How do I get my old activation key back?

[Colin Lomas]

I installed Office 2000 a couple of years back but have
just bought a new PC. I've lost the activation key -
anyone know how I can get this back from Microsoft. It's a
valid copy and I have the original disks.
cheers
colin

 

[Michael Bednarek]

I installed Office 2000 a couple of years back but have
just bought a new PC. I've lost the activation key -
anyone know how I can get this back from Microsoft. It's a
valid copy and I have the original disks.

Two tools spring to mind: Keyfinder from
<http://www.magicaljellybean.com/> and Belarc Advisor
<http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html>.

They should tell you your Product Key.

 

[Gary Smith]

Two tools spring to mind: Keyfinder from
<http://www.magicaljellybean.com/> and Belarc Advisor
<http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html>.

They should tell you your Product Key.

Unfortunately, neither of those products work for Office 2000.

 

[John Ski]

Unfortunately, neither of those products work for Office 2000.
Aida32 from www.aida32.hu will IIRC display an Office 2000 key.

HTH,
John
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
***Arthur C. Clarke***

 

[Michael Bednarek]

Unfortunately, neither of those products work for Office 2000.

When I posted, I was under the impression that Keyfinder did, but
checking now I have to admit it doesn't. It says on its web site it
works for Office 97 and Office XP - not for Office 2000 and 2003. My
mistake.

However, I also checked whether Belarc Advisor worked for Office 11
(2003) before I posted, and it did. Consequently, I assumed it would
work with Office 9 (2000) as well. Following your post, I checked and it
did indeed.

 

[Gary Smith]

When I posted, I was under the impression that Keyfinder did, but
checking now I have to admit it doesn't. It says on its web site it
works for Office 97 and Office XP - not for Office 2000 and 2003. My
mistake.

However, I also checked whether Belarc Advisor worked for Office 11
(2003) before I posted, and it did. Consequently, I assumed it would
work with Office 9 (2000) as well. Following your post, I checked and it
did indeed.

No, it does not work. Belarc Advisor reports the product ID, the same
20-digit number displayed by Help > About in any of the office products.
This is not the same as the 25-character product key required to reinstall
the product.

 

[Michael Bednarek]

No, it does not work. Belarc Advisor reports the product ID, the same
20-digit number displayed by Help > About in any of the office products.
This is not the same as the 25-character product key required to reinstall
the product.

This is not my week. You're right, Belarc Advisor doesn't display the
Product Key for Office 2000. However, my first observation still holds:
it does display the Product Key for Office 2003 Professional (which
doesn't help the OP).

My excuse is that a) it displayed an awful lot of Product Keys (MSDN, VB
..Net, NT5.0, NT5.1) so I saw a line that wasn't there; b) I subliminally
assumed that when all these keys, plus the key for Office 11, showed up,
that the key for Office 9 would also be there. Embarassing.

 

[Gary Smith]

This is not my week. You're right, Belarc Advisor doesn't display the
Product Key for Office 2000. However, my first observation still holds:
it does display the Product Key for Office 2003 Professional (which
doesn't help the OP).

My excuse is that a) it displayed an awful lot of Product Keys (MSDN, VB
.Net, NT5.0, NT5.1) so I saw a line that wasn't there; b) I subliminally
assumed that when all these keys, plus the key for Office 11, showed up,
that the key for Office 9 would also be there. Embarassing.

Yeah, it's easy to assume that Office 2000 should work like the others,
but for some reason it doesn't. The people who write the decoding
routines have probably given up, since there are now two newer releases
out there. I have my product key written down in several places,
including on the disk itself.