Greetings: Was having issues with printing from Word & Excel so I decided to do an uninstall/reinstall of the program. When reinstalling, after entering the product key from my disc I'm prompted with "failed to find a validating product on your machine". I'm assuming this is due to the earlier version of Office that was installed when I purchased the computer also being removed when I did the uninstall. Is there any way around this by altering the registry for instance? Thanks Randy

Has your copy of Windows been validated? "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Not quite sure what you mean. It is the same Windows XP 2002 that I upgraded to and still have the disc for.

Hello and thanks for the reply: After you got me researching on "validation" I have downloaded and run the validating tool with a result of genuine. I should re-state my original question as I was in error with regards to context. The message I got was "couldn't locate a valid qualifying product on your machine". When I originally purchased this system there was likely an earlier version of Office loaded prior to my install of Office XP, so I am assuming now that the disc is only searching for that earlier version as the validating product. Is there any way around this by altering the registry for instance or is my only option to install an older version of Office? Thanks again

You must have an upgrade CD and not the full installation. Check these out: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300... "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Thanks for your help. Makes sense now. I have the Office XP upgrade CD and it has over-written the Office 97 it replaced. So I've uninstalled everything and can't proceed without a copy of 97 or 2000. That's fine. I'll just go back to the retailer and say remember when I bought that computer from you in 98 and you threw in Office 97. Well I need you to install it again please? That'll work.