Windows 7 & Office software etc. in Japan

[Magic Knight]

Here's a fairly straightforward (maybe) query I have.

I will probably need to build a new computer, since this one is eight years old and starting to fail now and then. So I could buy Windows 7 Ultimate and switch to English, not sure about Office 2013. I haven't got the patience to read error messages and the like in Japanese.

I'm thinking it would be cheaper and easier for my folks back home to buy this stuff and send it over, do Microsoft make any checks these days when installing that you're in the 'right' country? I'm still using XP and Windows 2000 and they were obviously ok.

What do you gentlemen reckon?

[Greatsaintlouis]

I don't think they do region checks as far as where you're installing the software; just as long as you have a matching product key and disc.

In fact, with the right proxying or whatever, you could probably just buy the English release of Win7 or whatever from Japan and just download the disc without having to worry about your family playing middleman.

Never could figure out if product keys to these newer versions of Windows were region-independent or not; I really ought to see if I can get a straight English disc download for this version of Win8 that I bought (online) in Japan and see if it takes the product key next time I reinstall.