Sadly my main pc has gone belly up some i am currently struggling with an old netbook.

I have the prospect of a nice modern replacement complete with windows 11 pro.

But w11 will not load my older copies of Office, which I need to use.

I have discovered that there is a version still available that is not pay - as - you go but one time purchase namely office2024.

But I see that some vendors are offrning this for £10 to £30 (allegedly legit) Whilst others are in the £120 to £200 range

So I am asking

Has anyone any experience of either or what is involved ?

6 minutes ago, studiot said:

But w11 will not load my older copies of Office, which I need to use.

1. Install VirtualBox from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

2. Download Kali Live 2025.3 (not 2024.4! Unless you have Torrent software) from http://old.kali.org/kali-images/kali-2025.3/kali-linux-2025.3-live-amd64.iso

3. Create VM with Kali Live 2025.3 ISO. Don't install anything just run Live VM. Install package which will let you have shared folder etc. It is in the VM's menu somewhere.

4. From Kali open web browser.

5. Use Google and search for "Windows 10 ISO". Download it. It may be https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10iso

6. Transfer to your Windows machine.

7. Create VM with Windows 10 ISO. Install it.

Now you can install your older MS Office on VM.

When Microsoft sees you are opening a website to download Windows from Windows, it will open special media creation tool. But if you will open that website from other OS, it will let you download ISO file instead. Such ISO can be used to create VM.

ps. The same you can have with Ubuntu Live or Mint Live.

ps2. The same procedure for older Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 etc.

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by Sensei

1 hour ago, studiot said:

But I see that some vendors are offrning this for £10 to £30 (allegedly legit) Whilst others are in the £120 to £200 range

So I am asking

Has anyone any experience of either or what is involved ?

Regarding this bit, extremely low cost keys (that work) are likely OEM or surplus volume licensing keys that are resold (perhaps there are other sources, too). Technically, they violate the terms of service, as those keys are not supposed to be sold directly to user and could get deactivated. But I don't think it happens very often, unless the reseller is selling the same key multiple times, or perhaps a whole bundle gets somehow flagged.

Did you try Open Office and Libre Office? Maybe they will load your existing projects if they are not too demanding.