Cannot activate OEM edition more than once in Office XP

View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q300273

Expand all | Collapse all

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to activate your Office XP license, you may receive the following message

According to our records, this copy of Microsoft Office XP edition has already been activated on another computer. If you believe you have received this message in error, please contact a Customer Support Representative by clicking OK and following the instructions.

where edition is the specific edition of Office XP that is installed (for example, Small Business).

When you click OK, you see the Office Activation Wizard dialog box, with the options to activate Office via the Internet or telephone.

Back to the top

CAUSE

This message appears if you installed an Original Equipment Manufacturer's (OEM) copy of Office XP, and you already installed and activated the same OEM copy on another computer. OEM copies of Office XP can only be activated on a single computer. Any attempt to activate your Office license on a second computer results in the message in the "Symptoms" section of this article.

Back to the top

RESOLUTION

If you think that you received this message mistakenly, follow these steps:

Click OK when the message appears.
In the Office Activation Wizard dialog box, select Activate by using the telephone, and then click Next.
Click Next in the Microsoft Office Privacy Policy dialog box.
In the Activate your product by using the telephone dialog box, select your country or region in the list for step 1.
Dial the phone number that is displayed next to step 2. A customer support representative will assist you with activating your copy of Office XP.

If you already installed and activated your OEM copy of Office XP on another computer, you cannot activate it on a second computer.

Back to the top

MORE INFORMATION

The End User License Agreement (Oemeula.txt) for OEM versions of Office XP contains the following text:

General License Grant to Install and Use. Except as otherwise expressly provided in this EULA, You may only install and use one copy of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT on the COMPUTER. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT may not be installed, accessed, displayed, run, shared or used concurrently on or from different computers, including a workstation, terminal or other digital or analog electronic device ("Device"), except as set forth below for SharePoint Team Services.

Back to the top

For more information about product activation, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation.mspx)

Back to the top

REFERENCES

The Oemeula.txt file is contained in the Office1.cab file on the root of an Office XP CD-ROM. You can extract Oemeula.txt from the Office1.cab cabinet file in order to open it in a text editor.

Back to the top