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[BigBooper]

Two Questions:
Can Windows 10 operate indefinitely without internet authentication?
Can Office operate without internet authentication?

I work in an environment with a closed computer network that is never connected to the internet. We are currently looking into replacing our aging computers. The software we use is Windows based, and to be compatible with the other modern hardware we will be getting, we will probably need to use Win 10. We have been using Win 7.

I'm afraid the answer to the second question might be no, in which case I'll also have to find an old retail version of Office to install, or we have to find a way to keep using Win7.

 

[Tesseract]

you can operate 10 indefinitely without authentication

office 365 checks every 30 days or so, 2019 runs offline just fine

 

[Northeastmonk]

Windows 10 gets its updates, like version 2004 and the latest 20H2. You have to register your Office software. You’ll have to either call MS and they can provide a code. That was how older versions work. You have to be online for it to verify that Office is legit.

Office will notify you that it’s not registered and the functionality will be reduced severely. It would be wise to get it all prepped online and then take it offline.

I’ve seen servers running un authenticated versions of Windows, so yeah.

Two Questions:
Can Windows 10 operate indefinitely without internet authentication?
Can Office operate without internet authentication?

I work in an environment with a closed computer network that is never connected to the internet. We are currently looking into replacing our aging computers. The software we use is Windows based, and to be compatible with the other modern hardware we will be getting, we will probably need to use Win 10. We have been using Win 7.

I'm afraid the answer to the second question might be no, in which case I'll also have to find an old retail version of Office to install, or we have to find a way to keep using Win7.

I thought about this some more.

This is what I would do. Backup that Windows 7 PC because in case it goes south during the install, you'll have a backup. Burn the complete Windows 10 ISO to a disc or a bootable USB. Do not use the Windows Media Creation Tool to download Windows. You can use the Media Creation Tool to make a bootable USB. There are two options when you launch it. The complete ISO should be a couple GB. You could update that PC. It'll basically take whatever authentication it gets. It'll probably just have a black background and a splash image at the bottom. You have a choice during Windows 10 setup to not connect it to the network. That way you have Windows 10 running 20H2. You probably won't get any drivers, so good luck downloading all of them and transferring them over. You could keep the partition and just transfer over the files. Do you need the software or can you reinstall it?

In terms of Office. Get Office Home & Business 2016. You might have to create an Outlook.com account to register the product. You'll probably get a key and you might have to call MS with the code to get the real license key for that Office. I think Office 2019 might work that way. Otherwise you'll need an older version of Office. I would stay away from Office 365 licensed versions of Office because that checks online. With an actual Key you are good to go working offline.

 

[TheContact]

MAK/KMS keys require an internet check every so often, but if you're just buying individual licenses you can use win10 and office without needing to be online. you of course won't get the security updates through windows updates but you can download the KBs onto a flash drive and run them locally if you want.

we recently bought office 2019 to replace 2010, but we downgraded to 2016 since 2019 and 2010 aren't completely compatible and not everyone was getting the new version of office right away.

good luck on replacing the computers. my suggestion is go with either dell or hp. and hold onto your old computers for some time--you may need to boot one or more of them up to retrieve some old files

 

[teezzy]

OpenOffice exists for a reason

 

[BigBooper]

OpenOffice exists for a reason

I wouldn't have a problem with that, but that wouldn't turn out well for most of the staff. OpenOffice works about like you'd expect most free products to.

Re: The licensing of MS and Office, what a minefield. You apparently have to tie the Office to an MS account to install it. They can't keep things simple huh? I'm strongly leaning to just sticking with Win7 and old Office with new hardware. Thanks for the input everyone.

 

[johntown]

Probably not in your budget but you can get KMS servers and keep everything offline and up to date too.

 

[Irobot82]

My Windows 10 PC will disconnect from my Bluetooth speaker if it's not in use for about a minute. Old builds used to have a power management tab under the Bluetooth tabs in device manager but it has since been removed. Does anyone know how to prevent Windows 10 from disconnecting from Bluetooth devices?