Find serial number used

[Diane Ross]

I¹m forwarding this on from a user.

<quote>

We have 23 employees and 24 paid copies of Microsoft office.

I need to install Office for a 24th person, an intern, using our last
license.

But... Given that I've been moving computers around recently and using
Migration Assistant to move users around to different Macs, I've lost track
of which license is free not being used (meaning, I have all of the retail
Microsoft Office boxes and their respective serial #s, but don't know which
one is not being used).

I need to use the correct serial #, or Office gives me an error upon
start-up, because it can sense the same serial # being used on our LAN.

How can I figure out what serial # is used on which machine?

Is there a file I can open on each user machine to identify the number? Is
this a "get info" situation?

Again, we own enough licenses: I just want to be able to use them.
</quote>
--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog
<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[William Smith]

I¹m forwarding this on from a user.

<quote>

We have 23 employees and 24 paid copies of Microsoft office.

I need to install Office for a 24th person, an intern, using our last
license.

But... Given that I've been moving computers around recently and using
Migration Assistant to move users around to different Macs, I've lost track
of which license is free not being used (meaning, I have all of the retail
Microsoft Office boxes and their respective serial #s, but don't know which
one is not being used).

I need to use the correct serial #, or Office gives me an error upon
start-up, because it can sense the same serial # being used on our LAN.

How can I figure out what serial # is used on which machine?

Is there a file I can open on each user machine to identify the number? Is
this a "get info" situation?

Again, we own enough licenses: I just want to be able to use them.
</quote>

You can't reverse the encoding of the Product ID and get the serial
number. I believe someone here mentioned that this may be a one-way hash
only.

Since you'll need to sit down at each machine anyway I would do this:

1. Make a list of which Mac gets which serial number. Just randomly
assign a serial number to each machine until you've associated them all.

2. Use the Remove Office application to -not- remove Office but remove
the licensing information. Have a look at this page on Microsoft's
website for instructions <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917381>.

3. Relaunch any Office application on the machine so that the Setup
Assistant asks you for new licensing information and enter the assigned
key.

Because you have 24 machines what would make this easier would be a
simple AppleScript. Copy the following two lines of code into the Script
Editor application found in /Applications/AppleScript and save as an
application (the first two lines are actually one line separated by a
space):

do shell script "rm /Applications/Microsoft\\ Office\\
2004/Office/OfficePID"

tell application "Microsoft Word" to activate

Put saved script on a thumb drive and visit each machine. You can
probably get them all done in under an hour.

Hope this helps! bill

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Is there a file I can open on each user machine to identify the number? Is
this a "get info" situation?

Bill gave you the solution, so I'll just point out that having such a
file would essentially eliminate any usefulness of the licensing
requirement - all one miscreant would have to do would be to open the
file on someone else's machine, and post the key somewhere, and any one
user on a network could then use it...

I'm not positive the PID file contains a one-way hash of the CD Key, but
if it's reversible, it's not obvious to me how it would be done.

 

[Diane Ross]

Bill gave you the solution, so I'll just point out that having such a
file would essentially eliminate any usefulness of the licensing
requirement - all one miscreant would have to do would be to open the
file on someone else's machine, and post the key somewhere, and any one
user on a network could then use it...

I'm not positive the PID file contains a one-way hash of the CD Key, but
if it's reversible, it's not obvious to me how it would be done.

Thanks Bill and JE. The person asking ³inherited² the mess. I¹m sure they
will appreciate the help.


--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog
<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks Bill and JE. The person asking ³inherited² the mess. I¹m sure they
will appreciate the help.

One thing that *may* be helpful--

When a serial number has been used twice, the product ID will be
identical except for the last five digits. So if you write down all 23
existing Product IDs, then you can install a license, compare the new
product ID against the list, and if the first three number blocks match
any IDs on the existing list, try another license number. Note that by
holding down Option in the Remove Office dialog, you can change license
numbers without re-installing, as in the link Bill provided.

This might be quicker in the short run--as you don't have to sit down at
all the machines--but slower in the long run, as it might need to be
repeated next year.