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
This article was posted in Microsoft Office, Troubleshooting.
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Jorge
You are great VG
Thanks a million for this gr8 tut
Stev
Is it legal to so so like that ?
VG
^^ 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
Okay, thank you---
Hanley
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
^^ 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
I am try to install MS-Office 2003, asks the product key. how to install without give product key. How to break it?
VG
^^ To automate inserting of product key, you can check following tutorial:
http://www.askvg.com/auto-insert-product-key-during-office-installation/
Doug
hi. this works great on my 2003 version, but i dont know how to get it on ms office 2007 using vista 64. any suggestions?
Mara
I have the Microsoft Office 2007 but it is the trial version for my online class. Now it has expired, what can I do I by-pass it. It asks to convert to the full version. Is there any way you can help me?I tried the option you gave but it still didn't work. After all of that, I just added any letter and number to the product key but it wasn't successful. Can you please help me?