Many times you might want to change the product key of Office suite installed in your system. It might be because your product key expired and you got a new one or it might be because you installed Office using pirated key and now you want to change the product key with a genuine one.
To change the product key you’ll have to uninstall the Office suite from your system and then reinstall it.
But here is a small and simple tutorial which will help you in changing the product key without uninstalling the Office.
1. Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Registration
2. Under “Registration” key, you’ll see one or more GUID (Globally Unique IDentifiers) containing a combination of alphanumeric characters in following format:
{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
3. Select each key and look at “ProductName” key in right-side pane. One GUID key will contain the version number of Office installed in your system “Microsoft Office XP Professional Edition”.
4. Select that GUID key and delete following 2 registry entries from right-side pane:
DigitalProductID
ProductID
5. Close registry editor and run any Office application e.g. word, excel, etc. It should prompt you to enter a new product key.
6. Enter the desired product key and click on OK. That’s it.
1. Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Registration
2. Under “Registration” key, you’ll see one or more GUID (Globally Unique IDentifiers) containing a combination of alphanumeric characters in following format:
{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
3. Select each key and look at “ProductName” key in right-side pane. One GUID key will contain the version number of Office installed in your system e.g. “Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003″.
4. Select that GUID key and delete following 2 registry entries from right-side pane:
DigitalProductID
ProductID
5. Close registry editor and run any Office application e.g. word, excel, etc. It should prompt you to enter a new product key.
6. Enter the desired product key and click on OK. That’s it.
1. Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration
2. Under “Registration” key, you’ll see one or more GUID (Globally Unique IDentifiers) containing a combination of alphanumeric characters in following format:
{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
3. Select each key and look at “ProductName” key in right-side pane. One GUID key will contain the version number of Office installed in your system “Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2007″.
4. Select that GUID key and delete following 2 registry entries from right-side pane:
DigitalProductID
ProductID
5. Close registry editor and run any Office application e.g. word, excel, etc. It should prompt you to enter a new product key.
6. Enter the desired product key and click on OK. That’s it.
A. Take a backup of “Registration” key before deleting the registry entries from right-side pane, so that in case the new product key doesnt work you can restore the previous key without any problem. To take backup right-click on “Registration” key and select “Export“.
B. If you are a x64 bit Windows user, then the key location will be different in registry. Please check following paths:
Office XP:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\10.0
Office 2003:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\11.0
Office 2007:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\12.0
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Jorge said:
You are great VG
Thanks a million for this gr8 tut
Stev said:
Is it legal to so so like that ?
VG said:
^^ of course it is. You are allowed to change product keys of any software you purchase. It might be because you purchased a new license key and now you want to change the existing expired key.
Stev said:
Okay, thank you—
Hanley said:
Hi, I tried this with the 11.0 and then re-enetered the two 2003 product keys that I have and they still won’t work. I thought by deleting what you told us to delete would allow me to utilize at least one of these product keys but nada. I really need an Office 2003 product key pronto. Any suggestions?
Hanley
VG said:
^^ Using the above hack, you’ll only be able to use the keys which work while you do a fresh installation of Office. You can’t use non-working keys using this hack.
Saran said:
I am try to install MS-Office 2003, asks the product key. how to install without give product key. How to break it?
VG said:
^^ To automate inserting of product key, you can check following tutorial:
http://www.askvg.com/auto-insert-product-key-during-office-installation/