product keys to prevent licence violations? Am I able to do this from the System Image tool in Windows 7?

Note: The PCs will very likely not be joined to my domain at this point if that makes a difference.

Usta
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  • There are ways to do this. Clearly each image will require its own license. Most people who do this have VLK licenses so the same key is used but a seat is only used when the computer activates the license. A simple Google search found this http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744512(v=ws.10).aspx you will need to activate each copy of Office and Windows. But you can deploy the same image to save yourself time. – Ramhound Sep 11 '13 at 15:22
  • Do you own enough licenses already for all of the computers or will you needing to buy them still (if you have not bought them yet that is actually a good thing as it opens up more options, like volume licences which are designed to do exactly what you are trying to do) – Scott Chamberlain Sep 11 '13 at 15:22
  • Not 100% the same question, but close: http://superuser.com/questions/277135/computer-refresh-efficiently-cloning-60-indentical-computers – Hennes Sep 11 '13 at 15:34
  • I am buying from Dell and am planning to use clean OEM installs as the base, and the number of PCs is low enough to make Volume Licensing prohibitively expensive. – Usta Sep 11 '13 at 15:35
  • If you are planning on using Office 2013 OEM and imaging GIVE UP NOW. Trust me I speak from recent experience. Office 2013 OEM installed need to be registered to an email account, per computer, by hand, and you can't change the key after the fact. I then found out that "Home and Business" has basically no BUSINESS features; specifically it doesn't pay attention to Group Policies for Office! :/ – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Sep 11 '13 at 17:45
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    Luckily our OEM worked with us and took the 19 copies back with a close-to-full refund (MS will just tell you, 'sucks to be you, go buy Standard at full pop'). Only $6000 (more) later, and we now have Office 2013 Standard in volume licensing. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Sep 11 '13 at 17:46

2 Answers2

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You can, but not using regular, single user licenses.

However you can if:

  • You use a VLK (Volume license key)
  • Or you are large enough. E.g. at my last work place we inventoried the number of windows installations per month. Then sent that number to MS (well, to a reseller) and we got charged for it. No need to worry about every single license or if it used the right key. Just make sure your tally is correct (in case of an audit). Note that this only works if you are large enough.

Regardless of how you fix the licensing: The base idea is this:

  • Install windows on a master computer. (Either use a VLK or do not activate it yet).
  • Tweak, install additional programs. (Same license restrictions as above).
  • Make a backup image. E.g. boot from a windows DVD and use imageX. You should not need this image unless you do something wrong later on.
  • Optionally clean up the image (e.g. empty temp folders).
  • Boot and sysprep the master PC and shut it down. Do not boot it anymore!
  • Create a new image (again, imageX for a wim, or Ghost or clonezilla.
  • Install this new image on all PC's.

The new PCs will boot from the image, detect hardware, ask for a computer name etc. etc. All pre-installed software will be present.

Hennes
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  • Will SysPrep. deal with Office keys as well, or should I deal with that on an individual basis? – Usta Sep 11 '13 at 19:25
  • As far as I know sysprep only deals with OS files, so no. But there are also VLK's for office. Same disadvantage as for the OS though; not worth it for a few computers. And very much needed to keep things sane if you have hundreds of computers. I do not know how much your 'several' new computers are, but I suspect that installing without activating, then distributing the image and activating per computer might be the best solution. – Hennes Sep 11 '13 at 23:46
  • That is what I am beginning to think. It will end up being close to a dozen desktops + 14+ laptops. The biggest concern my office had is that the set of computers I am replacing had sent out for warranty-covered repairs far to many times. Each time a computer is sent out, because of the data being dealt with, we do a secure wipe of the drive, and I wanted to cut down on redeployment time when/if that happens. It is a bigger concern for the laptops since they see frequent abuse and are not able to be serviced onsite. – Usta Sep 12 '13 at 01:00
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That's totally illegal, don't do it. The Microsoft guys will get you busted. If you want to do something illegal, you could get a crack(eg. office toolkit). This will prevent the programs from accessing the internet and keep you safe(mind you,it's not foolproof and illegal too)

After some research I found that you can activate it safely on more than one computer with no trouble, but microsoft hasn't announced this officially, it's just user experience.

See this: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/3526/t/18865733.aspx

Avasyu
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    How do I deal with Windows/Office product keys to prevent licence violations? -> I think Usta is aware of the legal implications. – Hennes Sep 11 '13 at 15:17
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    @Avasyu - This really isn't an answer. Its also sort of invalid. Its perfectly legal to create an image and deploy it to multiple computers PROVIDED you have enough the licenses to do so. This isn't the first time you have posted a poor answer, I highly suggest, you post better answers. In 12 minutes you have posted 5 answers and a majority of them are very low quality. – Ramhound Sep 11 '13 at 15:23
  • @Avasyu - The link thread is even more confusing. While certain previous versions of OFfice 2010/2007 allowed you to activate a single license on multiple computers this also changed with the current version of Office. If the user has more then 4 computers this fact also won't be any help and besides the license in that case is very specific about personal home use. – Ramhound Sep 11 '13 at 15:35
  • @Avasyu Of course Microsoft has "officially announced" how many times you can install a license. There are differences between home and business users, but it's all described in the EULA. Please stop spreading misinformation. To suggest Microsoft leaves everyone to just "figure out" how licensing works without telling anyone is just plain silly. –  Sep 11 '13 at 16:17