Office XP Pro on Win98 -- Bogus Invalid Key Message

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Hi

An office with Win98 PC's (for security and
compatibility reasons) with Office 2000 Pro
installed wanted me to upgrade them due to
needing better IMAP support in Outlook. Since
Office 2003 doesn't work on Win98, I ordered
a copy of Office XP (2002) Pro to test out. I
installed that on a spare PC that had Office 2k
and that upgraded seamlessly. So I ordered
more copies of XP Pro for the other PC's. Not
much luck so far -- Office XP had all sorts of
problems with the other PC's with the final
one being an invalid key message when trying
to install. I Googled and tried all the various
suggestions, as well as completely stripping
off Office 2k (including using Microsoft's eraser
removal tool) and reinstalling Windows, but
I still get an invalid key message. This also
the case with the first Office XP Pro copy that
had no problems installing on that spare PC.
WTF! The only difference between that spare
PC and the others is that I had done a full wipe
and reinstall of Windows on the spare not that
long ago. I really hope that's not going to be
required with the other PC's, but MS products
being MS products....

I actually had warned them about doing this just
for the sake of Outlook and that Thunderbird
had better IMAP support, but computer-illiterate
users and their friggin' Crackberries....

Any tips would be appreciated. Please no MS
links since I've been through all of those already.

-BC

.



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