Microsoft Office Outlook Professional Edition 2003

Admin Number of posts: 365 Registration date: 2008-10-13 Location: Near Bedford

OK, so now we've established that you have the Office Genuine Advantage installed and it is probably that causing the issues.

It's not going to be easy to install, and you will have to read carefully, and follow carefully the instructions, but there's five methods at the link below.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/08/28/workaround-to-disable-and-remove-oga-office-not-genuine-notifications-uninstall-kb949810/

The best method, in my opinion, is Hack 5 (last one). Read through all of them to gain some understanding of what is involved, but try the last one.

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I realised I was dyslexic when I went to a toga party dressed as a goat.

Did you attempt a system restore Peter ?

You'll need to remember to refuse/hide the update from installing again if you did manage to restore and remove it or if you use method 5 as this removes the update from the pc.

You'd need to set your windows updates to check and notify but not download (let you choose when and what to download and install), when the offending update shows up again you can select to hide it.

*Any hidden updates can be restored (unhidden) at any time in the future.

The one thing that still baffles me however is the fact that none of the other office 2003 programs show indication of being non-genuine software

... have a look if there is a "toolbar" or extra tab been added to the other programs ... makes you wonder if its a false positive if the other componants have no warning at all

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ANNE R

Number of posts: 42 Registration date: 2009-06-04 Location: Northamptonshire

Liverbird wrote:

Did you attempt a system restore Peter ?

You'll need to remember to refuse/hide the update from installing again if you did manage to restore and remove it or if you use method 5 as this removes the update from the pc.

You'd need to set your windows updates to check and notify but not download (let you choose when and what to download and install), when the offending update shows up again you can select to hide it.

*Any hidden updates can be restored (unhidden) at any time in the future.

The one thing that still baffles me however is the fact that none of the other office 2003 programs show indication of being non-genuine software

... have a look if there is a "toolbar" or extra tab been added to the other programs ... makes you wonder if its a false positive if the other componants have no warning at all

Anne, thankyou for suggesting the "Restore", I cannot get the PC to restiore because the Norton Anti-virus will not let me do so! I have visited other forums and information sites and they nearly all suggest uninstalling the Norton programme and the reinstalling but...

A year ago a similar thing happened and we had to pay someone who knew what they were doing to contact the Norton advisors who then by some miracle of electronics took control of the PC and reinstated the programme! (We pay by subscription)

It is unlikely that we shall do that except in dire circumstances!

Applying the grey cells means that hopefully the warning is the only thing that we will have to ignore and clear each time.

Both my wife and I thought that it would be an easy thing to sort out but it appears to be getting more and more complicated and it scares us to think what we might do to the whole set up by interfering.

Thankyou for all your assistance,

Regards, Peter & Susan Fagg.

Number of posts: 376 Registration date: 2008-10-14 Location: Birmingham UK

I've left the following help text in-tact, as anyone coming across it may find both solutions helpful.
So just use the part for accessing System Restore.

How to Access System Restore from boot-up (F8)

If you have a problem with your computer not starting or not starting properly then using either "Start the PC using Last Known Good Configuration" or even a "System Restore" may be the solution.

As soon as the system starts to boot-up keep 'intermittently' pressing F8 (possibly followed by "F5")
The first option to try is the, "Start the PC using Last Known Good Configuration"

If that doesn't work, then from the same Boot Menu, see if you can start it in "Safe Mode with Command Prompt".
Normally you access System Restore from within windows, but if you can't get into windows, then this should hopefully help to solve that problem.

At the prompt, type:-

(For Windows XP)
%SystemRoot%\System32\Restore\rstrui.exe

(For Windows Vista)
%SystemRoot%\System32\rstrui.exe

then press "Enter".
This will open the normal System Restore window from which you may be able to restore your computer to an earlier working version.

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If it ain't broke.
Don't fix it.

petercharlesfagg wrote:

Anne, thankyou for suggesting the "Restore", I cannot get the PC to restiore because the Norton Anti-virus will not let me do so!

