Software

Ask something
Question Locked

Recovering OEM Word

0 helpful
3 replies

by hillelana 1 view

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
When handed a non-booting computer with a hard drive that fails the Bios's hard drive tests, what can i do to recover the product keys for the OEM Microsoft Office? When I reload Windows on a new hard drive I would like to also reload Office. The owner doesn't have the key.

3 replies

by thechas

There is an old Tech Republic article, 200 Ways to Revive a Dead Hard Drive that may help you recover the drive long enough to get the product keys.

Start with the deep freeze method. You might get one boot and enough time to install and run a keyfinder.

For any version of Word, the owner must have a product key somewhere. It might be in an email, or may have been electronically transmitted when they registered the trial version.

The only other real hope for a mainstream system is the recovery partition or disk set.

If all else fails, point them to any of the open source office suites. I like Libre Office.

Chas

by gechurch

The product key is stored in the registry (encrypted, of course) so you'll need a program that can read the registry offline, pull out the value of the key and decrypt it. Magical Jellybean is one tool that will do the job.

This discussion is closed to new replies.