How do I get a 25 character key when installing Office97 on Vista

Do you still have access to that old machine? If you do and open any Office
program, does the id under Help-About show OEM in the ID?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact.
ALWAYS post your Outlook version.
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


After furious head scratching, dereks asked:

| Yes I did unistall the trial version of Office that came
| pre-installed on the new machine before I started the install of my
| Office components.
|
| Sorry, I don't understand your suggestion about entering a 10 digit
| product key multiple times. My Office97 CD has an 11 digit product
| key XXXX-XXXXXXX on the case which was accepted on my old machine
| running Windows XP. How do I get the 10 digit key you mention and
| how do I enter that when Vista is prompting me for a 25 digit key?
|
| Thanks for the link - I will also try that.
|
| "JoAnn Paules" wrote:
|
|| Did you uninstall all versions of Office before you tried installing
|| Office 97?
||
|| I found the following, don't know if it will help tho.
||
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/produc...ffice97key.htm
||
|| I've also heard that Office 97 had a 10 digit product key and that
|| you can try entering the same digit all ten times.
||
|| --
||
|| JoAnn Paules
|| MVP Microsoft [Publisher]
|| Tech Editor for "Microsoft Publisher 2007 For Dummies"
||
||
||
|| "dereks" wrote in message
|| ...
||| When installing Office 97 on my new computer running Vista Home
||| editition I
||| am prompted for a 25 character product key. The key I have on the
||| CD case is
||| only 11 characters XXXX-XXXXXXX. When I start installation I am
||| also given a
||| 20 character Product ID Number XXXXX-XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX. in a
||| pop-up. If I do
||| not enter a key I am told I can only use the software 25 more
||| times!!
|||
||| When I then install my Office 2003 and Outlook 2007 upgrades these
||| seem to load up OK and I have 25 characyer keys for both these
||| products but I am concerned the whole thing may stop working once I
||| use Office 25 times.

You dont have to install a qualifying vesion in order to install an upgrade
version, you simply need the qualifying version cd available to point to
when your upgrade instalation complains about no qualifying version
(swap cd's authentiacate, re swap and continue)

"dereks" wrote in message
...
Thanks very much for your help, this did the trick but I had to re-install
all the components of Office97 for the Office 2003 Update to work.

I had uninstalled the Trial Office2007 software from the new machine but I
must have done this AFTER I initially tried to install my Office97 and
2003
Upgrade rather than BEFORE.

Thanks again - great service!

"LVTravel" wrote:



"dereks" wrote in message
...
When installing Office 97 on my new computer running Vista Home
editition
I
am prompted for a 25 character product key. The key I have on the CD
case
is
only 11 characters XXXX-XXXXXXX. When I start installation I am also
given a
20 character Product ID Number XXXXX-XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX. in a pop-up. If
I
do
not enter a key I am told I can only use the software 25 more times!!

When I then install my Office 2003 and Outlook 2007 upgrades these seem
to
load up OK and I have 25 characyer keys for both these products but I
am
concerned the whole thing may stop working once I use Office 25 times.

Office 97 is not supported on Vista. I have attempted to install on two
different systems and have had issues with brand new systems.

You must first uninstall any and all previously installed Office
versions.
Control Panel, Programs and features is where you need to go to ensure
there
are no office programs or activation wizards are installed. Uninstall
the
newest version first and work backward. Once all uninstalled reboot the
computer. When you start the installation for 97 make sure you do a
custom
install and only install Access. The key for Office 97 is exactly 4
characters and then 7 characters (all numbers) that you get from your
label
on the disk. If you are getting a request for a 25 character key you
apparently have a trial version of Office installed already or you have
installed a newer product already.

Let us know if this helps.

"dereks" wrote in message
...
Thanks very much for your help, this did the trick but I had to re-install
all the components of Office97 for the Office 2003 Update to work.

I had uninstalled the Trial Office2007 software from the new machine but I
must have done this AFTER I initially tried to install my Office97 and
2003
Upgrade rather than BEFORE.

Thanks again - great service!

"LVTravel" wrote:



"dereks" wrote in message
...
When installing Office 97 on my new computer running Vista Home
editition
I
am prompted for a 25 character product key. The key I have on the CD
case
is
only 11 characters XXXX-XXXXXXX. When I start installation I am also
given a
20 character Product ID Number XXXXX-XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX. in a pop-up. If
I
do
not enter a key I am told I can only use the software 25 more times!!

When I then install my Office 2003 and Outlook 2007 upgrades these seem
to
load up OK and I have 25 characyer keys for both these products but I
am
concerned the whole thing may stop working once I use Office 25 times.

Office 97 is not supported on Vista. I have attempted to install on two
different systems and have had issues with brand new systems.

You must first uninstall any and all previously installed Office
versions.
Control Panel, Programs and features is where you need to go to ensure
there
are no office programs or activation wizards are installed. Uninstall
the
newest version first and work backward. Once all uninstalled reboot the
computer. When you start the installation for 97 make sure you do a
custom
install and only install Access. The key for Office 97 is exactly 4
characters and then 7 characters (all numbers) that you get from your
label
on the disk. If you are getting a request for a 25 character key you
apparently have a trial version of Office installed already or you have
installed a newer product already.

Let us know if this helps.



Glad you got it working.