A couple weeks ago I installed a new, legal copy of Office 2003 (bought on Ebay) on an older pc. The CD’s have the hologram and everything. It’s legal. Without thinking, I went ahead and activated it. I decided the pc just ran too slow with Office 2003. So I removed it and reinstalled my old copy of Office 98.
Tonight, I installed Office 2003 on my brand new pc (Win 7) that I just finished building. It wouldn’t activate. :dubious:
It surprised me because when this activation program started around 2003 Microsoft was checking for pirated codes. The license codes were on the web and literally thousands of folks were using each code to install the software. I didn’t realize Microsoft was now checking for a single activation. That’s pretty extreme.
Anyway, a phone call and a nice automated system gave me a new activation code. I didn’t even have to explain about my earlier install.
Question. If I get a virus or a hard drive failure, will I have to go through this tap dance all over again? Or is the original product code now associated with my hardware? Whatever it is they check. I’d imagine it’s a serial inside the processor or maybe the internal number inside the built-in network port.
Any personal experiences reinstalling? I did save the code the Microsoft system gave me. But, I have no idea if it’s a one time use or not.
To clarify… by tap dance, I mean a manual phone activation.
Life would be easier if I knew the software was now associated with my hardware. So, any reinstall would validate using the standard product ID on the box and through the easy “one click” web activation.
I don’t think the software will be associated with your hardware in any way. The only time this occurs that I have encountered is if you change hardware in a PC it can deactivate Windows as it thinks the hard drive has just been put into a different PC. I have had no trouble in the past activating Office serials more than once, I do it frequently in my job when I format a PC and need to reinstall all the software or when I move programs over to a new PC. Infact I don’t think i’ve ever had a problem activating Office.
I use the same serial at work too. We’re on the Volume Licensing Program. We buy enough licenses for every pc (around 2000). We get a special install disk and a vol licensing key for our campus. The catch is, Microsoft has the right to audit our licenses at any time. So, they try hard to stay legal where I work.
The Office 2003 I installed was a retail edition. The ebay seller guarantees the serial is unused. If he’s lying, Ebay would have suspended his account by now. This seller has a long history with excellent feedback. Buyers would flood ebay with complaints if the key was pirated and didn’t validate.
I was shocked that the software didn’t validate. It validated perfectly two weeks ago on my other pc (it was uninstalled earlier today). I even double checked that I had entered the product key correctly.
Anyhow, the phone activation was pretty painless. Still, I rather not go through it again if I have to reinstall.