Monday, April 1, 2013

View or change the Office Product Key


I’ve got several licenses for Office and Outlook but I’m not sure which one which ones I’ve used and which ones are free.
How can I find out which license I’ve used for which computer and how can I change the key if needed?
While you could simply try one of your Product/License Keys and see if it gets accepted, it’s not a very sophisticated approach. The proper method to determine or change the Product Key depends on your version of Office or Outlook. However, for either version there is no need to completely reinstall Office.

Determine the Product Key
Determining the used Product Key when using Office 2007 or previous isn’t directly supported by Microsoft. However, you can use a little program called Magic Jelly Bean Keyfinder to find out your used Product Key. Simply install and run the application to find out the Product Key (note: during the installation, there will be a prompt to also install a sponsored application which you can choose not to install).

If you are using Office 2010 or Office 2013, then this application will not work. However, Office 2010 and Office 2013 already include a vbs-script which will reveal the last 5 characters of your Product Key. It’s pretty safe to state that these 5 characters would already be more than enough to find out which Product Key you have used (as you should already have safely stored the full Product Key code somewhere else together with your other license information).

You can run the vbs-file in the following way;
  1. Open a command prompt. For instance via;
    • Start-> All Programs-> Accessories-> Command Prompt
    • Windows XP
      Start-> Run; cmd
    • Windows Vista and Windows 7
      Start-> type; cmd
  2. In the command prompt, type the following;
    • Office 2010 (32-bit) on a 32-bit version of Windows
      cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
    • Office 2010 (32-bit) on a 64-bit version of Windows
      cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
    • Office 2010 (64-bit) on a 64-bit version of Windows
      cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
    • Office 2013 (32-bit) on a 32-bit version of Windows
      cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
    • Office 2013 (32-bit) on a 64-bit version of Windows
      cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
    • Office 2010 (64-bit) on a 64-bit version of Windows
      cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
  3. You should now get a screen with some license details such as the license name, type and the last 5 characters of the Product Key. 
Office 2010 and Office 2013 offer a scripted method to lookup your Product Key.
Changing Product Key for Office XP/2002, Office 2003 or Office 2007
Changing the Product Key for Office 2007 or previous requires you to go into the Registry.
  1. Browse to the following key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Registration
  2. Now is a good point to make a backup of that key;
    Right click on the key, choose Export… and save the file to for instance your Desktop.
  3. Expand the Registration key in the Registry and you’ll see one or more sub keys which contain a lot of characters between curly brackets; { and }
    Each sub key stands for an installed Office application.
    The proper name for this identifier string is called a “GUID”.
  4. Click on the sub key to reveal its contents in the right pane.
    The SuitName key will reveal the name of the package that you have installed. If you have multiple GUID sub keys listed, you can use this key name to determine for which installation you’ll be changing the Product Key.
  5. In the pane on the right, delete the following keys;
    • DigitalProductID
    • ProductID
  6. Close the Registry and start Outlook (or any other Office application); you’ll now be prompted to fill in your Product Key and activate Office again.
Delete the DigitalProductID and ProductID key to reset your Product Key.

Changing the Product Key for Office 2010 or Office 2013:

Changing the Product Key for Office 2010 or Office 2013 doesn’t require a trip to the Registry and can be done directly from the Control Panel or via a command line.

To change it via Control Panel, open the “Add/Remove Programs” applet (Windows XP) or the “Uninstall a Program” applet (Windows Vista or Windows 7). Locate your Office 2010/2013 application and press Change. Setup will now start with the option “Enter a Product Key” which allows you to enter a different product key.

You can also change the Product Key via the OSPP.VBS script. Instead of using the /dstatus switch, you must use the /inpkey:value switch where you should replace value for your Product Key. 
For Example: cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx

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