Having Visio or Project Compatibility Issues with Office365 ? Here's how to upgrade for Free...
As a tech enthusiast who likes to keep up to date with the latest editions of Microsoft software, one of the great values for years was TechNet. The TechNet "subscription" allowed you to get basically every OS, Server and Application that MS made. You were provided fully licensed versions to install on multiple machines and @ $249 or less per year was a great value.
But back in July of 2013 MS killed off TechNet and depending on when you last renewed your subscription was active until June 30, 2014.
So at the time I used TechNet to upgrade to Windows 8 - then 8.1 and also Office 2013 on all my machines. These Windows 8 licenses are what then allowed my to upgrade to Windows 10 - even on older machines.
In the fall of 2015 - I wanted to keep current - so bought the next best value at MS - Office365 Home. With Office365 Home - you get to install Office 2016 Pro - so Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access and Publisher on up to 5 PCs as well as iOS, Android and Windows Mobile AND get 1TB of OneDrive Storage for up to 5 users. I bought my subscription during a sale for just $89 for 1 year.
As I've written in previous posts - this is a great value. When you consider that Office Pro Retail sells for around $400 - it would cost upwards of $2,000 to install on the same 5 PCs - and that's without the 1TB of OneDrive Storage.
Even at the normal retail price of $99 / year the three year cost when compared to buying Office Pro Retail is less than the cost of just one license and less than 15% of the cost of buying for 5 PCs individually.
But one of the issues with making the move to Office365 was the transition from traditional MSI installs for standlone editions of Office apps to the new "Click-to-Run" model. Click to Run uses a new deployment technique that can cause conflicts with traditional installs.
So many users - myself included - saw compatibility issues with installing a mix of 2013 Standalone and Click to Run Office 2016 apps - especially specialized apps like Visio and Project - which are typically pretty expensive. - $500 or > each depending on the edition.
So the good news is that MS Office Team realized this and has come up with a pretty cool solution. And that is a free upgrade to the 2016 version.
And they made it brain dead simple. First you need to go to the link below
Special Offer for Office365 Which takes you to MS Office Support and lays out the rules of the offer very clearly.
Next you need to have ready the MS account associated with your Office365 subscription and the license keys for the 2013 apps in question like Visio and Project.
You can then open a chat session or have them call you and simply give them the info. As long as your Office365 subscription is in good standing and the keys are legit - your good to go and it won't cost you a dime.
You then will receive an email with a link that will add the Click-to-Run Editions to your MS Account and you can install via your Office365 Account Home Page. You suddenly have complete 2016 editions of Visio Pro and Project Pro.
Very cool.
Now - just to be clear - these are not "Office365" editions of these apps - they are simply Click-to-Run editions. But they are a free upgrade to the 2016 editions. And it is one upgrade per license key.
But in my case for example I had multiple license keys from back with my TechNet subscription and guess what - they all are valid and can be upgraded.
This approach differs from adding Visio Pro for Office 365 to your Office365 Home subscription - which is $13 / month if you pay for a full year or $156 or $15.50 / monthly - which makes the yearly cost to $186. To me free is a whole lot better than $156 or $186..
Like with any version of Visio or Project you will get all the patches etc, that you normally get via Windows Update and obviously there are no compatibility issues with your existing Office365 2016 edition of Office Pro.
And since they are Click to Run - you can remove them from one machine and re-install on another if needed. So a breeze to manage and no need to keep a folder full of ISO files.
What I know is that I will have the latest edition of Visio and Project along side my Office365 Pro until the next major revision - which should be Office 2019.
Bottom line - Microsoft did a real solid for it's Office customers by providing this free upgrade. Whether your having compatibility issues or not - it's a great program for getting the latest versions of Project and Visio.
The program is valid until October 31, 2016 - so take advantage while you can.
I highly recommend it...
But back in July of 2013 MS killed off TechNet and depending on when you last renewed your subscription was active until June 30, 2014.
So at the time I used TechNet to upgrade to Windows 8 - then 8.1 and also Office 2013 on all my machines. These Windows 8 licenses are what then allowed my to upgrade to Windows 10 - even on older machines.
In the fall of 2015 - I wanted to keep current - so bought the next best value at MS - Office365 Home. With Office365 Home - you get to install Office 2016 Pro - so Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access and Publisher on up to 5 PCs as well as iOS, Android and Windows Mobile AND get 1TB of OneDrive Storage for up to 5 users. I bought my subscription during a sale for just $89 for 1 year.
As I've written in previous posts - this is a great value. When you consider that Office Pro Retail sells for around $400 - it would cost upwards of $2,000 to install on the same 5 PCs - and that's without the 1TB of OneDrive Storage.
Even at the normal retail price of $99 / year the three year cost when compared to buying Office Pro Retail is less than the cost of just one license and less than 15% of the cost of buying for 5 PCs individually.
But one of the issues with making the move to Office365 was the transition from traditional MSI installs for standlone editions of Office apps to the new "Click-to-Run" model. Click to Run uses a new deployment technique that can cause conflicts with traditional installs.
So many users - myself included - saw compatibility issues with installing a mix of 2013 Standalone and Click to Run Office 2016 apps - especially specialized apps like Visio and Project - which are typically pretty expensive. - $500 or > each depending on the edition.
So the good news is that MS Office Team realized this and has come up with a pretty cool solution. And that is a free upgrade to the 2016 version.
And they made it brain dead simple. First you need to go to the link below
Special Offer for Office365 Which takes you to MS Office Support and lays out the rules of the offer very clearly.
Next you need to have ready the MS account associated with your Office365 subscription and the license keys for the 2013 apps in question like Visio and Project.
You can then open a chat session or have them call you and simply give them the info. As long as your Office365 subscription is in good standing and the keys are legit - your good to go and it won't cost you a dime.
You then will receive an email with a link that will add the Click-to-Run Editions to your MS Account and you can install via your Office365 Account Home Page. You suddenly have complete 2016 editions of Visio Pro and Project Pro.
Very cool.
Now - just to be clear - these are not "Office365" editions of these apps - they are simply Click-to-Run editions. But they are a free upgrade to the 2016 editions. And it is one upgrade per license key.
But in my case for example I had multiple license keys from back with my TechNet subscription and guess what - they all are valid and can be upgraded.
This approach differs from adding Visio Pro for Office 365 to your Office365 Home subscription - which is $13 / month if you pay for a full year or $156 or $15.50 / monthly - which makes the yearly cost to $186. To me free is a whole lot better than $156 or $186..
Like with any version of Visio or Project you will get all the patches etc, that you normally get via Windows Update and obviously there are no compatibility issues with your existing Office365 2016 edition of Office Pro.
And since they are Click to Run - you can remove them from one machine and re-install on another if needed. So a breeze to manage and no need to keep a folder full of ISO files.
What I know is that I will have the latest edition of Visio and Project along side my Office365 Pro until the next major revision - which should be Office 2019.
Bottom line - Microsoft did a real solid for it's Office customers by providing this free upgrade. Whether your having compatibility issues or not - it's a great program for getting the latest versions of Project and Visio.
The program is valid until October 31, 2016 - so take advantage while you can.
I highly recommend it...
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