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Office 2004 registration problem

P

Philsy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 29, 2004
632
16
South coast of England
Hi, I've just bought a new Mac and used Firewire to copy the contents of my old one to it.

My wife is now using my old Mac.

The problem is, we now both have the same copy of Office 2004 and we are unable to run it at the same time.

My wife has her own copy on her old Mac.

Question is, how can I change the registration details for Office on one computer? I don't really want to have to reinstall Office because we'd lose all our preferences etc.

Thanks

Phil
 
Have you tried to reinstall Office?

I'll have to ask around where Office stores its registration. I just hope it isn't in your user preferences. I'll try to find the specific file if it is.
 
Eidorian said:
Have you tried to reinstall Office?

I'll have to ask around where Office stores its registration. I just hope it isn't in your user preferences. I'll try to find the specific file if it is.
Click to expand...

Hi, reinstalling is a last resort because of the reason I gave. I still have the very old Mac with the user preferences. And, of course, I have the serial numbers - I'd like to be able to just re-enter those.

Phil
 
Philsy said:
Hi, reinstalling is a last resort because of the reason I gave. I still have the very old Mac with the user preferences. And, of course, I have the serial numbers - I'd like to be able to just re-enter those.

Phil
Click to expand...
What operating system are you running?

In OS X the Office 2004/X folder in /Applications isn't relevant to user settings.
 
Philsy said:
Yep, got that. Do you reckon that's the key?
Click to expand...
I've trashed quite a few of my Office preference folders with no luck.

Then again I have a volume license without a key.

I guess Microsoft does store registration information within the application bundles somewhere.
 
I have a few applications myself that store serial numbers in the application bundle instead of say ~/Library.

It's not very OS X like behavior but there isn't a standard on how to handle it.
 
You need to find and delete (move to trash, and empty trash) both of these files.
* ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Microsoft Office Settings (11)
* HD/Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Office/OfficePID

The OfficePID file is a hidden file so if you don't have a script or program running to show them, go into terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE (hit enter)
killall finder (hit enter)

To hide the files again, substitute FALSE for "TRUE".
When you restart MS Office it will ask you for your serial number again.
 
OK, I ran the install disc, entered the correct serial number and then ran all the online updates (no combined update!). However, Word still said it was running on another machine.

So I trashed the two files Killerrobot suggested, re-entered the serial number and, yes you guessed it, the problem is still there.

What else can I do? :(

Phil
 
Philsy said:
OK, I ran the install disc, entered the correct serial number and then ran all the online updates (no combined update!). However, Word still said it was running on another machine.

So I trashed the two files Killerrobot suggested, re-entered the serial number and, yes you guessed it, the problem is still there.

What else can I do? :(

Phil
Click to expand...

Just another idea but were you on the same network as your wife when you trashed the files? I'd get off of it and trash them, then trash your cache files - (perhaps using Applejack on a restart) and then open word again still off the network. Maybe that might do it.

@offwidafairies
Office 08? Is that out yet? Man I'm behind if it is... I'd try wiping the same files that I mentioned before and see if that works.
 
killerrobot said:
Just another idea but were you on the same network as your wife when you trashed the files? I'd get off of it and trash them, then trash your cache files - (perhaps using Applejack on a restart) and then open word again still off the network. Maybe that might do it.

@offwidafairies
Office 08? Is that out yet? Man I'm behind if it is... I'd try wiping the same files that I mentioned before and see if that works.
Click to expand...

i couldnt find those files :eek:
 
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