Suddenly 'This copy of office is not genuine' Office 2003

Lady_K

I'm on windows xp pro and I've had the genuine validation tool on this laptop for ages and suddenly its saying the version of office is not genuine (2003). It just popped up in a window when I opened word. After I closed it and re-opened word the window does not pop up but it still says at the top bar 'this version of office is not genuine' I have not rebooted yet so I'm not sure if the window will pop up again after that.

What happens now? It was given to me by a friend years ago as a genuine version, although I think it was a corporate version. Its been no trouble until now and checked by the validation tool all along. Will I lose any word documents?

I also have it on another pc in the house but I have not been able to get to that pc for about a week due to home improvements so I don't know if the same thing will be happening on that plus its also on my daughters laptop and she really needs the microsoft office for work.

scheming_gypsy

You won't lose any documents, it's just telling you that the license key for the product that opens them isn't geniune...
It sounds like an update would have detected that it's not genuine, so the easiest way around it for any other PC's in the house is to just disable automatic updates.... because lets be honest, they're not as important as they like to make out; if your computer has been running fine for months / years then the new update isn't 'that' critical.

Lady_K

My daughters laptop is win7 can you choose to not have automatic updates just for the office in case she hasnt updated hers yet? Its just with win7 being fairly new perhaps any updates would be more important for that on its own and she is always so busy I'm guessing she wouldnt manually update regular enough to be fully secure

scheming_gypsy

she'll be currently up to date with updates but you can download and decide what you install if you go to:
control panel > windows updates > change settings (left hand menu)

stilltheone

Don't disable Automatic Updates.

It's probably just a false report. I recommend that you just remove the notification.

I have sent you details of how to do so via PM.

paddyrg

It sounds like you have had free use of MS office against the licensing terms for 7 years. Why not spank £70 on a copy of Office Home and Student edition and go legal, or remove MSOffice and use Open Office instead? MS have explained that the software key your friend gave you is not legal to use, so looking for ways around that is piracy.

clangnuts

The license key was probably for 2 copies to be installed, max. You've installed it on three machines, therefore you've probably rendered your key as invalid.

stilltheone

paddyrg wrote: »

It sounds like you have had free use of MS office against the licensing terms for 7 years. Why not spank £70 on a copy of Office Home and Student edition and go legal, or remove MSOffice and use Open Office instead? MS have explained that the software key your friend gave you is not legal to use, so looking for ways around that is piracy.

Easy now Tiger...

You haven't seen the MGA Diagnostic Report. So let's not make accusations without being in possession of the facts.

Lady_K

paddyrg wrote: »

It sounds like you have had free use of MS office against the licensing terms for 7 years. Why not spank £70 on a copy of Office Home and Student edition and go legal, or remove MSOffice and use Open Office instead? MS have explained that the software key your friend gave you is not legal to use, so looking for ways around that is piracy.

It was free to me as a gift and I was ensured by the person that it was a legal version, I always thought it was and the validation tool just enforced that belief.
If this does now prove to be incorrect I will have to buy a new version myself but I have heard from so many people that the new 2010 version is not as easy to use as the 2003 one so I was hoping to continue with this for that reason.

Lady_K

stilltheone wrote: »

Easy now Tiger...

You haven't seen the MGA Diagnostic Report. So let's not make accusations without being in possession of the facts.

What is the MGA diagnostic report and how can I run it? I would like to find out if this is a false positive before going ahead to purchase a new version as expained above I would feel more comfortable using the less complicated 2003 version if does turn out to be legal

santer_2

The MGA Diagnostic Tool is here, the first link is a direct download

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mga+diagnostic+tool&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=Palemoon:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

If you get a resolve button after running it, click that