Advice Needed MS Office - retrieval of Product Key from the CD?

[jeallen01]

Per the title, here's the story:
- around 2010 I was able to get a full Office 2010 Pro Plus CD & Product Key (I have the original email with from MS with the Key in it!) for peanuts because I worked for a company that had a corporate agreement for employees to get the package for home use.
- Now, if I try to use that Key to reinstall Office on the PC that has been rebuilt after the SSD -coning disaster (separate thread!), it tells me that that key is not valid!

I think that could be related to the company having gone belly-up about 3 yrs ago - and thus the corporate agreement must have lapsed.

However I'm wondering if there is any way the "correct" product key can be retrieved from the CD (as opposed to from an already-installed version) - any ideas?

PS: I suspect that it won't be possible as MS may have invalidated the Key at their end - but I would be very pleased to find out that that is not the case.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

AFAIA the product key is not stored on the CD. Product Keys are usually validated on install by an algorithm that checks whether a key is entered that satisfies a certain check(s) on values of characters entered. This is how key generators work by knowing those values and generating a random key that meets those criteria. Final validation is done by either entering a code given by phone or email or that code being transmitted online that meets a different set of criteria.

 

[WHATAGOAL1]

download kmspico, it will license any microsoft product

 

[william-1]

My trial MS office that came with my new PC is due to run out they wanted £60 to £90 for one years use so I have changed to Libre Office for Free works just as well

 

[Lazarus]

Indeed.

I've been using Libre Office for years, and Open Office before that.

Full featured and wholly compatible with MS Office.


And I've nearly finished my letter!

 

[Topper]

AFAIA the product key is not stored on the CD.

In all versions of MS office I have ever used the key was printed on a paper sticker on the case crystal but no doubt the system is different now, I too use the free versions such as Libre office and WPS office

 

[Analoguesat]

If any of you have kids in education and their establishment uses the Glow learning environment system you can download the full Office monty from the apps panel. I think you can have 3 pukka versions from it. All pre licensed too which is nice

 

[jeallen01]

download kmspico, it will license any microsoft product

Thanks - will suss that out in a bit and see if it works with the existing old 2010 Pro Plus CD.

My trial MS office that came with my new PC is due to run out they wanted £60 to £90 for one years use so I have changed to Libre Office for Free works just as well

I need the actual Office package (although I have Libre Office, some of the package - notably the presentations part and the drawing/publishing part - aren't fully compatible with many of the features in the versions of Office from 2010 onwards, and they are clunky to use by comparison).

Therefore - because I actually prefer Office 2010 over the later versions - I decided to buy another cheap (£6!) 2010 Pro Plus licence off of ebay, downloaded the installer exe (from an MSN sub-site) and installed and updated it last night, and everything seems to be fine

FWIW, I've had no trouble (including virus/malware alerts from the AV package) from the 2x cheap Office 2016 Pro downloads & keys I got 6 months ago for 2 other machines, including the old Dell I'm now using until I get the main Samsung fully back up and running (waiting for a disk caddy to put a 2nd hard-drive into it in place of the DVD drive).

BTW: I'm reading in some of the Amazon & ebay ads and reviews that these Office keys have come from scrapped m/c's on which they were originally installed. One advertiser said the buyer could have the scrapped and useless hard disk for the licence he is selling if that buyer cared to collect it from his selling address - might or might not be "true", but an interesting twist on the situation.

In all versions of MS office I have ever used the key was printed on a paper sticker on the case crystal but no doubt the system is different now, I too use the free versions such as Libre office and WPS office

Ref the key, I do have the original key (by email direct from MS) and CDs (again direct from MS) and that worked for quite a few years, including moving 2010 from this old Dell to the Samsung about 4 years ago - but it appeared to have stopped working sometime after the company, through which I got the programme as a direct download from MS, went belly-up (found that to be the case about a year ago when I tried to install a part of the package that I had not done before , and it gave the same message that the key was not valid.).

 

[jeallen01]

If any of you have kids in education and their establishment uses the Glow learning environment system you can download the full Office monty from the apps panel. I think you can have 3 pukka versions from it. All pre licensed too which is nice

Not an option for us anyway.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Per the title, here's the story:
- around 2010 I was able to get a full Office 2010 Pro Plus CD & Product Key (I have the original email with from MS with the Key in it!) for peanuts because I worked for a company that had a corporate agreement for employees to get the package for home use.
- Now, if I try to use that Key to reinstall Office on the PC that has been rebuilt after the SSD -coning disaster (separate thread!), it tells me that that key is not valid!

I think that could be related to the company having gone belly-up about 3 yrs ago - and thus the corporate agreement must have lapsed.

However I'm wondering if there is any way the "correct" product key can be retrieved from the CD (as opposed to from an already-installed version) - any ideas?

PS: I suspect that it won't be possible as MS may have invalidated the Key at their end - but I would be very pleased to find out that that is not the case.

Have you tried Jellybean to see if a different product key is retained on the hard drive before it got corrupted ? It searches out the o/s as well as other Microsoft programme licenses.

Download Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder - MajorGeeks

 

[jeallen01]

FYI: Finally got around to using a Key Finder called ProduKey (which I think someone here recommended) from this website - so far I've managed to retrieve Win 7 & 10, and Office 2007 & 2010, keys from 4 machines , with 3 more to go. However, I think it has some trouble distinguishing between some of the versions of those OS & Office programmes.

Not yet tried it on the CDs, but, from the way ProduKey works, then I don't think that will be possible as it retrieves keys from "live" installations.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

FYI: Finally got around to using a Key Finder called ProduKey (which I think someone here recommended) from this website - so far I've managed to retrieve Win 7 & 10, and Office 2007 & 2010, keys from 4 machines , with 3 more to go. However, I think it has some trouble distinguishing between some of the versions of those OS & Office programmes.

Not yet tried it on the CDs, but, from the way ProduKey works, then I don't think that will be possible as it retrieves keys from "live" installations.

I am certain you will be wasting your time on the CD - they produce the CDs by the thousands and are not going to individualise each one with a different product key. Also the same CD can be used for multiple installs using different valid keys on multiple machines.

 

[jeallen01]

I am certain you will be wasting your time on the CD - they produce the CDs by the thousands and are not going to individualise each one with a different product key. Also the same CD can be used for multiple installs using different valid keys on multiple machines.

Pretty much my "other" thoughts as well.