What does Microsoft Office 2010 OEM installation mean?

Question

I bought a Dell laptop and it came pre-installed with Windows 7 (64-bit). The list of software available on the laptop given by the manufacturer says it has Microsoft Office 2010 OEM installation.

However when I try to use it only the Starter version is available, and for the full version it is asking for an activation key which Dell has not provided. So does this OEM installation mean only a Starter edition? Does anybody know about this?

Answer 1

OEM generally means Starter edition, unless you paid for the <whatever> edition. The Starter edition comes free with OEM, but is Ad-based.

FWIW This is my experience with HP, Dell should be no different.

Answer 2

I recently (last week) bought a laptop from Dell with Office 2010 pre-installed on Windows 7 x64

Dell provided a Microsoft Office slip of paper with the manuals which contained the Activation Key. I then had to run a Microsoft Office .exe (in start menu) which downloaded and installed the full version, i then had to enter the Activation Code.

Was Office purchased with the Laptop like in my case?

Answer 3

In general OEM means you can only use it on the hardware that you originally bought with it. If you replace your computer, then you also need to get a new license for that software (so: buy another OEM license with your new hardware).