Microsoft Office finding your serial number to re-install on another computer

Over the years, Microsoft Office had serial numbers that were easily managed, installed and transferred from system to system. Now that their subscription model since the early 2000's is now mainstream, one has to understand how to manage individual serial numbers and product keys.

 

1. Use Belarc to analyze your system. The results are stored in your C drive under C:\Program Files (x86)\Belarc\BelarcAdvisor\System\tmp and its a stupid place to save the results yet one can copy the HTML file from there to your Documents Folder for safe keeping.

2. Know which Microsoft Office you have. If pre Office 2013, its a good chance its just a serial number and Belarc in #1 will show you that under Software Licenses tab. If its 2013 and after it might be a single purchase Product Identification (PID) card, or subscription based. I still support OEM single and multi-bundle serial numbers for computer builds, well, prior to closing my retail office because of COVID-19. I still keep my Business side of the organization running since I have projects still running that will require another 5-10-15-20 years to complete.

3. You should always have the media (download or CD/DVD) available with the serial number attached, labeled, etc. If you don't have the software immediately available try the HeiDoc.Net tool (see link below) to download your Microsoft Office version, by language and by 32 or 64 bit. Most Microsoft Office default installations are 32 bit. 64 bit use to be a bit quirky, so be careful. You cannot mix 32 and 64 bit Microsoft products on the same computer. Remember you can create an media image of our CD/DVD for safe keeping. Keep the ISO and whatever software you are using to create the media to use to re-burn the image to a CD/DVD in the future. The file types can be ISO, NRG, DMG, etc. Just make a notepad readme file for reference.

4. If you must, you can do the subscription path. There are low cost affordable options for as little as $99/year for a family license of Microsoft Office for up to 5 computers. If you do the one time purchase it can vary from $50 to $150 depending on your choice of OEM versus RETAIL purchase. OEM is for new computer builds, and RETAIL is for after market and post system purchase

5. Don't forget to understand licensing and concurrency usage and other forms of legally using the same license on different computers. Read the license to better understand how one can transfer a license in case your PC becomes inoperable. One does not necessarily have to buy a new Microsoft Office license. See Reference at the bottom.

6. If you need to buy a new single license or volume license, consider a reseller or Microsoft directly. I have several suppliers across the USA that offer OEM and RETAIL licensing at deep discounts. If you are non-USA based there are many suppliers as well in the Reseller market and wholesale market.

7. I started support Microsoft Office in 1991, as a Product Support Engineer at Microsoft in Bellevue Washington, right next to the Redmond main campus. for 18 months, I did nothing but Microsoft Word, and underneath that Windows 3.0/3.1 and MS DOS 3.3, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0 and so on. I went on to do Microsoft Software Replication and I fully understand the Microsoft Serialization process and that was formidable yet understandable. Remember, the best defense is a strong offense. Keep your licensing in tact, legal, ethical, and be creative when necessary. A company called BSA the Business Software Alliance is a watchdog compliance group that is enlisted by all the top software makers to keep controls on licensing of their products and keeping everyone playing fair. Good Luck and enjoy Microsoft Office. Libre Office is great too, which I use, and Open Office, and many other word processing tools.

 

"This tool allows an easy and comfortable way to download genuine Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 disk images (ISO) directly from Microsoft's servers, as well as Office 2013, Office 2016, Office 2019, and Office for Mac."

 

Belarc Analyzer

 

Changing your Serial Number and/or Transfer your License

https://www.mountaincomputers.org/myBlog/myBlog.asp?mode=view&id=781 

 

I started with Microsoft Word 1.10a in 1991. See the beautiful Microsoft Word logos for the past 30 years (source: https://ccconlineed.instructure.com/courses/3303)

 

more to come...