I purchased Office 2010 Professional back on 8 Jan 2011 and it has worked faultlessly (well almost) on my PC since then. Recently, I suffered a hard disk failure, which the Geekstogo guys (Wolfeymole & Phillpower2) helped me with enourmously, and have been re-instating what I can from the damaged hard drive onto a new hard drive. My Windows 7 re-installed OK as did most my other stuff, but when it came to the Office Prof suite I have been getting screens up on each application asking me to Activate and all atempts have failed.
When I purchased the package originally back in Jan 2011 it was from a 100% reputable dealer on Amazon and it came in a pucker properly MS sealed (Made in USA) carton and had a genuine Product Key, which back then allowed me to install and activate with no issues and as I say I have used the product since up until the drive failure this February, literally 2 years later. The online activation choice from the MS Activation Wizard screen that pops up on opening any pakage (Outlook; Excel, etc) says "This product cannot be activated because the Product Key is not valid". When I tried the phone option I got similar results and, when I spoke to a distinctly unhelpful barely English speaking individual in some sub-continent somewhere AKA MS UK Support, I was advised that my product was not genuine.
Whilst I have to accept that I may have been sold a pup back in Jan 2011, all signs are that it is/was genuine and if not why would it function without hiccup for 2 years?? I assume that this all has in some way to do with the recent hard drive failure - Is it possible that because I could not retrieve (or Uninstall)the original version fromthe damaged drive that the original disk when used again to install onto my new drive thinks that i am making an illegal copy or something like that.
Before I accept defeat and have to shell out for another copy of Office (and i'll use the MS Store this time to be sure!!) can any of you guys out there shed any light on this??
Longframbri