Kevin Germino wants to know if he can reinstall Microsoft Office onto a reformatted hard drive without losing one of the licenses to use it.

I checked with a Microsoft contact (that's one of the perks of my job, and it's a lot easier than trying to decipher an End User Licensing Agreement). The answer is yes. You're allowed to move a license (how many licenses you have depends on your version of Office) from one computer to another. You can also reinstall it onto the same computer.

Should the activation wizard refuse to reactivate, call the 800 number displayed on your screen. A customer service representative will fix the problem for you.

If you're really scared, uninstall Office before reformatting your drive. Or, if you're moving it to a new computer, uninstall it on the old before you activate it on the new.

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