I am trying to move files that worked on my old dell laptop to a new HP laptop,
I dragged my files to the HP from my backup hardrive. But I get a message
that I must run my application from it's original location. I don'thave
theoriginal software , since it was pre loaded by dell.
is there any way to transfer my excel and word programs , short of buying
new ones?

OEM copies (preinstalled by the computer manufacturer) of
Microsoft Office cannot be transferred to another computer
according to the terms of the software End User License
Agreement. You'll need to purchase a new copy of Office for your
new computer.

New HP Laptop User wrote:

I am trying to move files that worked on my old dell laptop to a new HP laptop,
I dragged my files to the HP from my backup hardrive. But I get a message
that I must run my application from it's original location. I don'thave
theoriginal software , since it was pre loaded by dell.
is there any way to transfer my excel and word programs , short of buying
new ones?