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I bought a new laptop for my younger bro that came with Windows Vista and Office Home and Student Trail pre-installed. I tried to activate the same using Activation Assistant but while requisition for the activation keys, it always tells me
"The Microsoft Office Activation Assistant was unable to detect a 2007 Microsoft Office release. Please check your computer for the software and try again."
Am I making mistake or there is any fault in this software itself ?
Nope, there is no problem with the software, you are actually bit confused. As it is the Trail Office version, the activation Wizard you are using helps you get the Product key that will activate the Trail for the next 60 days. Note, this will be Trail only even after activating. You cannot use license keys for activating these versions.
As far as the error “there is no Office 2007 software installed” is concerned, you can simply go tot this Microsoft Page and download any Office 2007 Trail Products. Uninstall the existing copy and install the downloaded one, then open activation wizard and activate it for the next 60 days trail period. You can also request for the Product Key on the site as well for these trail version.
I am too having a similar problem with the laptop I bought a week ago. It came with Office 2007 Trail. I used the same Activation Wizard and activated my copy for 60 days trial. It worked fine for the day and the very next day when I tried opening MS Word, I got an error saying something similar to “This Trail package has been expired. You must convert it to full version”. Damn, it is just a day I activated this software.
I tried to get some help from my vendor, I called the manufacturer but none of them helped. Atlast I tried calling Microsoft folks but they simply said “They don’t provide support for Trail Products”. This means I don’t have any right or any way to use the Trail period. They just want me to buy the software.
Do yo iuguys have any idea how can I get this trial version to work for 60 days for what it is meant?
Don’t worry dECLANn, me too was greeted by these vendors and MS Support in the same way, hence I found my own trick to fix this problem. First let me tell you that the problem is not with the Office, it is related to the OS, Vista. The activation wizard is just useless on Vista, it won’t work properly. If you have one more additional computer that should be running with Windows XP, then follow the steps given below:
- On your Windows XP computer, Open this URL: http://www.microsoft.com/office/trial/default.mspx
- Click on get Activation Link, and follow the onscreen instructions.
- You will need to click many links and may need to register somewhere too during this process. Do everything.
- When you get the product keys, note it down on a paper and close this site.
- Now come back to your Vista computer, open Windows Explorer and click on Organize, click Folders and Search Options and check mark the box for Show Hidden Files.
- This is because we are going to do something with hidden files and folders.
- Now click Start button and just type Office. This will bring up a Office folder in the search, click the same.
- You will only find some shortcuts of Trail office programs, open any one of them.
- You will be prompted for entering the product key before the application opens, simply enter keys you retrieved form MS site and you are done.
Now check the expiry date of your office programs, it should be around may 2007 (60 days from now)
That was a great tutorial, friend. Really impressive. I was facing this problem couple of weeks ago but in my case a Microsoft guy helped (even I don’t believe he helped me for Trail). He just gave me a link (http://www7.buyoffice.microsoft.com/...?country_id=US) to download a new Trail package. We first need to uninstalled the installed suite and install this downloaded file. Later I tried activating it for 60 days in the normal way, and it got activated.