Office 2003 Pro - No Activation Wizard :-(

[Geoff]

Firstly, I purchased a new computer for my wife as she uses it at home to do
work.

The computer came prebundled with a version of Office 2003 (standard version).
We assumed this was included software with the PC, but apparently, it was a
"trial" version that after 30 days crippled itself. When I contacted the
manufacturer, they explained the rather large cost of purchasing the software
as extra.

However, my wife works at a very large company (The UK's National Health
Service) and they have purchased a "Home Use" license.
This involved purchasing Office 2003 professional at a significantly reduced
price. I purchased this directly through Microsoft and it involved giving all
details and a special code from her place of work.

When the software arrived, I uninstalled the standard (crippled) version and
installed the new Professional version using the new Product code.
Office worked fine, although I was never offered a chance to register or
activate.

It is now 30 days later and the software has crippled itself again. When I
click "Activate Product", no wizard starts up, no egg-timer, nothing. So I am
unable to activate.

Can anyone suggest anything I can do. My wife is at home on a fortnight's
leave from work and needs to get a huge amount done, but is unable to do so.
Is there anyway to run Microsofts "Activation Wizard" without using the "Help
-> Activate Product" from within Office applications as this does nothing. No
Wizard appears at all, nor does a box saying if we are activated or not.
Clearly we are not.

Thank you for any help.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=823527 "Activation Wizard does
not start in Office 2003".

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=823527 "Activation Wizard does
not start in Office 2003".

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

It might have worked if you had actually followed the instructions. You
were supposed to delete Opa11.dat. But where did you find instructions
to delete Opa11.bak? No, this is not a rhetorical question. The
current iteration of KB823527 doesn't say anything about deleting
Opa11.bak (and not that you would know, but the previous iteration
specifically said NOT to delete it). If Opa11.bak is still in the
Recycle Bin, restore it and see if that helps.

Other ideas:
1) If you use a pop-up blocking program, it might prevent the Office
activation dialog box from appearing, so try turning it off temporarily
if you have one. Some antivirus "security suite" programs also include
pop-up blockers, so try turning off your antivirus software temporarily.
2) Otherwise, I would try uninstalling Office (Start | Control Panel |
Add or Remove Programs) and then reinstalling Office from the original
CD. You haven't used the Home Use product key to activate yet, so it
should still be valid. Use it wisely though, because the Home Use
product key is good for only one activation as far as I know.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

It might have worked if you had actually followed the instructions. You
were supposed to delete Opa11.dat. But where did you find instructions
to delete Opa11.bak? No, this is not a rhetorical question. The
current iteration of KB823527 doesn't say anything about deleting
Opa11.bak (and not that you would know, but the previous iteration
specifically said NOT to delete it). If Opa11.bak is still in the
Recycle Bin, restore it and see if that helps.

Other ideas:
1) If you use a pop-up blocking program, it might prevent the Office
activation dialog box from appearing, so try turning it off temporarily
if you have one. Some antivirus "security suite" programs also include
pop-up blockers, so try turning off your antivirus software temporarily.
2) Otherwise, I would try uninstalling Office (Start | Control Panel |
Add or Remove Programs) and then reinstalling Office from the original
CD. You haven't used the Home Use product key to activate yet, so it
should still be valid. Use it wisely though, because the Home Use
product key is good for only one activation as far as I know.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

How were you able to "unring the bell" so to speak and "tried again,
removing only the .dat file and leaving the .bak file alone"? Are you
sure you uninstalled the trial version *before* you installed the home
use version? If you click on Start | Control Panel | Add or Remove
Programs, what Microsoft Office products do you see in the list of
installed programs, and is Office 2003 listed more than once? Problems
usually occur when people try to install a full version of Office 2003

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

How were you able to "unring the bell" so to speak and "tried again,
removing only the .dat file and leaving the .bak file alone"? Are you
sure you uninstalled the trial version *before* you installed the home
use version? If you click on Start | Control Panel | Add or Remove
Programs, what Microsoft Office products do you see in the list of
installed programs, and is Office 2003 listed more than once? Problems
usually occur when people try to install a full version of Office 2003

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

I forgot to mention that you should be logged in to Windows as
administrator (not a limited user) when you're doing all of this. You
are, right?

