New PC (XP Pro) and Office 97 query

[ipsg.glf]

A friend is currently running Win98 with Office97 (Professional Edition) and using AOL dialup.

She needs a new PC. Dell is only shipping stuff with Vista and I don't think that is a good idea given its only been released recently. She needs XP Professional.

Can anyone recommend a qood quality supplier who will still ship with XP Pro? Ideally she wants a warranty of some kind (maybe evern 3 years on-site)

Also, she currently has MS Office97 Professional Edition installed on her Win98 PC. I have the Product ID (format XXXXX-XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX) from the Help page - Is this the actual license key? Unfortunately, she no longer has the install CD or the licence key available.

Or is the real license key hidden within the registry? How do I find it on a Win98 box?

Many thanks

[rsvmilly]

That looks like too many figures for an Office 97 serial no. Mine is xxxx-xxxxxxx

Incidentally, I've tried putting O97 on an XP machine and it didn't like it!

[spitfire-ian]

rsvmilly said:

I've tried putting O97 on an XP machine and it didn't like it!

I've had no problems with that on the occasions I've had to put Office 97 on an XP machine.

[tigger1]

rsvmilly said:

That looks like too many figures for an Office 97 serial no. Mine is xxxx-xxxxxxx

Incidentally, I've tried putting O97 on an XP machine and it didn't like it!

I'll check on product key (althougha quick google would tell you)- but I've installed win97 on an XP machine with no problems. It's like lightening if all you want to do is tye the odd letter. Looks a bit dated, but fine for most people.

[SneakyNeil]

O97 install keys are very simple, but you'd still need a CD or floppies to install it

Alternatively, www.openoffice.org

I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid Vista BTW - it will be a slight learning experience yes, but it does basically work.

[jamieboy]

If she has lost the key, and if Office 97 does everything she needs, then maybe try OpenOffice?

And I don't expect this to be popular, but there's no real reason to be scared of Vista. It works exactly as well as XP on all my boxes.

Edited by jamieboy on Tuesday 20th February 09:58

[JonRB]

Did you know that the old xxx-xxxxxxx licence keys had a gaping flaw in them? On most products the key 121-1234121 was accepted as valid.

There were a few others like this as well, but I can't remember them.

Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 20th February 10:05

[BliarOut]

JonRB said:

Did you know that the old xxx-xxxxxxx licence keys had a gaping flaw in them? On most products the key 121-1234121 was accepted as valid.

There were a few others like this as well, but I can't remember them.

Well I never knew that...

Open Office is fine and probably a lot better than 97 TBH.

[tigger1]

JonRB said:

Did you know that the old xxx-xxxxxxx licence keys had a gaping flaw in them? On most products the key 121-1234121 was accepted as valid.

There were a few others like this as well, but I can't remember them.

Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 20th February 10:05

1234/1234567 used to work, I think - although that seems to be one more digit that you have.

[rsvmilly]

SneakyNeil said:

O97 install keys are very simple, but you'd still need a CD or floppies to install it

Alternatively, www.openoffice.org

I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid Vista BTW - it will be a slight learning experience yes, but it does basically work.

Thanks for the link to Open Office. Just what I needed

[JonRB]

tigger1 said:

1234/1234567 used to work, I think - although that seems to be one more digit that you have.

Maybe it was that then - we're going back a long way here.

I'm pretty sure there was a 121 in there somewere though. Maybe it was 1231-1234121. I dunno. The point was that there were a number of "magic keys" like this that meant that you seldom bothered typing in the correct licence key even though you had one.

[aideen]

ipsg.glf said:

Also, she currently has MS Office97 Professional Edition installed on her Win98 PC. I have the Product ID (format XXXXX-XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX) from the Help page - Is this the actual license key?

Sadly, no.

ipsg.glf said:

Unfortunately, she no longer has the install CD or the licence key available.

Or is the real license key hidden within the registry? How do I find it on a Win98 box?

Many thanks

Try Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder v1.51 - www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml

It's not always successful with Office license keys - but you could be lucky.

[malman]

Office 97 installer sometimes has two common problems with xp

one is a font problem which there are articles in the knowledge base can't remember the font name but its obvious if you get the problem as it comes up with the .fnt filename in the error.

The other is that if you open a document by clicking its icon rather than using the file open menu it will open it twice with the second copy being read only. This is solved by running

winword /r
msaccess /regserver
excel /regserver

same for powerpoint (/regserver) whatever the .exe is called

[ipsg.glf]

Thanks, folks, for the responses. I'll give the keyfinder thing a go on her current system. If no joy, then I'll just install OpenOffice.

Cheers

[JonRB]

I was just looking at a post by Rich1231 in another thread and his username jogged my memory. I'm sure the magic key I used to use for Office 97 was actually "1231-1234121"

Give it a go and see if it does the trick.

[malman]

wasn't it something like each section of the key had to be divisable by 7????