How to tell if a Microsoft Office 2003 product key is legit
I have a client with the installation files of Office 2003 Enterprise on their server. Everyone uses it for Remote desktop (a dozen or so), as well as local installs on their workstations. There's a text file containing a product key. How can I tell if this is legit? No one can find any original documentation.
John
Run Recoverkeys (recoverkeys.com) on one or two setups and verify what the proper keys are. That is the easiest way.
Run the key in a Google search.
If nothing comes back it may well be legit.
If you get lots of hits then ...
If nothing comes back it may well be legit.
If you get lots of hits then ...
ASKER
The key works. What I was wondering was, is there a way to know what they are allowed to do with that product key. For example, they a have a dozen people using it on the server, plus each with their own install on their local desktop. Is there a way to know if the product key they have allows this number of legal installs?
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If each PC also is using this key then it would have had to be activated and if they activated more than it was allowed for then activation would have failed--then would have required calling MS and if they were using it more than they allowed for they would not have gotten activated. This assumes honestly of course.
If this is truly the Enterprise Edition, then that edition was obtained through a "multiple-license agreement", and no activation was required:
So your client could very well be fully legit. I don't recall exactly how the licensing worked for those, but I believe you purchased a certain "block" of licenses - i.e. 10, 20, 100 etc - and then you were on the honor system to only use that number of licenses.
If you had to activate your Office license, you do not own an Enterprise edition of Office. You obtain Enterprise editions of Office through multiple-license agreements. Therefore, Enterprise editions of Office do not require product activation.From http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/826217
So your client could very well be fully legit. I don't recall exactly how the licensing worked for those, but I believe you purchased a certain "block" of licenses - i.e. 10, 20, 100 etc - and then you were on the honor system to only use that number of licenses.
ASKER
Thanks all. I suppose if they can find the original invoice, it should state on it how many valid installs it covers?
Yes that would or if they bought it from a reseller they may be able to look it up for you.
ASKER
We located the original invoice and license agreement and it gave us the info we needed, thanks.
@DaveWWW - Thanks for the update and I was happy to help.