As far as I know, there isn't a registry entry that does what you
suggest. But there could be a problem with leftover registry entries
from the trial version. Below are instructions originally posted by
Leon Hao from Microsoft to manually remove and then reinstall Office
2003. Follow them EXACTLY... no ad-libbing allowed... except that I
would make sure the Opa11.dat file is deleted before you perform step 11.

1. Quit all running programs.

2. Download and install the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/9/D/E9D80355-7AB4-45B8-80E8-983A48D5E1BD/msicuu2.exe

3. After you have installed the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility, click
Start>All Programs>Windows Install Clean Up.

4. Highlight Microsoft Office 2003 entry in the list and then click
Remove. Click OK and wait for the process to end. If any other stand alone
Office applications (such as Visio and Project) appear on the list, please
also remove them. Then, click Exit to close the Windows Installer Cleanup
utility.

5. Click Start>Run, type "regedit" (without the quotation marks) in the
Open box and press Enter.

6. Locate the registry keys below and click Delete from the Edit menu.
Click OK on the following warning dialog box.

Note: Please go to File>Export and backup all the registry first.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office

Quit Registry Editor.

7. Delete or rename the following folders or files if they exist:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE11
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Publisher
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Templates\Normal.dot
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\Microsoft\Word
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Office
C:\Program Files\OfficeUpdate11

8. Click Start>Run, type "%Temp%" (without the quotation marks) in the
Open box and press Enter. Delete all the files and folders within it. If
there are some files which cannot be deleted, just leave them alone and
this will not affect the result.

9. Empty the Recycle Bin.

10. To remove MAPI, search for and rename the following folders/files if
they exist:

C:\Windows\system32\mapi32.dll
C:\Windows\system32\mapisvc.inf
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Msmapi
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi

11. Restart your computer and install Office 2003 again.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

I forgot to mention that you should be logged in to Windows as
administrator (not a limited user) when you're doing all of this. You
are, right?

As far as I know, there isn't a registry entry that does what you
suggest. But there could be a problem with leftover registry entries
from the trial version. Below are instructions originally posted by
Leon Hao from Microsoft to manually remove and then reinstall Office
2003. Follow them EXACTLY... no ad-libbing allowed... except that I
would make sure the Opa11.dat file is deleted before you perform step 11.

1. Quit all running programs.

2. Download and install the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/9/D/E9D80355-7AB4-45B8-80E8-983A48D5E1BD/msicuu2.exe

3. After you have installed the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility, click
Start>All Programs>Windows Install Clean Up.

4. Highlight Microsoft Office 2003 entry in the list and then click
Remove. Click OK and wait for the process to end. If any other stand alone
Office applications (such as Visio and Project) appear on the list, please
also remove them. Then, click Exit to close the Windows Installer Cleanup
utility.

5. Click Start>Run, type "regedit" (without the quotation marks) in the
Open box and press Enter.

6. Locate the registry keys below and click Delete from the Edit menu.
Click OK on the following warning dialog box.

Note: Please go to File>Export and backup all the registry first.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office

Quit Registry Editor.

7. Delete or rename the following folders or files if they exist:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE11
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Publisher
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Templates\Normal.dot
C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\Microsoft\Word
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Office
C:\Program Files\OfficeUpdate11

8. Click Start>Run, type "%Temp%" (without the quotation marks) in the
Open box and press Enter. Delete all the files and folders within it. If
there are some files which cannot be deleted, just leave them alone and
this will not affect the result.

9. Empty the Recycle Bin.

10. To remove MAPI, search for and rename the following folders/files if
they exist:

C:\Windows\system32\mapi32.dll
C:\Windows\system32\mapisvc.inf
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Msmapi
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi

11. Restart your computer and install Office 2003 again.

 

[Geoff]

My sincere thanks.
The instructions below caused the Activation Wizard to run as soon as I
started my first Office application after the final step of re-installing.

Office Professional 2003 is now Activated on my PC.

Again, many many thanks for your time, effort and patience on this.

 

[Geoff]

My sincere thanks.
The instructions below caused the Activation Wizard to run as soon as I
started my first Office application after the final step of re-installing.

Office Professional 2003 is now Activated on my PC.

Again, many many thanks for your time, effort and patience on this.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

Great news! Thanks for writing back to let us know that you were
successful.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

Great news! Thanks for writing back to let us know that you were
successful.