Uninstalling & reinstalling Office 2003

[ask100]

I am getting a message on my laptop (Vista) that the version of Microsoft Office 2003 I have is not genuine. If I buy another disc, say on ebay, and wish to install it should I uninstall the previous version first? Will I still retain my emails in Outlook if I do this?

[VHG]

>If I buy another disc, say on ebay

If you buy another disk on ebay there is a good chance that this will also be a dodgy copy.

Many people on ebay often just copy the Office CD and sell it with an office key that has already been used. If Microsoft find the key is being used by a number of people they will say it is a non-genuine copy.

It is the KEY that is important, not the actual Office disk.

[ChuckFickens]

strictly speaking, yes you would have to remove office and install it again.

there is a work round for this so you can simply change the product key on your current installation.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/895456

But as it involves editing the registry then only do it if you are very sure what you are doing.

if you decide to remove office and start again do a search on your hard drive for files named *.pst and make a backup copy of the file(s) it finds. this is the mail store for outlook.

[keithg]

This works in XP not sure about Vista.
Go to "Windows Explorer", Open "C" drive ,Open "Windows", Open "System32" in RH pane scroll down and find 3 files "OGAAddin.dll", OGACHECK.dll, OGAEXEC.exc, and delete these files your message shoud go away and you can use 2003 without a problem. But set updates to "read before installing" and don't download any updates with reference to Office 2003.