MS Office 2004 Cannot Start...

[Rick Gregory]

I have as single copy of Office 2004 Std. installed on my PB G4 (Tiger) and
iMac (10.2.8). My iMac is primarily used for admin tasks such as billing,
accounting, etc. The PB is my main mac for all other activities.

Per the MS license, I have installed the software on both machines with the
intention of only using one at a time (Machines are networked via wireless
router). Occasionally I will leave an Office application (e.g. Excel) open
on one machine when I switch to complete a task on the other (e.g. Email
with Entourage). Until recently, that was not a problem. Now, I get a
message stating "Microsoft Office 2004 Cannot Start Because Microsoft Office
is Already in Use".

I recently installed an Office Update, but can't think of anything else that
has changed. Could it be that the latest update included new license
enforcement not before seen in Office? Is there any legitimate workaround
within the license framework?

 

[Michel Bintener]

I'm surprised that you haven't seen that warning at an earlier stage; that's
what's supposed to happen. Technically speaking, you'll have to quit all the
Office applications on one computer before you can start using them on the
other one. Whenever an Office application is running, it will check for
other copies of Office using the same registration key (on the same
network), and it will either force you to quit the currently running
applications or simply prevent the other computer from starting up Office
applications.

Theoretically speaking, you *could* disconnect one computer from the
network, as Office can only perform routine checks when both computers are
connected to the same network. I'm not sure if that solution is legal,
though, as I haven't really read the license agreement.