Product Key help

[Casswilf]

Hello,

 

 

I am just about to dismantle my brand new PC that arrived this morning as I am losing patience!

Before I take that drastic action and have laid down the hammer momentarily...can anyone help?

 

As I say it's all new and I am trying to crack on with some work and open some old docs in word and excel...only to get a pop up EVERY time asking me for a product key... found this the first time on a sticker on the side of the tower...but upon entering it the message said it was incorrect - have checked a squillion times now and I have entered exactly what the sticker is telling me! Even though it said the key was wrong it did open the docs I wanted, let me make changes and so on...but every single time I am having to go through this product key request... whyyyyy!:confused:

 

 

Thank you!!

Casswilf

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Is it asking for the operating system product key or the MS Office product key?

 

You make no mention that Office is installed.

[Casswilf]

oops sorry - it is the MS office product key... every time I want to open MS word or excel or call up an old doc in word or excel I get the same prompt .. the PC seems to have all the MS products installed...

[Guest Wolfeymole]

What version of Office do you have on now and is this box custom made or shop bought?

[Casswilf]

It's MS 2007 and it's shop bought - not been tampered with!

 

It's an HP DX2400 Business Desktop, Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8GHz, 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD, DVD Supermulti Lightscribe, Office Ready (Trial), Vista Business Downgraded To XP Pro

 

:-)

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Ok so if it's shop bought then the product key will be on the Office 2007 packaging Casswilf, just enter that.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Can I just ask also why you downgraded a brand new pc with Vista Business on it back to XP and how did you do this exactly?

[Casswilf]

okay - I found the product key - on a sticker on the side of the tower - but the pop up says it's incorrect which is my 1st puzzler, plus I wanted to know why I need to enter this number every single time I open up MS word/excel or indeed open up an old doc I created pre this computer... seems a bit odd I need to go through this process each time?

 

The computer just came this way - XP pro all set to go with discs for business vista.... is that not how it should be? I went with one of the choices provided by a helpful member on a previous thread here.

 

I've never had a new one before so not sure about what comes as standard or anything... sighhh

 

Thanks

[Tootech]

Taken from your spec:

 

Office Ready (Trial)

 

I think that you have a Trial of Office 2007.

 

Normally a licence for Office 2007 will come

 

1) In a pack with a CD and COA/CD Key

2) As a Microsoft Office 2007 booklet with a plastic COA card and CD key

3) As a Microsoft Office 2007 medialess licence, which is a DVD style case and COA/CD key affixed.

 

If you don't have any of those or a COA stuck on the side of the PC specifically saying Office 2007, then its a trial only.

[Casswilf]

a-ha - of course, the free trial. What an idiot - thanks.

 

Sooo in my little collection of CD's I have one saying "MS windows XP Pro service pack 2" If I download that then will I be able to create/open docs and spreadsheets without all this hassle do you think?!

 

Thank you

[Tootech]

"MS windows XP Pro service pack 2"

I'm afraid not :(

 

Please don't use that CD on your new computer.

 

You can buy Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student, which includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Onenote, have a look here

 

MS Office 2007 Home & Student OEM - 1 User - Ebuyer

 

Or, you can download and install Open Office, which is free and works incredibly well, get it from here

 

OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

 

Or, if you just want to view the documents you have already created, you can download the viewers from here

 

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/downloads/HA010449811033.aspx

[Casswilf]

Thanks for your help :)

 

I downloaded Open Office yesterday as I used that before I had this new machine and like it...however nothing I open or create seems to go through OO, I'm always taken to this trial of 2007 and bypass it until I can open the docs/create them... how can I avoid all this coming up and get stuck back into lovely Open Office?!

 

I don't like all this change! Bring back the carrier pigeon :-)

 

Thanks

[RandyL]

Right click the file you want to open and select "Open With".

 

Select Open Office and also put a check in the box to always use this program to open these type of files.

[Tootech]

I see what you are saying.

 

The best way to deal with it is uninstall OpenOffice.

 

Reboot

 

Uninstall ALL of the Microsoft Office 2007 Trial suite.

 

Reboot

 

Reinstall OpenOffice, that will make sure your docs open with OpenOffice.

 

A couple of other points that come to mind.

 

If you have created docs in Office 2007, they are not readable by OO. Before you uninstall Office, open all your docs one by one, and resave them as Office97/2000/2003 format. That way OO can read them and you don't have to redo any work you have created.

 

The other thing is when using OO, if you want to transfer any of the docs you create to other people to open you ought to save them as Microsoft Office format rather than OO format. There is a setting for default file types that you can change.

 

If you can't find it, come back. I don't have OO to hand right now, but if you need more help on that come back and some one else will be able to look for you.

[Tootech]

Someone just did..

 

Nice one Randy :)

[Casswilf]

Thank you - almost there - but when I do that I get a pop up asking me to filter the selection from a large list...no matter which Open Office one I choose I get another pop up saying "general error"

 

:confused:

[Casswilf]

Sorry - my last mail crossed over - I shall go through the uninstall/reboot process now - thanks guys!

[RandyL]

Cass read Tootechs post carefully.

 

If you saved any files in the 2007 format Do not uninstall Microsoft Office until you save them in an earler format first.

 

OO can not read 2007 files as Tootech noted.

[Casswilf]

Right - that seems to have all gone well (famous last words eh)

Can I just ask to be doubly sure on something?

If I use Open office and want to save a file so I can send it on to someone who doesn't use it, how do I do this properly? Just pop.doc or.xls at the end and then they can open ok?

 

Thanks

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Find out what they are using first, because if they are on Office 2007 the file extension is different once more.