Home Use Program for government employees

The Home Use Program is a benefit of Software Assurance, one of Microsoft's Volume Licensing programs. It provides a simple way for government agencies to enable employees to work at home with the same Microsoft products they use at work.

No. Only employees of specific government agencies who are participating in the program are eligible.

Since not all agencies qualify for the program, and not all qualifying agencies choose to participate, Microsoft is unable to specify whether employees of a given agency are eligible. To find out if you are eligible, please contact your agency's software administrator.

The Home Use Program lets eligible employees obtain a licensed copy of select Microsoft Office desktop programs (including Microsoft Office Access, Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office FrontPage, Microsoft Office InfoPath, Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Office OneNote, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Microsoft Office Project Standard, Microsoft Office Publisher, Microsoft Office Visio, and Microsoft Office Word) that they are licensed for at work, to install and use on a home computer.

The Home Use Program version of Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 includes the same applications available to you at work such as Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Office Publisher, and Microsoft Office InfoPath. Additional Microsoft Office applications are available separately.

Your employer can tell you if you are an eligible employee. Qualifying organizations are those with certain Microsoft Volume Licensing agreements (Open License, Select License, Open Value, Select License Software Assurance Membership [SAM], Open Value Companywide Option, and Enterprise Agreement/Enterprise Agreement Subscription) who choose to offer the benefit to their employees.

Participation is simple. Your employer will give you an authorization code that you can use to order the software. Go to the HUP Web site, enter your name and authorization code, choose the software you want, provide credit card billing information, and Microsoft will send your software directly to you.

There is no cost for HUP licenses, however you pay $21.95 U.S. for your software installation media. Shipping and handling is included.

Payments are made by credit card over the secure Web site.

You can order your Home Use Program software through the HUP Web site with the authorization code provided to you by your employer and the software (on CDs) will be mailed to your home.

You need to have your complete billing and shipping address, your phone number, a work e-mail address where we may contact you about your order, and credit card information. After initially entering your authorization information, a secure link will be e-mailed to the address you specify. This link will enable you to continue with the ordering process.

Download the complete HUP Frequently Asked Questions and visit the Software Assurance Web site.