Informational Advisory – Microsoft Office Upgrade Offer
This advisory was sent via email to nearly 900 @Marshall recipients who have recently received an e-mail from ‘Microsoft Home Use Program MicrosoftHUPsupport@digitalriver.com . This is a legitimate message and you are receiving this because you have previously enrolled for or purchased media from the Microsoft ‘Home Use Program’ for Microsoft Office on your home computer. (See Frequently Asked Questions section below on how to unsubscribe from these mailings).
But before you pay $9.95 to upgrade, please read the rest of this message below…
If you are an Marshall faculty or staff member eligible for ‘Home Use Rights’ (see Microsoft’s definition of employee below in the frequently asked questions section) in most cases you will be better served by upgrading your home computer software using the no-cost Office 365 media.
If you are no longer a Marshall University employee, but you are still an active student, you can also use O365 media described below.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I use Office 365 Media on a Personally Owned PC/Windows or Apple Macintosh OS?
Yes. the Microsoft Office 365 download is intended for PERSONALLY-OWNED machines. There are separate versions for Microsoft Windows PC’s and Apple Macintosh OS X computers. - Is there a difference in the O365 software and Microsoft Office software installed on my University-owned computer?
In some cases yes. Functionally, both products are Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, Outlook, etc. – and you have a choice of ‘new’ (Office 2016) or ‘previous’ (2013) releases. However, with the O365 release, Microsoft will make future updates available to you. These updates may appear on a different release schedule than your University-owned computer. You will still have the option to ‘accept’ or ‘defer’ these major updates. You may wish to maintain the same major version (e.g. Office 2013 vs. Office 2016) running on both your personally- and University-owned computers. - Where can I get more information on accessing the Office 365 software?
Please visit our website for more details. - What is an eligible employee for purposes of the ‘Home Use Program’?
Microsoft defines ‘eligible employee’ as follows… “those individuals who use the covered licenses at work are eligible to purchase these Office applications for use on a personal device during the term of their employment. This temporary license expires with the employer’s Software Assurance coverage, or upon termination of employment with the covered organization.” - How can I request Microsoft/DigitalRiver to stop sending me these upgrade offers?
Locate the e-mail message in your inbox (Subject: The New Microsoft Office 2016 is Here for Only $9.95!). At the very bottom of the message, locate the ‘Click here to unsubscribe’ web link. This will take you to a webpage which will already contain your e-mail address. Click the [Unsubscribe] button. That’s it.
Please direct any additional questions to IT Service Desk itservicedesk@marshall.edu so that we can upgrade our existing question & answer section on the IT website.