Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Wrong Office 2007 Key

Have you ever used the wrong Office 2007 key and find out you can't activate your installation?

Never fear, Lancelhoff has the answer (and a few others as well), but I thought I'd add myself to the mix.

To change the Office 2007 Product Key:

1. Click Start -> Run
2. Type regedit and click OK
3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration
Under Registration, there is subkey that is like: {91120000-0030-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}
4. Under Registration, you might find several subkeys that contain a combination of alphanumeric characters. Each key is specific to a program installed on your computer.
Open each subkey to view and identify the Office product version by the ProductName registry entry in the right pane. For example: ProductName=Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
5. Once you have the subkey that contains the Office product you wish to update the license key for, delete the following registry entries
DigitalProductID
ProductID
6. Close regedit
7. Start Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook or another Office application, you should now be prompted to enter a new product key.
8. Enter your new Office product key, and click OK
9. If prompted to choose your preferred type of Microsoft Office 2007 installation, select Install Now
10. Microsoft Office 2007 should now have your new CD key

And in doing this I was successful in activating Office and all was right in the world once more.

UPDATE: Should the install be on a 64-bit system, you can find the keys in question under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\version\Registration

And at least with Office 2010, you can go to Programs and Features, highlight the product and click Change, you'll be presented with Enter a Product Key as a choice.

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