Moving MS Office

August 13, 2007 3:40 AM

I'm trying to move MS Office Pro. 2003 to a new computer, but I'm having trouble. I've lost the certificate and CD, but can extract the product key...

However, I'm not sure how to get the media associated with the install. I used Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder v1.51 to extract the original Product Key (CD Key), and I got a hold of an Office 2003 Professional install CD (Promo version?). However, when I run setup it immediately rejects the CD Key. I tried copying the CD to my hard drive, and slipstreaming SP2 on top of it, but it still wont install with the product key I have.

For the office install on the old machine:

Product version is 11.0.7969.0 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\ProductVersion

Builds in Help About:
InfoPath 11.6565.8132
Outlook 11.8118.8132
Access 11.6566.8132
Word 11.6568.8132
Publisher 11.8103.8132
Excel 11.8120.8132
PowerPoint 11.6564.8132

I own both machines, and am migrating because the old one is failing. I think I accidentally threw away the wrong package of CDs and Documents when I got rid of one of my old computers.

If I don't have the COA, are they going to ask me for something on it when I try to reactivate?

posted by BrotherCaine to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: I have never seen or even heard of this being done, but after reading this article, from what I understand, you can move the full Office installation source from one disk to another.

The first paragraph reads:

When you deploy Microsoft® Office 2003 from the CD or from a compressed CD image on the network, Setup creates a local installation source in a hidden folder on each user’s computer. Windows Installer uses the local installation source to install Office, and the local installation source remains available so users can repair Office, install new features, and apply patches without being prompted for a CD.

Further down:

Using the Local Installation Source Tool, administrators can:

* Move the local installation source to a different drive.

With any luck, after you move the installation source to the new drive, you can launch setup.msi and start this install. Whether or not the install will ask you for information you don't have, I have no clue. I would really be surprised if you got far enough to be prompted for that information.

Another option, if you are going to leave it on this rig, is to image the failing drive with something like Acronis True Image, and then apply the image to a new drive. Probably wouldn't work if you were putting it on another rig due to hardware and drivers.
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 4:22 AM on August 13, 2007

Response by poster: I just realized I didn't slipstream correctly, and that I can't create an admin image to do the slipstream without a "valid" product key :(.

I'm working on the local install source, but I don't think it installed one.
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:16 AM on August 13, 2007

>I got a hold of an Office 2003 Professional install CD (Promo version?)

That's not the right disk. You can probably download a disc image from bitorrent somewhere or order a new one from MS/OEM.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:40 AM on August 13, 2007

Almost forgot. There's a chance that the activation will fail. If so just call the phone number and explain to microsoft what happened. 99% of the time they will allow you to activate it.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:43 AM on August 13, 2007

Response by poster: I gave up and wound up using another machine to rescue my outlook mail archives. Also, I now use OpenOffice.
posted by BrotherCaine at 8:00 PM on October 10, 2007