Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual

Activating Project

Activation is Microsoft’s way of verifying that you’re running a legal copy of a Microsoft program. Running Project without activating it turns the program into little more than a viewer, and you can run the program for only a short period of time. (Although Project 2013 runs with reduced functionality before you activate it, Microsoft is starting to eliminate the activation grace period. In Windows 8, you need a product key to install the software.) When you activate Project, Microsoft doesn’t ask for personal information, so there’s no harm in doing so.

Note

The Microsoft Office Project Activation Wizard creates a hardware identifier for your computer, which means, unfortunately, that you may have to reactivate Project if you rebuild your computer.

The Activation Wizard starts automatically when you run Project for the first time. In the Activate Office dialog box, click “Microsoft account” to sign in with the account associated with your Microsoft products (SkyDrive, Windows Phone, Hotmail, or other Microsoft services). If you have a Microsoft account through work or school, click “Organizational account.” Enter your username and password, and then click “Sign in.”

Note

If you have a product key for Project 2013, click the “Enter a product key instead” link. The “Enter your product key” dialog box appears. In the box, type the 25-character product key. If the product key is valid, a green checkmark appears to the right of the text box. Click Install.

When your program ...