Vista Does Not Like Being Ignored

From the my previous post you will note I went a solid two weeks on Windows 7 without running Vista on my dual boot laptop. Boy...Vista doesn't necessarily like being ignored. Everything...and I mean everything...made a mad rush for the internet connection when Vista came to life. NOD32, Windows Update, Windows Defender and several assorted product update checkers just about pounded my laptop into submission. I just walked away from it for 30 minutes to let it come to terms with being brought to life again. It was fine when I came back excepts for the 7 updates that wanted to be installed on shutdown. It might be worth my while to spin Vista up a little more frequently.

Finally had to boot up Vista today

So my I had a solid two weeks on Windows 7 without needing Vista or even a reboot for that matter...until today. Never fear, Windows 7 has been running very well but I got punched between the eyes with some Word documents I needed to open. I only have Office installed on the Vista side of the house. So here's the questions:
(a) Will my single user license of Office 2007 set off the alarms in Redmond if I try to install it in Windows 7 without uninstalling in Vista?
(b) Maybe I should just try live with Google Docs or perhaps OpenOffice?

Any other ideas out there.