12-04-2025, 10:31 AM
This is something Ive just observed for the first time, but according to google, this has been happening since around 2020.
About a week ago I set up a newly purchased laptop and transferred the data across, etc.
I uninstalled the preinstalled office 365 and reinstalled and reactivated office 2016 with the users current licence.
This was the home and student version so was just word and excel.
About a week later the user called me and complained that their office was not the "same" as before and could not save documents, etc.
Was only letting them save to one drive, I smelt a rat and suspected this sounded like 365 to me, but thought the user could not find the browse button.
I took a look at the computer and low and behold the thing was running 365, but still was listed as 2016 in the apps list.
I was doubting myself at this point, because I was sure I had left it with 2016.
Anyway, I suspected it was an update that did this and I was correct, I thought it may have been a free upgrade with the added benefits until I discovered the major issue here, it only lets you save to onedrive!
Even if i went to change the default save location, this thing pops up with the message along these lines "this free version of word can only save documents to onedrive, please purchase a subscription to unlock all its features"
I was gob smacked, Microsoft has the audacity to "upgrade" your older version of office to 365 which is a subscription based model and then expect you to pay to unlock features you had already paid for.
Anyway, I ended up removing and reinstalling it twice, first to test if the updates were causing this, which I was able to confirm it was, so I had to reinstall a second time and disable the automatic updates in office itself.
My question was why it was running OK on the old PC running windows 10? I didnt see any automatic updates disabled on that machine.
And if its correct that this has been happening since around 2020, then its not a windows 11 thing either.
It also appears its not just the home and student version affected. Am interested to hear if others have encountered this before.
Ive reinstalled older versions of office a bunch of times on newer computers and never encountered this before, or at least never had any users complain!
About a week ago I set up a newly purchased laptop and transferred the data across, etc.
I uninstalled the preinstalled office 365 and reinstalled and reactivated office 2016 with the users current licence.
This was the home and student version so was just word and excel.
About a week later the user called me and complained that their office was not the "same" as before and could not save documents, etc.
Was only letting them save to one drive, I smelt a rat and suspected this sounded like 365 to me, but thought the user could not find the browse button.
I took a look at the computer and low and behold the thing was running 365, but still was listed as 2016 in the apps list.
I was doubting myself at this point, because I was sure I had left it with 2016.
Anyway, I suspected it was an update that did this and I was correct, I thought it may have been a free upgrade with the added benefits until I discovered the major issue here, it only lets you save to onedrive!
Even if i went to change the default save location, this thing pops up with the message along these lines "this free version of word can only save documents to onedrive, please purchase a subscription to unlock all its features"
I was gob smacked, Microsoft has the audacity to "upgrade" your older version of office to 365 which is a subscription based model and then expect you to pay to unlock features you had already paid for.
Anyway, I ended up removing and reinstalling it twice, first to test if the updates were causing this, which I was able to confirm it was, so I had to reinstall a second time and disable the automatic updates in office itself.
My question was why it was running OK on the old PC running windows 10? I didnt see any automatic updates disabled on that machine.
And if its correct that this has been happening since around 2020, then its not a windows 11 thing either.
It also appears its not just the home and student version affected. Am interested to hear if others have encountered this before.
Ive reinstalled older versions of office a bunch of times on newer computers and never encountered this before, or at least never had any users complain!