You receive an "invalid product key" error message when you start an Office 2003 program after you install Office Professional Edition 2003 (836178)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office Excel 2003
  • Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
  • Microsoft Office Word 2003
  • Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
  • Microsoft Office Access 2003
  • Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
  • Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
  • Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Student and Teachers Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
For a Microsoft Office 2000 and Microsoft Office XP version of this article, see 321346.

SUMMARY

This article describes a problem where you receive an "invalid product key" error message when you try to start a Microsoft Office 2003 program after you install Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003. To work around this problem, remove the previously installed product, and then install Office Professional Edition 2003 by using the product key that is located on the back of the Office Professional Edition 2003 CD-ROM case.

SYMPTOMS

When you try to start an Office 2003 program after you install Office Professional Edition 2003, you may receive the following error message:
You have not entered a valid product key.

Please check the number located on the sticker on the back of the CD case or on your Certificate of Authenticity.
Or, you may experience the following symptom. Office appears to install correctly. When you try to activate Office over the Internet, the activation process hangs. In this case, the following message is displayed: Please wait while activation wizard initializes

CAUSE

This problem may occur if you have another Office 2003 program pre-installed on your computer and you have not started any one of the programs before.

The following list contains examples of how you might experience this issue. The list is only an example; you may experience the issue in other ways that are not listed:
  • Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003, Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003, or Microsoft Office Basic Edition is installed on your computer by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), and you try to install a retail Office 2003 product.
  • A Trial edition of Microsoft Office 2003 is installed on your computer, and you try to install a non-Trial product.
  • You have Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, Microsoft Office Access 2003, or Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 installed on your computer, and you try to install Office Professional Edition 2003 or another Office 2003 product that includes one of these programs.
  • You have Microsoft Office Student & Teachers Edition 2003 installed on your computer, and you try to install Office Professional Edition 2003 or another Office 2003 product.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, remove the currently installed Office 2003 product from the computer, and then install the product that you want. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Click Add or Remove Programs.
  3. In the Currently installed programs list, locate and then click either the previously installed Office 2003 product or the Office 2003 product which is a subset of the larger product.
  4. Click Remove, and then remove the product that you want to uninstall from the computer.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:7/27/2006
Keywords:kbsetup kberrmsg kbprb KB836178 kbAudEndUser
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