Dear Gawd, a product key request on a rental computer?

triceretops · Oct 11, 2010

My 8-year-old computer blew a motherboard. I didn't have the whopping amount to fix it at the time. I went to one of those rental places BestWay, and rented a new Acer. Jesus, I've had trouble navigating this thing because it's like a new sports car and I don't know the shifting pattern.

Anyway I managed to save all my Microsoft Word files on a flashdrive and transfer them over to this new one. But when I want to access one of my novels in the document file, it says I have so many logins left before I'm asked for a product key. I guess it's the new Microsoft Word version or some such Vista horsecrap. I'm down to two logins left. I looked up the product key in the search function, only it doesn't even fit when I go to reaffirm my activation. Why would a rental not have a word processing program that works all the time and lets you in?

I don't get it. I don't own this rental yet, so I can't pop my old hard-drive in there and bring up my old stuff.

Does anybody have a clue about what's going on here? Why wouldn't my listed product code that's only 22 characters long not fit the 25 character code that's required?

Ack.

Tri

Maryn · Oct 12, 2010

The owner--Bestway--should have the product key, if and only if the Acer came loaded with a 'real' version of MS Word and not a trial version that expires.

Step one is to call them with your rental contract in hand and get the product key. If they don't have it, they've simply downloaded the trail version and you had better move fast to another word processing system.

I don't use it myself, but a number of people like the free-and-legal OpenOffice as well as they do Word for basic writing purposes.

Maryn, hoping this helps

Cyia · Oct 12, 2010

It's also possible that the computer has "lost" it's registration. You should be able to Google a means of finding a lost product key, assuming it's been entered before. (I'm not talking about Googling for a new product key if the software isn't owned, but one of those search programs that digs up the original)

Julie Worth · Oct 12, 2010

triceretops said:
Does anybody have a clue about what's going on here? Why wouldn't my listed product code that's only 22 characters long not fit the 25 character code that's required?

Your key is only going to work for the software you bought. Otherwise, people would be selling keys on the internet. So don't turn off your computer. Keep it logged into Word. Then contact the rental company. When you buy a new computer, and assuming your old one still works, you can buy a cable that allows you to transfer all your programs and registrations and not have to pay again for things you've already bought.

RJK · Oct 12, 2010

Maryn has the best suggestion. A couple of questions. Did the form where you entered the product key have one long box, or did it have 4 small boxes? If it has one long box, you need to include the hyphens between the numbers when you enter the key.

FYI my product key has 20 numbers and 3 hyphens.

Susan Coffin · Oct 12, 2010

I'd call the rental company.

Also, did any CD's come with it? If so, then it should have a product key for whatever programs require it. Unless, of course, it's for a program that is on trial and you must buy.

benbradley · Oct 12, 2010

Ever used Open Office? You can try it out for free. Well, heck, you can use it all you want for free. It's not an exact clone of Microsoft Word (for one thing, it'll never ask you for a product key), but I and a lot of other people it usable enough. Install it from here:

http://openoffice.org

triceretops · Oct 12, 2010

Thanks, guys. It makes sense that this is a trial version, since they give you 25 loggins and then count you down. It also makes sense to stay logged in. I will call them and find out what's up. My product key that I found in the system is: 89578-OEM-73332157-00211

The problem is, the word processing program does not recognize the "OEM" as valid imputs and stops me right there, I suspect because they are letters and not numerals. I'm wondering if this system has Open Office, and if I can go in there and transfer all my Word files to it.

Tro

Cyia · Oct 12, 2010

You can open Word files with Open Office once you download it, so it's just a matter of getting the software online.

Susan Coffin · Oct 12, 2010

My product key that I found in the system is: 89578-OEM-73332157-00211

The problem is, the word processing program does not recognize the "OEM" as valid imputs and stops me right there, I suspect because they are letters and not numerals. I'm wondering if this system has Open Office, and if I can go in there and transfer all my Word files to it.

The product key if for your windows, not word.

I looked on my product key on my Word CD, and it's actually different than above. It's more like five sections of a mixture of five letter/numbers. For example: QVWT4-JKLMN-Q79DM, and on through a sequence of five sections.

Did your rental come with a CD for Word? I bought mine some time ago. If you want to use it past the 25 logins, and you were not given a product key, you will probably have to purchase one from Microsoft.

Open Office is a good program. I doubt it would be in your package, but it's free to download and use.

triceretops · Oct 12, 2010

Ah, now I see. I'll call them up in the next day or so, but this sure looks like a trial offer type thing. I'll look into acquiring Open Office and transfer everything over to it.

Thanks, guys,

Tri

ejket · Oct 12, 2010

triceretops said:
I'll look into acquiring Open Office and transfer everything over to it.

That's what I'd do. I didn't want to be the first to suggest it because I'm a heavily biased open source kinda guy. But really, word processors are interchangeable except insofar as MS makes it difficult with their proprietary formats.

Also I'd not trust either the flash drive or the rental computer with your back-ups. Archive your files on a CD, external drive, or online backup service -- or some combination of the three. It's probably best to make copies as .rtf to use in OpenOffice. The .doc conversions are a bit tetchy because, you know, Microsoft. That's assuming you ever want to go back to Word ...

littlebear91 · Oct 18, 2010

I would rather just get abiword or openoffice, their developement are must faster than the office ones, althought not sure the graphical interface will attract anyone.

Dear Gawd, a product key request on a rental computer?

triceretops

Maryn

I Tried

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny

Julie Worth

What? I have a title?

RJK

Sheriff Bullwinkle the Poet says:

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

triceretops

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

triceretops

ejket

Noobus Perpetuus

littlebear91

Never Let Go