Office 2003 Professional OEM Disc

Question

Hello, I recently had an issue with a machine that became corrupted due to a virus and needed to be reinstalled.  While I have all the rest of the software needed, my Office 2003 Professional discs are missing. I've contacted Dell support and since the machine in question was purchased in 2006, it's long out of the gold support that was purchased with it, not to mention that 2003 is no longer covered in any way.  Even Microsoft's replacement program won't help even though I still have the original invoice showing Office included in the purchase.  Similarly, Dell's new 'smartsource' site claims that the service tag is not supported. Thanks to good bookkeeping, I still have the serial number for the installation, but that's of limited usefulness without the media.  I've tried a non-OEM install disc, but it was obviously no good. I'm stuck on Office 2003 due to an Access application that will not operate properly with 2007 or 2010, so I can't go out and upgrade to the newest like Dell's support team suggested. Does anyone out there have an image of the first CD that they could make available somewhere?  As the title says, the disc in question is Dell's OEM Office 2003 Professional. If desired, I can supply a copy of the original invoice showing the system purchase.   Thank you for your time! Brad

fireberd · Answer

Have you tried the free 'Open Office' programs that are compatible and comparible to MS Office?   www.openoffice.org Each OEM copy, whether from Dell or somewhere else has a unique Product Key, thus getting a copy from someone else and using your product key will not work.  If you must have Office 2003 you are going to have to try and buy an old (legitimate/activatable) copy of Office 2003. It's too late now, but Dell only supplies copies (discs) of missing software, such as MS Office, in the first 30 days of ownership.

NightwolfDS · Answer

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately I do need the Microsoft Access application to run a preexisting program for which OpenOffice has nothing compatible.

NightwolfDS · Answer

Sadly, Microsoft was my second stop after calling Dell support.  As stated in the original message, Microsoft was unable to help since Office 2003 is no longer supported.  This includes their replacement CD program.

fireberd · Answer

Looks like, as I orignally noted, that you will have to find (buy) a legitimate (and one that can be activated with Microsoft) copy of Office 2003.

As Office 2003 has been superceeded by several versions of Office and no longer supported you should seriously consider redoing whatever application you have to be compatible with current versions.

Productivity Software

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