Hi Peter, it is a setting in Norton that has to be temporarily unchecked to allow system restore to complete ... I have to do the same with my Norton programs. (using phil's advice of Safe mode should work though)
In Nortons settings/options there is a setting for Protect my Symantec Product or Turn on protection for my symantec product or the now more commonly Symprotect Tamper Protection, this needs to be unchecked otherwise as the pc goes through the restore and then reboots, it fails at the final hurdle as Norton won't allow certain files to be accessed.
File this away for the future even if it's not something you want to go ahead with at the moment at least you'll now be aware of it.

petercharlesfagg wrote:

Both my wife and I thought that it would be an easy thing to sort out but it appears to be getting more and more complicated and it scares us to think what we might do to the whole set up by interfering.
Regards, Peter & Susan Fagg.

I appreciate how daunting all of this must be for you ... if you feel uncomfortable about the tasks you need to perform then we all understand if you want to leave things be.

... it is possible however that the programs, after a certain amount of time, may stop functioning fully, although I am not certain of this.

There are always free legit alternatives to the office programs and other free email programs too.

http://why.openoffice.org/

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ANNE R

Number of posts: 42 Registration date: 2009-06-04 Location: Northamptonshire

Anne, thankyou for the advice, we had decided to leave things alone because we are getting out of our depth.

You said; it is possible however that the programs, after a certain amount of time, may stop functioning fully,

We have noticed that there is a counter in the error message that gives it a sinister air as if it is counting down the days to Zero and then we lose it!

This possibly being the case I think we had better telephone Microsoft for their opinion.

Regards, Peter.

Peter you might even be lucky and get a free licence from them but I'm not sure what the criteria is to get free help when you discover you've "been had" so to speak.
Hopefully you'll get somebody who is sympathetic but don't hold your breath.

Good Luck

Don't forget you don't have to keep this program installed, you could choose to completely uninstall it via normal means in the control panel or use the Revo Uninstaller that we previously had you download.
After its removed you could use Open Office which is completely free and very similar ... you'd need a different email program such as Windows Live which again is free but consider whether you have emails you wouldn't like to lose in your current Outlook program.

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ANNE R

Number of posts: 42 Registration date: 2009-06-04 Location: Northamptonshire

Microsft have proved to be totally unhelpful, almost to the point of being rude.

Anyone looking in on this would assume that I was the perpetrator not the victim!

Anyway, IF (a big if) I can obtain the same version with its correct key how do I go about installing? I realise that I must use the "Control Panel" to remove the programme but how do I retain all the information i.e. contacts, folders etc. on Outlook to reload on the replacement programme?

At the same time how do I stop the "Automatic Updates" so that I can select the ones I want?

Any assistance would be appreciated, Peter.

Number of posts: 42 Registration date: 2009-06-04 Location: Northamptonshire

Just been browsing Ebay and found this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Microsoft-Office-Professional-2003_W0QQitemZ270468190812QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Software_Software_SR?hash=item3ef929125c&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Does anyone know of the validity of this company and/or the software?

Regards, Peter.

PS. Would it be a better idea to buy the programme on a disc rather than a download as this company is suggesting?

Quote:

how do I retain all the information i.e. contacts, folders etc. on Outlook to reload on the replacement programme?

I would expect this information to be retained despite uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook but, to be safe, do a search for the .PST file (search for *.pst) and copy that file to a secure location so that it can be copied back if necessary. Outlook stores all of your emails, contacts etc in that file.

Quote:

At the same time how do I stop the "Automatic Updates" so that I can select the ones I want?

Right click "My Computer", select Properties and then the Automatic Updates tab. I have mine set to "Turn off automatic updates". I then go to the Windows Update site, check what updates are available and decide which ones to install.

Quote:

Does anyone know of the validity of this company and/or the software?

Microsoft Office isn't cheap and to see it being offered for £49.95 does sound suspicious, but it could be genuine.

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Mike

Number of posts: 42 Registration date: 2009-06-04 Location: Northamptonshire

Thankyou Mike,

Appreciate the comments and will try your suggestions.

Regards, Peter.