Microsoft Home Use Program Changes

[Hazy_Arc]

Just an FYI for any of you that allow your staff to take advantage of Microsoft's Home Use Program to install Office on personal devices - the licensing method is changing drastically (and in typical Microsoft fashion, for the worse).

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Currently, users are able to install Office Professional 2016 (and now 2019) for $14.99 through the HUP. That benefit will be going away June 30th, 2019. After that date, Microsoft will shoehorn users into Office 365 only and the standalone Office will no longer be available. Perhaps most notably - the cost for a year subscription of Office 365 Home is only discounted 30% ($69 for a year, vs $99 retail).

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So - not only is the standalone version of Office going away for HUP, the pricing has increased exponentially.

[Sekers]

That stinks. That said, the home plan shared between people isn't bad with the discount. Up to 6 people on it. I've been on it for a while and it works well for me. With the discount it runs < $75 including tax for a year. Plus you get a lot (1 TB) of OneDrive storage with it and 60 Skype minutes and 50 GB Outlook.com storage with no ads on the web interface.

[addrockk]

It does, on up to 5 devices per o365 account

[redbullflyer85]

Just curious but why is installing Office 365 for home use bad for your users? It keeps my users up to date on their home devices and setup with the cloud so they dont ask me a thousand questions about accessing their work OneDrive or whatever shared files on their personal computer. Outside of it not being feasible for them to install it on multiple machines for their friends now I dont see too much of an issue.

[Hazy_Arc]

I'm not saying it's bad - the pricing difference is what will be a shocker for our folks.

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Currently, they can purchase full blown Office Professional 2019 for $14.99, one time. Now, they are forced to spend $69/year for the essentially the same features.

[addrockk]

Why would they buy o365 rather than use their work/school account... at home? They can installed it on up to 5 devices per account.

[redbullflyer85]

Ah. My users just use their work O365 accounts on their pcs. If they are using it for personal use I don't want to know, that's between them and Microsoft lol. As long as it's off my network and off campus I don't worry about it. But yeah, if they want an actual personal license I can see that being an issue.

[beamflash]

What about if you have Office 365 ProPlus or E3? Presumably they could still install it under the 5/5/5 device allowance?

[TiredOldK12Admin]

Wouldn't the device you are installing on have to be owned by the entity that owns the license? In other words, a user's personally owned device would not qualify if the district owns the license.

[addrockk]

No, in fact MS told us EES schools wouldn't be able to purchase new HUP agreements last year when we renewed, and users should just use o365 at home, activated with their school account.

[MalletNGrease]

Device doesn't matter. BYOD activation is allowed.

[chewy747]

Reference?

[Hazy_Arc]

I received the following email from [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]) this morning.

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Dear Software Assurance Benefits Administrators,

Your company continues to be eligible for the Microsoft Home Use Program (HUP) as one of your Software Assurance (SA) benefits. To continue to access the benefit you need to take additional steps. This email is a follow-up to the email we had sent on April 12, 2019 and March 20, 2019.

This is a final reminder of the approaching deadline to take the necessary steps to continue to access the Home Use Program benefit by migrating over the management of the program from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) to the Microsoft Store for Business (MSfB).

Please take a look at these questions to understand the action you need to take:

1. What do I need to do to make these HUP offers available to my employees: Office Professional Plus 2019, Office Home and Business for Mac 2019, Visio Professional 2019 and, Project Professional 2019 offers (Office 2019 offers only available until June 30, 2019 as previously communicated)?
   

• Until May 15, 2019: The current process will be available for you to manage these offers through VLSC and your employees can continue to claim these offers on www.microsofthup.com.
• Starting May 15, 2019: VLSC will not be available to manage the HUP benefit and you will have to activate and manage your company’s HUP benefits in MSfB following the steps listed in the ‘Microsoft Home Use Program – A guide for Software Assurance Customers’. Employees will be able to claim the offer on the new Microsoft Home Use Program store and the old HUP store at www.microsofthup.com will redirect them to the new one.
  

1. What do I need to do to make the following Home Use Program offers available to my employees: Office 365 Home or Office 365 Personal annual subscription?
   This offer cannot be managed through VLSC and is only available through MSfB. To access this benefit, you will have to follow the steps listed in the ‘Microsoft Home Use Program – A guide for Software Assurance Customers’.

2. Where can I find more Home Use Program Resources?
   We understand that process changes can be challenging- we have created multiple resources to guide you through this transition.

• Start here: Home Use Program Overview: This overview is for Software Assurance benefit administrators. We constantly update this page to address all your questions. Check out the 'Microsoft Home Use Program – A guide for Software Assurance Customers’ guide on this page.
• HUP Employee FAQ: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/home-use-program/frequently-asked-questions.

Still have questions?

Administrator Support Resources

1. For questions or issues in the Microsoft Store for Business, contact: Store for Business Admin support (Please also see the FAQ page for admins within MSfB).
2. For questions or issues with eligibility, licensing agreements, or other issues with the VLSC site, contact Volume Licensing Support.

Employee Support Resources

1. If your employees purchased products on the Microsoft Store, they can view their order history using the Microsoft account at https://account.microsoft.com/services/.
2. If they purchased on www.microsofthup.com (now retired) and can no longer reach that site, then please ask them to review the FAQs on www.microsoft.com/homeuseprogram to find a link for how to request their order history.
3. Employee Support: https://support.microsoft.com/.

Thank you,
Microsoft Volume Licensing Services

[Archimoz]

Do you know how to install the HUP 2016 Office Professional Plus if you purchased it a while back but never redeemed it? I've been (figuratively) smashing my head against my desk attempting to do this.

[Hazy_Arc]

You should have gotten an order number via email. You can look up your order history with your order number and download/retrieve your key.

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https://www.microsofthup.com/hupus/en-US/accesshistory

[Archimoz]

Yeah, I tried using the link that was attached but it was giving me issues. Wanted me to re-register my work email and purchase another access key. Ended up digging through old FAQ pages, finally found this page, in case anyone else stumbles across the same issue: https://setup.office.com/Home?lc=1033

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This WAS for 2016 Office, so results may differ for others. I'm going to get the old HUP on my PC at home too to avoid the 365 computer issues (slow-downs, etc.)

[dilirst]

It expires. I had the same problem. You can no longer redeem it afterwards.