MS Office 2007 Product Key

[stevlina]

Microsoft Office 2007 came free with my laptop and it asks for a product key? I have Windows Vista Basic with a e machines laptop. When i went to get on Microsoft Office 2007, it asked for a product key when it was already up there without a disc. What is the product key? Plz n thank u.

Split from the tutorial, moved to beginners. (TheGurkha, Moderator).

[TheGurkha]

This is the OpenOffice.org forum, not the Microsoft Office forum.

You should post your question here Microsoft Office Forums.

[keme]

Microsoft Office 2007 came free with my laptop and it asks for a product key? I have Windows Vista Basic with a e machines laptop. When i went to get on Microsoft Office 2007, it asked for a product key when it was already up there without a disc. What is the product key? Plz n thank u.

Split from the tutorial, moved to beginners. (TheGurkha, Moderator).

If your laptop is like most laptops these days, MS Office trial came "free" preinstalled. It's also free to download, and in most cases it works for 60 days before it's locked. (In the trial period you can bypass the product key dialog. When expired, bypassing the dialog gives a locked down interface.) That's enough time to do quite a lot of work, which you then lose access to (more or less) when MS Office is locked. "The" solution to gain access to your files after that is to buy a user license for MS Office. The other solution is to install OpenOffice.org. ("OOo")

If you were told at purchase time that MS Office 2007 was part of the package, for the sake of principle you could go back to the store and request that product key. For most practical purposes, though, installing OOo will cover your needs, is less trouble to acquire, and has a more familiar user interface (more "traditional", so unless you really like the 2007 "ribbons", you'll feel right at home with it at once).

Security software apps (antivirus, mostly) have been marketed by this scheme for years. Even so, I think that using it for application software is a bit less ethical, even if you get that product key prompt every time. That opinion is based on the fact that not only functionality of the licensed product is taken away, but also access to your own intellectual product, which is independent of the tool. While technically there is a possibility to regain access, there is no info about that enclosed with the trial software.