Activating trial of Access 2013?

[RhinoCan]

I installed a trial copy of Access 2013 for a friend on Saturday. She is trying to learn Access so that she has at least a basic familiarity with it so she can mention it on her resume.



After installing it, I was able to launch it successfully so I thought we were "good to go". Unfortunately, when she tries to create a new database now, it wants her to activate the program or supply a product key. It's a 60 day trial copy of Access which I got at the Softonic website and if they supplied a key, I didn't notice.

Are product keys provided for trial copies? If not, how do I go about activating this copy of Access? When we go to office.microsoft.com/myaccount and sign in with her only account, the same one I used to install Access, it says that the account isn't known to Office or words to that effect.

She's running Windows 7 and we installed the 32-bit version of Access.

I'd really appreciate some guidance on how to make this trial version work.

[CJ_London]

try activating the program, without a product key it should just start as a trial

[RhinoCan]

try activating the program, without a product key it should just start as a trial

How do I activate it? It seems as if Microsoft isn't associating my friend's account with the trial copy of Access.

[ItsMe]

Maybe you will have better luck downloading straight from Microsoft. In order to operate Office 2013, it needs to be associated with a valid Microsoft account (regardless if you have a valid key or not.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/eval...onal-plus-2013

2013 is a strange animal. I have had troubles, not lately though, with activated clients halting in the middle of the day and not letting the user continue without activating. The MS Office team have been really strict with their software. I would be surprised if any Office app found on media like a DVD or online was valid. Only OEM partners have access to the OPK and there are very strict rules about how Office must be installed on new hardware when OEM's agree to the OPK's terms.

[RhinoCan]

Unfortunately, the link you provided is broken so it doesn't get me anywhere.

Also, I want to stress that we installed a 60 day trial of ACCESS 2013, not Office 2013 (or Office 365).

I'm not even sure what activation *is* much less how to do it. Is it the process of installing the license so that the program runs? Or maybe I should say runs *consistently* because the program ran fine on Saturday even though I didn't consciously install any license or product key (but, for all I know, it was done for me during the installation of the program.) Even now, it only asks to be activated if my friend tries to create a new database. If we bring up the database I created on Saturday and then click File/New, it's possible to create a new database *without* being nagged for activation. At least for now: I have no idea if it is going to insist on activation tomorrow. That's why I find this so frustrating. I don't understand what *is* happening and I have no idea what is *supposed* to happen but I get the distinct impression that the two are very different in any case.

If I was designing an installer for a program, it would be simple for the user to supply the key and they wouldn't be able to do ANYTHING until that was done. With this Microsoft nonsense, I don't know if it is going to lock itself up solid somewhere down the road simply because we didn't do something right during the install. What's exasperating is that I'm trying to do everything strictly by the book so that it's a legal copy of the program but I can't actually *find* the book to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing.

Do I actually NEED a product key for a trial version or is the absence of a product key the defining characteristic of a trial version?

How does activation differ from supplying a product key? I get the impression that they are different but I just don't know HOW they are different or where to find out.

[CJ_London]

regret I can't help with this as I have no experience with installing 2013 but found this link which may provide some help

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/...Page/#officeq2

[ItsMe]

The link is working for me. The top two results for me in a google search returned two different links. I searched for "technet evaluation Office Professional Plus 2013".

If you are having trouble seeing the page after it loads, perhaps you should be using an updated browser. Lately, I have not seen any websites hosted by Microsoft that are not HTML5. With Microsoft websites, their HTML5 content will not load onto an older browser at all. So, for instance, if you are using an XP machine with IE8 it will not load.

As far as installing Access 2013 as a stand alone and being a part of an Access suite, I have not seen a SKU for that. In other words, I have bought Access in the past as a stand alone. I have used a SKU that referenced a product offered by Microsoft that would allow me to install, use, and activate, Microsoft Access and not any other component of Microsoft Access. Today, this may still be possible. However, I am not aware of the SKU to use.

Activation of software is, typically, when your computer provides the application a key that proves you paid for the application. This may or may not requires communication with the vendor. In this day and age, activation requires an internet connection and the application will communicate directly to the vendor. Activation will bring your application out of trial mode and into paid (valid) mode.

The most current trend is when vendors provide software applications as SaaS or Software as a Service. Here, the software is not purchased but rented. You pay as you go and there is not really an activation. Either, you pay your rental fees or you do not. Office 365 is an example of SaaS. Companies like this because they do not have to have amortized depreciation of their software.

Because of the trend towards SaaS, the typical "Installer" is becoming a dinosaur. Office 2013 is not SaaS. However, the installation of Office 2013 has many parallels to SaaS when you are installing Office 2013.

Do I actually NEED a product key for a trial version or is the absence of a product key the defining characteristic of a trial version?

When you have a trial version of Microsoft Office on a new PC you purchased, the OEM used a key to get the software installed on their machine. They do this to provide the consumer an Out Of Box Experience. This key is not for public consumption. If Microsoft offers a trial version of office directly top the consumer, I will guess they will require you to log onto their network before downloading the trial. I will guess there will be a key associated with this trial version. But, I will guess that you will never see it.

How does activation differ from supplying a product key? I get the impression that they are different but I just don't know HOW they are different or where to find out.

In a traditional sense, the act of supplying a product key is the act of activation. It is not unheard of foe vendors to provide a temporary key that "activates" your install as a trial and then you can activate it a second time using a different key, a paid "full version" key.

If you go to the store and buy a boxed version of Microsoft Office 2013, there will be a Key inside. The only other thing inside will be instructions. There will not be any media. The media is delivered via a download. The media is not "saved" to your computer as a traditional "installer" file. It is streamed and bootstrapped to your operating system, all at once.

In order to download the software as a direct install is to enter a valid key. Now, it will be a working version of Office. It will work until you associate your key with your Microsoft Online profile. This is where Office 2013 is similar to SaaS. The final part of activation is when you associate your Office install to your Microsoft Account. If you have any experience with paying for and using SaaS, this new approach will make more sense.