re-installing Microsoft office

Question

I sent my Dell Inspiron laptop in to get repaired as the keyboard stopped working. 

I had installed Microsoft office through work.  When the repaired computer was returned, those programs were removed.  Can I re-install them without having to buy them again?

I tried ot copy the hard disk on an external drive prior to sending the computer in for repair, but the office programs apparently did not copy onto that. 

thanks

Answer 1

Without the Product Key you are stuffed.

Answer 2

I sent my Dell Inspiron laptop in to get repaired as the keyboard stopped working. 

I had installed Microsoft office through work.  When the repaired computer was returned, those programs were removed.  Can I re-install them without having to buy them again?

I tried ot copy the hard disk on an external drive prior to sending the computer in for repair, but the office programs apparently did not copy onto that. 

thanks

Answer 3

What folders did you copy to the backup?

.

Yes, you are allowed to re-install Office 2010 on the same computer.

.

Ron is right, to re-install Office 2010 you need the 25 character Product Key. Do you have the big-ugly-yellow-plastic-CD holder for the installation disk? It product key will be on a yellow sticker inside the box.

.

Depending on what Dell did to Windows you MAY be able to extract the 2010 product key from Windows.  If you got lucky, you may have also copied the required file to your backup.

The file you are looking for is TOKENS.DAT, it can be in any of 3 places:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform*Tokens.DAT*

.

C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareLicensing*Tokens.data*

.

C:\Windows.Old\ProgramData\Microsoft\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform*Tokens.DAT* (if you did an in-place Windows Upgrade)

.

Here is a link to some tools you can use to (try to) extract the product key

Tools to Extract Product Key

http://www.7tutorials.com/how-recover-your-lost-windows-7-or-windows-8-product-key

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/productkeysactivation/tp/topkeyfinder.htm 2015 10 01 - Review 22 Free Tools

You can use any of the following tools to extract the Product Key from you computer. These tools report on many installed programs on your computer, not just Office.

.

PS: you should keep a copy (printed and/or file copies on external storage devices) of the report(s) generated by these tools so you have all of your product keys / registration numbers available for future re-installs

.

FYI: I (Rohn) have not tested these tools in Windows 8 or 10 (just haven’t had an excuse to make/waste the time), but I don’t expect any problem. The underlying mechanics of Windows 8 are essentially the same as Windows 7 if you ignore the Metro User Interface. Think of metro as “lipstick on a pig”. The pig is not changed by adding a little paint on the surface.

.

NOTE: these tools no longer work for Office 2013 and 2016 after MS “improved” the way the key is stored on your computer. You can now only extract the last 5 char of the key, enough to match to the real product key you have recorded elsewhere.

.

Normally you have several resources to find your Retail Product Key.

·    Your original package or purchase confirmation e-mail

·    Online download account

·    You can extract the Product Key from the machine itself

·    Image copy backups of system with Office installed

·    Activation backup utilities From what I’ve read, MS uses a file called TOKENS.DAT to store encrypted product activation keys.

.

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform*Tokens.DAT*

.

C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareLicensing*Tokens.data*

.

C:\Windows.Old\ProgramData\Microsoft\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform*Tokens.DAT* (if you did an in-place Windows Upgrade)

.

.

NOTE: Do not expect the Windows.OLD folder to be there until you delete it. Win10 will “help” you by deleting the backout files 30 days after the “upgrade”

After you extract the Product Key, make sure to write it down and keep it in a safe place. Burning a copy of the installation file to a CD would also be a good idea if you don’t have the installation disk.

.

NOTE: OEM (factory install and activated) licenses use a different key than the one reported.  Only the factory can use the PK from the original factory activation. You would have been provided with a separate piece of paper with a Product key for reactivation.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product\_cd\_key\_viewer.html  Nirsoft ProduKey V1.45- Office 2003 OK, 2007, 2010, Win Vista)

V1.62 Win 98 to Win 8.  Office 2003-2010

.

ProduKey may be able to extract product key information from a file saved externally. This is useful if you’re trying to get the key details from the backup of a now defunct machine. Try the /Regfile option.

.

<snip>

After installing on my system, I ran the program à AS ADMINISTRATOR ß and then clicked on File à Select Source. Once in this menu it may appear a little overwhelming, don’t worry it’s not that complicated and your not going to break anything else. Select the circle next to “Load the product keys from external Software Registry hive”. Now from here you may have to browse to a slightly different location depending on where your windows.old folder is located, but you want to basically browse to the following and open this file:

C:\Windows.old\Windows\System32\config\RegBack\SOFTWARE

.

After opening this file select ok; you may have to wait a few minutes for it to load the hive and give you your keys, but if they’re there you should see them and be able to fresh install your MS Office.

Please note that this did work for my Office 2007, it also gave me my Vista Home & Personal Key, and Internet Explorer... lol! I hope this helps someone else too! And remember backup before you do any upgrading/downgrading/or destruction to you PC.

</snip>

.

Belarchttp://www.belarc.com/free\_download.html 

• not only does Belarcextract product keys, it reports on a WHOLE BUNCH of other stuff you want to know. Printing the report, or saving it is probably a good idea.

Win 95-Win8,  V8.4

.

NOTE: I tested version 8.4 on Windows 8.0. It reported my Office 2003 2007 2010 product keys correctly. BUT for Office 2013 Pro Plus (local install) it did NOT report the key! Gosh Darn!  It reported: 00215-95000-26121-AA381 (Key: ends with G8YGX)^f,g^  (the “ends with” is correct)

.

Superscripts f and g say:

·    f. The full product key is not stored on this computer. However, the characters shown uniquely identify your product key.

·    g. You can have Windows save the full product key using the procedure at http://www.belarc.com/msproductkeys.html.

NOTE: The process described in the link in “g” is good for Office 365, and MAYBE (I can’t confirm) online purchases of Office 2013. It does NOT work for Office 2013 Pro Plus! (which I have <grin>)

.

.

**********************

.

.

Once you find the product key, you can submit it to MS to get the most current version of the installation file. Using this file instead of the original installation disk minimizes the number of updates you have to apply to Office (can be a major time saver).

.

PS: make sure to save a copy of the downloaded installation file for future use.

Install Office 365 / 2016 / 2013 / 2010

To install your 365 on another device just sign in to your Microsoft account, Installs page on the computer you want to install on, and choose Install Office.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Download-and-install-or-reinstall-Office-365-or-Office-2016-on-a-PC-or-Mac-4414eaaf-0478-48be-9c42-23adc4716658  downloads and install instructions for 365 and One Time Payment 2010-2019

.

https://products.office.com/en-us/download-back-up-restore-microsoft-office-products   365 / 2016 / 2013 / 2010 (you have to scroll down for 2010)

.

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/download-powerpoint 4 ways to download Office / PowerPoint straight from Microsoft.  This is a good article that identifies 3 ways to install Office bundles, and one way to install select applications.

.

********************

.

.

FYI MS Support for Office 2010 ends in October of this year <sigh>