Microsoft Works Install Problem

Factual Questions
1

I purchased Microsoft Works Suite 2005 and installed it on my computer. My computer crashed and now I am trying to reinstall, but it is not accepting my Product Key, thus I cannot bring up Word. This happened once before and when I called customer support they gave me a new product key and everything was fine. This time however they are telling me that I cannot reinstall it, that it can only be installed on the computer that it was purchased with, and they will not give me a new product key this time. I did not purchase it with my pc, if that is relevant.

Is there something I can say to them when I call that will make them think I should get a new product key? If this is relevant, it does say on the disk, “for distribution with a new pc only.”

PLEASE HELP, I CANNOT AFFORD A NEW COPY.

2

Anyone??

3

If you’re reinstalling on the same hardware, and it’s the hardware that the software (and more importantly, the licenses) came with, then MS should not prevent you installing it again. All you can do is to explain this over and over to them, probably more and more loudly, until they see sense.

If, however, as a result of the crash, you had to substantially change the hardware components of your system (the motherboard, for example), then it’s going to be a bit harder to convince them that it’s the same machine.

4

If all else fails, you can try the free OpenOffice.

5

Are these licenses encoded on the disk, or are you speaking of separate paper licenses?

The software was bought separately, and was originally installed on another computer, and I convinced them to give me a second product key, after which I installed it on a new computer, the one that just crashed. Will they be able to check that I have done this, or can I simply tell them I’m reinstalling it for the second time only, and that I did by the software with the hardware together?

Thanks.

6

The licenses I’m talking about are the notional rights to use the software; if the software was supplied as an OEM bundle with specific hardware, they won’t usually provide the means to activate it on substantially different hardware (because the OEM pricing is structured/discounted to take into account the non-transferrability) - it actually sounds like they might have cut you a bit of slack last time.