Can't Find that Blasted CD Key!

I'm trying to install Office '97 on one of our employees computers (why '97, beats me, evidently there's something special about Access '97 we need, so I'm told). Anyway, as is with any corporate situation where you have more software CDs than you have people to throw them at, the product key for it has been lost.

So, no prob, went to work with Magic Jellybean and got a CD key...that doesn't work! Install program is asking for a 20-digit OEM key, while Jellybean gave me a completely different 11-digit CD key.

Any clue on this one guys?

try all 111111's

what version is it? standard? pro?

Check out this page...

http://www.driverforum.com/other3/3404.html
and

http://pub12.bravenet.com/forum/997299713/show/295780

Or, you can find a machine that already has it installed and use a program called aida32 or belarc advisor.

http://www.webattack.com/get/aida32.shtml

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Those two programs will retreive the CDKEY from the the PC that it is installed on.

Woah, I warped to GCC...I thought CD keys were a form of MS security...ah well. :)

In any case, that worked! All 1's? What's the point in having a CD key verification if that actually works? Silly MS... ;)

Quote:

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Originally posted here by AngelicKnight
I thought CD keys were a form of MS security...ah well. :)

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The old versions of nt4 in the msdn had the following cd key. 3353353356. ;)

Hi Angelic~

Quote:

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In any case, that worked! All 1's? What's the point in having a CD key verification if that actually works? Silly MS..

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I have given that some thought, trying to remember how things were :eek:

I believe that it has something to do with corporate licences and OEM licence keys.

M$ trust their OEM and corporate customers. They realise that to set up an individual key on each machine is a serious cost. If you think about it, a company selling 1,000,000 computers a year and being faced with a $10 cost per machine has taken a serious hit on the bottom line.

These corporate and OEM keys will work...........this is now the problem with XP SP2.............M$ want to restrict it to valid software, but as corporate keys do not require individual activation, they will work with pirate software as well as legitimate product. I guess it is a bit like borrowing someones automobile?

M$ are victims of their own success in a way?..............they sell such vast quantities into both the corporate and domestic markets, that they cannot enforce a really tight registration and usage policy.

I think that Nero have come the closest, in that the OEM version will only work with the particular make/model of CD burner that it was supplied with. I think that is why M$ have been trying to get OEMs to only supply "recovery disks" rather than the full product.

just a thought