I hate Microsoft - but maybe you can help

[lord of the mark]

Ok.

MAYBE MS can be redeemed.

Read carefully.

So we've got these two recently purchased PCs.

Both came with Trial versions of MS Office, Standard Edition. On the desktop we activated it, and it worked. On the laptop we lost the product key, and did not activate it.

Meanwhile, QOTM found, packed away, a copy of MS Office, Professional Edition, that she had won as a door prize (or something) at a computer retailer (i think). We installed that on the Desktop, it works. I tried installing it on the laptop(my understanding is we can legally install on 2 machines). It only wanted to install "changes" (in retrospect, since MS Off SE was already there) When POTM tried to run Word, though, it asked for the product key, and wouldnt take the key for our copy of Prof Edition. And the box to fill that in, said "Standard Edition"

Well, ok, so I figure all I have to do is uninstall SE. So i do that. Then I install PE. Using the PE activation key.

Well, when POTM goes to run Word, AGAIN it asks for the SE activation key.


Ok, so I figure I will try customer service at MS. Right? I try the website. Nothing on this particular problem, and to get customer service you email, or call during biz hours. At $49 a shot. BUT, inquiries about installation issues are free. Ok, thats good. So i click to email the problem, and am directed to a site for payment method - either a plan, or by credit card (at $49) and it links to a page to enter credit card info. I cant find a place to email them and tell them I have an installation problem. I could call them, but the line is during business hours, which will mean either calling from work, without the laptop in front of me, or having QOTM or POTM make the call, and Id rather not have to explain everything to them. Esp not QOTM, and POTM has homework to do.

So if any of you have either an answer to the underlying problem, or at least a way to email the problem to MS without paying them $49, it would help to prevent me from considering that ANY MS product is not love at all, but something quite other.

Oh, and meanwhile MS has some "Live" community they want me to register for, to get help from. Ive got more confidence in here, but maybe I will try that anyway.

[Provost Harrison]

$49 a shot? Sheesh, no wonder you hate M$, it sounds criminal to charge that kind of sum for support for a product you have paid for!

[LordShiva]

Try using the activation key that you didn't lose.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
$49 a shot? Sheesh, no wonder you hate M$, it sounds criminal to charge that kind of sum for support for a product you have paid for!

Unless Im misreading the support page.

(note, while QOTM won the copy, we didnt actually pay for it, the retailer did presumably pay the wholesale price, and its a completely legal copy)

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Try using the activation key that you didn't lose.

the activation key for the PE copy DOES NOT WORK. You mean go look for the key for the copy of SE for the desktop? We could try that, I suppose. It still doesnt make sense to me, that we need an SE key, when we have PE installed. Also, since SE was preinstalled, will there not be a conflict of some kind? I mean doesnt the copy of SE pre-installed on the laptop, want only the "right" key for the laptop, or will any SE activation key do?

[Provost Harrison]

Yeah, it is pretty sh*t that they try and con you out of money to sort out a problem that should not exist...

MS

(I am sure Asher will be along soon to defend the Empire of Gates).

[lord of the mark]

LS - note also, the trial on BOTH machines has run out - the SE activation key SHOULDN'T work, should it?

[Jon Miller]

Uninstall everything, reinstall your Pro version.

JM

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
Uninstall everything, reinstall your Pro version.

JM

I assume by "everything" you mean MS office only, and not the whole damn hard drive.

If so, I already did that - I unstalled MS office (or so I I thought - using the install wizard from the MS office PE disk) then I reinstalled MS Office PE. Thats why Im mystified. Perhaps it didnt completely uninstall? I didnt check, as ive never had a problem with software failing to uninstall.

[Jon Miller]

Yeah, it doesn't sound like a complete uninstall. You probably need to get rid of the registry information also.

And I mean just uninstall Office, of course.

JM

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
Yeah, it doesn't sound like a complete uninstall. You probably need to get rid of the registry information also.

And I mean just uninstall Office, of course.

JM

Thanks. One question.

before I try it again (POTM is currently using the laptop) - where would I find the registry info?

[Jon Miller]

In the past I have often used a third party program for that. I think RegEdit.

However, there might be something more current...

JM
(it's the one I remember from Win98 days)

[Kuciwalker]

Regedit isn't a third party program...

[Kuciwalker]

... but yes, that's what you'd use.

[Aeson]

Trials will almost always leave something behind to protect against the trial being installed again with a fresh counter. It can be a simple registry key, but usually they make them as difficult to find/remove as they can. Which should be obvious, given that if you can remove them, they aren't useful. MS, with it's intimate knowlege of the OS, are generally very good in keeping you from finding/removing what they don't want you to remove.

Unless you know exactly what you're doing, it's probably best to not run regedit. I'm not sure what your trial would be leaving behind, or where to find it. Anyways, it might not just be a registry key at work, it could also be a DLL (with the trial code) left behind that PE is using instead of replacing.

The SE key from your other computer is probably your best bet.

You could also try rolling back your system to a system restore point before you installed the PE version, uninstall the SE trial first, and then installing PE. That might fix it if the problem is that PE was using a SE DLL instead of installing it's own. The problem would be that anything else (program or driver installs) you've done since that restore point could stop working.