Installing Office 2003 on Windows 7 (or rather NOT)

[David Perez]

I just got off the phone with Microsoft customer support after one of those conversations that makes it abundantly clear why so many people utterly DESPISE Microsoft.

I installed Windows 7 64-bit last night. Went fine. Today I attempted to install Office 2003 Professional using the key I retrieved from the XP partition. It keeps telling me my product key is not valid. I checked the product key on the cd case. I ALSO checked the product key on the laptop that's running XP and ALSO has Office 2003 on it. The keys ARE THE SAME. Repeated attempts to install all failed with the install telling me the key isn't valid.

SO, I called Microsoft. THEY validated the key and said "Yes, the key is valid. And YES, Windows 7 supports Office 2003. We DON'T KNOW WHY IT WON'T INSTALL BUT IF YOU'D LIKE TO TALK TO A TECHNICIAN IT'LL COST $50 FOR THEM TO TALK TO YOU."

This is EXACTLY the same software that has been running on this machine for at LEAST FIVE YEARS. The ONLY change is installing Windows 7.

So, MS won't support the installation of THEIR PRODUCT, on THEIR OPERATING SYSTEM, with what they admit is a VALID KEY...

So, presuming there's not problem with Windows 7 and Office 2003, does anybody in here have a method that'll actually work

to get this #$%^&* installed?

[cluberti]

So, MS won't support the installation of THEIR PRODUCT, on THEIR OPERATING SYSTEM, with what they admit is a VALID KEY...

Let me finish that sentence for you:

So, MS won't support the installation of THEIR PRODUCT, on THEIR OPERATING SYSTEM, with what they admit is a VALID KEY after mainstream support for the product has ended (and it did, for Office 2003, on 4/14/2009).

You have to understand Microsoft is not going to pay people to support a product for free forever, so they've set dates on stepping down support - mainstream, extended, and EOL. Once a product moves from mainstream into extended support, there are no more free support incidents, for any reason other than security bug reasons. You either upgrade to a version that does have mainstream (free) install/configuration support, or you pay the $59 for the home/consumer support desk access or $299 for professional support. Regardless of how you feel about the policy, it is the policy and it is documented on their lifecycle support pages.

As to getting Office 2003 installed, what type of key are you using - it would seem the channel of the CD you have probably doesn't match the channel from the key (perhaps a retail key with OEM or VLK media or some other combination of the three), and you'll need to get a disc that matches the key. Do you know the channel that the Office product key you have belongs to?

[TwoJ]

did you bother to read my post to your previous question?

your product key will only work with the channel version of office that it goes to

There is no issue with installing office 2003 on windows 7

the issue is more likely that you are trying to validate a office retail or OEM product key on a volume license (VLK or Corp) copy of office, and that my friend will give you your 'invalid key' issue.

No point in trying to blame MS if you are trying to do a non-standard fix on it, its similar to saying to ford that it has problems because you took a mustang engine and put it in your focus and now your focus doesn't work nicely.